'Fallout' fans know New Vegas. How the show brought the video game location to life

This communicative contains spoilers for the 5th occurrence of “Fallout” Season 2.

On a sunny day successful precocious February 2025, members of the “Fallout” unit are mounting up a suspended rig on a dusty roadworthy connected their Santa Clarita acceptable that volition beryllium utilized to movie a country wherever Walton Goggins’ quality — a long-lived mutated subsister of the atomic apocalypse known simply arsenic the Ghoul — volition get punched retired a window.

A abbreviated locomotion distant connected an indoor stage, Ella Purnell and Kyle MacLachlan person been filming their characters’ long-anticipated reunion. The cameras are connected Purnell’s Lucy MacLean, a sheltered erstwhile Vault dweller who’s traveled from the California seashore to New Vegas successful pursuit of her father.

“My small Sugarbomb,” says MacLachlan arsenic Hank MacLean to a woozy Lucy conscionable earlier she passes out. Among those observing the takes connected the monitors are “Fallout” showrunners Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner.

Both moments instrumentality spot wrong the last minutes of “The Wrangler,” the 5th occurrence of the Prime Video series’ 2nd season, which sees Lucy and the Ghoul yet marque their mode done the streets of the post-apocalyptic remnants of Sin City aft trekking done the Mojave Desert together.

An adaptation of the fashionable video crippled franchise, “Fallout” is acceptable successful an alternate aboriginal astir 200 years aft overmuch of the satellite was decimated by atomic bombs. Some Americans, including Lucy’s begetter Hank, survived by moving into a web of underground bunkers called Vaults, portion others were near to fend for themselves successful the Wasteland.

In a flashback, Cooper Howard (Walton Goggins) visits Las Vegas successful “Fallout” Season 2.

(Lorenzo Sisti / Prime Video)

Unlike galore of the locations featured successful the bid truthful far, New Vegas is 1 that fans of the franchise are precise acquainted with due to the fact that it’s the mounting of the 2010 crippled “Fallout: New Vegas.”

Although incorporating specified an iconic mounting came with its ain challenges, the allure of taking the communicative to New Vegas was excessively irresistible for the show’s originative team.

“When Lucy near the Vault, she was precise innocent, precise naive,” says Robertson-Dworet. By the extremity of the archetypal season, “she’s had a mates of weeks successful the Wasteland and she’s surely had her eyes opened a just amount. But she is connected a travel to travel her begetter and uncover adjacent darker secrets. So the thought of taking her to the existent City of Sin was incredibly appealing astatine a metaphorical oregon quality level.”

Audiences person seen however Lucy’s clip connected the aboveground satellite has been affecting her. And her archetypal time successful New Vegas has been a doozy: She encountered terrifying mutated reptilian creatures known arsenic Deathclaws, has been dealing with a cause addiction, committed immoderate theft and adjacent killed a man.

“As we get person to Vegas … you truly commencement to get to spot however overmuch [the Ghoul has] rubbed disconnected connected her,” enforcement shaper Jonathan Nolan says. “That cardinal question of ‘Is she consenting to to interruption immoderate of the aforesaid rules that helium is?’ is 1 of the driving questions of the narrative. How acold is excessively acold and … however galore of her cautiously fostered beliefs … volition past the travel done the Wasteland?”

The Ghoul (Walton Goggins) sitting unsocial wrong the Atomic Wrangler Hotel country successful “Fallout.”

(Prime Video)

Bethesda Game Studios’ Todd Howard, who serves arsenic an enforcement shaper of the “Fallout” series, acknowledges that bringing New Vegas into the amusement for Season 2 added “an constituent of trouble supra and beyond that of Season 1.”

“It’s breathtaking due to the fact that you’re going to an iconic ‘Fallout’ location, but it’s besides tricky due to the fact that players cognize it,” Howard explains. “It’s easier, creatively, to spell someplace [players] don’t know, but to instrumentality the amusement to a spot that they cognize and emotion truthful much, you truly person to beryllium other careful.”

The dilemma for the show’s originative squad progressive the equilibrium betwixt video crippled accuracy and the realities of gathering applicable sets. While utilizing a integer inheritance would alteration the amusement to recreate the precise geography of the games, the team’s purpose is to effort to physique and usage arsenic galore existent sets, props and effects arsenic possible.

“Our feeling was ever … that we tin marque it much cinematic, much tactile, if we really physique [New Vegas],” Robertson-Dworet says. “The commercialized disconnected is going to beryllium [that] possibly we are not going to get it close down to the pixel the mode fans retrieve it. [But] the level of committedness to the games and [to] honoring the games arsenic overmuch arsenic we perchance tin is precise real.”

Understandably, the “Fallout” unit was not capable to physique an full metropolis from the crushed up. So alternatively of incorporating each gathering connected the New Vegas map, they aimed to see immoderate favorites on with ones that champion served the story.

The “Fallout” formed and unit connected the Freeside acceptable successful Santa Clarita.

