The Fallout Teaser Trailer Starts To Unearth the Secrets of Vault 33

Fire up your Pip-Boys, everyone: the first trailer for Amazon’s long-awaited Fallout TV show is finally here, and it’s a doozy. Until now, our best news on the Fallout front has come from the video game industry, with Bethesda executive Todd Howard sharing the occasional snippet about the game’s setting (Los Angeles) or how it fits into the games (it’s canon).

For those unfamiliar with the games but vibing with the trailer, you’re in for a treat. Fallout is set in an alternate future of America, one where a nuclear war has turned America into a (mostly) irradiated wasteland. Some humans survived by living in expensive underground vaults; others adapted to or changed with the radiation to live on the surface. Over time, civilizations began to rebuild, with humanity repurposing the wreckage of our old societies to create new townships. But for as much as the games are about big concepts of democracy and war, they’re also about the gonzo pockets of humanity that sprout up in the wreckage. You’re as likely to stumble across a town of children as you are a town of cannibals, and that’s part of the fun.

And there’s a lot to like in this first trailer, from the production design of the series to the way it folds in recognizable technologies and creatures from the video games. But as with any good teaser, the trailer also raises more questions than it answers, so let’s dig in.

Vault 33 Has A Deadly Secret

When the bombs dropped on America in the Fallout series, those with wealth and power retreated underground, seeking refuge from the radiation and destruction in fallout shelters designed by defense contractor Vault-Tec. And at a glance, the vault the showrunners have created bears a delightful and uncanny resemblance to what players see in the games. But fans know that Vault-Tec had other plans for these captive populations, often running a series of medical or social experiments with survivors meant to lead to further scientific advancements (and profits) at all costs.

While there are vaults in the Fallout universe that offer protection for vault dwellers and nothing more, the first trailer suggests that, well, Vault 33 ain’t one of them. What we see of Vault 33 is incredibly violent: an all-out brawl in the hydroponics bay, blood splattered against a jukebox, and, in what is probably the most memorable shot from the trailer, a vault dweller with a fork in her eye unloading a SMG on the Vault 33 living areas. If there’s violence in a vault, odds are Vault-Tec had something to do with it.

And so we are treated to the instigating event of every Fallout story: a young vault dweller heads topside in search for answers. What grand social experiment was Vault-Tec performing that caused survivors to turn on each other? What is the relationship between Vault 33 and the outside world (who, if Michael Emerson’s voice over is any indication, already have some familiarity with vault dwellers)? And what the hell is the deal with Chris Parnell’s one-eyed administrator? All questions we hope will be answered in time.

One of the Major Power Players Appears to be Missing

Let’s get the obvious out of the way first: Fallout fans should be thrilled to see the games’ iconic power armor in action, especially with the promise of a fight between a soldier and a yao guai (basically, a black bear radiation monster). But the show’s focus on the Brotherhood of Steel – the paramilitary coalition of soldiers and scientists depicted in the series – does raise some interesting questions for the status of the Fallout universe. This is especially true when we take into consideration the recent comments that the show is considered canon with the video games and that the placement of the show is about 200 years into the Fallout timeline.

In the games, the Brotherhood of Steel was formed in the immediate aftermath of nuclear war in 2077, but they aren’t the only power broker in California. The New California Republic – a constitutional republic formed in 2186 – is also one of the major political entities of the Fallout universe, appearing in several games. In fact, Fallout: New Vegas, widely considered one of the best games in the series, puts players in the direct crosshairs between the two organizations in apocalyptic Nevada.

It’s entirely possible that the series does not want to delve into a military conflict in its very first season; that’s not exactly going to get the Fallout vibe across to new audiences, and it’s better to let viewers grow accustomed to the pseudo-1950s aesthetic and post-apocalyptic creatures from the games. Since the factions we see seem to be limited to vault dwellers, the Brotherhood of Steel, and wastelanders, it looks like, at the very least, that Fallout is angling for a more conventional origin story. But adding a main character who can provide an internal perspective on the Brotherhood of Steel opens a lot of interesting doors for where the series might go.

Dogmeat: The Wasteland Has At Least One Very Good Boy

From the beginning, the Fallout series has offered us a delightful mashup of the colorful and bizarre post-apocalyptic media of the ‘70s and ‘80s. Fallout games wear their love of films like A Boy and His Dog and Radioactive Dreams proudly on their sleeves, and the comparisons between the Mad Max franchise and these video games run obvious and deep. So, like all the weirdest and best apocalypse stories, Fallout has often included dogs in their adventures. And this trailer invites all of us to make room in our hearts for a new version of Dogmeat.

Dogmeat is the Dread Pirate Roberts of the Fallout universe. While multiple canine companions have had the name Dogmeat, they exist in different locations and at different times. The most recent versions of Dogmeat in Fallout 3 and Fallout 4 are German Shepherds that help you find items in the wasteland and fight off enemies (for Fallout 4, Dogmeat was made unkillable, which is a decision we all hope the series takes to heart). So it’s a welcome surprise to see the creator prioritize bringing a live-action Dogmeat to the series, too.

Where does he fit within the grander narrative? Well, the fact that the show has paired Dogmeat with Goggins’s character probably tells us all we need to know about that character’s moral alignment. In the best version of the world, Dogmeat is treated like Halle Berry’s dogs in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and given full combatant status – he certainly makes short work of the radroach we see in the trailer. Either way, be ready for a spike in pets named Dogmeat in 2024.

Get Ready for Post-Apocalyptic Hollywood

While the trailer focuses on a post-apocalyptic vision of Los Angeles – one where curious vault dwellers are greeted by little more than rubble and sun-bleached landscapes – the influence of midcentury America still peeks through. The Fallout series is set in a world that diverged from ours in several key ways. This is a country that is (well, was) steeped in retrofuturism, embracing the technologies and values of post-war America. And while we don’t get to see a ton of the America That Was in the trailer, there are still touches throughout the trailer that suggest the show will have real fun with its new setting.

For one, the Fallout series has often transformed some of our best landmarks into notable locations in-game; this was the case in Fallout 3 with the National Mall and in Fallout 4 with Fenway Park. Odds are good that the showrunners wouldn’t waste the opportunity to place Walton Goggins and company somewhere significant, meaning that Fallout’s newest wasteland enclave will repurpose a recognizable Los Angeles landmark. And since Hollywood loves making movies and shows about Hollywood, we can probably assume the film industry will play a big part in the world that the show creates.

Oh, and shout out to the trailer’s song selection: I Don’t Want To See Tomorrow, a Nat King Cole ballad released two years after the Cuban missile crisis. One of the joys of the Fallout series is the in-game radio stations, which provide countless hours of classic radio hits and in-world talking heads. It is worth noting that the song is a bit of an outlier for the series – I Don’t Want To See Tomorrow was released in 1964, a bit outside the usual smattering of 1940s and 1950s releases – but it still captures both the vibrancy and anxiety of the nuclear era well. Plus, Nat King Cole hosted his own television series in the 1950s – another nod to the Hollywood of it all.

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