For more than 25 years, gamers have been drawn into the post-apocalyptic world of Fallout. The role-playing game series is set in America, decades after a nuclear war, where a privileged few Vault Dwellers are living deep underground while everyone else fights for survival on the surface, known as the Wasteland.
Fallout is now a drama series currently available to stream on Prime Video in Australia, and no expense has been spared in bringing this classic game world to TV.
(Image: Prime Video)
“They made the Skeleton Coast of Namibia look like the Pacific coastline in California,” series star Ella Purnell tells TV WEEK. “It really was huge.”
The series begins in 1977, with nuclear bombs being dropped on Los Angeles. It picks up 219 years later inside the homey Vault 33, where Ella’s character, Lucy MacLean, lives with dad Hank (Kyle MacLachlan) and brother Norm (Moisés Arias), surrounded by fields of corn.
“Lucy comes from a long line of Vault Dwellers,” Ella, 27, explains. “She believes their purpose is to procreate and to one day go up to the surface and rebuild America.”
Lucy is set to marry a man from another Vault. But when her wedding day goes horribly wrong, she heads to the surface on a mission.
(Image: Prime Video)
“She’s very innocent, naïve and sheltered,” Ella adds. “She gets a pretty rude awakening.”
Meanwhile, Maximus, played by Aaron Moten, is a similar age to Lucy but has had a much tougher upbringing.
“Maximus was born and raised in the Wasteland,” Aaron says.
As a child, Maximus was taken in by the militaristic cult called the Brotherhood Of Steel. He’s loyal to them, but is brutally bullied by the other recruits. When he sees the chance to become squire to an armour-wearing knight, he leaps at it. But both Lucy and Maximus will find their lives under threat from a terrifying bounty hunter known as The Ghoul (Walton Goggins).
(Image: Prime Video)
There’s plenty of action in Fallout. Ella’s first day on set involved a long fight sequence that left her feeling “so sore”, while Aaron’s first day saw him jumping out of a helicopter.
“To keep our bodies healthy to survive the shoot was vital,” Aaron, 35, says.
Despite the shoot being tough, Ella says it was an “honour” to bring Fallout to life. She remembers how it felt to walk onto the Vault set for the first time.
“The magnitude of that moment was not lost on me. It’s iconic in the games.”
Stream Fallout on Prime Video from $9.99/mth, with a 30-day free trial.
