Detailed replicas of the fictional Pip-Boy and T-51b Power Armor helmet greet me as I peruse the compact but densely arranged corridor just past the edge of the National Atomic Testing Museum’s gift shop. Since mid-November, the space has taken on a new life as part of a pioneering collaboration with Bethesda Softworks, publishers of the influential post-apocalyptic role-playing video game series, Fallout.
Set to run through 2026 and aptly timed to coincide with the December 17 season 2 premiere of Amazon Prime Video’s popular Fallout television series, the World of Fallout exhibit is a faithful ode to multiple pockets of nerddom—from casual wanderers to speed runners and history junkies alike. It’s also not afraid to touch on the twisted consumerism that birthed both the fact and fiction it celebrates.
“Here at the museum, we always look at different ways to approach the history and science that we discuss. And this was a really great way to make the history and pop culture from the era more accessible to folks—a way to meet them halfway,” says Joseph Kent, chief community officer and curator. “Here, it’s really as if the Eisenhower era never ended.”
The Fallout franchise, launched in 1997 as a dark satire of America’s Cold War-era nuclear paranoia, examines an alternative timeline where mutually assured destruction was truly inevitable. In this retro-futuristic hellscape, survivors flee sterile underground vaults to plunder war-torn buildings and fight radiated abominations—reckoning with morality and mortality, and blasting oldies jams on their radios along the way.
Inside the exhibit, gamers with high perception skills will find dozens of Easter eggs that include a Nuclear Test Site snow globe—a nod to an iconic in-game collectible from Fallout: New Vegas. Meanwhile, history buffs may prefer rare antiques like a Japanese-made “Atomic Gun” tin toy from the 1950s—an illustration of just how commercialized nuclear fears once were in our own world. Fans of the show will also spot plenty of screen-worn gear and props, like Vault 33 suits.
Elsewhere, real-world copies of a grim 1979 Cold War board game called Ultimatum and the 1965 tongue-in-cheek satirical card game, Nuclear War, share space with Fallout’s fictional equivalent, Blast Radius. It’s just one of many subtle examples of the franchise’s satisfyingly conflicted tone scattered throughout the exhibit.
According to Bethesda’s Jessica Finster, the game’s heavy Vegas ties and Nevada’s status as a former hub for nuclear testing provided the perfect backdrop for a partnership that she says could eventually be extended beyond next year. With the museum seeing more than 3,600 guests in the exhibit’s first week, Kent is all ears on that possibility.
“It’s a fantastic way to understand how the media franchises that we love are all inspired by our own human experiences. Our goal was to show how history that some people may view as boring has gone on to inspire many legendary works of fiction,” Kent says. “If you’re already a fan of this world, this is a perfect exhibit for you. You’ll walk away learning something, but at the same time, I think you’ll also appreciate the franchise even more.”
WORLD OF FALLOUT Daily, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., $15-$29. National Atomic Testing Museum, atomicmuseum.vegas.
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