Robert House: “I’m surrounded by suicidal morons, later idiots”

I love how Mr House is the only one who is openly critical of the idea. He is also the only one who doesn't throw out any vault ideas. Assuming this meeting is after 2065, then he has already made his predictions and has his plan underway. All he needed was information, and he was able to get it. He played their game and got Vault Tec to show their hand without revealing his.

“Go on Barb, set em straight” followed by Barb suggesting they nuke their own country is so gut wrenching

Hearing this conversation is bad enough but Imagine hearing your own Wife/significant other Suggesting that they will be the ones to Personally Nuke the world. I mean how can you not be shellshocked by this..?

Walton Goggins is one hell of an actor. He should get an Emmy for his portrayal of the Ghoul.

I loved how the circular light overhead and the map of the US behind them make up the image of a mushroom cloud at 1:26.

The way that these CEO’s talk about taking away human life like it’s nothing, like it’s theirs to play with….. like their god. It really mirrors companies like black rock and vanguard to a tee

All I want to see is who among them was the absolute, utter genius who suggested locking up just one dude in a vault with a box of hand puppets and what was everyone else's reaction to that idea. 😂

I remember this being a very old fan theory about who started the nuclear war, this scene makes me feel like DiCaprio pointing at my TV because of both House and the theory.

I dont know what's funnier the fact that none of them actually succeeded in what they wanted, at least in the long term, or the fact that those who stop their plans or stop the consequences of many of those plans were as follows: Fallout: the local water boy Fallout 2: descendent of the local water boy Fallout 3: a kid looking for the dad that went to get some milk Fallout nv: the freaking mailman Fallout 4: the single parent

Its great how an ip just changed my favorite quote from "war never changes" to "Everyone wants to save the world they just disagree on how"

Whether or not they did drop the bombs isn’t the point here: it’s the fact that they planned to. The fact that Robert House says that the vault experiments are only hypothetical is what causes them to reveal it to everyone else. I’d like to think that this meeting is what convinced House that he needed a fallback plan, if he didn’t have one already. He clearly had known the end was nigh in FNV and was preparing, but he didn’t know when it would happen. In fact, his treatment of Vault 22 makes me think that he wasn’t on board with this, and evicted the vault dwellers there out of spite to Vault-Tec in order to mess with their plans.

imagine becoming this twisted because you stayed at home and waited for the mail

2:37 notice she says she thinks about her daughter and not her family, she was long gone on that corporate ladder.

I'm also surprised Poseidon energy wasn't at that table. Theyre the ones who built the oil rig which the Enclave fled to a month before the Great War of 2077.

4:37 The most "oh fuck" moment in Fallout history. Bravo to the writers that make this show into a reality

That reaction Cooper has is astounding. The level of detail including even your ears ringing like a gunshot after hearing something like that. The shock, the heartbreak, it feels like your brain shuts off bc you can’t process anything else other than that. They nailed this scene.

"By dropping the bomb ourselves." So Cold.

when ur wife had a plan to wipe out humanity 💀

I used to do door to door marketing and used to sell life insurance. When Cooper’s friend said that vault -tech had a “fiduciary responsibility” to make its investors money…. that’s when I knew they did it.

"What if we have a Vault that's actually just a big bottlecap factory?" "...why?" "I dunno, I just got a good feeling about bottlecaps"

4:40 tht moment of acting that make the show go from good to great

Correction. They had plans to drop the bomb. Nowhere does it say they went trough with it. In fact it's much more likely one of the other factions beat them to it. Seeing as how they were nowhere near done with their plans.

Love that line.."what is the ultimate weapon of mass destruction...time"

Here's the kicker. These are real conversations that have already been had.

The actor playing Mr. House sounded so cool and cold at the same time. Truly a pro gambler. #TheHouseAlwaysWins

I wish they could have had René Auberjonois play Mr. House. But sadly he passed away.

