Where Was Fallout Filmed? Every Location In The Amazon Prime Series In Real Life
Prime Video’s “Fallout” blew fans and franchise newbies alike away thanks to its faithful-yet-fresh take on the show’s source material. While there are several differences between the series and “Fallout” games, the live-action adaptation captures the franchise’s irreverent take on the post-apocalypse well, right down to the environment. Many aspects of the show’s Wasteland are readily recognizable to anyone who plays the video games, which is impressive. But this level of fidelity no doubt posed a hefty challenge for the production. So, where did they shoot the show to capture such convincing imagery of a civilization in ruins?
While “Fallout” Season 1 takes place in California, the show actually features few physical Golden State locations. In fact, much of the show’s location work was filmed in various places in New York, New Jersey, and Utah. Notable real-life places that can be seen on the show include the creepy abandoned Santa Monica Super Duper Mart where Snip Snip, the organ-harvesting Mister Handy (Matt Berry), plies its dreadful trade. Though obviously modified for the show, the location is a legitimate abandoned ShopRite store on Staten Island. Another, more recognizable real-life place is the Brooklyn Army Terminal, which the show reimagines as the Enclave base Siggi Wilzig (Michael Emerson) and Dogmeat (Lana5) escape from.
The Brotherhood of Steel’s impressive headquarters is Utah’s own Wendover Airfield, which is something of a celebrity location in itself. The WWII-era airfield is now a museum, and has featured in movies like “Con Air,” “Independence Day,” “The Philadelphia Experience,” and Ang Lee’s “Hulk.” Meanwhile, the iconic Red Rocket gas station that makes an appearance in the show was painstakingly constructed in Nyack, New York — in just three days, no less.
The Wasteland actually exists … in Namibia
Making “Fallout” also took the cast and crew much further away from California than New Jersey. A significant part of filming took place in Namibia, Africa, where the so-called Skeleton Coast provided much of the post-apocalyptic Wasteland scenery — with surprisingly little post-production, too. “You get out there the first day and we start looking out over the ruins of what required almost no visual effect enhancements to believe these were the ruins of a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles that had just been served up to us by the Namibian coast, and it’s impossible not to feel a little bit carried away and it just makes everyone’s job a little bit easier,” director and executive producer Jonathan Nolan explained, describing the location to IGN. The distant location shoot provided “Fallout” with numerous epic visuals — even the wrecked ship in the middle of the desert that’s seen in Episode 2 was already there.
Apart from Skeleton Coast, another prominent filming location in Namibia was Kolmanskop, an abandoned Namib Desert town that features prominently in the snake oil salesman (Jon Daly) scenes. Incidentally, this isn’t the first time this particular region has played a significant role in a famous piece of post-apocalyptic fiction. You may be familiar with the Namib Desert from a little movie called “Mad Max: Fury Road,” which was shot in the area a number of years earlier.
Iconic as the Namib scenery may be, the “Fallout” finale’s huge Season 2 tease indicates the show’s action will be taken in a new direction, and with it, new filming locations will be required. For this reason, just as Hank MacLean (Kyle McLachlan) escapes to New Vegas at the end of Season 1, the production of “Fallout” Season 2 is relocating to California after a hefty tax incentive.