Although it’s been well noted that Fallout’s showrunner for the Amazon series isn’t exactly setting out to please the ardent fans of the long-running video game franchise, it isn’t going to stop said enthusiasts from speculating on what aspects of the series might make their way to the silver screen.
So often I find myself lost in the worlds of Fallout whether it’s California, the Mojave Desert, Washington D.C. or West Virginia with those famous “Country Roads”, they’re intoxicating places to spend hundreds of hours roaming like the wasteland nomad you’re cast as.
The series’ trailer suggests it takes place, at least partly, in a post-apocalyptic California, though it’s not known whether Lucy, a dweller who leaves the safety of her Vault, will be pursued to the farthest reaches of the show’s lawless land by the ghoulish bounty hunter played by the venerable Walton Goggins. If the show ventures beyond California, it has an opportunity to pluck bits and pieces from Fallout’s bottomless lore and include some of the weirder, social-experiment Vaults that turned their denizens loopy—at best.
Here are six of the most outlandish Vaults that we’re hoping turn up in the Fallout television series.
Vault 11
Like many of the vaults that’ll appear on this list, Vault 11 served as a Vault-Tec conducted social experiment to test the inhabitants’ resolve and conformity. This particular one, however, had a rather grisly end.
Once a year, dwellers were made to nominate one of their own to partake in a ritual sacrifice to prevent the Vault’s computer from eradicating the entire population. Although these decisions were arrived at diplomatically at first, it was really a simple test to see whether the inhabitants would value human life, as well as their own morality, above the vault’s dire handbook. Abstaining once would have spared the entire population and unlocked the door, setting them free to the wilds.
That’s, of course, not what happened though. Nominees were routinely killed off annually until a power struggle between The Justice Bloc, a faction that formed within the vault, and the overseer led to a coup that saw only five survive. A mixture of shellshock and newfound solidarity led to them defying the vault’s guidelines and accepting the consequences of inaction, which ironically was their freedom—though most of the group took their lives seeking atonement.
Vault 12
After learning that the country’s remaining vaults had already been sealed, the people of Bakersfield fled desperately for their local fallout shelter in hopes of securing refuge for themselves and their families. The vault’s door worked, more or less, as intended: it couldn’t hold the radiation at bay as it did the raiders.
Painfully, the surviving population were transformed into ghouls. Years later, many of the inhabitants would leave for the wastes while those remaining founded the city of Necropolis—I’d say the name was on the nose except, well.
Vault 15
A social experiment vault that forced groups from three distinct ideologies to live together. To prolong the exposure to other ethnic and religious groups, the opening of this vault was delayed by several decades.
The friction between the groups led to the formation of three raider gangs made up of exiled dwellers who left en masse with vital equipment after the vault’s doors eventually opened. Those who remained, on the other hand, went on to found Shady Sands, the capital of New California.
With California being at least the series’ opening setting, I think it’s entirely possible Shady Sands is paid a visit by the vagabond protagonist—so perhaps a recap of the vault’s failure is on the cards.
Vault 21
Fallout: New Vegas is regarded as one of the best entries in the franchise and it’s for good reason. Its characters, quests, and lore stand out as some of the most thought out and considered in Fallout’s storied history.
Vault 21 is particularly fun because, in keeping with the City of Sin, it was created with equal opportunity in mind outside of conflicts and problems being solved through gambling. The only arbiter in these cases is Lady Luck herself and if she isn’t on your side, you stand to lose big.
In his resurrection of the Vegas strip, Robert House would claim ownership of this vault in a drawn out game of blackjack. After he secured the deed, he ordered it to be filled with concrete save for a couple of its upper levels where a hotel would be established as another source of income to buff New Vegas and its burgeoning economy.
Vault 92
Like pretty much all of the vaults on this list, this one suffered a rather bleak end so for it to show up in the series would require a bit of a revision at the very least.
“Set up” as a haven for the brightest musical minds to preserve musical talent through The Great War, in reality this vault studied the subliminal implantation of messaging into the minds of dwellers through white noise.
After a spate of mental breakdowns and murders as a result of the subtle mind control, the vault was left in ruins with half its population fighting for life against the other half, who’d gone mad. Nature would, for the most part, reclaim this vault after the project ceased to be and it became a haven for wildlife, mutated and otherwise.
Vault 118
This one kind of just feels less like a social experiment and more like a facsimile for what the greater reality is, as ten ultra-wealthy inhabitants are granted absolute and total authority over a much larger, impoverished population of a few hundred working class.
The “experiment” never really made it to full flight, however, after construction of the facility was abandoned completely due to lack of funds, presumably due to their misappropriation.
Remaining members of “Group A” were compelled by Dr. Riggs, whose research for General Atomics in the field of advanced robotics was noted, to explore the transference of their brains into Robobrains to give themselves the best chance of surviving the Great War to come.
All episodes of Fallout premiere on Prime Video on April 11th. Find out more here.