This is a legendary scene. Cooper Howard reaction is great acting. I had a feeling that Vault Tech would be crazy enough to do this and it kind of ties into the F76 vault dweller main mission(securing the silos). I think Vault Tech dropped two bombs(One in the USA and the other in China). Then after that, a massive misunderstanding and a nuclear war= “I don’t want to set the world on fire” 🎵

I think this revelation was the most fittingly fallout thing to come out of the series. It reframes the whole series because the wasteland itself, which they helped create, is itself the product. The eternal 1950’s aesthetic, the stifling of progress even after 300 years and the NCR, even the damn slogan of the series (War Never Changes) is all a Vault-Tec “product” in a way. It’s the absolute nightmare scenerio of capitalism. I’m really anxious to see how much further it goes

I bet you weren't thinking when he put the earpiece in you were about to watch the most heartbreaking scene in television history

Man, Goggins is such an unappreciated acting gem. The moment his wife revealed that they will be the ones to trigger the Great War, you can just see his soul shatters. Absolutely heartbroken.

I loved how the representatives of Big MT, West Trek and Repconn were coming up with experiment ideas for some of the vaults that were implemented into vault 11, 51, 87 106 and 75.

They built vaults that no one was going to use, unless they found a way to drop the bomb.

I love how during their brief “brainstorm” they mentioned experiments run in actual Vaults from previous games that are canon. - “pump the air system full of psychotropic drugs” - Vault 106 - “use FEV to make supermutant soldier” - Vault 87 - “Separate parents from children” - Vault 75 - “Overcrowd a vault” - Vault 15 It really shows the love and care that the writers have for the games. Can’t wait for season 2!

The bombs were going to drop no matter what, if the Americans didn’t do it, the Chinese would, if the Chinese didn’t, vault tec would, if vault tec didn’t, the zetans would.

When he says the psychotropic drugs he’s talking about vault 106. The vault was in the capital wasteland and after 10 days the drugs were pumped in the ventilation system . Everyone went insane after just a few hours lost the ability to read and killed each other . 200 years later wastelanders would enter it and go insane putting on vault 106 suits convinced they were vault dwellers and kill each other again.

If there’s anyone that can sell the moment your heart shatters into a million pieces it’s this man Goggins. Bra-fucking-bro!!!

Just want to point out that this is how House knew to a mathematical certainty that nuclear war was inevitable; this meeting right here. Vault tec straught up tells him that theyre gonna do it. NV lore is completely intact and this isnt a retcon: this explains how he knew it was going to happen: vault tec basicallt said "if they dont, we will so it doesnt matter" Great attention to detail here. Cant believe people are taking this stuff and making up ridiculous conclusions.

Interestingly enough, comparing the events that transpire in the games and knowing what we know from the series it is actually quite possible that Vault Tec did initiate the apocalypse by detonating a nuclear bomb on America. In this reunion we can see key figures of the world of Fallout, most important, Mister House, Frederick Sinclair and Leon van Felden. First and foremost Mister House: he knew the bombs would eventually drop so he built a an advanced system that could stop however many might target his domain (New Vegas), this kind of system would’ve been incredibly expensive and being the kind of man that he was he wouldn’t have built it ‘just in case’ but because he knew (probably due to this very meeting that we now see play out). Then we have Frederick Sinclair, Big MT associate that built a casino in the middle of nowhere, a place that while unaffected by the bombs (IE. there is no actual nuclear damage to the buildings of the villa or the casino beyond that which the radioactive storms caused, the lackluster materials from which it was built and the cloud which was corrosive too). He built it as a safe haven for the woman he loved knowing that it would survive even if he could not predict how unstable the cloud was. Finally Leon von Felden, head chief scientist of West Tek, the creators of the power armor and most importantly the Forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV) which created the supermutants. Though he was a chief staff member of West Tek he wasn’t in the headquarters of West Tek (which was hit with so many bombs it turned into ‘The Glow’ a place where no life will ever grow both due to the FEV released into the atmosphere and the radioactive cloud from so many explosions) when the bombs dropped and instead was in secret military base (Mariposa) where, if not for being interrogated at the hands of Maxson (founder of the Brotherhood of Steel) after the soldiers there found out they were doing human testing, would’ve survived the nuclear apocalypse. They knew what would happen with certainty and they knew how to be prepared for it. They also mention key experiments from the games, the FEV experiments in Vaults and the hallucinogens in the ventilation system… I think they did drop the bombs.

