The Ghoul, born Cooper Howard, is a central character in the Fallout TV series, along with Lucy MacLean and Maximus. Once a famous Hollywood actor in the pre-War era, after the bombs fell, he was transformed into a ghoul, spending centuries fighting and killing in the wasteland as a bounty hunter. By 2296, he is one of the most notorious killers around the greater Los Angeles area, respected and feared for his deadly marksmanship and unscrupulous beliefs.
Quick Answers
What was The Ghoul's profession before the Great War of 2077?
How did Cooper Howard transform into The Ghoul in the Fallout series?
Who are the other two protagonists alongside The Ghoul in the Fallout TV series?
Background[]
Military service to acting career[]
Born sometime in the 2030s,[1] at some point during his adulthood, Cooper served in the United States Marine Corps around the beginning of the Sino-American War, in 2067. Being deployed to the frontlines against the Chinese incursion into Alaska, he witnessed first-hand how close the American territory came to falling into enemy hands, an outcome staved off only by the deployment of West Tek's T-45 power armor. While he believes the power armor was instrumental in holding the line and buying the United States time, Cooper also experienced the first-generation armor's numerous design flaws, of which included a vulnerability in the chestplate welding that resulted in many of his comrades losing their lives to enemy weaponry that penetrated the weak spot.[2]
Following his honorable discharge from the military and return to his home state of California, Cooper entered into a career in acting at Hollywood in Los Angeles.[3] Over the subsequent decade, he established himself as a high-profile actor with a penchant for Western movies such as A Man and His Dog (where he co-starred with the canine actor Roosevelt, whom he eventually adopted as his pet).[4] and The Man from Deadhorse.[5]
At one point, while finishing principal photography on The Man from Deadhorse at California Crest Studios, Cooper expressed misgivings about his sheriff character's actions in the climax, in particular, having the sheriff execute the outlaw (played by Jorge) while he pleaded for his life rather than arresting him. When he tried to take the issue up with the supposed script writer Bob, he found out that the studio had fired Bob due to his alleged communist beliefs. The film director, Emil Dale, asked Howard to follow the revised script and make the movie as the studio wanted: a new western for a "new America." Against his concerns, Cooper ultimately shot the scene as requested, and the movie went on to perform spectacularly.[Non-game 1]
Cooper's signature pose
Shortly after his initial conversation with Dale, Cooper made a far more fateful media appearance; at the insistence of his then-wife Barb Howard, herself a high-ranking executive of the Vault-Tec Corporation, he agreed to participate in a promotional campaign having him don the signature Vault jumpsuit. After striking a few poses, Howard made a suggestion to use a pose of him smiling with his thumb raised up, a gesture that would become heavily associated with his public image (for good and bad) over the years.[5]
Once the promotional campaign kicked off, Cooper's involvement in Vault-Tec marketing increased steadily, as he began making appearances in television advertisements promoting sales of residential spaces in the Vaults. While the company's pay was high, Cooper found himself losing out on parts in his old movie genre, as other actors found his work as the face of doomsday distasteful. His first experience with a boycott was when his fellow castmates refused to leave their trailers with him on set, which actress Bonnie Lewis attributed to "moral grounds," which coincided with him shooting an advertisement for Vault 4. In private, being displayed as a corporate mascot started to wear on Cooper himself, in particular feeling disdainful of rubbing elbows with socially disconnected Vault-Tec executives. One of these encounters occurred during the shoot of the Vault 4 commercial, when Cooper met Bud Askins and listened to him boasting about his role in overseeing the rollout of the T-45 power armor at West Tek; Bud particularly drew Cooper's ire over a comment about how the suits "looked great" despite the ridiculous flaws, causing the former Marine to respond that those same flaws killed many American soldiers whom he knew personally.[2]
Cooper brushes off Askins at a wrap party
At the advertisement wrap party organized by Barb at their home, Cooper again ran into Askins and other Vault-Tec movers and shakers, sarcastically describing the situation to his dog as "heading into enemy territory." As an escape, he commiserated with his fellow actor Sebastian Leslie about the situation, where Cooper learned that there was an underlying wave of "radicalism" sweeping Hollywood, which included fellow actor Charles Whiteknife, which shocked Cooper, as he and Whiteknife had served together in the military. Leslie expressed a more optimistic view of the shakeup, waxing fondly about having sold the rights to his vocal likeness to RobCo Industries for $186,000 to be incorporated into their Mister Handy domestic robot series. Despite his friend's reassurances, Cooper's doubts remained; Barb also tried to assuage his skepticism, noting how she was rising in the ranks in Vault-Tec, considering the corporation as almost a family business with her husband as their foremost spokesman. Cooper also floated the idea of starting their daughter Janey's academia off on Vault-Tec's payroll when she reached 15 years of age. Against Barb's hopes, Cooper grew disillusioned, looking for a way out of his bond to Vault-Tec and second-guessing his commitment to city life and the megacorps.[4]
Fracturing family ties[]
These difficulties caused a rift to form between Cooper and Barb, as she shut down any discussion of leaving the company at her husband's request. During one exchange, she let slip that there were ingrained differences in the Vaults and that her high-level position at Vault-Tec guaranteed her family a spot at one of the "good" ones, something their wealth could not otherwise guarantee. Cooper later secretly reached out to Whiteknife to confide in his concerns over the corporate influence on his life. While still considering himself an anti-communist due to his experiences in the Sino-American War, the exchange with Charles, including his disdain over the government effectively outsourcing humanity's survival to a profit-driven corporation, was enough to make Cooper agree to come with his friend to attend a meeting of the social "radicals."[4]
Cooper annoyed that Vault-Tec will not allow dogs into the Vaults, in an apparent revision of their rules.