(Lorenzo Sisti/Prime Video)

Freeside, which is the territory that exists successful the remnants of Las Vegas’ Fremont Street, was built connected a batch successful Santa Clarita antecedently utilized by shows similar “Westworld” and “Deadwood,” portion a defunct buying promenade was transformed into the New Vegas Strip.

“Because I’m dealing with existent buildings that beryllium successful the existent world, it’s not laid retired precisely the aforesaid arsenic it is successful the game,” says Howard Cummings, the show’s accumulation designer. “I enactment immoderate top hits of Freeside, essentially, successful a three-block radius connected 1 street. They are laid retired progressively akin to the game, but not the [exact] narration successful the existent game.”

One of the focal points successful Freeside is the Atomic Wrangler, a multi-story casino and barroom with lodging that was featured successful “Fallout: New Vegas.”

“The Atomic Wrangler was truthful circumstantial successful the game,” says Cummings. “It has circumstantial architecture and has this terrific neon motion that I emotion with the cowboy … There’s nary mode to instrumentality [a gathering that] already existed [on set] and person it look similar the Atomic Wrangler … truthful I enactment a facade successful beforehand of a facade.”

Some of that wizardry went into the interior of the Atomic Wrangler arsenic well. The archetypal level barroom area, for instance, is really housed successful a antithetic gathering crossed the ungraded street.

“It was the aged saloon successful ‘Westworld,’” says Cummings, who was besides the accumulation decorator connected Nolan’s sci-fi occidental that aired for 4 seasons connected HBO. “Turning that into a ‘50s nightclub was truly fun. What utilized to beryllium the signifier successful the aged saloon got shifted to the different side.”

Lucy (Ella Purnell) browses the merchandise successful Sonny’s Sundries.

(Prime Video)

The “Fallout” bid marks the archetypal tv task for Howard, who is known for his enactment connected the “Fallout” and “Elder Scrolls” bid of video games. Besides the standard of the production, what has amazed him the astir has been conscionable however overmuch the amusement does utilize applicable designs and effects.

“I thought much of it would beryllium fake,” Howard says. But “they truly wanted to marque everything arsenic applicable arsenic possible. … It’s not conscionable the standard of it, but the level of item and the tiny things — I was beauteous blown away. I thought there’d beryllium much ‘movie magic,’ fakery, but no.”

He recalls visiting the Vault acceptable for the archetypal clip during the show’s archetypal play and being amazed that not lone had the unit built a afloat Vault radical could locomotion through, but however adjacent the smallest item — similar a multi-page study connected an official’s table — was afloat fabricated.

This attraction to item is evident wrong New Vegas arsenic well, from the assorted goods sold astatine Sonny’s Sundries (at marked-up prices) to the moving monitors of each sizes seen successful a definite enforcement penthouse.

For Nolan, walking onto New Vegas for the archetypal clip came with a unsocial consciousness of familiarity acknowledgment to having played the games.

“The Germans haven’t travel up with a operation for it yet, but there’s the signifier of deja vu that you get erstwhile you participate a carnal mentation of a abstraction that you’ve travel to cognize virtually,” says Nolan, who explains helium felt that consciousness for the archetypal clip erstwhile helium visited Miami aft coming to cognize the metropolis successful a “Grand Theft Auto” video game.

But what helium particularly delighted successful was being capable to diagnostic a Deathclaw extracurricular the Strip.

“Fallout” enforcement producers James Altman, left, and Jonathan Nolan and co-executive shaper Noreen O’Toole astatine the video village.

(Lorenzo Sisti / Prime Video)

“The Deathclaw [is] specified a hallmark of that of that game,” says Nolan. “Everyone begins ‘Fallout: New Vegas’ by looking astatine Vegas and going, ‘Oh, I’ll locomotion to Vegas.’ The crushed you can’t conscionable bash that is the Deathclaw, you find that retired precise quickly, truthful bringing that to beingness and spending clip connected acceptable with the astonishing artists of Legacy [Effects] and [Industrial Light & Magic] … was conscionable an bonzer collaboration.”

While the archetypal play of “Fallout” was filmed successful New York (and different locations), the squad moved the accumulation to California for Season 2. The determination progressive disassembling the Vault sets and transporting them crossed the state successful 77 semitrucks to beryllium rebuilt again — this clip each connected connected 1 dependable signifier — successful L.A.

Nolan says “Fallout’s” determination backmost to California was “largely for originative reasons” and to reconnect with his erstwhile “Westworld” unit members, but helium has besides been outspoken astir the value of getting Hollywood productions backmost to California. He adjacent invited authorities lawmakers connected acceptable portion filming Season 2 to amusement them the value of California’s movie and TV taxation recognition programme to reverse the exodus of Hollywood productions.

“We’re hopeful,” says Nolan. “We’re going to support shooting ‘Fallout’ here. Season 3 [is] heading into production, hopefully, aboriginal this twelvemonth and we’re going to bash our part. But hopefully different radical volition beryllium pushing hard to bring arsenic overmuch accumulation backmost to California arsenic possible.”