Warning: Spoilers for Fallout season 1
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Summary
Fallout season 1 revealed Vault-Tec’s dark past, hinting at their possible role in the Great War.
Clues from earlier Fallout games and season 1 support Vault-Tec’s access to nuclear bombs.
While Vault-Tec’s involvement in the first bomb isn’t confirmed, Fallout season 2 may provide more answers.
A detail that easily could have gone unnoticed subtly laid the groundwork for Fallout season 1’s biggest twist. Easily the biggest contribution to Fallout lore in Prime Video’s show thus far is what it established about Vault-Tec’s secret history. As Fallout season 1’s ending confirmed, Vault-Tec was responsible for the destruction of Shady Sands, a major community from the first game. But even more significant than that surprise reveal was Barb’s suggestion that Vault-Tec fire the shot that starts the Great War.
Needless to say, the Vault-Tec meeting in the Fallout season 1 finale was nothing short of illuminating. It also created some degree of controversy, as Vault-Tec’s perceived role in Fallout’s apocalypse now appears to be considerably more extensive than what was once thought to be. However, a detail in a previous game reveals that the underlying framework for this twist has existed in the franchise for 16 years.
Nuclear Weapons In The Fallout Games Appear To Belong To Vault-Tec
It helped support the Vault-Tec theory for years
Long before the Fallout season 1 finale, there were theories that Vault-Tec was secretly behind the dropping of the first bombs. Most hinged on details from both Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. Both included undetonated atomic bombs that were suspected to be manufactured by Vault-Tec. Symbols found on the Megaton bomb in Fallout 3 and “The One” in Fallout: New Vegas were construed as Vault-Tec logos. However, there were very slight differences between them, enough to create reasonable doubts that Vault-Tec made the bombs. However, no other explanation for the logos was ever offered by the games, and the similarities were too great to ignore.
After Fallout season 1, it’s all the more likely that the resemblance isn’t a coincidence. Regardless of whether Vault-Tec eventually did do as Barb indicated and drop the first bomb, the company’s access to nuclear weapons is now confirmed. Many of the arguments against the theory stemmed from the fact that Vault-Tec’s expertise was in building the vaults in Fallout (not weapons of massive destruction), but the reveal that Hank MacLean launched a nuke at Shady Sands put this speculation to rest for good.
Fallout Confirms Vault-Tec Used Nuclear Bombs (But Not That They Launched The First One)
While this clue from the Fallout games and the Shady Sands twist does confirm this dark secret about Vault-Tec’s past, it’s worth noting that it still doesn’t prove that they started the Great War. As Fallout co-showrunner Graham Wagner has said, there’s still “more story to tell” in regards to what came next for Vault-Tec and the start of the Great War. Members of Vault-Tec was clearly willing to use the bombs (and even on their own country), but there’s no solid confirmation yet that they dropped the first bomb. Unless Fallout season 2 reveals otherwise, the possibility remains that China bombed Alaska before Vault-Tec could strike first.
Fallout
Cast Walton Goggins , Ella Purnell , Kyle MacLachlan , Xelia Mendes-Jones , Aaron Moten
Release Date April 10, 2024
Seasons 1
Writers Lisa Joy , Jonathan Nolan
Creator(s) Graham Wagner , Geneva Robertson-Dworet