Cooper's continued pushback against Barb's work strained his married life as he started openly criticizing Vault-Tec in front of her, in particular his view of increasingly draconian and restrictive rules, such as a ban on dogs and enforced conformity; Cooper eventually snapped at his wife, stating that he "didn't go to war defending that freedom so that [he] could live in a cellar under the boot heel of Chairman Bud Askins." But Barb refused to understand his reservations, instead pointing out that she was working to secure her family's fate in the face of a nuclear event that could wipe out 90% of life on Earth and revealing that she was working to get her, Cooper and Janey into a "special" Vault reserved for management.[4]
Distraught at his family's fracturing and mounting skepticism over Vault-Tec, Cooper went through with attending the meeting of Charles' group, going to the Hollywood Forever mausoleum where he was introduced to a woman named Miss Williams who arranged the meeting. Her rhetoric initially repulsed Cooper, especially when she pointed out that the average American had more in common with the average Chinese citizen rather than the people in power in the US. Frustrated at being dragged to what he thought was a meeting of secret communists, when Cooper tried to make a dramatic exit, Williams defused him quickly, ignoring Cooper's barb about bread lines and suggesting that his wife might not be the person he thought she was. Cooper ended up convinced to stay and listen, speaking with Williams more privately after the meeting. While he refused to be directly recruited into an attempt to recover the cold fusion research that Williams had been forced to hand over to Vault-Tec after they bought out her laboratory, he still held onto the secret listening device she gave him as a "souvenir."[6]
Learning the truth about Vault-Tec[]
The doubts fueled by Williams' words about his wife's possible duplicity continued to gnaw at Cooper, eventually driving him to test out the listening device on his wife's Pip-Boy, where he successfully synchronized it and eavesdropped on her delivering cocoa to Janey. Disgusted with himself, Cooper threw the device in the trash and tried to move on. However, haunted by misgivings over his role in advertising for Vault-Tec, he got up in the middle of the night and retrieved the device from the refuse.[6]
Cooper helped to his room by a young Betty Pearson
Sometime later, Cooper finally decided to investigate the veracity of Williams' claims as he drove his wife to a meeting at the regional Vault-Tec headquarters and tried to tune into the device implanted in her Pip-Boy but was unable to get a clear signal. Cooper decided to get in closer and entered the headquarters, where he was put up in a guest apartment and briefly interacted with a young Betty Pearson. Through the listening device, Cooper eavesdropped in on his wife while she was holding a conference, headed by Bud Askins, with other captains of American industry including RobCo's Robert House, West Tek's Leon Von Felden, REPCONN Aerospace's Julia Masters and Big MT's Frederick Sinclair. Howard listened with increasing dread as Askins pitched to the corporate moguls the idea of using the Vaults to run social experiments on the inhabitants in order to create the perfect post-apocalyptic society, in the spirit of capitalist competition. When House pointed out that Vault-Tec's plans were purely hypothetical if nuclear war never panned out, Cooper heard as Barb herself suggested that Vault-Tec should incite the apocalypse themselves, eradicating any and all government control and regulation and ushering in a perfect society molded by the corporate leaders and anyone who followed them. Left in a state of shock over the revelation of Vault-Tec's true intentions, Howard barely registered his subsequent meeting with Barb's personal assistant Henry "Hank" MacLean, the latest entrant produced by Askins' manager program and an example of Vault-Tec's perfect society.[7]
His discovery of Barb's involvement in the corporate conspiracy completely destroyed Cooper's faith in their marriage. Between the meeting and late 2077, Cooper ceased all advertisement work for Vault-Tec and he and Barb initiated a divorce, with them sharing custody of their daughter. Cooper's exit from Vault-Tec's bankroll forced the executives to replace him as their mascot with a blond-haired cartoonish figure named Vault Boy. After Cooper tried to spread what he had learned about the megacorps, he was blacklisted and labeled as a communist himself. Separated from his former social circles and financial status, Cooper was forced to take work as an entertainer at kids' parties, using his skills with horses and lasso-throwing to make a living. Although they shared custody of Janey, Cooper was ordered by the courts to make alimony payments to his ex-wife, and he was left reliant on his gig work to make money.[8] Furthermore, since discovering the truth about Vault-Tec, Cooper would constantly refuse to do his iconic thumbs-up pose, outwardly citing the increasing global tension towards nuclear war with China. Janey helped her father with his entertainer work whenever she stayed with him, learning the ropes of the trade and forming an even deeper bond.
