The Science of Fallout Fact vs Fiction'.
The “Fallout” series is rich with intricate lore and an expansive alternate history that captivates players. Here's a deep dive into the timeline and some of the most fascinating aspects of its lore:
### **Timeline Overview**
#### **Pre-War Era (Before 2077)**
- **1945:** End of World War II, leading to a timeline divergence from our own history.
- **1969:** The United States wins the Space Race, but unlike our timeline, technological advancements lead to the widespread use of nuclear energy and fusion power.
- **2052-2077:** The Resource Wars begin due to dwindling fossil fuels, causing global tension and conflict.
- **2077:** The Great War occurs on October 23, 2077, a catastrophic nuclear exchange that lasts only two hours but devastates the planet.
#### **Post-War Era (After 2077)**
- **2077-2161:** The survivors emerge from Vaults and begin to rebuild society amidst the ruins.
- **2161:** The events of "Fallout" (the first game) take place, focusing on the Vault Dweller's quest to save their vault.
- **2241:** "Fallout 2" occurs, following the Chosen One, a descendant of the Vault Dweller, on a mission to find a Garden of Eden Creation Kit (GECK).
- **2277:** "Fallout 3" takes place in the Capital Wasteland, with the Lone Wanderer searching for their father and encountering the Enclave and Brotherhood of Steel.
- **2281:** "Fallout: New Vegas" focuses on the Courier's journey in the Mojave Wasteland, involving the conflict between the New California Republic, Caesar's Legion, and Mr. House.
- **2287:** "Fallout 4" follows the Sole Survivor from Vault 111 as they search for their kidnapped son in the Commonwealth.
- **2102:** "Fallout 76" is set in Appalachia, focusing on the Reclamation Day, where Vault 76 opens and survivors begin to rebuild after the Great War.
### **Fascinating Aspects of Fallout Lore**
1. **The Great War and Its Aftermath:**
- The brief but devastating nuclear exchange of the Great War left a profound impact on the world, shaping the post-apocalyptic setting of the series. The fallout (pun intended) of this war is evident in every game, showcasing the resilience and adaptability of humanity.
2. **Vault-Tec Experiments:**
- The Vaults, ostensibly designed to protect people, were actually social experiments conducted by the Vault-Tec Corporation. Each vault had a unique, often sinister experiment, like Vault 101's perpetual isolation or Vault 22's plant-human hybrid research.
3. **Factions and Power Struggles:**
- The various factions, such as the Brotherhood of Steel, the Enclave, the New California Republic, and Caesar's Legion, each have distinct ideologies and goals, creating complex power dynamics and moral dilemmas for players to navigate.
4. **Technological Retro-Futurism:**
- The "Fallout" series features a unique blend of 1950s aesthetics with advanced, yet decayed technology. This retro-futuristic vision, filled with robots, power armor, and laser weapons, contrasts sharply with the desolate w
### **Timeline Overview**
#### **Pre-War Era (Before 2077)**
- **1945:** End of World War II, leading to a timeline divergence from our own history.
- **1969:** The United States wins the Space Race, but unlike our timeline, technological advancements lead to the widespread use of nuclear energy and fusion power.
- **2052-2077:** The Resource Wars begin due to dwindling fossil fuels, causing global tension and conflict.
- **2077:** The Great War occurs on October 23, 2077, a catastrophic nuclear exchange that lasts only two hours but devastates the planet.
#### **Post-War Era (After 2077)**
- **2077-2161:** The survivors emerge from Vaults and begin to rebuild society amidst the ruins.
- **2161:** The events of "Fallout" (the first game) take place, focusing on the Vault Dweller's quest to save their vault.
- **2241:** "Fallout 2" occurs, following the Chosen One, a descendant of the Vault Dweller, on a mission to find a Garden of Eden Creation Kit (GECK).
- **2277:** "Fallout 3" takes place in the Capital Wasteland, with the Lone Wanderer searching for their father and encountering the Enclave and Brotherhood of Steel.
