I loved almost every aspect of Fallout’s first season, but one element that topped all else was how the Wasteland was imagined. Opting for mostly practical sets meant that all the locations that the first season ventured through looked just as I had imagined they should, and with the second season venturing to New Vegas, it made me even more excited to see what was in store. So far, I haven’t been disappointed.
We’ve seen numerous key locations in just the first couple of episodes, like Vault 24 and the Starlight Drive-In. And now, in the second episode, we’ve had a magnificent look at Area 51, as it was unveiled after the Brotherhood got its hands on cold fusion.
The showrunners again proved how dedicated they are to depicting the Wasteland with care, a fact that executive producer Todd Howard raised during my interview: “I always view the biggest character being the world. I think everybody involved with the show has taken such amazing care to treat locations with this obsessive authenticity. And I think that’s what people like, and it’s all practical, or most of it, right? More so than other shows or movies.
“They built so much of it. You walk on set, and it’s just there, and all the little details, the journals, you can open them, and the writings are in there. They get the little bits right, and they get the large-scale things right. It’s just really wonderful.”
Area 51 isn’t an exclusive Fallout location, obviously, but it is a place of interest. It was mentioned in the first game and was almost included as a location in Fallout 2. It’s said to house alien technology, including a flying saucer, as well as a couple of Zetan aliens who would later escape the facility and retreat to Skull Canyon. We now also know that in the 2290s it was controlled by the Brotherhood of Steel, although it’s not really clear how long this lasted.
Area 51 is just one example of a new impressive practical set this season—all the trailers have, of course, been teasing New Vegas.
Probably the biggest draw of the second season, New Vegas isn’t just an iconic and much-loved game; it’s also a brilliantly fun location that absolutely screams Fallout with its flashy lights and worn-down bright colours masking the rough underbelly of the city. But being so close to players’ hearts meant that the stakes were higher here; the show needed to get this set in particular right.
“In season one, you’re seeing vaults and stuff, but they weren’t the particular ones that you personally walk through,” Howard says. “New Vegas is such an iconic location in Fallout, and you’ve experienced it, right? The players have been there, so I think they just did, again, an incredible job. Howard Cummings, the production designer, and his whole team. I saw New Vegas as it was being built, and I saw it when it was done.
“There’d be a thing—and it’s a pretty big set, like, real buildings—with a building, [Cummings] would say, ‘I’m gonna move that building.’ You’re gonna move the buildings? ‘Yeah, it’s no problem.’ It was as simple as: we’re gonna move a building. We’re gonna widen the shot. Like… okay.”
It sounds like a lot of effort, because it is, but the results show on screen. There’s a very thin line between flattery and coming off as gimmicky, but the TV show manages to nail it, and that’s largely thanks to how seriously the actors, set designers, writers, and everyone else who works on the show take the source material.
“I got to go on a number of sets,” Howard continues. “It’s really just, I can’t explain to people how much goes into it when they’re on location. So you’re out in the desert, somewhere outside, beyond the hills of LA, and there’s this dirt road, and there’s this little security cabin, and then you come across this town that’s just been built, right? Outside of the town are these trucks with all the power, the infrastructure for this new town. And then there’s the trailers where people live, and where the food is done, and all these things. It all kind of homes in, and they have a camera in someone’s face. This is a huge operation just to shoot this person at this moment. The care that goes into it is awesome.”
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