Fallout's Time Travellers and Time Machines | Fallout Lore 

Fallout also time traveled my dad into a few games as the mysterious stranger, returning every now and then for child support, but gone as quick as he showed up

What if the Mysterious Stranger is a time traveller and it's in his best interest for his timeline for our main characters to be alive? I like this idea.

Imagine in a future Fallout game where you go back in time to stop the nuclear war only to be the one that starts it.

Ah quicksave/loading old saves...the ultimate form of time travel

The followers outpost in new Vegas is a tardis, it's a small tower top guard shack and when you go inside it has 3 rooms.

I suspect the reason for the layout of corpses in the Monorail is that the war was starting and Professor Greebly, along with associates, made a desperate dash to the time machine to escape the war but ultimately were too late.

In the next Fallout game I think it'd be cool to have a side quest where you help a time traveler from the past get back to their time to change the future. Once you finish the quest and help them go back, nothing changes and the player should be left to wonder if the time traveler got vaporized, failed to change the timeline, or if it's like a Dragon Ball Trunks situation where going back and forth through time just created another timeline.

It's impressive how many Easter Eggs are in the fallout series

Pylon V13 sounds like it could be a reference to back to the future pt3. Dr. Brown pushes the Delorean with a train to travel through time. He later makes a time machine out of a locomotive.

When Interplay was making Fallout 3, I sent them a letter describing a scenario where the player character had a side quest where, via malfunctioning science experiment, they were sent back before the bombs dropped. Depending on how it turned out, you could game over as a rambling street preacher dying in the apocalypse, or you can change history so the experiment never happens. I forget the majority of the scenario, but I remember getting some sort of loot out of it. They never responded to my letter.

The whole idea of the time travelling monorail might be a reference to the Back to The Future, since the DeLorean also had to achieve a certain speed in order to time travel

that original fallout concept goes crazy 😭😭

Claire's "it's smaller on the outside" is still the best one.

my headcanon for the V13 event is that the time machine actually works exactly as intended but the power the rift received from each moment it was connected built up as all those moments were now connected simultaneously across all moments the time machine existed for. The gateway itself is still powered because it's still receiving power from the moments before the feedback destroyed the wiring and killed everyone on board.

Take a look at Nipton Town Hall, a nice Tree to the left, and some suspicious utility poles nearby.. and the time the clock stopped.. soo.. so very close..

I wish they would do more with the time travel side story in the next game. It’s a really cool idea.

Whilst not technically time travel, here's one many people don't know from Fallout 2(it's also an easter egg to something): In Fallout 2, you can enter a hidden part of a cave in Broken Hills. Within it you can find a pre-war pilot called Chuck Stodgers that has been unconscious and preserved by the cave and can be woken up. You can talk to him and reveal to him what's happened to the world

Imagine how terrifying it must be to be a Scientist in a secret Laboratory who travels into the Future and only finds a radioactive Wasteland. Especially terrifying if you've only traveled a few Years

i think that last bit of trying to change the past with time travel fruitlessly would be a great story. probably for fallout new vegas because that game leans heavily into the philosophy aspect of fallout more then fallout 3 or 4 did. the idea of fixing the past unsuccessfully only for the point to end along the lines of dealing with old world blues.

With all the technological wonders created during that period I believe the most advanced vault had a time travelling device I think it play some part in the next fallout game for sure.

We had flashbacks relating to the supernatural horror in Bethesda Fallout, it wouldn't shock me if some day the player of transported back to see more than just a brief vision of the past.

You’ve taken Oxhorns position as the #1 Fallout Lore creator

Nah, I think Greebly's time travel device worked just fine and they made several successful trips. The damage was caused by *something* that followed them back from one of their journeys and is still out there... *somewhere*.

It would be interesting if in a few quest there was someone who attempts to stop the great war only to fail and realize that it was impossible.

I've been waiting for this video since you first mentioned the topic. Great video, I love how you provide in-depth lore and theories! :)

I think the lone survivor should count as a time traveler, sure they only went forward and were frozen for that time, but for them it was basically time travel

Synonymous the goat no cap

Haven't gotten a fallout video recommendation in a very long time tbh I am very glad it you keep it up champ!