- **2281:** "Fallout: New Vegas" focuses on the Courier's journey in the Mojave Wasteland, involving the conflict between the New California Republic, Caesar's Legion, and Mr. House.
- **2287:** "Fallout 4" follows the Sole Survivor from Vault 111 as they search for their kidnapped son in the Commonwealth.
- **2102:** "Fallout 76" is set in Appalachia, focusing on the Reclamation Day, where Vault 76 opens and survivors begin to rebuild after the Great War.
### **Fascinating Aspects of Fallout Lore**
1. **The Great War and Its Aftermath:**
- The brief but devastating nuclear exchange of the Great War left a profound impact on the world, shaping the post-apocalyptic setting of the series. The fallout (pun intended) of this war is evident in every game, showcasing the resilience and adaptability of humanity.
2. **Vault-Tec Experiments:**
- The Vaults, ostensibly designed to protect people, were actually social experiments conducted by the Vault-Tec Corporation. Each vault had a unique, often sinister experiment, like Vault 101's perpetual isolation or Vault 22's plant-human hybrid research.
3. **Factions and Power Struggles:**
- The various factions, such as the Brotherhood of Steel, the Enclave, the New California Republic, and Caesar's Legion, each have distinct ideologies and goals, creating complex power dynamics and moral dilemmas for players to navigate.
4. **Technological Retro-Futurism:**
- The "Fallout" series features a unique blend of 1950s aesthetics with advanced, yet decayed technology. This retro-futuristic vision, filled with robots, power armor, and laser weapons, contrasts sharply with the desolate w
Transcript
00:00Nope, it says Goosey, but hey, that's something, you don't meet a natural born vault dweller every day.
00:09Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're taking a deep dive into the Fallout franchise.
00:13Open up those Pip-Boys and put all your skill points into science because today, we're separating scientific fact from fiction.
00:24Number 10, Mutations
00:26A bunch of us got stuck out here in the world and got a full-on blast of heat and radiation.
00:32Turned us into a pack of walking corpses.
00:35In the world of Fallout, it's commonly understood that radiation can cause genetic mutations in humans and in animals.
00:41Broadly speaking, that's true in real life as well, although Fallout's version of mutation uses a bit of artistic license.
00:48In reality, radiation-induced genetic mutations are complex and virtually always bad.
01:01Radiation exposure can and does alter DNA.
01:04But think less turning you into an immortal ghoul and more causing cancer and potential birth defects in your future children.
01:11Radiation-induced mutations are random in the real world and can affect any part of the genome.
01:16What precisely happens next depends on many factors, including the type of radiation, dose, and duration.
01:23In Fallout, meanwhile, mutations are generally much more predictable and can grant superhuman abilities as well as dramatic physical changes.
01:31Which is just science fiction all over.
01:33I was born in the FEV chambers.
01:36But a super mutant I certainly am not.
01:40I prefer the term Meta-Human.
01:54Vault dwellers may find themselves short on bullets in the Wasteland.
01:57But conveniently, the universe of Fallout is replete with an arsenal of energy weapons.
02:02From gatling lasers to plasma rifles, directed energy weapons are staples in the game and show.
02:07Perhaps fortunately though, the streets of the real world are not also flooded with the same.
02:13In our lives, such futuristic firearms can't currently be produced at scale.
02:17The technology needed requires an incredible amount of money, as in Pentagon-level money.
02:22So why bother when conventional weapons can do the same general job for much less cash?
02:27The physical limitations too are prohibitive.
02:30From heat loss and heavy weight to beam control and power costs,
02:34genuine everyday energy weapons don't give enough bang for the buck.
02:37Even if in Fallout they're all the rage.
02:41Remember how good food used to taste?
02:45Blamco mac and cheese.
02:47Ice cream and apple pie.
02:50Readers of the Wasteland Survival Guide know that food and water can be as dangerous as a yaoguai.
02:55Essentially, all food and water in the wild will be irradiated.
02:58In the games, that's no biggie.
03:00It'll heal you or feed you for just a small rad hit.
03:03Which is a lot of damage.
