Fallout (2024) / Nightmare Fuel

This is based on opinion. Please don't list it on a work's trope example list.

War... war never changes...

Fallout has no shortage of Nightmare Fuel already, and the Live Action series is all too happy to add to the pile.

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

open/close all folders

E 1 - The End

The first few minutes make it clear under no uncertain terms how unprepared people were when the U.S. and China unleashed their nuclear arsenals on one another, where we first see the down-on-his-luck Cooper Howard performing as a cowboy for a kid's birthday party and grabbing a slice of cake for his young daughter (who's also part of the act). Everyone was inside watching some cartoons when the bomb first strikes the heart of downtown Los Angeles, while Cooper only notices the cloud plume after his daughter held out her thumb to try and measure it. He tries to assure her at first that its only a fire, until the cloud plume starts getting much, much bigger, and the two of them can only watch in complete silence and horror at what was unfolding before their very eyes. They snap out of it when the shockwave shatters the glass window and sends the party into a panic, but as Cooper tries to flee with his daughter on horseback, we're treated to a wider shot of Los Angeles becoming engulfed in ash, with more and more warheads going off in the distance.
- Before the bombs fall, all of the news channels are talking about the impending apocalypse. A weatherman complains about why he would need to tell next week's weather when he's not even sure there's going to be a next week. Meanwhile, the adults at the birthday party live in willing ignorance, which makes them woefully unprepared for when the bombs finally drop. The mother has trouble keeping her voice steady as she tells people to try to ignore what they're hearing and just enjoy the party.
- As Cooper and his daughter flee, we see the birthday boy's father getting into a fistfight with his friend over who gets to hide out in his fallout shelter, all while their spouses and children watch in horror.
Lucy discovering her new "husband" is actually a raider... after she's had sex with him.
The massacre of Vault 33, with nearly every Vault Dweller being mercilessly killed by whom they thought were fellow Vault Dwellers.
One of the raiders attacks Chet but is tripped up by another Vault Dweller and lands in between a security door... that Chet had just activated in his panicked attempts to flee, slicing the raider in half with an explosion of gore.
The Ghoul is kept Buried Alive, only coming up once a year so Dom Pedro can cut a few pieces of him before putting him back. As to what he does with those pieces...
Aspirant Dane's grisly foot injury, courtesy of a jealous aspirant hiding a razor blade in their boot.

E 2 - The Target

In case you thought the Enclave had improved at all since their last onscreen appearance, it's shown that they euthanize any puppies born from their personal guard dogs that are below 10 ounces. And by "euthanize", we mean "tossed into a furnace to burn to death while still alive and helpless".
The Yao Guai; this is a giant mutant bear that can toss around a fully armored Brotherhood Knight like a ragdoll, and Maximus and Titus have the unfortunate luck of stumbling into the lair of one while hunting Wilzig. While Titus is a Dirty Coward, his flight from the Yao Guai is shown to be completely justified as it runs him down and mauls him, inflicting injuries that ultimately kill him.
Wilzig gets his foot blown off by the Ghoul during the shoot out in Filly. In order to get him out of there, Ma June has him fitted with a "Jim's Limbs" prosthetic, the attachment part of which is a whirling meat grinder that pulps Wilzig's leg up to the knee. It's no surprise that he's on the verge of bleeding out when he takes his suicide pill and instructs Lucy to chop his head off.

E 3 - The Head

The Gulper, a car-sized mutant salamander/axolotl that eats the head and nearly eats Lucy and later Thaddeus. What makes is especially creepy is that it doesn't have teeth- it's mouth is filled with hundreds of mutated human fingers, all poking and prodding its prey as it tries to swallow them.
As awesome and cathartic as it was to see Maximus kick ass, single-handedly crushing a guy's head in all its gory glory really drives home how terrifying power armor can be.