I think time travel could play a role if it's a dlc that sucks your character into the past at a massive underground enclave vault that holds unique armor and weapons. Your actions will determine what condition the vault/area lies in after your return from time travel.

Thank You for these videos. I adore fallout lore and the games. It's great to learn more than the games give away.

Your idea about traveling back in time to prewar is actually really good, it would be a really good way to show how many different potential causes for the great war exists

Pylon V13 worked, but in the wrong way. By pressing the button in the future you sent a charge to the past killing the man who made the time machine because he didn't expect the time machine to turn itself on before he was ready to use it.

It would be cool to see a vault where the experiment was time travel, maybe Vault-Tec was researching the effect of sending humans in and out of the future and past, seeing what it did to the body, and maybe you could meet someone in the vault that had been stuck in the past/future when the vault shutdown. It’s unlikely to ever happen, and honestly time-travel in Fallout just wouldn’t fit unless there was a really good explanation or reasoning behind it, but it’s cool to think about.

There's also "time travel" through VR. It's not exactly time-travel, but, we DO have it, notably in Operation Anchorage, but, that's different I guess.

Love your videos... thank you for all the work

Great video! Thanks for making it for us.

God I hope they don't start doing a bunch of time travel stuff in fallout they already have a problem deciding what is canon and what's not with 76

I do like how the guardian of forever is the canonical reason the first game's plot happens, that means that they took a tiny little joke and decided to make it story critical for no other reason other than them thinking it would be funny

I think time travel would be an interesting extra ending for a fallout game where no matter what you do if you choose to travel through time the war always happens

"Professor Greebly", that's great.

My ideal modern Bethesda time travel plot would be as you crest a hill way off in the distance there’s a lot of light and a large energy discharge. It takes you several minutes to run straight to it, but when you arrive you find a machine, still warm buzzing, and lightly smoking. Signs that someone was there recently are around but there’s no one now. It’s hard to decipher any writing on the machine, but eventually you get the jist (science check maybe) when you power it up a portal appears in the machine and you are able to enter. On the other side you’re in a futuristic civilization, built from the new world up, as or more advanced than the pre war era but using a different more stable energy source. You get a short quest line in this new area, or a multitude of tiny quests, (think fallout 4’s vault 81 for how much there is to do) you’re restricted to a limited area because they don’t want someone from the past running free but you’re welcomed in the limited area as a guest. Eventually when you’re done, you’ve earned a handful of unique items, a weapon, some armor, something like that. And when you step back through the machine shuts down behind you, and you’re approached by an NPC, the time traveler who came here with this device and he accuses you of breaking it. From there you could try to help him fix it, or he could be recruited for settlements if that mechanic sticks around, or he could go live in an established town, or he could even be a companion. It’d be kind of neat I think.

Hail the Great and mighty sausage God his mighty links will save us from salmonella

I just find it so cool and bizarre that Fallout had the TARDIS appear for an easter egg. Implying a version of the Doctor exists in the Fallout universe.

I note you didn't mention V13's (vague) similarities to Doc Brown (invented a time machine that can be powered by electricity, and eventually builds a new one out of a train) or Die Nebenwelt (a tunnel that achieves time travel 'interdimensionally' vs a tunnel that just plain leads to another world).

Ohhh interesting topic here. Very excited to get stuck into this one. Don’t know if you take video suggestions from the comments but how about a video about Gen 3 Synths and the Coursers of the institute?

New headcanon, pelinal whitestrake is a displaced person from the fallout universe wearing power armor

So the fallout 76 time travel one, it makes more sense that the scientists was giving a tour of the device to observers documenting his work and during said tour the bombs fell killing all the people.

But Synon, I can't let go! I have a serious case of the Old World Blues

My theory for the Mysterious Stranger is that he is an alternate reality of us, and its for the best interest of all multiverses that we do the things we did in this timeline for the stability of all of em..

My headcannon is that Greely opened the portal, but instead of entering it, something/someone came out instead and murdereated everyone

Loved it man!

