The Ghoul

The Ghoul, real name Cooper Howard, is one of the protagonists in the Fallout TV series, the other two being Lucy and Maximus. He worked as a film actor before the Great War of 2077 and was transformed into a ghoul at some point in the years following it. By 2296, he has established a reputation as one of the most fearsome bounty hunters in the west.

Quick Answers

What was The Ghoul's profession before the Great War of 2077?

Cooper Howard, known as The Ghoul, was a film actor prior to the Great War of 2077. Post-war, he mutated into a ghoul and pursued a career as a bounty hunter, as shown in the Fallout TV series.

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How did Cooper Howard transform into The Ghoul in the Fallout series?

In the Fallout series, Cooper Howard, a pre-war film actor, transformed into The Ghoul due to intense radiation and FEV exposure following the Great War. He adopted the role of a bounty hunter in 2296, recognized for his code of honor and ruthless demeanor.

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What reputation does The Ghoul hold in the west by 2296?

In the west by 2296, The Ghoul's reputation is diverse. In New California during the mid-22nd century, ghouls like The Ghoul were seen as legendary, sparking rumors of terrifying zombies in Necropolis. The Ghoul was part of the Renewal cult, aiming to restore ghouls to their human form. However, ghouls were also feared and met with hostility, as patrols venturing into ghoul territories often didn't survive.

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Who are the other two protagonists alongside The Ghoul in the Fallout TV series?

In the Fallout TV series, The Ghoul shares the protagonist role with Lucy and Maximus. Another notable character is CX404.

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Background[]

Pre-War[]

Born before the Great War, Cooper served in the United States Marine Corps at the beginning of the Sino-American War. Participating in the desperate defense of Alaska, he witnessed first-hand how close the state came to falling into enemy hands, staved off only by the deployment of West Tek's T-45 power armor. While the power armor was instrumental in holding the line and buying the United States time, Cooper also witnessed many design flaws, which cost many of his comrades their lives.^[1]

Following his honorable discharge, he started a major acting career as a Hollywood actor,^[2] establishing himself as a high-profile Western actor with movies such as A Man and His Dog (co-starring with Roosevelt, his dog)^[3] and The Man from Deadhorse.^[4]

While finishing principal photography on The Man from Deadhorse at California Crest Studios, Cooper started to have misgivings about the out-of-character actions of his hero, in particular, shooting the villain pleading for his life, rather than arresting him. He was unable to take the issue up with the script writer Bob, as the studio fired the author as an alleged communist. The director, Emil Dale, asked him to follow the revised script and make the movie as the studio wanted: A new western for a "new America." Cooper ultimately shot the scene as requested, with the movie performing spectacularly.^[5]

On the same day, Cooper made a far more fateful appearance; on his then-wife Barb Howard's insistence (a high-ranking Vault-Tec executive), he agreed to become a model for Vault-Tec's promotional campaign, donning the Vault jumpsuit for a promotional photoshoot that was used in marketing nationwide. One of the shots included him smiling with his thumb raised up, a gesture that would become associated with him over the years.^[4]

Cooper's involvement in Vault-Tec marketing increased steadily, as he appeared in television advertisements promoting sales of Vault spaces. While the company was paying well, Cooper started losing out on movies, as other actors found his work as the face of doomsday distasteful. His first experience with a boycott was when other actors refused to leave their trailers and work with him, which coincided with him shooting an advertisement for Vault 4. Being used as a corporate mascot started to wear on Cooper, in particular rubbing elbows with disconnected executives, such as Bud Askins, a West Tek alumnus who joined Vault-Tec. Askins boasted of overseeing the T-45 rollout and how they "looked great" despite the ridiculous flaws, even after Cooper pointed out these flaws killed American soldiers.^[3]

