Fallout official trailer reaction
Amazon Prime Video is looking to jump on the latest Hollywood craze of adapting video game titles, releasing the official trailer for ‘Fallout,’ its adaptation of the widely successful and popular video game franchise. It’s hitting all of the required notes to be successful, and audiences don’t have long to wait before they can find out for themselves, especially as all of the episodes are released on the same day.
To open the trailer, audiences are treated to a Vault-Tec promotional video by Walton Goggins’ character Cooper Howard, before he is turned into a ghoul. He’s a slick salesman for Vault-Tec and one who presumably isn’t able to get a space in the Vault when the bombs go off. It’s reminiscent of what happened to the Vault-Tec representative in ‘Fallout 4.’ This video has the 1950s feel to it that the franchise so often uses to promote the vaults as a place of peace and prosperity, but they’re used to perform horrible experiments on their occupants.
Lucy, played by Ella Purnell, attempts to get some information about the world from a local, only to get laughed at. It’s something that sets up the hostility of the world she finds herself in, not just from the horrifying dangers but the people too. This continues as she’s ambushed by a Mr. Handy robot, voiced brilliantly by Matt Berry, who hilariously talks about only wanting to harvest her organs.
The Vault looks like it will be key to the show’s conflict, as there are many scenes located in it. It’s unclear what the significance of it is yet though. One thing is for sure, it looks like there will be a lot of action in the show, whether that’s fighting humans or some disgusting and irradiated monsters. Even the dog (purposely reminiscent of Dogmeat) gets involved!
The area of most concern is how the show will handle the Brotherhood of Steel (BoS). This is where audiences will follow Aaron Moten’s Maximus, an idealistic soldier who wants revenge. There’s a danger that the show will make them the bad guys – one-shot teases a dude in power armour attacking Goggins’ Ghoul – and have Maximus defect when in reality the BoS aren’t out-and-out villains. Granted, they are not good either. It’s a difficult balance to get right. What might make for a better villain is a version of the Institute, something which the Ghoul hints at.
The design of the helmet visor flipping up is a change that has angered people, saying that it’s yet another show that can’t have their characters emote through a helmet. Others have rushed to its defence saying it’s more practical. It’s too early to tell whether it will be either of these, though it’s more likely to be the latter. How the show incorporated this change will be the deciding factor.
There are plenty of Easter eggs peppered throughout the video, with various Fallout bobbleheads, a tease that the show will visit Shady Sands – which is the capital of the New California Republic (NCR) in Interplay’s first ‘Fallout’ game and even a glimpse at the NCR fighting the BoS. The whole trailer is set against the track “I Don’t Want to Set the World On Fire” by The Ink Spots, a 1941 song that’s already heard throughout the ‘Fallout; games, making it a great fit for the show. This playful and retro vibe is found all over the trailer, exactly what ‘Fallout’ is.
All of this hints towards a wider world that the show will be setting up, which ‘Fallout’ is uniquely suited to doing due to the many factions it has and the grand timescale it takes place. Todd Howard has spoken before about the importance of the show not adapting a game or story and instead coming up with a new story set in the world of ‘Fallout,’ which is absolutely the right approach.
‘Fallout’ will release all of its episodes at once on April 11.