Awesome video as always. Love to watch them to chill in bed after a long day

My theory on the portal with the dead scientists is that there was some kind of demonstration being given and the plain clothed individual, probably a *civilian,* snuck away from the tour, pushed the big red button, and killed everyone on board. The guy could've been a saboteur or someone who desperately wanted to change something in the past. As far as the machine goes, there could've still been some adjustments needed to be made before traveling or maybe the device functioned similarly to the Delorian time-machine that Doc Brown made, where the time of travel was also important.

Now we know the Fallout Who Vegas mod is canonical.

You have a great voice for narrating, cadence and everything. Keep up the great work!

Fallout and Doctor Who are two of my favourite franchises ever so seeing the TARDIS in Fallout made me explode a bit

I personally think the Mysterious Stranger is many different people. That's why he's in all the games

Fun fact: if you traveled back in time and killed the ape ancestor of humans, non-avian dinosaurs would still have been extinct for eons

Good ass video bro! 👍 I didn’t know about these encounters, especially because I have not played fallout 1 or 2

I feel like our opportunity for time travel was missed in fallout 4

I didint know that there was time travel in fallout

My favorite reaction to the TARDIS is when one of his companions says it's smaller on the outside and the doctor gets upset

Yeah but in Fallout 4 we explored the memories of a dead man so I wouldn’t put it past Bethesda to implement it in the future

I'm glad i found you Synonymous your videos are so interesting and well crafted. I can't watch other fallout RU-vid now because your format is so perfect it feels wrong to learn about fallout lore from anyone else. You put a lot of effort into your videos and it shows and that's what keeps pulling me in. I can't wait for our next fallout story

Glad to know there's a timeline where the Doctor saw what happened to Earth and was like, "nah, they can sort this one themselves"

People playing Fallout for Fallout. Me downloading Pre-war mods so I can roleplay as a Pre-war citizen.

Good video. Nice perspective. SUBBED!

I will die on the hill of claiming that my tardis mod is lore friendly

"its smaller on the outside"

Time travel in entertainment media rarely if ever takes into account that time and space are one and the same. The earth, sun and Milky Way are all moving through spacetime. That means if you time traveled you would have to pinpoint exactly where the earth, sun and Milky Way were and land without hitting vacuum or a heavenly body. Millions upon billions of kilometers. It's like trying to find a particular atom of silicon in a particular grain of sand on giant planet made of sand.

Keep up the great work.

remember that time in fallout 4 when the nukes went off and the Sole Survivor was cryogenically frozen for 210 years? (technically time travel, but forward)

Unexpectedly interesting. Took a chance and got a pleasant surprise.

I did send an email to Bethesda in 2015 regarding the plot of fallout 4 and possible time travel implementation. Here is a copy of that: "Hi Bethesda. I am not going to ask if the rumors about a Fallout 4 - game are true, but I do have ideas about how to make it the most awesome game ever. Imagine this: You start in the Pre War ages. You make decisions how to advance in the story... The decisions you make will affect how the War begins and whom will benefit from it. Then the bomb goes of, you die... but wait... The time passes... You wake up in a Valut. There is Wasteland and some civilisations has begun to form. (The game is now about 20-30% in to the story). You must learn to live in the Wasteland, (here we have the tradition Fallout- gameplay)... But you must go back to change what have happend... You advance in the story and make new decisions... There are scientists working on something called a Time machine. You must find them and get it working... (about 50-60% into the game). You get it to work and can travel back in time. You can stop the war! (And now travel freely between 2 open world... Just Wow)... You change things in the Pre War time, they will affect the future.... Will you be able to stop the War, or do war never change? Sorry for perhaps bad English. Do this and it will be the most epic game ever! Best regards//David Bjurhede from Sweden." They said they can't use this by law. But they would be happy to hire me and then use it perhaps. Well, that never happened.

"The Man Who Can Stop Time" I'd love to read that, I love stories where people can freeze time on command.

Thanks for the video!

8:20 love the grounded pun. Not sure if it was intentional, but brought me a good chuckle!

With Oxhorn divesting into other games, this is an amazing contribution. He never covered this topic either

Leeets gooo new video. Im saving this for later.

