Sherlock-eyed Fallout fans will definitely be keeping their eyes set on the monitors for Prime Video’s highly-anticipated adaptation, and they’re in luck – the series is chock-full of Easter eggs from Bethesda games’ beloved series. And loading screen jokes aside, there’s a nice respectful quote right at the beginning of this series.
In episode 1 of the series from the minds behind Westworld, Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan, the underground inhabitants of Vault 33 find their existence falling apart. A marauding group of raiders break into the sanctuary, spreading chaos, killing several residents, and ruining Lucy’s (portrayed by Ella Purnell) happy wedding day.
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The artwork is a screensaver made of a wheat field rather than the original location, where sunny scenes of the Nebraska countryside are broadcast non-stop through a telesonic projector. During the shootout, bullets hit the projector and then it almost hits the screen. Instead of standing in range, projector bushes show encouragement for technical difficulties. Then a black and white screen appears that looks like a 50s TV broadcast message, it reads: “Please stand down.”
Fallout fans are loving Easter eggs
Fans of the Fallout franchise will recognize the screen as one of the first things they see when starting up some games, including Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, and Fallout 4. The “Please stand by” screen loads the player as soon as you start a new game or reach a familiar scene, creating a new game or taking over a previously created game. The choice of these words on the opening screen sets the mood of the TV show.
The real-life TV test card, known as the ‘Indian Head Test Pattern’, was actually created by RCA in 1939 as a control piece, illustrated by Brooks. Not only that, but the test equipment became standard for TV camera testing in the United States and other countries during these years, also based on the show’s sci-fi retrofuturistic visual style.
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For the test card in Fallout, they recreated this figure in the game’s “Please stand by” installation (you couldn’t see the chipper Vault Boy cartoon that was used in multiplayer Fallout 76). This is a projector film lasting approximately 30 minutes in Episode 1 that is broadcast from Vault 33, burned by the heating element as the fire Escher shows has burned the entire film. Although it’s a minor Easter egg, viewers won’t miss it.