Saving Janey on the day of the Great War
On October 23, 2077, the day of the Great War, he was performing at eight-year-old Roy Spencer's birthday party in Hollywood Hills near Los Angeles with his daughter when the city was struck by four nuclear warheads. Cooper tried to flee to safety with Janey by riding out together on the back of his horse Sugarfoot.[3]
After the Great War[]
At some point following the bombs destroying Los Angeles, Cooper somehow ended up being separated from Janey, with the fates of his daughter and ex-wife unknown; Cooper himself ended up undergoing the transformation into a ghoul, though it is unclear if it was from radiation exposure or another method. He also came to believe that his family survived the nuclear apocalypse and that finding someone related to Vault-Tec could potentially lead him to them, but this never fully materialized for over two centuries.
Life in the post-War world greatly changed Cooper. Shunned for his appearance and derided as "the Ghoul," Cooper was forced to become a real outlaw in the vein of his old Westerns, a crack shot with a firearm and a deadly threat to his enemies. Over the years, "Cooper Howard" disappeared, and the Ghoul emerged as a feared and notorious mercenary, drifting aimlessly from one area of the wasteland to the next, primarily operating as a bounty hunter to keep himself afloat and his skills sharp. His ghoulish condition and the slide into feralhood led to him becoming addicted and dependent on the use of inhaler vials to stave off the mental degeneration.
At one point, the Ghoul worked with Honcho's father for unknown reasons, impressing the younger man enough to be remembered years later.[3] He also befriended several other ghouls who lived in the pre-War era and shared his struggle to fight off feralhood with the vials.[9]
Sometime in 2266, the Ghoul was captured by Dom Pedro, a powerful gang leader, and buried in a grave outside his stronghold for unknown reasons besides the man considering the bounty hunter as a personal enemy. Supposedly, Dom Pedro took to exhuming his captive annually, cutting pieces off of his body, and then burying him again, keeping the Ghoul alive with an IV drip of drugs.[10]
In the TV series[]
The End[]
Sometime in late 2296, a group of mercenaries including an older Honcho, Slim, and Biggie went to Dom Pedro's stronghold to recruit the Ghoul as a gunman for collecting the bounty on Enclave defector Siggi Wilzig. Against his colleagues' concerns over working with a potential feral mutant, Honcho had them break the Ghoul out of his coffin. However, while pitching him the deal to hunt down Wilzig, Honcho remarked on the Ghoul's past and invoked his ire. The bounty hunter subsequently murdered Biggie and Slim before kicking Honcho into his former grave and then setting out to claim Wilzig's bounty alone.[3]
The Target[]
The Ghoul fighting in Filly
Returning to California for the first time in decades, the Ghoul reached the trading town of Filly, anticipating that his bounty target would come through there eventually. He was proven correct after seeing Wilzig and his canine companion CX404 approach Ma June's Sundries. Despite Ma June warning him that ghouls were prohibited from entering the town, the bounty hunter blew off her threats before using his revolver to blow off Wilzig's left foot, immobilizing him. The public attack incited a firefight between the Ghoul and armed residents of Filly, leading to him killing at least ten gunmen in the process while incurring minor wounds.
