The power armour seen in the upcoming Fallout show is real and was piloted by several actors. However, one of those actors, Aaron Moten, tells me it was "exhausting" to wear, and wasn't incredibly flexible to move around in while filming.
Speaking ahead of Fallout's premiere on Prime Video next Thursday, the crew walks us through how the power armour functioned on set. Determined not to use CGI, they were tasked with creating suits that could be worn by actors and stunt crew, bringing one of the most iconic parts of the Fallout series to life.
"Our stunt performer Adam Shippey wears the full hero suit," explains Moten, who plays Maximus in the show. "He's 7ft 6 or something crazy in this thing with the big stilts that he's walking on. It's remarkable."
Moten got to wear the suit too, albeit a slightly modified model. "I get to wear the top half of the suit. There's a bunch of iterations of this thing to bring it all to life. And how practical is it? Well, it weighs about 60 pounds. So for the first 15 minutes, I think, 'Yeah, this is cool, I've got this. Look, I'm moving my arms and I can dance'. And then 20 minutes have passed and I'm like, 'Why did I do all that dancing? This is really heavy, and I'm exhausted."
Before chatting with Moten about his role as Maximus, I also got the chance to speak with production designer, Howard Cummings. He also touched on the creation of the power armour, after it was decided that the show would use minimal CGI.
"We enlisted this company called Legacy [which] did Iron Man and stuff like that, but they had never actually made [a suit] quite as functional as this particular suit," Cummings told me. Despite this being new territory for the company, it worked well enough to be used on set. Cummings also recalls actors dancing around in their power armour - something they seemed to regret after a while.
Fallout is set to premiere on April 11, exclusively on Prime Video. It remains to be seen if it can stick the landing
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