The Fallout is a 2021 American drama film written and directed by Megan Park in her feature film directorial debut. It stars Jenna Ortega as Vada Cavell, a high school student who navigates significant emotional trauma following a school shooting. It also stars Maddie Ziegler, Julie Bowen, John Ortiz, Niles Fitch, Will Ropp, Shailene Woodley, and Lumi Pollack in supporting roles. The score is composed by American musician and actor Finneas O'Connell.
High school student Vada goes to the restroom in the middle of class after her little sister Amelia calls her when she has her first period. While she is in the bathroom, a school shooting occurs. Vada hides in a stall with her schoolmates Mia and Quinton, whose brother is killed in the shooting.
In the weeks following the incident, Vada becomes depressed and isolated from her family and best friend Nick. She cannot bring herself to enter the bathroom where she hid, resulting in her wetting her pants when she hears the sound of a soda can being crushed. In order to cope with her trauma, she takes ecstasy, and Nick has to help her through the resulting high. After another night of drinking, Mia tells Vada that she is falling in love with her, and they have sex.
Vada and Nick argue about her poor coping mechanisms, resulting in her venting to Quinton and then trying to kiss him, who gently rejects her as he is not emotionally ready for a relationship. She withdraws further from her family and friends, including Mia.
Later, Amelia admits to Vada that she assumed Vada resented her for the phone call that had put her in more danger. Vada assures her that that is not the case, and the two reconnect. Vada reconciles with her parents and Mia. By her next therapy session, Vada has made genuine progress in coming to terms with what happened, though she admits that she and Nick might not reconcile.
In February 2020, it was announced Jenna Ortega had joined the cast of the film, with Megan Park directing from a screenplay she wrote.[2] In April 2020, Maddie Ziegler joined the cast of the film.[3] In May 2020, Will Ropp joined the cast of the film.[4] In August 2020, Niles Fitch, Shailene Woodley, Julie Bowen and John Ortiz joined the cast of the film.[5][6]
Filming was slated to begin in March 2020 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Principal photography began in Los Angeles[6] in August 2020[7] and wrapped on September 11, 2020.[8] In February 2021, it was announced that Finneas O'Connell would be scoring the film, marking his first film composing debut.[9] WaterTower Music has released the soundtrack.[10]
In December 2020, Universal Pictures acquired international distribution rights to the film.[11] The film had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 17, 2021.[12] In July 2021, HBO Max acquired distribution rights to the film, with New Line Cinema distributing in territories where HBO Max is not available via parent company Warner Bros. Pictures.[13] It was released on HBO Max on January 27, 2022.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 93% of 68 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "Empathetic and well-acted, The Fallout uses the aftermath of trauma to grapple with the experience of grief."[14] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 84 out of 100, based on 12 critics. Kate Erbland of IndieWire gave a rating of B+ and said the film tackles "real emotional stakes in the gloss of social media, unearthing something powerful in the process".[15] Amanda Sink of The Hollywood Outsider called the film "a remarkable film that explores the ramifications of tragedy on our kids and how the human conditional response is not a one-size-fits-all".[16]
Park's direction and Ortega's acting were both praised,[17] and several critics cite it as Ortega's "breakout" film role.[18][19] Sheri Linden of The Hollywood Reporter called the film "sensitive and piercing" and praised Park's screenplay and direction, the performances and Finneas' score, and wrote that "...Ortega's beautifully nuanced turn understands the nothing-to-look-at-here faade and the chinks in the armor".[20] Peter Debruge of Variety called the film a "stellar debut" from Park and noted that "Ortega in particular seems to have found her voice."[19] CinemaBlend praised the chemistry between Ortega and Ziegler, and stated that the "two girls at the center of it all also look phenomenal, as a true bond can be sensed in the process of bringing this story to life".[21]
Fallout is an American post-apocalyptic drama television series created by Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet for Amazon Prime Video. Based on the role-playing video game franchise created by Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky,[a] the series stars Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten, Kyle MacLachlan, Moiss Arias, Xelia Mendes-Jones, and Walton Goggins.
Amazon purchased the rights to produce a live-action project in 2020, and the series was announced that July, with Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy's Kilter Films joined by Bethesda Game Studios in the production. Nolan directed the first three episodes. Bethesda Game Studios producer Todd Howard, who directed various games in the series, signed on to executive produce alongside Nolan and Joy. Robertson-Dworet and Wagner were hired as the series' showrunners in January 2022, and Goggins and Purnell were cast in February and March, respectively.
