Posted in: Amazon Studios, TV | Tagged: amazon, ella purnell, Fallout, jonathan nolan, prime video, walton goggins

Fallout Production Designer on Action Scenes, Game-to-Series Accuracy

Fallout production designer Howard Cummings deep-dives into the over-the-top action and video game mechanics behind the Prime Video series.

If there's one thing executive producer Jonathan Nolan and production designer Howard Cummings wanted to capture in Amazon Prime Video's Fallout was the drama, brutality, and chaos of the Bethesda video game franchise. One of those keys is for the series to be as over-the-top in its action sequences among the characters, from the gunslinging Ghoul (Walton Goggins) to the power armor.

Jonathan Nolan Wanted Fallout to Be As Over-the-Top as the Video Game

"Jonathan Nolan never does things small, and he said, 'Oh yeah, we're gonna go to distant locations, and we're gonna shoot it on film to give it a technical feel," Cummings tells GamesRadar+. "And the action sequences, you know, he wanted every crazy [effect], like when The Ghoul's shooting people – those bullets are freaking huge, and they're blowing holes through people and stuff. That's part of the game, too. But the detail in all the vaults, the crazy props, the weaponry – I sort of fell in love with it all, and I didn't really know it very well, and I didn't know the history, and I didn't know how interconnected it was."

The Ghoul is the alias taken by former Hollywood actor and Vault-tec ambassador Cooper Howard, who mutated after the bombs fell and makes his living as a gunslinger and bounty hunter. There was speculation whether his accuracy with such large ammunition was due to V.A.T.S. or Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System, the game mechanic that requires a Pip-Boy arm accessory to use. While the device is used in the Prime Video series since it services multiple functions, The Ghoul does not wear one. Even from an adaptation standpoint, it seems like it's splitting hairs.

Fallout primarily follows Lucy (Ella Purnell), a young woman who leaves her home in Vault 33 to venture out into the dangerously unforgiving wasteland of a devastated Los Angeles to look for her father, Hank (Kyle MacLachlan), who had been kidnapped. Along the way, she meets Maximus (Aaron Moten), a Brotherhood of Steel squire, and others, like The Ghoul, with their mysterious pasts and agendas to settle. Fallout is available to stream on Prime Video.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!