Jonathan Nolan, the director of the Fallout series, was also a part of The Dark Knight Rises as a co-writer with Christopher Nolan. Jonathan Nolan was playing a lot of Fallout 3 during the writing of The Dark Knight Rises. He reflected on the possible reasons that might have affected his approach to writing The Dark Knight Rises, on some subconscious level.
Jonathan Nolan was introduced to the world of Fallout through the third game in the series, Fallout 3, and he fell in love with it. He was intrigued and fascinated by what it would feel like after the world he had known all his life ceased to exist to give birth to a new era. His contemplation in spirit led to a delay in making The Dark Knight Rises.
How Fallout 3 Influenced The Dark Knight Rises
Jonathan Nolan wanted to incorporate the feel of a post-war apocalyptic world set in Gotham in the universe of Batman to achieve something different from what people would expect from the Batman franchise
During an interview with Looper, Jonathan Nolan was asked about the alleged delay in The Dark Knight Rises due to his obsession with Fallout 3, to which he replied by saying:
Yeah, to some degree, probably impossible that it didn’t on some level because I was playing that game and thinking about where we would go with that franchise.
I think one of the things that I thought was so … And actually it’s funny, it’s true. I remember having a conversation, not necessarily especially about “Fallout,” but one of the experiences that you have playing “Fallout” is it just goes there.
He felt that –
“Fallout” is the experience of the pond that you’re playing in just getting bigger and bigger until it’s an ocean.
Nolan also agrees that one of the major things he talked about concerning The Dark Knight Rises may have been kicking around in his head due to his immersion in the world of Fallout 3 and the experience of playing the game. He wanted to try something different from the norm of Batman being present at the right place at the right time. He wanted Batman to lose, let the world crumble, let Gotham lose, and see what happened next.
Jonathan Nolan’s influences led him to venture into unknown territories with confidence
As mentioned earlier, Jonathan Nolan was influenced by Fallout 3 while brainstorming where he would like to go with the series, and his influences led him to venture into a world of imagination in his head that he had never seen before.
He started getting fascinated by the idea of a post-war (apocalyptic) setting and wanted to incorporate it in The Dark Knight Rises. His influences were drawn from Fallout 3, as he found himself getting attracted to the ambition of the storytelling, the moral ambiguity, the darkness, and the political, satirical, and subversive qualities that felt to be extraordinary in the game.
Jonathan Nolan went on to direct 3 episodes of Fallout 3, succeeding his brother after Oppenheimer’s success. Both of them incorporated the theme of nuclear weaponry’s impact on society at large in their stories. They managed to give two very distinct and unique perspectives on the same theme. One was influenced by the game Fallout 3, and the other by a real-life incident that changed the world in many ways.