Imagine hearing your wife suggesting ending the world for profit.

It's weird to me that people are acting like the idea of Vault Tec starting the great war is absurd or lore-breaking. Over the course of the series, we've seen hints that this was the case, and heck, there was even a suggestion that _ALIENS_ started it. I always stand by my personal headcannon: it doesn't matter. The whole series, the environment itself, everything -- it all works in service of the idea that *everyone* dropped the bomb. The great war exists in the lore as an inevitability: the product of war itself. It could have been Vault Tec detonating nuclear devices WHILE China struck first WHILE aliens got the launch codes. All on the same day. But what does that change? Who cares who "started it"? The end result is the same because war...war never changes.

This scene was epic. I wasn't expecting his wife to agree or bring up their plan. I want to see season 2, maybe they will explain her reason more.

"The House always wins" - he knew them well enough to know what the game was, Mr House is like Otto von Bismarck, he always has a plan and that plan has several others in the works, knowing being the supreme leader of America is a dream come true

Barb is a member of the Enclave. That's who she received a message from and looked up at at 2:20.

Bud's face at 3:51 he doesnt like it, but he's a company man and goes with it.

the shadowy figure looking down is probably someone from the enclave?

"I propose we bring that same spirit of competition to our solution" 3:28 immediately cuts to mushroom image. Great foreshadowing.

Mr. House was badass in this, want to see A LOT MORE of him

The fact that this kind of meeting is possible now more than ever makes this scene more eerie

Robert House has a distinct Nikola Tesla vibe to his appearance in this scene.

and the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he actually exist, and like that........hes gone. keyser soze

4:40 the microexpressions... damn, i'm campaigning for Walton's Emmy from now on, he's... such an incredible actor.

‘I am Time, the Great Destroyer of all things’ - Bhagavad Gita

House: My "esteemed peers" intended to conquer the free market by lighting a match and waiting until the fire burns itself out. When the fires consume them, I intend to be the man selling water.

Honestly, the idea of Vault-Tech starting nuclear attacks is pretty good. Given the fact none of their vaults - aside from the ones they would inhabit - were created to save lives, it always gave me the idea that a) they took advantage of the geo-political climate for their own gain or b) didn't want to lose money on vaults that may never be used if the war ended peacefully and so they took matters into their own hands. No one goes to that much effort of human experimentation without a guarantee there'd be humans to experiment on. I quite like this addition to the Fallout lore.

My mind keeps racing back to the great game that Desmond Lockhart mentions.

That split second when you discover you're married to a monster.

You Can Pinpoint The Second When His Heart Rips In Half

I always preferred the idea that they were simulating conditions and obstacles we’d face on a colony ship in space and it’s a shame they didn’t stick with that

S1 E7 at 11:08 Moldaver: "Communist is a dirty word use to describe people who aren't insane "

"Use the war as a business, to end war as a business"

In just a few seconds Barb went from being a pretty normal by the books wife/mother character to one of the most evil characters in the franchise's entire history

This just adds to the horror of Coop's situatuion in episode 1, seeing it all go off not only knowing that it was all pre-planned, but that his wife very likely could have pressed the button herself. Poor guy.

You could see the sweat and tears coming out of him the moment he hears her admit herself.

Icbm makes a strong smoketrail as it enters the atmosphere at mack 10. But in the show the detonation happens at ground with no smoketrail...

I know Mr House grabs all the atention here, but I love how this scene confirms that Frederick Sinclair built the Sierra Madre casino as a huge fortress and shelter for Vera Keyes, because he already knew the bombs were going to drop

Barb: “War never changes!” Us: “hahaha, she said it”

So one of these rich assholes thought of the funny idea of cloning a guy named Garry over 50 times cause "why not lol"

“True is, the game was rigged from the start”-Benny

"Make America great" "You could lose money running a casino" I see what they did there.

Someone watched over them during the meeting, someone who could control Vault-Tec (My guess was the Enclave) So even if Vault-Tec really drop the bomb, it was by the order of Enclave.

in case some of you think this is exagerated or silly, ive seen and heard fantastically rich people talk about us common people like this in real life, as a waiter in events catering to the ultrea rich. It wouldnt surprise me if one day those same people stage a war with china in a desperate bid to stave off western collapse and prevent the global south from claiming the top spot. In fact I'm certain this is exactly what's going to happen in the near future.