Before he could seize Wilzig for the bounty, he was confronted by Lucy MacLean but shrugged off a shot from her tranq gun as well as an attack from CX404, whom he incapacitated with a stab to the belly. He was again prevented from getting Wilzig and attacking Lucy by the arrival of Maximus in his T-60 power armor posing as Knight Titus. Once Maximus ensured Lucy was out of danger, he directly engaged the bounty hunter. After initially being outmatched and thrown around, the Ghoul gained the upper hand due to his military training and knowledge of the armor's weak points, exploiting Maximus' inadvertently immobilizing himself to damage external systems. He further hampered the Brotherhood soldier's attempt to retreat and eventually caused his jet propulsors to misfire and send him flying away. In the midst of the fight, however, Lucy and Wilzig were able to escape Filly under the Ghoul's notice. The bounty hunter subsequently retrieved the wounded CX404, nursing her with a stimpak and having her lead him to Wilzig.[11]
The Head[]
The Ghoul holding Lucy at gunpoint
Unfortunately, by the time the Ghoul and CX404 found Wilzig at a crashed Soviet satellite near Los Angeles International Airport, Lucy had already escaped after removing his head with a Ripper to take to Moldaver, spurring the bounty hunter to continue chasing after her.
The Ghoul and the dog eventually caught up with Lucy at the flooded remains of Hollywood Boulevard, where she was trying to recover the head after it had been swallowed by a gulper. After knocking her out, the Ghoul restrained Lucy and attached her to an old winch to use her as bait for the creature. However, in the process of trying to kill the amphibian monster, Lucy threw his satchel containing his supply of inhaler vials into its mouth, destroying them. In anger at the loss of his drugs, the Ghoul captured Lucy, leaving CX404 behind to make a detour to acquire more vials from the organ harvesting ring at a fortified Super Duper Mart near Santa Monica Boulevard.[5]
The Ghouls[]
"Now that right there is the closest thing we've had to an honest exchange so far."
The Ghoul forced the partly barefoot Lucy to walk across the desert plains, mocking her for refusing to drink from a pool of irradiated water despite her thirst before also shooting a hole through a Vault Boy billboard out of old hatred for his past ties to Vault-Tec. While passing near the Westside Medical Clinic close to the derelict California Crest Studios, the duo was waylaid by sounds of screaming coming from the clinic. Inside, they met the ghoul Roger, an old friend of the Ghoul. The bounty hunter realized that Roger was on the verge of going feral, and so he showed him a bit of kindness, reminding him of memories of pre-War foods like ice cream and apple pie and his mother's cooking, then shot him through the head, much to Lucy's horror. After stripping the body for valuables including teeth, the Ghoul started removing pieces of flesh to make "ass jerky," meanwhile asking Lucy questions about herself and becoming curious about her last name "MacLean." When Lucy upset the Ghoul by remarking on his crude behavior carving up Roger's body, he responded by forcing her to do it instead.
Once they were closer to the Super Duper Mart, Lucy's growing thirst compelled her to drink from a highly irradiated puddle, inviting further mockery from her captor over the Vault dweller becoming more like a wastelander like himself. A coughing fit caused by his drug withdrawal symptoms gave Lucy a window to escape; however, her flight was cut short when the Ghoul lassoed her to the ground. The ensuing scuffle led to Lucy biting his index finger off in desperation; in response, he used his knife to cut off one of her fingers before forcing her to continue their march.
Outside the Super Duper Mart, the Ghoul placed his order for a six-month supply of inhaler vials, then ordered Lucy inside at gunpoint to allow the harvesters to examine her "merchandise" before he could get his vials. As soon as Lucy entered the building, he collapsed, exhausted and weakened from withdrawal.
After Lucy re-emerged from the Super Duper Mart, having freed the organ harvesters' captive ghouls, including feral ones that slaughtered them, she discovered the catatonic bounty hunter on the ground. After briefly considering shooting him with her pistol, Lucy remarked that, even if she ended up a ghoul herself, she would never become a monster like him, leaving a supply of inhaler vials behind with the Ghoul as a show of her sticking to the Golden Rule.