03:06It'll heal you or feed you for just a small rad hit.
03:09Which you can heal later.
03:11But unsurprisingly, in real life,
03:13irradiated food and water presents a much larger risk to your health.
03:17Radiation creates something called URPs, or unique radiolytic products in food.
03:22By consuming these substances, you'd be granting them a direct line towards mutating your DNA.
03:27At high enough levels then, URPs can leave a person with acute radiation sickness, organ damage,
03:33and they can even lead to death.
03:35So, all of us here highly recommend that you avoid that tin of irradiated cram.
03:58This may come as something of a surprise, but power armor actually is real.
04:02That being said, don't expect any hulking T-60s in the here and now just yet.
04:07War never changes, but technology does.
04:09Slowly.
04:10That in mind, current iterations of real-world wearable exoskeletons
04:14are mainly designed to help soldiers and first responders carry heavy loads by hand.
04:19They're less power armor and more power loader.
04:22Still, there are predictions for much more to come.
04:24Protective plating and combat uses could be next,
04:27although debates over practicality rage.
04:31Knight Titus of the Brotherhood of Steel, stand down, or be cut down.
04:37As it stands, power armor's applications are limited.
04:40The weight constraints of heavy materials like steel,
04:43or the durability constraints of light materials like aluminum, are both significant problems.
04:48More importantly, however, is the lack of long-lasting power supplies.
04:52We don't have any fusion cores lying around in the real world.
04:55Rule number one, read the manual.
05:01Number six, underground vaults.
05:03I know that it can't have been easy for you up here,
05:05what with all the murder and the dirt.
05:10But the mission of the vaults should be important to everyone.
05:15And why is that?
05:17In some respects, Vault-Tec got the science right.
05:20Shelters really do need to be underground.
05:22The soil absorbs the ambient radiation, protecting the structure and the people inside.
05:27Airflow would be an issue, but a surmountable one.
05:30In reality, what's known as a Kearney air pump can provide a steady supply of breathable air,
05:36pump out CO2, and keep radiation at acceptable levels.
05:39The real issue, though, is the time.
05:41Typically, such shelters are not meant to be long-term solutions to humanity's survival.
05:46It's hard to imagine a large enough stockpile of food and water to sustain a whole community over generations.
05:52Welcome, neighbors from Vault 32.
05:55I am Hank McClain, overseer of Vault 33.
05:58In real life, fallout shelters are generally to help a small group of people hopefully survive for a few weeks or so.
06:05But in the game and show, there's no telling how long you could hole up in one.
06:09The vaults were nothing more than a hole in the ground for rich folks to hide in,
06:16while the rest of the world burned.
06:18Number five, Rataway versus Prussian Blue.
06:21Yeah, you don't happen to have any vials, do you?
06:27One little puff, and I'll be back on my feet. You know I'm good for it.
06:30In both the Fallout universe and in ours, radiation exposure can be fatal.
06:35But in Fallout, it's a much more solvable problem.
06:39Pop some Rad-X to shield yourself from rads, and Rataway to heal any exposure.
06:43Easy.
06:44Nice way to live.
06:47It is.
06:48Real life, by contrast, is more complicated.
06:50Although there are some options.
06:52Iodine tablets are like our version of Rad-X,
06:55saturating the thyroid gland with stable iodine,
06:58so that the uptake of radioactive iodine isotopes can be prevented.
07:02Prussian Blue, on the other hand, is basically paint.
07:05It also binds to cesium and thallium isotopes in the intestines, however,
07:09preventing absorption by organ tissues.
07:11Unfortunately, iodine and Prussian Blue don't always work,
07:15and can't prevent all types of radiation or large quantities.
07:18They're a little like what we see in Fallout, but nowhere near as reliable.
07:22Prussian Blue only removes radioactive cesium and thallium from the body.
07:26It does not remove other radioactive material or prevent external radiation exposure.
07:39Much like Captain America in the MCU,
07:41the weird science of Fallout can grant ex-vault dwellers and couriers superhuman strength.
