Fallout review - nuclear apocalypse!
Zoomers, like Boomers in the 1980s, are terrified of the world ending
Greetings Gold and Silver Level Templar Knights! What a great series Fallout is turning out to be and well done to Amazon Prime. What it shows is that Boomers and Zoomers have more in common than they might imagine!
Fallout is grim but edge-of-the-seat viewing as we see a community that has lived underground for two centuries since the 1950s - when the world is incinerated by a nuclear war - re-emerge to fight radioactive brutes who now live on the surface. The opening scenes of Fallout, when we witness multiple nuclear strikes on 1950s American cities, sent a chill down my spine - and a sense of deja-vu.
Because back in the early 1980s, us young Boomers were scared witless at the thought of dying in a nuclear war. The United States was squaring up to the Soviet Union. Ronald Reagan had become US President and ratcheted up the rhetoric against Moscow. Meanwhile, the USSR went through three geriatric leaders in rapid succession as it entered its death agonies. Spying was rampant. Nuclear sabre rattling was very evident. And a quarter of a million people in London marched with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament as we all got very worried.
In the United Kingdom, the government issued a pamphlet - Protect and Survive - on what to do in the event of a nuclear war. Leaning a door against a wall and piling bin bags up against it reassured nobody. Ditto chucking yourself into a ditch if you were in the open during a nuclear strike. Many of those images crossed my mind watching Fallout.
In the early 1980s, there were several movies and TV series that addressed our fears. An excellent BBC drama - Threads - stands up to repeat viewing and you can watch it on YouTube. OK, the special effects are nowhere near as good as Fallout - but you can feel our apprehension even now. So, Boomers thought the world was going to be fried forty years ago and here we are in 2024, with Zoomers thinking the same. My goodness, maybe our generations have more in common than we think!