Fallout is a Prime Video sci-fi series based on the hit video game franchise that's been created by Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan. It takes place in an alternative timeline wherein the world was changed forever by nuclear war.
The show follows three characters — Lucy (Ella Purnell), Maximus (Aaron Moten) and "The Ghoul" (Walton Goggins) — survivors who cross paths more than 200 years after the bombs fell, exploring the hostile Wasteland that the world's now become.
Naturally, a project this grand requires some unique filming locations. And ahead of Fallout's release, we got to speak to production designer Howard Cummings about bringing the show to life. During that time, he talked us through how some of the key Fallout locations from the new show.
Kolmanskop, Namibia
Kolmanskop is an abandoned mining town on the coast of Namibia. At its peak, the area was responsible for nearly 12% of the world's total diamond production; but by 1965, the town was completely abandoned, and the surrounding sand dunes have since reclaimed the ghost town. (More info about the town's history can be found on this National Geographic website).
It's a location that Howard Cummings says Jonathan Nolan has been mentioning for years — the pair previously collaborated on Westworld — and one that is key to the show's apocalyptic visuals.
If you're unfamiliar with the franchise, the Fallout games are set in different parts of post-apocalyptic North America. The TV adaptation is telling a new story in that universe, and taking viewers to an as-yet-unseen corner of the Wasteland: Los Angeles. As it turns out, a visit to the site helped the team settle on setting their story in that part of the world; looking out at the coast, Howard pictured the Santa Monica waterfront, and the crew incorporated his vision.
"Originally, the show wasn't actually set in LA", Howard explained. "But we're standing [in Kolmanskop], and it's just stunningly beautiful because of the sand, the water and the really rough surf. I said, 'Too bad we can't see the water, and Jonah [Nolan] goes, 'What if we do see the water? What if we can?'
"He just ran off, and the other producer walked over, and said, 'What's going on?' And I said, 'You're looking at the Santa Monica Pier'. And then the whole show became around that. It's fun to work with people who can get so turned on by a location that they reshape the show. It was the same story, but it was just developing where Vault 33 was".
You'll see in and outside some of the abandoned buildings from Kolmanskop as Lucy (and other characters) pick their way through the Wasteland, and you can spy a dilapidated version of the famous pier after Lucy emerges from the Vault for the very first time.
Wendover Airport, Utah
Described as "a real-life Fallout just sitting there" by writer and executive producer, Graham Wagner, Wendover Airfield is a former Air Force Base (and now tourist center) in Utah which the crew used for scenes featuring the Brotherhood of Steel, the militant, technocratic Power Armor-sporting faction.
Howard revealed that one of the writers in the show's writers' room actually tipped them off to Wendover's existence. "I looked it up and I went, 'wow'. I mean, there's like these decrepit buildings and planes and all this stuff there.", he said.
Located just south of the town of Wendover, Utah, the Wendover Army Air Force Base was first conceived in 1939. It was the test and training site for the atomic bomb and the 509th Composite Group, led by Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. It was closed in 1963, but periodically hosted Air Force units into the 1980s, and now stands as a preserved attraction (you can learn more about the site at the Wendover Airfield website).
What inspired Filly?
Partway through the series, Lucy finds herself in Filly, a town built out of discarded, exploded junk. It's the exact kind of scrap heap settlement that Fallout players typically stumble their way into after emerging from the Vault for the first time. If you're unfamiliar with the franchise, Fallout 3's Megaton is a similar place: it's a shantytown built up around an undetonated atomic bomb where survivors eke out a living... and it partially inspired Filly's look.
Whilst Howard didn't give a precise location of Filly's inspiration, during our time with him, the production designer mentioned that a researcher on the show had stumbled across what he called "the Grand Canyon of junkyards" down in New Jersey. It was a junkyard that shut down in the 1960s and, to Howard, the place instantly screamed Fallout when they looked into it, as the junk that was there perfectly fit the franchise's retrofuturistic aesthetic.
"Everything was from like, late 1940s, after World War Two, to the 1960s, and it was near an Air Force base. So there was like, 40 or 50 yellow school buses with jet cockpits stuck on top of them, and I was going, 'this is exactly what's in the game'."
The show was shooting in New York at the time, but Howard convinced the team to travel 90 minutes away to this amazing space which (after safety structures were installed and the place was properly dressed) became Filly as it appears in the show.
*Fallout star Michael Emerson suggested that the junkyard was 'way down in South Jersey, or outside Trenton' in an interview with Mama's Geeky.
At SXSW 2024, attendees were able to explore a mock-up version of the town from the Fallout TV show. Some SXSW attendees have shared footage of the experience; here's one guest's full walkthrough of the experience if you'd like to see Filly in a little more detail.
Fallout streams exclusively on Prime Video from Wednesday, April 10 at 6 pm PT/9 pm ET in the US and 2 am BST on April 11 in the UK.