07:46I'm fine.
07:47I'm fine.
07:49You had a rotten human tooth lodged in your shoulder.
07:52You're not fine.
07:53Unfortunately, outside of the game,
07:55human beings are limited by both physiology and physics.
07:58Where do you guys get your power from?
08:00Our muscles are constrained by the size and number of muscle fibers,
08:04the efficiency of our nervous system, and the availability of energy.
08:08All of which means that even the best athletes
08:10and the world's strongest people have physical limits.
08:13You can raise those limits to a degree through long-term training and enhancements,
08:17but realistic muscle growth and performance can only be pushed so far.
08:21And more importantly,
08:23real non-Fallout humans are creatures of bones, ligaments, and tendons.
08:27Even with musculature capable of enhanced feats,
08:30then our joints can only allow so much.
08:33You happen to be a doctor, would you?
08:36Of course, I happen to be looking for one.
08:44In the world of Fallout,
08:45Vault-Tec was a leader in many scientific fields, including cryonics.
08:50Vault dwellers and executives alike managed to escape the Great War of 2077
08:54by freezing themselves for centuries in a secure vault.
08:57More broadly, cryostasis is a cornerstone of speculative science fiction,
09:01theoretically allowing humans to outlive disease and travel in deep space.
09:06The real science behind the practice is still in its infancy.
09:09Cryonics is really an extension of emergency medicine.
09:12And we've yet to evolve the technology beyond its most important hurdle.
09:16Freezing, especially over the long term, damages tissue.
09:20Cells are disrupted and the liquid in the body crystallizes.
09:23And people don't just wake up from that.
09:25Cryonics will only be possible if and when researchers either find a way to prevent this damage,
09:30or discover a form of revival that repairs it.
09:33A lot of people say, what happens if the power goes out?
09:35The answer is absolutely nothing, because no energy is needed to maintain the temperature.
09:38Number 2. Advanced Robotics
09:54Despite its mid-century modern aesthetic,
09:56the technology of Fallout is both futuristic and, at times, awe-inspiring.
10:01Before the Great War, humanity had reached an apex in the field of robotics.
10:05Combat robots like Assaultrons terrorize the battlefield,
10:08while suburban families rely on Mr. Handy for household chores.
10:22And that may indeed be what our future holds in this world as well.
10:25Yes, for now, engineers are still working on ways for robots to navigate simple obstacles like stairs.
10:31But rapidly advancing models are expected.
10:34As with many technologies, the robots in Fallout have a ready supply of fuel, often nuclear in nature.
10:40That part may be different in real life,
10:43with the powering of domesticated and combat robots more likely to resemble charging an electric vehicle.
10:49Perhaps they would struggle in a real-life apocalypse, but they are on their way all the same.
10:54What? No! What a disgusting idea!
10:59I'm simply going to harvest your organs.
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11:19Number 1. Wildlife
11:24We keep picking up an abomination of some kind or another.
11:26I'm just not sure... I'm not sure we're tracking the right abomination.
11:30One rare bit of good news about the Fallout games and their relation to what would really happen
11:35is that they generally misunderstand the length of time it takes for nuclear fallout to dissipate.
11:40Really think you should go home? You are not safe here.
11:46That's what people keep telling me.
11:48While the soil and local animal life would absorb lethal doses of radiation in the short term,
11:53it perhaps wouldn't take centuries to vanish, as it does in the game.
11:56In fact, and circumstances depending, it could be that much of the worst radiation would vanish in days or even in hours,
12:03more widely and perhaps a few years or a couple of decades.
12:06All of which means that wildlife would eventually return in abundance and without extra heads.
12:12Chernobyl is a real-life example.
12:14In the years since the infamous nuclear meltdown, local plants and animals have flourished,
12:19the soil is rich, the landscapes are pristine, and thankfully, there isn't a single radroach in sight.
12:34What do you think about the science of Fallout?
12:36Has it helped you to get hooked? Let us know in the comments below.
12:50And we're gonna do it together, okay? That's a promise.
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