The Fallout Show’s Vault-Tec Is Based On Fallout 4’s Boston HQ

It’s been a couple of weeks since the Fallout show launched on Prime Video to both critical and commercial acclaim. And, while discussions rabidly continue online about what season 2 will hold, what was in the serum given to Thaddeus and the many easter eggs that the show has contained, among other things, one thing is certain — the set and world that the series was set in were painstakingly created.

The vast areas of the wasteland, the vaults and pre- and post-apocalyptic California remained faithful to the video game series while still managing to stand on their own two feet as part of the show. Now, in a recent interview with Game Rant, the series’ production designer, Howard Cummings, shared how some of the key decisions were made for the show.

Vault-Tec California Is Based On Vault-Tec’s HQ In Boston

Cummings told Game Rant that the team wanted Vault-Tec’s California HQ to have a “certain vibe” and that they “took a lot of things from the game’s [Fallout 4] Boston and gave it a West Coast architecture twist.”

The Headquarters in Fallout 4 typify the game’s setting, with futuristic oval-shaped windows and shuttered doors accompanied by corporate office spaces and classrooms that look like they could have come straight from the 1970’s. The Fallout Wiki has some great images that depict this.

In the interview, Cummings also shared with Game Rant that previous Fallout titles weren’t the only inspiration for the HQ’s design. He said, “The basement layer was based on Dr. Strangelove, the movie, with the light, roundtable, and cement room,” telling them “it was fun to do.” With the movie a classic from Stanley Kubrick, it’s easy to see how such inspiration can be applied to a Fallout setting.

The HQ Was Filmed In Multiple Locations

Evil Corporation Vault Tec’s California HQ was shot at several different locations during the filming of Fallout, Game Rant was told. While many of the scene were shot in a 1960’s corporate office in Westchester, discovered by Paul Kramer, the series location management, the large cement room and basement was shot in a theater in the middle of Manhattan. Here, the team “had to use whatever we could to pull all that stuff together.”