The series depicts the aftermath of the Great War of 2077, an apocalyptic nuclear exchange between the United States and China in an alternate history of Earth where advances in nuclear technology after WWII led to the emergence of a retrofuturistic society and a subsequent resource war.[1] Many survivors took refuge in fallout bunkers known as Vaults, most being unaware that each Vault was designed to perform sociological and psychological experiments on the Vault Dwellers on behalf of Vault-Tec. More than 200 years later in 2296,[2] a young woman named Lucy leaves behind her home in Vault 33 to venture out into the dangerously unforgiving wasteland of a devastated Los Angeles to look for her father, who had been kidnapped by wasteland raiders. Along the way, she meets a Brotherhood of Steel squire and legendary ghoul bounty hunter, each having their own mysterious pasts and agendas to settle.
Bethesda had been approached multiple times about a television adaptation of the Fallout video games since the developer released Fallout 3 in 2008, according to Bethesda's Todd Howard, though he felt none of the suggestions met the vision of the Fallout series.[3] Bethesda's marketing executive Pete Hines had also cautioned the company in 2015 about the potential impact of a poor adaptation of their video games, saying, "There's way more things that can go wrong than can go right with this," since the adaptation's director may override the vision of the series.[4] Hines pointed to the example of the 2005 Doom film as an example of a bad adaptation.[4]
The situation changed when Jonathan Nolan approached Bethesda with his idea of a Fallout television series, having been an avid player of the game series. Howard, having seen what Nolan had created with the Westworld series, found that Nolan had a clear vision for the adaptation, and agreed this approach was a good way to bring the game series to the television screen.[3][5] Bethesda gave Nolan freedom to craft a story as long as it remained true to the Fallout universe but served as its own unique story within the game series and not translate one of the existing games to television.[5]
The television adaptation was formally announced in July 2020 under Amazon Studios (later renamed Amazon MGM Studios) with Nolan and Lisa Joy developing the work.[6] Joy described the series as "a gonzo, crazy, funny, adventure, and mindfuck like none you've ever seen before".[7]
The series is canon within the Fallout continuity. Howard wanted an original story, instead of an adaptation of the games,[9] though the series discreetly continues game storylines and factions, such as the Brotherhood of Steel. The series' 2296 setting is the furthest in the future that the Fallout franchise has occurred.[10] On April 18, 2024, Amazon Prime Video renewed the series for a second season, following the immense success of the first season's release.[11] Season 1 of the show had a budget of $153 million.[12]
In February 2022, Walton Goggins was cast in a lead role as Cooper Howard, a Hollywood actor who became a Ghoul after the bombs fell.[13] In March 2022, Ella Purnell joined the cast as a peppy Vault-Dweller.[14] In June 2022, Kyle MacLachlan (Hank MacLean), Xelia Mendes-Jones (Dane) and Aaron Moten (Maximus) joined as regulars.[15]
Filming began on July 5, 2022, in New Jersey, New York and Utah.[17] Wasteland scenes were additionally filmed in Kolmanskop, a former mining operation-turned-ghost town, as well as on Namibia's infamous Skeleton Coast. The desolate location is where desert sands meet the sea, where the western Namib Desert reaches Namibia's South Atlantic coastline. As a result of the treacherous seas offshore, the "skeleton" coast is dotted with both historic and recent shipwrecks;[18] some scenes were filmed at the wreck of the Eduard Bohlen.[19] Nolan directed the first three episodes of the series, with Stuart Dryburgh and Teodoro Maniaci serving as cinematographers.[20][21]
Primary filming of the second season will occur in Los Angeles and Toronto, to take advantage of a $25 million tax incentive offered by the state.[22] Filming is scheduled to begin in September 2024.[23]
In January 2024, it was revealed that Ramin Djawadi had composed a score inspired by the works of Inon Zur's Fallout series compositions.[24] Fallout also features a licensed soundtrack like the video game series.[25][26]
Jay Worth served as the production's visual effects supervisor,[28] returning to work with director Jonathan Nolan and executive producer Lisa Joy following Person of Interest, Westworld, The Peripheral and Reminiscence. Grant Everett was the on-set visual effects supervisor who brought together a variety of visual effects studios for the environment, creatures, hard surface work and more. Framestore in Montreal took on the Yao Gui and Gulper creature work, RISE FX in Germany handled the Vertibird shots, Power Armor work and numerous environments, Swedish studio Important Looking Pirates took on the Cyclops overseer of Vault 4 and Snip-Snip.[29] FutureWorks in India did the Ghoul nosework. Refuge, CoSA, Mavericks, One of Us, Studio 8 and Deep Water FX were also involved across the 3,300 visual effects shots of the season.[30]
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