If Fallout games were films, who'd direct them and which one would be best?

GamesRPGFalloutIf Fallout games were films, who’d direct them and which one would be best?When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Future)

Fallout Yes Man

The Fallout TV show is a bit good. Indeed, here at PC Gamer we think it is thebest Fallout has been since the highs of New Vegas. So, you know, go watch it! But while it’s true that the TV show is good, it’s fair to say it’s onlyshowing a very narrow sliceof what the Fallout universe has to offer. Which got me thinking… if the Fallout games were movies, what would they be like and, most importantly, which would be best?

As such, here I list the major Fallout game releases to date and then use the totally scientific method of using my opinion to determine what the movie would play like, who would direct it, and what score I’d give it. It’s time to buckle up.

(Image credit: Future)

Fallout screenshot

Fallout

Director: David LeitchScore: 4 out of 5 stars

Director: David Leitch

A focused, mature, pressure cooker of a movie that is short and stylishly violent? Better call the director of John Wick to take the directorial reigns. Personally, I find Leitch’s movies tend to have rather underwhelming final acts, too, and also have a penchant for ending abruptly when you feel more could have followed, so he’s the perfect fit for a game that’s incredible until it very quickly ends without much fanfare. John Wick movies don’t tend to be very wacky either, often depicting the hero’s world as very serious (despite the ludicrous premise of the fiction), so again this feels a strong and apt choice for the OG Fallout. A Friday night action movie.

(Image credit: Bethesda)

Fallout 2 screenshot

Fallout 2

Director: Terry GilliamScore: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Director: Terry Gilliam

Who better to direct this expansive and often wacky depiction of the Fallout universe than the director responsible for epics such as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, 12 Monkeys, Brazil, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and The Man Who Killed Don Quixote? Gilliam loves a good road trip in his work, too, which fits with Fallout 2’s Highwayman-based exploration, and his penchant for vast vistas with wacky and absurd details feels perfect. The combat scenes wouldn’t be as slick as Leitch’s Fallout movie, but characterisation and a more rambling, philosophical, off-beat narrative would deliver. Plus, Fallout 2 even has a Bridge Keeper encounter that directly references Monty Python and the Holy Grail, in which Gilliam starred. Watch on a Saturday night for a bit of everything.

(Image credit: Fallout Tactics Redux)

Fallout Tactics

Fallout: Tactics

Director: Kathryn BigelowScore: 3 out of 5 stars

Director: Kathryn Bigelow

For a movie based on a game that is focussed almost entirely on squad-based combat in urban environments, combat where soldiers die in terrible ways and the horrors of war are all too apparent, I feel the director of The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow is perfect for this. Fallout: Tactics would be a war movie with a very tight focus and strong characterisation for just a handul of lead characters. Tense and at times adrenaline-inducing due to the flashes of extreme violence, but interspersed with soul-searching dialogue from its grizzled, war-scarred leads, this would be an erudite and focused Fallout war movie. Watch on a Monday or Tuesday night.

(Image credit: Uploader)

Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel

Director: Uwe BollScore: 1 out of 5 stars

Director: Uwe Boll

It would be so bad. Forget about A-bombs, everyone in the movie would drop an F-bomb every other line. Don’t watch on any night.

(Image credit: Bethesda)

Jogging across the wasteland with your dad and an laser pistol in Fallout 3

Fallout 3

Director: John WooScore: 4 out of 5 stars

Director: John Woo

As the game that properly introduced V.A.T.S. system slow-mo to the Fallout universe, with kill shots shown off in glorious bullet time, there can be only one director for a film version of Fallout 3: the master himself, John Woo. Woo’s stellar action movie work in titles such as Hard Boiled, Broken Arrow, Face/Off and Mission Impossible 2, among others, means the action in this game is off the charts. Slow-mo radiated doves and all!

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Woo handles the post-apocalypse war vibes well, too, thanks to his work on Windtalkers, while he communicates the hero’s awakening into the future thanks to previous on Paycheck. A good fit for Friday night, thanks to the action, or midday during the weekend due to a longish, war movie-style runtime.

(Image credit: Future)

Fallout New Vegas

Fallout: New Vegas

Director: Guy RitchieScore: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Director: Guy Ritchie

(Image credit: Bethesda)

Fallout 4

Director: Ang LeeScore: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Director: Ang Lee

(Image credit: Bethesda Game Studios)

A couple share a kiss in their room in Fallout Shelter.

Fallout Shelter

Director: Christopher NolanScore: 4 out of 5 stars

Director: Christopher Nolan

Fallout Shelter would in some ways be the most obvious setup for a movie: the self-contained story of a vault-dwelling society, interspersed with the surface adventures of random dwellers. Sounds a bit like the TV show when you put it like that, which is why there’s only one Nolan for the job: Christopher! Yes, fresh off Oppenheimer it is time for Oppenheimer 2, focusing on the aftermath of all-out nuclear war (hell, Cillian Murphy can even have a cameo as a brain in a jar, I’m that generous). Moody, intense, riven with twists you didn’t see coming, and with all special effects done for realsies, this movie could only ever be rad. The only downside is that, like the TV show Silo, you’d spend an awful lot of time indoors.

(Image credit: Bethesda)

Fallout 76

Director: Russo BrothersScore: 3 out of 5 stars

Director: Russo Brothers

As an MMO that takes many aspects of the Fallout universe to the extreme, it feels a movie version of Fallout 76 would be akin to a huge-budget, climatic MCU movie where it really helps if you’ve had previous with the series to get most enjoyment. As such, I feel the Russo brothers would take the reigns for Fallout 76. The result would be a jack-of-all-trades action-adventure that borrows bits of every previous Fallout to make something that appeals to a lot of people but, after watching, doesn’t go down as something you’d rewatch for most all of them. Big, bright, wacky and action-filled, there’s no doubting though that you get a spectacle and fun, though. Watch in two sittings over two nights (as the movie’s runtime is 3 hours 47 minutes).

Conclusion

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Fallout#

Fallout 2#

Fallout: Tactics#

Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel#

Fallout 3#

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals#

Fallout: New Vegas#

Fallout 4#

Fallout Shelter#

Fallout 76#

Conclusion#

Fallout

Fallout 2

Fallout: Tactics

Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel

Fallout 3

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

Fallout: New Vegas

Fallout 4

Fallout Shelter

Fallout 76

Conclusion