Fallout

Mythology Goes to the Movies

Memories of the Cold War

When I was a child, there were many movies made about the nukes; movies like Fail-safe, On the Beach, and Dr. Strangelove. Yes, I’m a Boomer, so the Cold War is an era I lived through. I don’t think I dwelled much on it, though. As children, we were told to duck and cover if a bomb dropped. In school, we had drills for that. How many parents fell for that idiocy I don’t know. I know my dad wasn’t fooled by it. He had seen combat, as a medic, which meant he was up close to the wounds men sustained. Looking back at that remedy, that duck and cover was something a bureaucrat would cough up. I suppose it was meant to comfort parents, that the government was looking out for us. In reality, the exercise was totally useless. In retrospect, I can visualize the expressions on the parents’ faces as they drive up to the rubble that was once a school, to find our charred bodies neatly tucked under our desks.

Boomers can also remember JFK being eyeball to eyeball with Khrushchev over those missiles in Cuba. It was tense, and children could feel it. But neither man wanted to begin a war over missiles in Cuba. Humanity needed a larger reason to die. Besides, JFK was no wuss. He did not blink. Khrushchev decided to withdraw the missiles. It is with these memories that I viewed the new series on Amazon, titled Fallout.

Fallout is a drama about the future, and the past, based on a video game of the same name. I did not set out to watch it, however, I was channel surfing, and decided to watch the first episode. It brought out my own memories because visually, it takes place during the mid-century modern period of the 20th century. In its action timeline, it begins in the year 2077.

It has a nice visual touch, a steam-punk blend, based on the 1950s. With those old TVs, and those lovely houses with their uncluttered surfaces, and an actor who plays cowboy roles in the movies and TV shows, Boomers will instantly feel at home.

What’s It all About?

The title, Fallout, is not only about the radiation issue after a nuke hits. There’s the other fallout; the effect of the war itself, and the changes forced upon humanity. Wars always have fallouts, many unexpected. Like this one that sets humanity back to their pre-high tech ways of doing things. It is a life among the ruins that many lead. And there is also a conflict of visions, of civilization. And how to resurrect, or mend it.

The plot takes us on an odyssey via the hero’s journey of the three protagonists. It’s a classic setup of two men and one woman, all headed in the same direction with different missions. Each starts out in a different place, but at one of those precise moments that destiny is famous for, they all come together in a shabby town called Filly.  What happens gives a nod to the Gunfight at the OK Corral. From that moment on, it is not written in the stars, but in themselves, what they shall do with this three way relationship.

Star Wars aficionados will recognize the arrangement, with the same archetypes. The princess, or ruler, (Princess Leia and Lucy);  the knight in training, or hero, (Luke and Maximus);  and the cowboy, or outlaw, (Hans Solo and Cooper the Western Star, now a Ghoul.)

Fallout is full of archetypes because it began life as a video game. Video games are full of archetypal characters. Good guys and bad guys, loners and the happy-go-lucky social types. Making a series based on such a game, will naturally have archetypes up the wazoo. These archetypes ground us in a world we are unfamiliar with. They orient us, as we realize people are people, no matter when they live.

Fallout is mythology writ large. After the nukes destroy Shady Sands, or, as we know it, Los Angeles, the world remains the same, though it has changed. It’s one of those French things, Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. There are the privileged, living in their baronial manors, called the vaults; and there are those who survived out in the Wastelands. They are the peasants. Therefore, the myth we watch unfold is one we can relate to. What is fun is that this is a myth for our time and place. A story that will be repeated by future generations. Like all myths, it is a representation of things that happened, but the details have disappeared into the vortex of time.

What Happened and Why

The Gnostics recognize a god named Abraxas. He is the god of creative destruction, for he is both good and evil. Abraxas is as dichotomous as humans are. In the old myths, the gods did the destroying, usually, as punishment for humanity’s misdeeds. In our modern myth, we do it to ourselves. We are the Abraxas at work. From our destruction, which is an evil we draw upon ourselves, from the awful will come the good, the rebuilding. The ancient creation myth gives us a nod here, with Chaos providing the big blow out, via a man made device. Now it is Gaia that takes the reins, to make alliances with male gods because they are the actual creators. That is what our myths inform us of.