The Ghoul reveling in a drug haze
Once dosed up again, the Ghoul entered the Super Duper Mart and ransacked the deceased harvesters' drug stash to go on a chem bender. Shortly after uncovering and raiding their inhaler vial supply, he discovered an intact holotape of The Man from Deadhorse and played it on a TV, causing the Ghoul to reminisce about his past and the man he used to be, before the bombs scorched the world.[9]
The Trap[]
Eventually losing consciousness from the results of his drug bender, the bounty hunter was later woken up by men claiming to be "sheriffs" who wanted to arrest him for destroying a "legitimate" local business. The Ghoul was hauled from the Super Duper Mart to the BBQ Shack serving as the headquarters of the "Govermint," a low-level racketeering operation run by Sorrel Booker, whom the Ghoul knew in the past. During their sitdown, as Booker began spouting about the damage to his reputation that killing the harvester ring would incur, the Ghoul ignored him in favor of using thread to sew his severed finger back on. After taunting Sheriff Troy about his father's death in Filly, the Ghoul disarmed both him and Sheriff Rex, killing both while sparing his old associate. On his way out to resume hunting, the Ghoul happened upon a wanted poster for Lee Moldaver and realized that she highly resembled the "Miss Williams" he knew from the pre-War era, inciting him to try and get answers about her.[12]
The Radio[]
Seeking answers about Moldaver, the Ghoul visited a lead farmer named Adam at his home in the desert plains. While threatening the lives of his son Tommy and daughter Sandra, the bounty hunter revealed a letter he had recovered from Adam's older son Roofus after killing him in Filly that proved a link to the Madwoman. Once Tommy was forced by his father to give up Moldaver's stronghold at the Griffith Observatory, the Ghoul goaded the young man into trying to go for his flintlock musket, giving him an excuse to shoot and kill him before leaving.
Later on, while making his way to Los Angeles and the Observatory, the Ghoul happened upon the Red Rocket station where Thaddeus had abandoned CX404 by locking her in a Nuka-Cola cooler unit. After rescuing her, the canine now named "Dogmeat" joined him in loyalty, though in a quiet moment at the ruins of Hollywood Forever, he expressed that he still missed and would continue to miss his old pup Roosevelt.[6]
The Beginning[]
Arriving at the Griffith Observatory sometime around the start of the battle between the Brotherhood of Steel and the New California Republic remnants under Moldaver's command, the Ghoul hid inside the main building. After the Brotherhood pushed into the observatory, slaughtering many NCR soldiers, the bounty hunter revealed himself. Upon explaining his knowledge of their power armor's weak spot due to his old military experience, the bounty hunter fired a penetrating round into one of the knights through their T-60 suit, killing them instantly, before escaping into the shadows after extracting the building's generator's fusion core. This then allowed him to ambush and wipe out most of the Brotherhood vanguard, including multiple knights and Petty Officer Shortsight, temporarily pushing back the assault's progress.[7]
Shortly after Lucy reunited with Maximus and was holding her father Hank at gunpoint upon finding out he had destroyed the NCR capital of Shady Sands and turned her mother into a ghoul, Hank was shot from behind by the Ghoul. Taunting the Vault overseer with an iconic line from his old films, he briefly reminisced about meeting Hank over 200 years ago when he was a Vault-Tec executive, then demanded to know the whereabouts of his family; Hank however refused to answer, instead fleeing from the observatory in a stolen T-60 suit. The Ghoul then told a somber Lucy that, by letting her father run away, he might leave a trail leading straight to the real mastermind behind the Great War and the suffering of millions that it caused. The bounty hunter then extended the offer to "come and meet [her] makers," which Lucy eventually agreed to after mercy-killing her ghoulified mother.
The duo later escaped the Brotherhood's advance on the observatory via a secret path into Hollywood Forever, being joined by Dogmeat as they began the journey chasing after the escaped Hank towards the Mojave Wasteland and New Vegas.[7]
Personality[]
Cooper kissing Barb
Prior to becoming a ghoul, Cooper was a loving husband to Barb and father to Janey. He considered himself a staunch believer in the American Dream and its value, having served in Alaska in the first years of the Sino-American War, and a staunch anti-communist as a result. He highly valued freedom and disliked Vault-Tec's rules, positing he should have the freedom to wear a green jumpsuit instead of a blue one.
However, the changing culture and domination of megacorporations put his principles to the test. Eventually, he grew disillusioned as he did Vault-Tec advertisements and suffered ostracism from his peers. When he learned that the very corporation his wife worked for conspired to use the nuclear war to implement its own designs for the world, he lost faith and tried to make a clean break and is suggested to have suffered a messy divorce and blacklisting from entertainment work for it.
