10 movies for fans of the ‘Fallout’ TV series
The video game curse is a very real thing that many movies and TV shows have failed to avoid, but Prime Video’s adaptation of Fallout marks the second episodic production in quick succession after HBO’s The Last of Us that’s managed to hit the ideal sweet spot.
Fans of the source material are well attended to, with the eight-episode series full of nods, winks, and references to the expansive canon of the franchise, but the story told within is entertaining and exciting enough to win over plenty of new converts, too.
Fallout has such a distinct tone that it’s a hard thing to pull off in live-action, but Westworld co-creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy do a fantastic job of balancing jet-black humour, grisly violence, weird and wonderful creatures, and retro-futurisms with reflections on the barbarity that inevitably comes with the end of the world as everyone knows it.
For anyone who binged through the entirety of Fallout in short order, there are plenty of worthwhile companion pieces out there. The concept is so unique that they aren’t quite like-for-like, but they’ll scratch that itch regardless.
Reflections on the perils at the end of the world like Fallout
The best – and most obvious – place to start for movies that evoke the spirit of Fallout is Radioactive Dreams, which served as a major inspiration for the games. The story follows two youngsters who emerge from a nuclear shelter into an apocalyptic wasteland and try to make sense of both the world they’ve discovered and their place in it, which is essentially the arc of Ella Purnell’s Lucy in a nutshell.
The Fallout series has a canine companion that becomes a key part of the story, so A Boy and His Dog is a more than suitable follow-up for any viewer. Don Johnson and his telepathic canine Blood run afoul of a sinister group harbouring ulterior motives in a ravaged future, which is something the games and the TV show thrive upon.
For a much darker descent into dealing with the end times, John Hillcoat’s The Road packs a sobering punch that may not possess the lightness of touch and sly humour inherent to Fallout, but it nonetheless wades through very similar territory regarding the lengths people will go to in order to protect the ones they love as the world crumbles around them.
Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner are among the last remnants of post-nuclear war humanity in On the Beach, who resign themselves to the fact their end awaits them anyway, while Stalker finds Andrei Tarkovsky shining an unflinching spotlight on the downfall of humanity as a writer and scientists venture dangerously deep into ‘The Zone’, a haven for death, despair, and false hope. All very different but achingly similar in terms of themes and motifs.
Action-packed apocalyptic movies like Fallout
Fallout is packed with standout action sequences that liberally spray blood, body parts, and entrails all over the screen, so it stands to reason that frenetic thrillers would be a reasonable port of call for those seeking their next fix of similarly explosive feature-length adventures.
Denzel Washington slices and dices his way through the sun-baked ruins of America in The Book of Eli, but George Miller’s seminal sequel Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior is quite possibly the greatest apocalyptic actioner that’s ever been made, so it’s a must. If that’s a statement capable of causing staunch disagreement, then Fury Road will do it instead.
For something much sillier but just as entertaining, Six-String Samurai lives up to its title by tracing a 1950s-era musician as he embarks upon a sword-wielding escapade through the barren landscapes of the post-nuclear age with a samurai sword as his best friend. The ending may not be up to scratch, but the first hour of Will Smith’s I Am Legend remains a riveting look at the endless fears that plague an isolated survivor as they encounter the monstrosities that thrive in the aftermath of the end of days.
Post-apocalyptic, postmodern, and with tongue planted firmly in cheek, Turbo Kid is every bit as odd and enjoyable as Fallout. In a world where water has become a scarce and valuable resource, a kid with an affinity for superheroes teams up with an enigmatic girl and an arm-wrestling cowboy to battle against a one-eyed warlord. It’s equal parts weird and wonderful, which is what makes it so fitting.
10 movies like the Fallout TV series:
- Radioactive Dreams (Albert Pyun, 1985)
- A Boy and His Dog (L.Q. Jones, 1975)
- The Road (John Hillcoat, 2009)
- On the Beach (Stanley Kramer, 1959)
- Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)
- The Book of Eli (Allen and Albert Hughes, 2010)
- Six-String Samurai (Lance Mungia, 1998)
- Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (George Miller, 1981)
- Turbo Kid (François Simard, 2015)
- I Am Legend (Francis Lawrence, 2007)