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The Fallout games have relied on the so-called Vault Boy for a long time now, who explains everything to us and is in a good mood.
Amazon’s Fallout series explains in surprising detail where the Vault Boy actually comes from. The mascot doesn’t just get an origin story, but a downright tragic backstory that is also connected to one of the series’ biggest antagonists. It even takes up a popular fan theory and is aimed at the biggest fans of the game series.
Amazon’s Fallout series explains where the Vault Boy mascot comes from
That’s what it’s about: The Amazon film adaptation of Fallout is here and is causing excitement among the vast majority of fans. The story is not based on any of the games, but rather tells an independent story, as has always been the case with the games so far. Nevertheless, the Fallout universe is padded with a lot of additional lore.
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Fallout: The cast explains how the world of video games makes the leap into the Amazon series
Who is the Vault Boy? In the newer Fallout games we mainly encounter the proper guy in tutorials. On the one hand, he serves as a Vault Tec mascot, but he also helps to emphasize the naively optimistic impression of this organization and most Vault Dwellers.
The Vault Boy always remains optimistic and gives the thumbs up, even when the entire world is drowning in nuclear fallout. Mr. Monopoly and other cartoon characters from the 1950s served as inspiration (via: Polygon).
That’s where the figure comes from: In the Amazon series we now learn that Cooper Howard (Walton Goggins) was a famous and popular actor in his prime. He lent his face to the Vault Tec organization to promote the fallout shelters called Vaults.
The Hollywood star can even be seen in the famous pose and in blue clothes during a photo shoot. This is obviously the origin of this look:
Here you can see Vaulton Goggins as Walt Boy in Amazon’s Fallout series.
The Fallout Boy: More or less immediately after the advertising deal, the career of Hollywood star Cooper Howard went steeply downhill. He is accused of enriching himself at the end of the world, so he loses a lot of jobs and doesn’t get any new ones.
Ultimately, his face is even replaced by the well-known comic character and the actor works at children’s birthday parties. In the end, he doesn’t even want to do his famous thumbs-up pose anymore.
Particularly tragic and exciting: The Fallout series also pays homage to a very specific fan theory. Shortly before the nuclear catastrophe, Howard explains to his daughter what he learned in the military: If a really big bomb goes off somewhere, all you have to do is stretch out your arm and thumb and close one eye. If the explosion can be completely covered with your thumb, be far enough away from it.
The Fallout fan theory that the Vault Boy mascot does exactly that with his famous thumbs-up pose has been floating around the internet for many years. However, this theory was already denied by the executive producer of the Fallout games in 2013. The Vault Boy is just in a positive mood. All the cooler that the fan theory still appears in the Amazon series.
What do you think of this background information about the well-known mascot? Did you know about the fan theory?
