Other Media Recommended For Those Who Enjoy Fallout!
Introduction
So, with the first season of Fallout on Amazon Prime, and with a greater availability of Fallout games from the franchise, new and old alike, what better time to recommend other media similar to Fallout? After all, it's going to be at least a full year before a full season of Fallout hits Amazon Prime. With such a long wait, why not enjoy some other similar media in the meantime? This is where I am going to recommend a number of media which you will enjoy if you enjoy the Fallout Franchise. Stories in books, films, and games about life after the bomb, from the meager wasteland farmers to new cities being built up from the ruins. So, sit back and see some media which I will recommend in the post-nuclear wasteland!
The 100
While Fallout has Vaults, other post-apocalyptic or post-nuclear fiction has gone for a ... less terrestrial survival shelter. Similar to Fallout, the 100, or The Hundred, as it is called, took a different route of survival back when it aired on the CW from 2014 until it's end in 2020. The 100 involves the survival of humanity in a high orbit around the Earth on an orbital station known as "The Ark", which was actually originally multiple orbital habitats from around the world, but it was eventually linked together to help the various survivors into a single orbiting vessel.
Now the idea of survival of the human race in space isn't totally foreign to Fallout, there were the faction parodying scientology known as the
Hubologists in Fallout 2, along with the original script that didn't make the final cut regarding the
original purpose of Vaults which the producer of the original Fallout game, Timothy Cain, reviews. However, the series of the 100, while not being Fallout, ultimately dives into many of the same themes as the stories of the Fallout games when 100 of the young individuals residing on The Ark are finally sent down to explore Earth for re-colonization when the life support systems are falling short. "Where Have I Heard About That Before?", well you have, as its the main plot point of the
first two Fallout games.
Within The 100, the 100 young teens and adults sent down to explore the surface of the Earth, are now in for a long series of surprises as the wonders and mysteries of this world burned in atomic fire 100 years in the past are revealed. Artificial Intelligence, Mutants, other survivors on the Earth who were not in Outer Space on The Ark, and more await as the series unfolds from beginning to a grand finale over seven seasons.
The Series is available on Netflix for streaming, with some territories such as India and Canada not having the series available. As a streaming series first on the CW, and then on Netflix, it tells many of the stories that the Fallout games either have or sought to tell. Themes including an ultra-traditional group of survivors, artificial intelligence, tribal raiders, and more are explored in this series. So, while waiting for a second season of Fallout, if you haven't watched this other series about life returning to the surface after the Earth was scorched, The 100 could very well prove an interesting series to watch, especially in the earlier seasons.
Steel Dawn
Now, returning back to the 80s, the era of VHS becoming mainstream, the era of other fiction about life after the bomb ranging from Mad Max to anime films and series such as Fist of the North Star or Akira, comes Steel Dawn. Not to be confused with the film of Red Dawn, also starring Patrick Swayze, Steel Dawn is a film that takes the world war 3 quote from Albert Einstein quite literally. It's also likely the inspiration behind the Fallout 76 DLC with the same name.
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones".
And that's how it is in Steel Dawn. After the cities burned in Atomic Fire, the world lost it's modern technology, including all those cell phones, computers, and even firearms, somehow, and now people fight with bows, spears, and swords. Somehow, they still have rare motor vehicles working and they perform some form of motorized jousting. As much as I don't want to call this film a discount Mad Max (which it is, to an extent) the film does go through a primitive war and life going on. The film features among the earliest performances of Arnold Vosloo (from the 1999 Mummy Remake and its sequel) along with additional performances, but it's nonetheless an interesting fantasy film on how life goes on in spite of all the destruction and technological regression, in spite of still having those wavy 80s hairstyles in the post-apocalypse.
Mad Max
The 1980s came out of the 1970s, the era of two major petroleum shortages, in 1973-1974 due to disagreements in deals on importing oil from the Middle East, and again 1979 as an after effect of the overthrow of Iran's government by the Ayatollah. It was from these shortages where petroleum was rationed and the costs at the time jumped up, that the inspiration for Mad Max, and by extension, the Fallout games, came into play. The oil shortages were also an element in the backstory of the Fallout games as well.
Directed by George Miller and produced by Byron Kennedy, Mad Max took a look in 1979 at what could happen in Austrailia if the oil shortages did not resolve, but rather continued. The first film begins as a story of how the titular character of Max Rockatansky from the Austrailian Police Force known as the Main Force Patrol (A type of highway patrol), becomes Rogue in a war between the Austrailian police force and a gang led initially by The Night Rider, whom Max kills in a pursuit after Night Rider steals a police car, followed by his successor, Toecutter. The feud between the police force and the biker gang escalates until ultimately Max leaves into the Austrailian Outback, with his fate unknown.
