It is one of the biggest licenses in video games. Expected for years, its adaptation lands on Prime Video. Singular universe, retrofuturism, dark humor and uninhibited violence: the universe of “Fallout” is unlike any other.
Disappointing tomorrows are common in science fiction; a genre which by definition reflects our fears in the face of social or technological change. A particularly acute anxiety feeling increases tenfold when we frankly drift towards postapocalyptic SF.
In this register, the ground has been plowed, with more or less success, for years, on the small as well as the big screen: exhaustion of resources, climatic upheavals ravaging the surface of the globe, atomic war, pandemic almost erasing Humanity from the map condemned to survive…
The Fallout series, which hit Prime Video on April 11, makes its contribution to the building. Beyond being the adaptation of a famous video game license, the singularity of its universe, its often fierce black humor, its sarcastic tone, and its uninhibited violence deserves our attention.
Because we have to face the facts: the universe of certain licenses is so rich and vast, immersive, whether in the visual, narrative and thematic approach, that they deserve to be treated in the form of a series. , under penalty of irremediably emptying them of their substance by passing with loss and noise through the cinema box.
October 23, 2077, the day of the Fallout apocalypse
“War. War never changes”. A cult tagline for a license that is no less so: fallout. We could say that this formidable post-apocalyptic saga is to video games what the post-apocalyptic saga Mad Max is to cinema: essential.
The Fallout game series, born in the mid-90s, never failed to pay homage to its cinematic counterpart, even if its universe is above all deeply anchored in a delicious and brilliant retrofuturism of the 50s, image of Robby the robot from Forbidden Planet. An anchor which is not only visual, moreover. Even the soundtrack of the games smells of the 50s and 60s.
A time when science fiction reigned supreme in the American collective imagination. This is what gives all the charm to this extraordinary license, sold several tens of millions of copies.
The starting point of the Fallout saga, even if the series begins 200 years later, is a nuclear apocalypse, nicknamed “The Great War”. It was as brief as it was logically devastating. It began and ended on Saturday, October 23, 2077 in just two hours, when nuclear weapons were launched by every nuclear-capable state in the world of Fallout (primarily the United States, China, and China). USSR).
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A war for control of resources
The geopolitical instability that led to the outbreak of global nuclear war was first caused by the onset of a global energy crisis, when natural reserves of fossil fuels began to run seriously short around the world. year 2050.
This energy crisis had several causes. First, the ever-increasing demand for fossil fuels, necessary to power the ever-larger and more greedy machines of the world of Fallout. Second, due to their inability to develop miniaturized electronics and more advanced construction materials.
The direct consequence of this crisis was a widespread panic which spread to all industrialized countries. They scrambled to secure the world’s few remaining oil reserves. A series of local military conflicts then broke out around the now rare and valuable storage points, and this thirst for natural resources ravaged the planet.
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On the day of the apocalypse, October 23, 2077, the gigantic fallout and underground shelters, designed by engineers from a company called Vault-Tec, which plays an essential (and often murky) role in the Fallout universe , were sealed while the entire Earth was burning. Sealed for decades; centuries even.
Several generations of families live there and succeed one another, without ever being able to leave. Shelters just like the one where the heroine of the series, Lucy (Ella Purnell), spent most of her life. Until the day the doors finally open…
What does the world of Fallout look like once you step outside? To this, from the game trailer Fallout 4.
A life that regains its rights, in a merciless universe
Despite the destruction of the planet by nuclear fire, areas remained habitable to some extent where levels of radioactive fallout were lower. The surviving humans in these regions of the planet were able to live in the ruins of the pre-war civilization, establishing new communities and even small towns.
On the rubble of what was once the United States of America, former territories have even seceded and become autonomous, such as the Republic of New Californiafounded in 2186, which has become a model of post-apocalyptic organization.
Here, its citizens have universal suffrage, discrimination is prohibited. Even mutants are protected by law. A supposed paradise for ghouls, for example, who were once survivors of the cataclysm exposed to high levels of radiation that would normally be fatal. This is the case of the character played by actor Walton Goggins in the series.
Those who emerged alive from the Great War formed the basis of a new civilization, free and above all perfectly ruthless, between bands of Raiders (looters), monstrous mutant creatures, fascist militias and other brotherhoods armed to the teeth.
The most emblematic of these is the Brotherhood of Steel. A quasi-religious and military organization with devastating firepower, whose roots lie in the US military and scientific community. She plays a major role in the Fallout universe, and in that of the series.
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Members of the Brotherhood of Steel, in their power armor.
“Making fans happy is a crazy task”
“Fallout is one of the greatest game series of all time. Each chapter of this incredibly imaginative story has cost us countless hours that we could have spent with family and friends. So we’re extremely happy to partner with Amazon Studios, Todd Howard and the rest of Bethesda’s brilliant creators to bring this massive, subversive and darkly funny universe to life.”.
These were the terms of the press release published by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy accompanying the official announcement of the start of work on the Fallout series, in July 2020. It is an understatement to say that the birth of the series required treasures of patience. From the beginning of the 2010s, the idea of an adaptation was already mentioned, without it ever materializing.
“Fallout, in my career, comes closest to the work we did adapting Batman, where there are so many stories in the Batman universe that there’s no canonical version and you’re so free to invent your own. Each of the Fallout games is a distinct story – a different city, a distinct protagonist – within the same mythology.” commented Jonathan Nolan, at the beginning of March at the microphone of Total Film magazine.
Adding: “Our series is situated in relation to games in the same way that games are situated in relation to each other. It’s a bit like if we were Fallout 5. I don’t want to sound presumptuous, but it’s just one version not -interactive of the game, isn’t it?”
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Todd Howard, the executive producer of the series and above all the creator of Fallout 3 and 4, specifies that if he shared potential ideas for a Fallout 5 with Jonathan Nolan, however, he asked him not to include them in the series. “There were some things where I said, ‘Don’t do that because we’re going to do that in Fallout 5.’
No sin of pride on the part of this brilliant screenwriter and showrunner, who had also initiated his immersion in this license with Fallout 3. “It started, for me, with Fallout 3, which ate up about a year of my life. At that time, I was a young aspiring screenwriter and it almost derailed my entire career. It’s so addictive and fun… seriously, the games were just amazing” said Nolan in a press event recently organized around the series.
Worried about fan reaction? Not really. “I think we have to embark on this adventure by trying to make the show we want to make and being sure that, as a fan of the game, we find the elements that seem essential to us… and to try to do your best to deliver the best version possible.
It’s a bit of a mindless task trying to figure out how to make the [autres] happy people… You must first make YOU happy. And I made myself very happy with the series.”