The underpinnings of this story is that this “war” is also a pretend war. Brought to us by those fools who think they know what to do with the world. Think Davos and you will get the picture. Think also, of the interfering gods of the Iliad, and that reminds us that this is a familiar tune, sung to a different beat. I certainly agree with the summation of humanity, given by this group of wannabe gods, that wars never solve anything. Their thinking is if they destroy most of humanity, they can then recreate civilization to their liking.

If I were in the room with such people, I’d play Puck, and say, “What fools these mortals be!” Therein is the problem. Humanity, more pointedly, Sapiens, have some sort of god complex. We really do need to get over that. The fools in 2077 really do think they will build back better.

Ask the God of Abraham if the flood worked like it was supposed to work.

The Plot Thus Far

Lucy, our heroine, is not from the Wasteland. She is a vault dweller, a privileged girl. She is short on perspective, and later, that will nearly get her killed. She chooses the hero’s journey because she must find her father, Hank.

The wannabe knight, Maximus chooses the journey to find himself. Proving that technology is not dead, the knights of this era are robots powered by real men inside them. It may look easy, but it is not. Just as it wasn’t for the knights of old.

And then there is Cooper, who searches for his family.

Three individuals, three reasons, one destination. Of course they don’t know that in the beginning. But meetings at any OK Corral is about the pivot.

You will note, early on, that Fallout plays fast and loose with linear time. The structure of the story is flashbacks. Once we see the bombs, and the reactions of those gathered together for a social evening in 2077, we are informed that  219 years have passed. Cooper, who entertained at that party, is now the local gunslinger and bounty hunter, in the year 2296. He’s also a ghoul. He has to have his meds to stay alive. His story will be told, as well as the story of the vaults in the flashbacks. But still, there are questions left unanswered.

Before the destruction, in 2077, Cooper played cowboy characters in TV shows and movies. He also had a dog. Remember that, about his dog. His wife, Barb, has a job with a company called Vault-Tec. Vault-Tec made many vaults and sold them throughout the United States, and elsewhere. They have a daughter, Janey. Janey is with him when the city is nuked.

In 2296, Lucy’s father held the position of overseer of Vault 33. The overseers are the leader of each vault. Each vault is independent from the others. It is a rare occasion when different vault dwellers mix. One of the reasons for socializing is because, periodically, they need new DNA in their bloodlines. So in the year 2296, Lucy has said yes to marrying a young man from Vault 32. She has never seen him. Nor anyone from vault 32. If you are thinking, arranged marriage, that is exactly what it is. It is an old way of doing things that has come back around. The vault lifestyle mimics the Middle Ages, when most people lived in villages, and never went more than 30 miles outside their village. Finding suitable partners was tough because everyone was a cousin. So they would marry someone outside the sphere of their villages and attendant farms.

The social event in Vault 33 turns into a blood wedding. Once the ceremony is over, and the marriage is consummated by the young couple, the groom tries to kill the bride. Lucy, who is quite good when it comes to self defense, kills the groom instead. Outside their assigned living quarters, all hell has broken loose in Vault 33 because the groom is a part of a raiders group from the Wasteland that broke into Vault 32.

It really does pay to get to know your neighbors.

Like Lucy, the vault dwellers are adept with weapons and self-defense. They secure the vault but not before Lucy’s dad is kidnapped. Thus her journey begins.

Firstly, Lucy must get out of the vault, except it is forbidden to leave the vault. Once she leaves, she will not be allowed back in. Of course, this has to do with being contaminated by the radiation. In truth, after 219 years, there is little radiation left. So this is a lie that the vault government tells them. What they really fear is contamination from ideas and ways of life. The vault people are those elites that look down on the peasants. However, vault dwellers are, more or less, feudal in their social structure. Which is, in reality, communism.

Lucy gets the help she needs to escape from her brother, Norm.  Norm is one of those magicians that will use trickery to get what he needs. He helps Lucy out, and locks the door securely once she is gone. Thus Norm begins his journey, which is to find the truth, which will make him a sage.

Norm assumes a low profile, which is an excellent place in which to observe. Who he observes quite a bit are the raiders taken prisoners. They are a mixture of outlaws and explorers. They are individuals who can sing, Don’t Fence Me In, and mean it. These are the types that make revolutions, but can rarely live in the aftermath. They are anarchists at their core.