The monorail could be that the professor succeeded in time travel and caused issues in the time continuum. So, the scientists are sent from the future to realign their future, but had to die in the process so they couldn't affect the timeline themselves.

Just under the Pylon V13 ''Time Machine'' is a skeleton on the ground, I find it likely that the skeleton is of Professor Greebly after testing his time machine only to fall to the ground and dying a horrible agonizing death.

Really interesting video!

The bombs were probably falling and the scientist was attempting to go through time so they wouldn't die. Time travel is cool but usually has too many loop holes and other problems. Still love it though.

"It's time to Split" Wait wrong franchise

Interesting idea... Have a vault dweller time travel back to pre-great war Vault Tek to try and stop them from starting the war only to discover that characters own actions started the war (I mean basically launched the 1st nukes)

Depending on how we define "time travel" technically the Sole Survivor of Fallout 4 time traveled into the future. Time progressed around them while they remained frozen, literally. But that only goes one way and likely doesn't count. Still, it's technically a very limited, primitive form of time travel from the point of view of the person doing it.

Excellent video.

Tenants sarcasm when he said "is it?? I hadn't noticed" 🤣

Fire vid and an extremely common synonymous W

If a time travel storyline like the one you posited were ever incorporated, I think it would work best one of two ways. One, with the premise being that of a self-correcting timeline - one in which any changes attempted in the past might have some minor effect but all they achieve is forestalling the future to prevent a paradox. Time travel could not be invented, after all, if the impetus to create and use it (the Great War) had not occurred. This has potential for subjecting the player(s) to multiple potential timelines as they attempt to effect a change which the space/time continuum simply won't allow them to. This is not something that's often laid out explicitly in sci-fi as a concept but it could be interesting even though it largely strips the protagonist(s) of agency in their actions. The drama here would come from acceptance of how history will unfold and that it cannot be avoided - only survived. Two, similarly tragic and futile but from a different angle. Changes made in the past do take effect and the War is averted and/or the US is able to claim total victory over the PRC. The narrative to follow is that this does not solve the ills of the Pre-War world but rather compounds them. The corruption and imperialism of those still-extant nation is allowed to fester. Any combination of continued tension between remaining nuclear powers, unimpeded and unchecked FEV / bioweapons research, or other unforeseen horrors leads to a future where humanity indeed goes extinct. In similar fashion to concept One, the player(s) can attempt to make changes to avoid this but the only way to do so is by preserving the Great War timeline. There could even be a twist in the form of another time traveler from one of the alternate futures of humanity on the path to extinction helping you to restore the original flow of history even though it will lead to them vanishing from existence.

Time travel is such a terrible plot device. It's very nature is out of our comprehension yet we use it constantly in media. Glad they didn't implement this kind of stuff in a major way.

Technically, the very "real" and "plausible" time travel we see in the game are statis pods at vault 112 and in general, and cryogenic freezing. Especially the cryosleep. After all, even though the world has passed a 210 years, the Sole Survivor does not physically look or feel a single day older than the day they were frozen.

For the Fallout 76 Time machine, the bombs could've gone off as he was showing the scientists the portal functioning, and an emp could've hit the portal, and caused the people in the train to die from the overcharge.

Not quite the same as the rest, but the prisoners aboard the zetan mothership traveled through to the future as well as the sole survivor against their wills

Ive always been an elderscrolls guy but this channel made me ralise how good the lore of fallout is as well

That police box is the biggest cell phone I've ever seen...

Im waiting for the event of Someone Pre-war made a machine and ended up in the wasteland and asks the protagonist for some materials to fix it and after the protagonist fixes it the time traveler gets in and disappears with nothing else happening.

My head-canon is that V-13 worked but made a portal to the explosion of the nuclear blast which shot through the portal vaporizing them all.

So would this make the doctor canon to fallout lore? XD

I feel like if time travel shows up in a fallout game, it would be as a reinforcement of the theme of letting go. If a sufficiently advanced organization (e.g. The Institute or another Enclave holdout) were to attempt to undo the Great War, or perhaps an earlier event, there's a good chance their efforts would either result in history as we know it, or make everything worse, as time travel stories tend to do.