Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Fallout Season 1.
When Fallout Season 1 dropped on April 10, it finally revealed the origin of the franchise’s mascot, Vault Boy. The what and the how of Vault Boy’s beginnings were both plenty interesting, but for me, the why of it all is something I still can’t shake.
Related: 10 Shows Like Fallout If You’re Looking for Something Similar
Sure, it’s neat knowing that Walton Goggins’ Cooper Howard inspired Vault Boy’s cheesy grin and signature thumbs-up. It’s also fun figuring out that Vault-Tec replaced Coop with his cartoon counterpart after he severed ties with the shady outfit. That Vault Boy’s thumbs-up gesture supposedly doubles as a way of measuring a nuclear mushroom cloud is a nice touch too.
Yet there’s more going on with Vault Boy’s origin in Fallout Season 1 than simply plugging in gaps in the video games’ canon. Indeed, it’s also a devastating commentary on how corporations like Vault-Tec co-opt innocent symbols for their own not-so-innocent purposes.
Vault-Tec Stole Cooper Howard’s Essence for Vault Boy
There’s a reason Vault-Tec recruits Cooper Howard to help it shift Vaults – and it’s not just that his wife, Barb, works there. Coop is a big screen icon, beloved for portraying heroic cowboys. Plastering him all over Vault-Tec billboards and infomercials doesn’t simply raise the Vault program‘s profile, it legitimizes the whole endeavor. If Cooper Howard – the all-American gunslinger you can count on – is literally giving Vault-Tec bunkers the thumbs up, they must be okay. And just like that, a decidedly left-field idea like living in a sprawling underground complex seems somehow sensible.
Related: Sorry TLOU, Fallout Is Now the Best Video Game to TV Adaptation
Plus, Vault-Tec doesn’t even need to rely on Coop forever. As we see in Fallout Season 1, our guy does too good of a job establishing the upbeat iconography the corporation needs to market Vaults. A big smile, a blue jumpsuit, and a thumbs-up quickly become all it takes; it doesn’t matter whose. Vault-Tec takes the very best of who Coop is and, crucially, what he symbolizes – honor, decency, and optimism – and makes it their own via Vault Boy. It’s chilling, not least of all because this type of big business behavior is nothing new.
Co-Opting Coop’s Thumbs-Up: A Textbook Corporate Play
Corporations piggybacking off of popular figures and real-life events is old hat. Celebrity endorsements date back to the 1800s (if not earlier) and brands are always keen to demonstrate they’re hip to the latest social trend (even when they’re not). You can often spot this a mile away, however, on some occasions, it’s easy to overlook – and that’s the point. You aren’t meant to register the crass cynicism of a choir of pro-peace activists selling Coca-Cola. Instead, you’re supposed to feel warm and fuzzy about Coke and buy their product. Because their values – or rather the values they’ve hijacked – are your values.
Related: Is Prime Video’s Fallout Getting a Season 2?
But Vault-Tec takes this type of marketing to another level in Fallout Season 1. They’re not shilling soda or any other trivial consumer product. No, they’re selling safety. More importantly, they’re selling safety from a nuclear war that Season 1’s finale strongly implies they started. Oh, and for most of Vault-Tec’s customers, that safety is a lie. They and their descendants will really be part of a covert and wildly unethical social experiment. It’s something nobody should ever sign up for. Yet people do, and the wholesome charms of Howard Cooper and Vault Boy are partly to blame.
The Ghoul Can’t Forgive Himself for Vault Boy
The saddest part of all? Coop knows he’s been used. Fallout Season 1 establishes this upfront when he declines to give a thumbs-up during a public appearance. True, that gesture’s apparent association with nuclear mushroom clouds likely influenced Coop’s reaction, but don’t discount Coop’s guilt over his role in Vault Boy’s creation. After all, he can’t help himself from shooting a hole through a Vault Boy sign’s face over 200 years later. Despite his amoral Ghoul exterior, deep down, Coop wishes he could undo the tremendous harm his image has indirectly caused.
But he can’t – because Vault-Tec already co-opted it a long, long time ago.
All eight episodes of Fallout Season 1 are now streaming on Prime Video.