The raider character Lucy must find is a woman named Moldaver. She is the one who took her dad. Moldaver is a ruler, no doubt there. So this plot will take us to a place where the two rulers will meet.

It is so today, that the two rulers of this new, old world, are women.

As soon as Lucy walks out of that vault, she becomes an explorer. Every hero on their journey must take on this aspect.  Lucy’s bright personality, however, gets her into trouble in Filly as the people there have quite the different lifestyle. They don’t need her preachy attitude. They have survived for generations. And even have quite a bit of technology. This is where Lucy gets her comeuppance, which is her first confrontation with a different perspective. This lesson later on turns her positive outlook into an energetic sarcasm. Her naïveté gives way in a learning curve of wheeling and dealing. Her focus, of finding her dad, keeps her grounded. Lucy is resilient because the resilient are adaptable.

It is in Filly that a classic, hero’s journey event takes place. She meets a guide, a scientist by the name of Wilzig. Wilzig has escaped a factory setting with a dog he has saved and trained. The dog will protect his master, no matter what. Cooper, when he comes into town, goes after Wilzig because he has what Cooper wants. Wilzig has a bounty on his head, just the head, mind you. The dog is a wanted item as well.

It’s like this. Wilzig has injected something precious into his head, thus the bounty on it. As Cooper makes a move for the scientist, the dog makes a move for Cooper. Cooper shoots the dog. Maximus, in a knight’s mechanized armor, shows up, and helps Lucy and Wilzig get out of Filly. It is quite the gun fight. John Wayne would recognize it for what it is.

At this point, I want you to recall what I said about remembering the dog Cooper had in 2077. For it was in that year that his wife Barb told him that no dogs would be allowed in the vaults. Talk about a big, fat red flag being raised. I’m with Cooper. It is pure evil to allow dogs to be subjected to a nuclear war. So that tells us something about the vault people. And Cooper picks up on that.

Back to Cooper, in 2296, in Filly. After he shoots the dog, he resurrects him with some sort of drug.

Meet the new world, just like the old world. We got drugs!

Lucy and Wilzig travel together. As her guide, the wounded scientist fills Lucy in on a few things, like the whereabouts of Moldaver. It’s slow going, but they need to stay ahead of Cooper. Finally, Wilzig tells Lucy to take his head, for that contains the elixir everyone wants. He is dying anyway, he tells her.

She takes his head.

Her journey moves forward. She has to battle Cooper, but Maximus shows up to save her. Later, she saves Maximus. Finally, after losing the head, she recovers the head, and brings it to Moldaver. Here, at the organization Moldaver has created, called The New Republic of California, she finds her father, and her mother as well. I won’t spoil the ending here, except to say what Wilzig had in his head was something to light up the world.

Wilzig is truly a magician.

Meanwhile, back at the vault, Norm is finding out things that are troubling. He tries to get his cousin, Chet, to explore the sinister side of vault living, and the hierarchy that runs it. Norm has found Vault 31. Unsettling stuff is in 31. Well, what can we think about a group of people willing to nuke the world….except Norm doesn’t know that, yet.

The new overseer of vault 33 reassigns some individuals to the problematic Vault 32. Recall, that is where the raiders were hiding. When Norm, with Chet, who is the everyman character, when they sneak in to explore that vault, they find that mayhem has taken place. There are dead bodies everywhere. Something about the vault, aside from the deaths, is amiss. After the reassignments, Chet, and his partner, a woman with an infant, are assigned to the infamous vault. It has been cleaned up, but that only makes Norm more suspicious. Later, Norm confronts Chet, asking him how he could move into 32 without further investigation. Norm can see that Chet has no interest in pursuing a path that could get him into trouble. They then have this bit of dialog:

“You’re a coward, Chet.”

“We all are, Norm. That’s why we live in a vault.”

Indeed.

Not everyone is cut out to be a hero.

The season is worth viewing because its theme is worth thinking about. I look forward to a second season. Once Season 2 opens, I will have more to say on this subject. You will find Fallout on Amazon Prime.

Have you watched Fallout? Tell me your thoughts.

There are 8 episodes in season 1. It is rumored that Season 2 begins in the Fall.