Though these events failed to break him, he was permanently, fundamentally altered by the Great War. Ghoulified by radiation, Cooper used his military training and skills as a cowboy to survive as a bounty hunter. His experience in show business led him to become the Ghoul, a larger-than-life gunslinger capable of incredible brutality, even resorting to cannibalism when needed (and saving ass jerky for later). Two hundred years of survival in the brutal wasteland changed him into a cynical, bitter, and ruthlessly pragmatic man who doesn't believe in goodness, but still has a certain "code of honor" in his drive to locate his family.
Despite his disdain of humanity, he still harbors a soft spot for dogs, as seen with his dog Roosevelt, as well as CX404. Cooper saved her life, despite initially mortally wounding her while she was attacking him in Filly. He once commented his film A Man and His Dog as being his favorite and was greatly upset by Vault-Tec's rule that no dogs will be allowed in the Vaults.
Despite his moral ruthlessness, he tends to remain civil when dealing with others, even to those whom he intends harm. To this point he agrees with Lucy that torture is wrong, citing a pre-War study, and the reasoning that he would be unwilling to help someone harming him, but he uses this to reveal to Lucy that he is actually using her as bait for a gulper. He also spares those he deems not a threat to him, such as Sorrel Booker, with whom he has history, instead just killing Booker's deputies who are preparing to take him out to be executed, or waiting to let Tommy try to draw his gun on him in revenge for killing his brother but letting his father and sister live. Another example of his practicality is that he intentionally grazes Hank rather than killing him so that he and Lucy can track him down later.
Filmography[]
- Gun
- A Man and His Dog
- The Man from Calabasas
- The Man from Deadhorse
- So Long Pardner[13]
- Under the Covers
- Valley of the Gun
- An unnamed film where Cooper Howard played a sherriff, Charlie Whiteknife played a Native American named Tallhand Mudlake, and Johnny Morton played a cattle rancher who owned half of Missouri.
Inventory[]
- Fallout TV series
| Apparel | Weapon | Other items |
|---|---|---|
| The Ghoul's duster The Ghoul's hat |
The Ghoul's revolver Mare's Leg rifle Bowie knife |
Inhaler vials Hawkbill knife Inhaler Lasso |
- Fallout Shelter
- Fallout: Wasteland Warfare
| Apparel | Weapon | Other items |
|---|---|---|
| The Ghoul's outfit | The Ghoul's pistol The Ghoul's rifle |
Notes[]
- In the Fallout 76 update America's Playground, several textures for movie posters featuring the pre-War Cooper Howard were datamined, including Gun, Valley of the Gun, Under the Covers and The Man from Calabasas. The textures were updated, and different names were added to them while the Public Test Server was active. These posters have not been implemented in-game yet, but will presumably be added as part of a cross-promotional event in the future, similar to the Vault 33 jumpsuit. The original versions of the posters can be seen below, while the updated posters can be seen in various scenes of the Fallout TV series.
- Similar to Cooper, the Vault-Tec rep in Fallout 4 was a character who advertised Vaults but was unable to enter one, resulting in his ghoulification. Two hundred years later, both characters would encounter unfrozen Vault Dwellers they had met before the War.
- Cooper Howard drives a 1954 Kaiser Darrin pre-War.
- ^ (Note) Cooper Howard's age when the Great War occurred in 2077 was somewhere in his 40s, as per the script for "The End" ("COOPER HOWARD, a HANDSOME COWBOY (40s), sits on his horse’s back in rodeo dress — embroidered shirt, blue jeans, hat."). However, no date of birth is ever given for the character, making his exact age uncertain. He was serving in the U.S. military when the T-45 power armor was deployed in 2067. In an interview with Collider, Goggins described the Ghoul in terms of "the person that he is 250 years later," giving a rough timeframe and bare minimum of his age range.[Meta 1]
Notable quotes[]
- "Well, one good question deserves another. Why the fuck am I doing all the work? Now come on, Vaultie. Ass jerky don't make itself." – The Ghoul forcing Lucy MacLean to carve apart a dead ghoul