But that would not be the end of Max Rockatansky, he would ultimately appear in three additional films. Unlike the first Mad Max, which served as a backstory for Mad Max and the conditions of Austrailia in the midst of a petroleum shortage, the story was far from over. Later films dealt with the state of life in Austrailia after the oil crisis resulted in a nuclear holocaust between the Eastern and Western blocs, and the now lawless Austrailia, full of warlords, became the iconic setting for which the Mad Max franchise has been most known for. It is here, in the post-nuclear Austrailia, that additional Mad Max stories would happen aside from the first film. Those films include The Road Warrior, Beyond Thunderdome, Fury Road, and most recently, Furiousa, a spinoff film about the supporting character in Fury Road of the same name.
A number of elements from Mad Max became incorporated into the Fallout game franchise. First of all, Max's leather outfit from the Road Warrior has been available for the player to wear in every Fallout game as Leather Armor in Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout 3, and Fallout New Vegas, and was renamed to Road Leathers in Fallout 4. Another element is that of the oil shortages triggered the nuclear war. This was an explanation as to why such powerful nations in the Fallout universe would lose their fear of mutually assured destruction and destroy each other with an exchange of nuclear weapons? Hence the narrative that the oil war led to the destruction. All in all, Mad Max is up there with Fallout in being a harsh, post-nuclear world with a dose of dark humor added in.
Mad Max Games
Mad Max didn't end with films, it also received video game adaptations over the years. The first Mad Max game adaptation came to the NES in 1990. The game was developed by the Canadian Software company known as Gray Matter. The game was published and distributed by Mindscape. The game featured playing as Max Rockatansky driving around in his Ford Falcon or V8 Interceptor, and the player can explore a large map of post-nuclear Austrailia, making sure the car doesn't run out of fuel, along with Max making sure to get food and water. The game was loosely based off Mad Max 2 : The Road Warrior. Another Mad Max video game adaptation would happen years later, in 2015 when in the same year as the fourth released Mad Max film, Fury Road, was released in theaters. Mad Max was released to Playstation 4 and XBox One, with additional releases on Windows and Mac OS. I have a guide to running the game on Mac OS. While released in the same year as Fury Road, the Mad Max video game for consoles and PC was a separate, standalone story set in the world of Mad Max involving playing as Max Rockatansky.
Similar to the 1990 Mad Max game on NES, Mad Max in 2015 features survival mechanics such as making sure Max gets food and water, on top of fuel for the car. However, the newer game becomes more complex as the car used by Max in the game, The Magnum Opus, can become upgraded with engine and body modifications to the along with Max himself gaining experience and levelling up so he can find more food or water in containers and take more damage. The newer game also features a combat system compared to the Batman Arkham games in which Max can use melee, unarmed, and firearms in combat against his enemies. The Mad Max game was well-reviewed and the eighth highest selling video game in the United States of America in 2015.
Planet of the Apes
Beginning with the release of the original film, entitled Planet of the Apes, in 1968, the premise of Planet of the Apes is that there is a mysterious planet similar to Earth in which apes live as human civilizations once did and the roles of the civilized and the wild animals have been reversed between apes and humans. The film is noteworthy for it's plot twist, along with the numerous quotes taken from the film. The film also carries a heavy influence on the Fallout games with it's numerous cultural references and Easter Eggs featured in the Fallout Franchise.
Easter Eggs From Planet of the Apes in Fallout Games
In Fallout 3, Confessor Cromwell and the Cult known as The Children of Atom praying to an atomic bomb is a reference to the Alpha and Omega Bomb in the Second Planet of the Apes Film, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, in which in a subterranean cathedral, Ghoulish "Mutants" pray to a bomb, a relic of the previous nuclear holocaust. But that's not even the only reference.
The other reference goes way back to the original Fallout, in which The Master and his Super Mutants have a bomb in a Cathedral similar to how the Mutants had the Alpha and Omega Bomb in their own underground Cathedral, along with the Master also possessing his own telepathic gifts, similar to the Mutants from Beneath the Planet of the Apes having their own telepathy. There are more Easter Eggs relating to The Planet of the Apes in Fallout, but these are by far the most immediate references featured in the games.
Conclusion
All in all, with the long wait for another Season of Fallout on Amazon Prime, there's plenty which you can go and enjoy during that long wait. This article is a supplement to a
featured video on YouTube, which I recommend taking a look at as well, along with a
full series on playlist. I have an ever-growing list of Post-Apocalyptic fiction to add to that series.
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