I hope we see more of mr. House in season 2, he wasnt in the show much but its still be sick

I'm loving the Dr Strangelove vibes here. Well done!

I swear to god that Bill Burr did a parody of this exact situation in a special.

I still don't get it. Wants the point of being on top, if its at the top of a steaming pile of.....

I think this is a reference to 76 as the mission for that vault was to secure the launch facilities in Virginia

What's terrifying is we have leaders all over the world that would do this exact thing.

Already in for a rewatch, this show was fantastic and deserves someawards!

4:18 So the Repconn CEO just explained Vault 75 to a T... Do we have her to thank for its conception?

They just spilled the World Economic Forum master plan !!

I love how Cooper is listening to them talk about the experiments all normal-like it was a regular business meeting, but he knows how insane it is and how awful all of this actually is.

A lot of people are saying this retconned the original lore of China being the first ones to drop the bombs, but those people don't have much of an imagination or are unable to connect very easily implied dots the show is telling us. Vault-Tec had immense influence, enough to have their own nuclear arsenal as we saw in the show, if you know Fallout lore you'd know the war with China had been going on for quite a while without either side using nuclear weapons, even to the point where American forces were approaching Beijing, we (the United States) were about to win a nuclear-free conflict with a peer superpower and neither side was going to end the world over it. The show itself uses Moldaver as a character to implicitly tell us that no one except Vault-Tec / the economic elites want to drop the bombs. With all of this said, it's pretty clearly implied Vault-Tec influenced or manipulated China, America, or both into dropping the bombs. My personal theory, which seems the most likely even without proof, is that Vault-Tec, seeing the war was about to end without nuclear armageddon- detonated one or more nuclear weapon in China to provoke them into firing their own. Basically False-Flagging the Chinese Government into believe America had taken the nuclear option, not content to simply forcing them to surrender, but annihilating them. In this way (or any other interpretation of influence/manipulation on these states) Vault-Tec *did* drop the bombs themselves. It fits narratively with not just the show but Fallout as a series overall. Something that's highly critical of capitalism, bad-faith actors being allowed into the political system, government incorporation of the private sector, and so on.

In fallout 3 the Bomb in Megaton has a vault tec logo

Missing from the meeting is Poseidon Energy

Walton Goggins is an acting masterclass in this scene. Barely moves his face but you can see the shattering grief and horror in real time. He's a phenomenal actor.

Time is a predator that stalks us all our lives.

I mean it is definitely possible that vault tec dropped the first bomb. I think it's in 3 or 4 but you definitely find a bomb with the vault tec logo on it in the middle of an American city. If they keeping with game lore idk they usually differ greatly. Even threw the game series lol.

I still believe it was the Zetans that did it.

Walton Goggins absolutely nailed the reaction.

this was confirmed in fallout 76 lore years back

they didnt. they had bombs ready to do it (one of those bombs is uses later to destroy shady sands) but they didnt use bombs cause if they did her daughter would not be so close to the explosions in la she would already be in vault at that time

There was a computer entry in Fallout Tactics (in Vault 0 if i remember right) that stated that Vault Tec are the ones that started it and dropped the first bomb. We knew this back in 2001. It's just that Fallout Tactics isn't as well known as the other Fallouts, and there was the question for awhile whether Fallout Tactics was still canon.

The boardroom is a homage to the war room in the 1964 movie Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

Walton Goggins acting in this scene in particular was incredible. The emotion in his eyes and whole face once he heard his wife on the agreement of the nuke was haunting….

This is how I imagine the 5 Elders and Imu discussed the destruction of the Ancient Kingdom. Iykyk

Class warfare. War... war never changes.

Wives, wives never change.

Even though i knew EXACTLY what they were gonna say about the Nukes, this was still REALLY hard to watch. There are legitimate greedy people in the world just like this, all it takes is one horrbile decision.

I’m getting Man in the High Castle vibe right now…