- "Why, is this an Amish production of The Count of Monte Cristo or... just the weirdest circle jerk I've ever been invited to?" – The Ghoul after being awoken
- "Well, I tell you what, boys, whenever somebody says they're doing one last job, that usually means their heart's not in it. Probably never was. But for me, well... I do this shit for the love of the game." – The Ghoul to a group of bounty hunters
- "Well, what makes you think I'd give a good goddamn about that?" – The Ghoul to Honcho about the bounty for Enclave defector Siggi Wilzig
- "You right, friend, about one thing. This right here was your last job. My paycheck wasn't quite what you expected, but... well, you know what they say. Us cowpokes... ...we take it as it comes." – The Ghoul while murdering Honcho
- "Now, last night a bounty came in through all six agencies. A hefty price on the head of a man that fits the description of that fella right there. Now, I may not know much, but I do know a bidding war when I see one." – The Ghoul to Lucy MacLean, Ma June, and Siggi Wilzig in Filly
- "Well, now, that is a very small drop in a very, very large bucket of drugs." – The Ghoul after being shot with Lucy's tranq gun
- "You got to be fucking kidding me." – The Ghoul after seeing the arrival of Maximus in T-60 power armor
- "Well, I'd say come up here and get me, but... it's hard to walk upstairs when you're wearing a 12-piece cast-iron skillet set." – The Ghoul to Maximus in Filly
- "Well, I guess basic training ain't what it used to be. 'Cause you drive that thing like a fucking shopping cart. Rule number one: read the manual." – The Ghoul taunting Maximus during their fight in Filly
- "Yeah, well, the Wasteland's got its own golden rule. [...] Thou shalt get sidetracked by bullshit every goddamn time." – The Ghoul to Lucy after escaping the Gulper
- "I'll bet that outfit makes y'all fell like a big man, don't it? Well, I know 'cause, well I used to wear one back in the day. There was only one problem with it. There was a flaw in the welding just below the chest plate. I wonder if they fixed that in this new model? I guess not." – The Ghoul confronting soldiers and knights of the Brotherhood of Steel.
- "Oh, you want another autograph, young Henry? Feo, fuerte y formal." – The Ghoul to Hank MacLean after wounding his face.
- "When your daughter said her last name was MacLean, well, I just couldn't believe it was the MacLean. Hell, this kid used to pick up my wife's dry cleaning. Now, I've waited over 200 years to ask somebody one question. Where's my fucking family?" – The Ghoul confronting Hank MacLean.
- "War never changes. You look out at this Wasteland, looks like chaos. But there's always somebody behind the wheel. And that's who I want to talk to. That's where your daddy is headed." – The Ghoul to Lucy Maclean about chasing the fleeing Hank.
Appearances[]
The Ghoul appears in all episodes of the Fallout TV series except "The Past." He also appears in Fallout Shelter (in two versions: as the Ghoul and as pre-War Cooper Howard), and in the Hollywood Heroes miniature expansion for Fallout: Wasteland Warfare and Fallout: Factions.
Cooper Howard is also mentioned on several posters in the Fallout 76 Expeditions: Atlantic City update part two, America's Playground.
Behind the scenes[]
- Performance and casting
- The Ghoul's makeup and prosthetics are, for the most part, made using practical effects.[Meta 2] Visual effects were used to remove his nose.[Meta 3]
- Walton Goggins stated he did not primarily base his performance as The Ghoul on previous performances from the Fallout series. Instead, he drew inspiration from classic Westerns, such as the films of John Wayne and Clint Eastwood.[Meta 4]
- The Ghoul's main stunt double is Justice Hedenberg. Additionally, Loop Rawlins was Cooper Howard's lasso double in "The End."
- Walton Goggins invented a backstory for the character. In his version of events, Cooper grew up in the American Midwest and initially moved to Hollywood to be a horse stuntman, but incidentally ended up becoming an actor.[Meta 5] The backstory has yet to be alluded to in canon, aside from a throwaway line in "The Trap" where he reminisces about being a "real cowboy."
- In localized versions of the series, the Ghoul's voice is dubbed by Gilduin Tissier (European French), Paul Sarrasin (Canadian French), Shunsuke Takeuchi (Japanese) and René García (Latin American Spanish).