E 4 - The Ghouls

Lucy, weak with thirst after being marched through the wasteland by The Ghoul, forces herself to drink irradiated water, getting down on her knees and scooping up handfuls to gulp down. And she does this as her Pip-Boy's Geiger counter practically screams at her, but she drinks it anyway because of just how desperate she is. And as she notes later, she wasn't even sure if it was actually water she drank.
Lucy gets her first taste of feral ghouls in this episode- their decaying skin and ratty clothing makes them look even more monstrous than The Ghoul. The only real sign of humanity left in them is that some will repeat their names over and over again as a last attempt at staying sane- once that's gone, they become vicious monsters that can quickly overtake and shred even a fit and well-armed human. The normally disinterest organ harvesters are genuinely concerned when Lucy demands they release the ferals from their cages as well, and immediately go for their guns before the ferals stagger out and charge at them.
Norman and Chet go to Vault 32, ostensibly to find out how the raiders got in and what they did to the populace. What they find is absolute carnage- long decayed bodies in various death poses, from one that was Impaled with Extreme Prejudice by a foosball rail to one person who killed themselves by jamming a knife into a toaster. The walls are plastered with bloody graffiti saying things like "We Know The Truth" and "Death to Management", and from Norman's scans of the bodies' PipBoys this wasn't recent- everyone in Vault 32 had been dead for two years before the raiders came in.

E 5 - The Past

Maximus is stuck inside his energy deprived power armor, trapped in a standing position and completely unable to move, and is sure to die from dehydration within a few days. Then the radroaches appear, searching for a weak joint in the armor, it seems he'll be slowly eaten alive. He's ultimately saved by Lucy, but for a brief period she was considering leaving him immobile, with his visor up, which would ensure something eating away at his face long before he properly died.
The irradiated water that Lucy drank in the previous episode has given her a severe case of radiation sickness, causing her to vomit and then pass out. Were it not for her finding Maximus who gives her a pack of Radaway, she almost certainly would've died.
- Worse, she loses consciousness barely a minute after releasing Maximus from his disabled power armor. Had she wasted just a little bit more time pondering whether or not to let him out, she would've fainted and left him trapped in his armor, dooming them both.

E 6 - The Trap

Lucy ventures to the bowels of Vault 4 and discovers footage of a past experiment; a pregnant woman gives birth in a tank of water to a school of fish, which then begin devouring her alive.

E 7 - The Radio

Norman goes to check on the captured raiders as part of his duties, only to find that they're all dead— someone (implied to have been Betty) slipped rat poison into their rations to silence them, leaving them as pale, bloated corpses slumped over in their food trays. What's worse, he seems to be the only person disturbed by this, with Betty assuring everyone that "some people just can't be rehabilitated".
- Furthermore, Betty appears to have already found a patsy to pin the crime on— the friendly young security guard at the holding cells, who is desperately trying to plead her innocence to the Vault guards as she's led away and the ruling council apathetically looks on.
Thaddeus' horrifically mangled foot from his fight with Maximus in Episode 5- it's been snapped in half with bones sticking out at painful angles, and whatever flesh is there has been pulped to hamburger and is slowly rotting. It's no wonder he's desperate enough to try the Snake Oil Salesman's cure for his feet.
The Ghoul's confrontation with the former NCR ranger and his son, regarding the destination that Wilzig was supposed to be escorted to. It has shades of Angel Eyes's introduction in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, as the Ranger is clearly terrified of the Ghoul; who showed up at the Ranger's house unexpectedly and reveals that the Ranger's eldest son died in Filly and his younger brother had been aware of Moldaver's plan. As the Ghoul asks where to find Moldaver, the Ranger practically begs his son to give up the location in fear. After getting the information, the Ghoul then goads the son into reaching for a gun before shooting him down. The Ghoul maintains a calm demeanor throughout the conversation.

E 8 - The Beginning

The board meeting that Cooper listens in on, where his own wife casually suggests nuclear genocide as a means of increasing the profits and control Vault-Tec and partnering conglomerates have over America.
- We've already seen some of the horrific experiments that have gone on in the vaults, but it's revealed that all of them were designed as a "competition" between competing executives over who could create the perfect post-apocalyptic society. One exec even suggests an idea of turning illegal immigrants into Super Mutants at one of the Vaults in the same tone as one would discuss a lucrative business deal or acquisition.
Hank's dedication to Vault-Tec and the mission is so fanatical, he didn't even consider Rose a person after she took Lucy out of Vault 33 and made her way to Shady Sands, telling Lucy that nuking the prospering town off the face of the earth and killing tens of thousands of people was absolutely justified as they were nothing more than savage beasts in his eyes.
Rose MacLean is still alive, but is easily the nastiest looking Ghoul in the entire show if not the entire Fallout franchise- what skin remains on her body is charred black, her eyes are missing, and her necklace has been burned into her skin. She is essentially a living skeleton that can only feebly twist and moan, and she's been like this for years by the time Lucy finds her and gives her a Mercy Kill.

Fallout (2024) / Nightmare Fuel - TV Tropes (2024)

References