- Other
- The tin The Ghoul uses for his medicine is a vintage M.Melachrino & Co. cigarette tin.[Meta 6]
- Loadout
- The Fallout social media account recommended the following as a Fallout 76 perk loadout for him:[Meta 7]
- Strength: Barbarian, Bullet Shield
- Perception: Concentrated Fire, Rifleman, Expert Rifleman, Master Rifleman, Tank Killer, Ground Pounder
- Endurance: Lead Belly, Cannibal, Ironclad, Ghoulish, Radicool, Chem Fiend
- Charisma: Lone Wanderer, Animal Friend
- Intelligence: Wrecking Ball
- Agility: Moving Target, Action Boy/Girl, Evasive, Sneak, Adrenaline, Gun Fu
- Luck: Psychopath, Four Leaf Clover, Grim Reaper's Sprint, Quick Hands, Better Criticals, Critical Savvy
Quotes[]
Gallery[]
Fallout TV series[]
Fallout 76[]
.jpg "FO76 The Ghoul outfit (11).jpg (1.48 MB)")
.png "FOTV Gun (F76).png (223 KB)")
Datamined Gun poster from Fallout 76.png "FOTV The Valley of the Gun (F76).png (846 KB)")
Datamined Valley of the Gun poster from Fallout 76.png "FOTV Under the Covers (F76).png (635 KB)")
Datamined Under the Covers poster from Fallout 76.png "FO76 The Man from Calabrasas (F76).png (633 KB)")
Datamined The Man from Calabasas poster from Fallout 76.png "FOTV A Man and His Dog (F76).png (836 KB)")
Datamined A Man and His Dog poster from Fallout 76Fallout Shelter[]
Tabletop games[]
.webp "Fallout Miniatures - Hollywood Heroes (Amazon TV Show Tie-In).webp (34 KB)")
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The End script: "COOPER HOWARD, a HANDSOME COWBOY (40s), sits on his horse’s back in rodeo dress — embroidered shirt, blue jeans, hat."
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Bud Askins: "Mr. Howard, great work today."
Cooper Howard: "Ah. Oh, thanks. Thanks, man."
Bud Askins: "Bud Askins. I oversee our Southern California operations."
Cooper Howard: "Ah."
Bud Askins: "I, uh, came over to Vault-Tec in Q3 after a ten-year stint at West Tek."
Cooper Howard: "West Tek."
Bud Askins: "It's a defense contractor."
Cooper Howard: "Oh, I'm, uh, very familiar with you guys. You designed the T-45 power armor."
Bud Askins: "First of its kind. No, I-I oversaw the-the rollout. You know, the design flaws were ridiculous, but they sure looked great."
Cooper Howard: "I wore the T-45 when we almost lost the great state of Alaska to the Reds. Those design flaws of yours cost a lot of good men and women their lives."
Bud Askins: "Yeah. Product management was never my bag. I'm more focused on HR R&D now. Overseeing workflow optimization of management timelines. I'm all about scale. Most people think scale means increasing global market share. That's thinking in three dimensions, and I'm talking about four. Because what is the ultimate weapon to destroy your competition? It's not outselling them. It's not outsmarting them. It's time."
Cooper Howard: "Hmm."
Bud Askins: "Time is the ultimate weapon."
Cooper Howard: "Uh-huh."
Bud Askins: "Yeah. Sounds complicated, but the future of all humanity comes down to one word."
Cooper Howard: "Yeah, what's that?"
Bud Askins: "Management."
Cooper Howard: "Well, I'm awful happy for you, Buck."
Bud Askins: "Bud. Bud Askins."
(Fallout TV series, Season 1, Episode 6: "The Trap") - ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Fallout TV series, Season 1, Episode 1: "The End"
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Fallout TV series, Season 1, Episode 6: "The Trap"
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Fallout TV series, Season 1, Episode 3: "The Head"
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Fallout TV series, Season 1, Episode 7: "The Radio"
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Fallout TV series, Season 1, Episode 8: "The Beginning"
- ↑ Frank: "Why the hell is Cooper Howard working kids' birthday parties?"
Bob Spencer: "What else? Alimony."
("The End") - ↑ 9.0 9.1 Fallout TV series, Season 1, Episode 4: "The Ghouls"
- ↑ Fallout TV series, Season 1, Episode 1: "The End"
- ↑ Fallout TV series, Season 1, Episode 2: "The Target"
- ↑ Fallout TV series, Season 1, Episode 6: "The Trap"
- ↑ Fallout 2d20: NPC Pack - Hollywood Heroes
Non-game
- ↑ Fallout - A Special LIVE Report from Galaxy News, ~46:00: "The Man from Deadhorse gallops to a fast start at the box office! The Howard-led Western is said to be the next smash for California Crest Studios."
Meta
- ↑ 'Fallout's Walton Goggins Explains Why The Ghoul Had To Be Sexy
- ↑ Fallout: A Wasteland Survival Guide to the New TV Series
- ↑ @FalloutOnPrime on Twitter: "Walton’s nose was removed with VFX, but the rest was Fallout’s incredible makeup and prosthetics team.
Get a closer look at their work here!" - ↑ 'Fallout's Walton Goggins Reveals Which Classic Westerns Inspired The Ghoul
- ↑ Walton Goggins interview: ‘Fallout’. Gold Derby.
- ↑ See this RPF thread.
- ↑ Fallout on X
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