At the wrap party for the Vault 4 advertisement, organized by Barb at their home, he ran into Askins and other Vault-Tec movers and shakers, sarcastically describing the situation to his dog as "heading into enemy territory." He commiserated with his fellow actor, Sebastian Leslie, about the situation, learning that there was a general wave of "radicalism" sweeping Hollywood, which included fellow veteran and actor Charles Whiteknife, who had worked alongside him and Johnny Morton in a Western film. Leslie was more optimistic, having sold his vocal work to RobCo for use as Mister Handy's default voice. However, doubts remained; Barb was rising in the ranks in Vault-Tec, considering the corporation as almost a family business, with Cooper doing ads and floating the idea of starting Janey off at Vault-Tec's payroll when she reached 15 years of age. Cooper was growing disillusioned, looking for a way out of the bind and second-guessing his involvement with city life and the megacorps.^[3]

This caused a rift to appear between him and Barb, as she shut down any discussion of leaving the company. During one exchange, she let it slip that there was a difference in the Vaults and that her job at Vault-Tec guaranteed her family a spot at one of the "good" ones, something their wealth couldn't otherwise guarantee. With the seed of doubt planted, Cooper reached out to Whiteknife to confide in him. While still considering himself an anti-communist due to his and Charles' tour of duty in Alaska, the exchange with Charles and mention of the government effectively outsourcing the survival of the human race to a profit-driven corporation was enough to make Cooper attend a meeting of the "radicals."^[3]

His married life became strained, as he started openly criticizing the company in front of Barb, in particular the increasingly draconian and restrictive rules, such as a ban on dogs and enforced conformity, eventually snapping and 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." Barb did not 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 for management.^[3]

Distraught, Cooper decided to attend the meeting of Charles' group, held at Hollywood Forever and led by a former researcher named Miss Williams. Her rhetoric initially repulsed him, 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. However, while trying to make a dramatic exit, Williams defused him quickly, ignoring his barb about bread lines and suggesting that his wife might not be the person Cooper thought she was, which convinced him to stay and speak with her more privately after the meeting. While he refused to be directly recruited into an attempt to recover Moldaver's cold fusion research, he held onto the listening device she gave him as a "souvenir."^[6]

Conflict with Vault-Tec[]

The doubts continued to gnaw at Cooper, who eventually tested out the listening device on his wife's Pip-Boy, successfully synchronizing it and eavesdropping on her delivering cocoa to Janey. Disgusted with himself, he threw the device in the trash and tried to move on. However, haunted by the Vault 4 advertisement, he got up in the middle of the night and went through the refuse bin to find it again. Roosevelt sat by his master, unaware of his role in pushing Cooper towards conflict with the megacorporation.^[6]

Cooper decided to check out Williams' claims, giving his wife a lift to a Vault-Tec building, tuned into her Pip-Boy. Unable to get a clear signal, he decided to gatecrash and wait for his wife inside the headquarters at a guest apartment, where he briefly interacted with a young Betty Pearson. While there, he had the opportunity to eavesdrop on a Vault-Tec conference with like-minded corporations that "make America great." The meeting, headed by Bud Askins, and involving Robert House (RobCo), Leon Von Felden (West Tek), Julia Masters (REPCONN) and Frederick Sinclair (Big MT), involved his wife pitching the idea of using Vaults to run a series of social experiments in order to create the perfect society, in the spirit of capitalist competition. When House noted the hypothetical nature of such an investment, Cooper heard his wife suggest triggering a nuclear event on purpose, wiping out billions to end the war and usher in a perfect society created by her company and anyone who followed them. At that same moment, he barely registered to meet Barb's personal assistant Henry "Hank" MacLean, the new man produced by Askins' manager program and an example of this perfect society.^[7]

Learning of Barb's involvement in the corporate conspiracy drove a complete rift between them. Cooper stopped working for Vault-Tec and they divorced, sharing custody of their daughter.

Now blacklisted and labeled as a communist, Cooper started working as an entertainer at kids' parties, using his skills with horses and lassos to make a living. Although they shared custody, Cooper was ordered by the court to make alimony payments to his ex-wife, and this was his only way to make money.^[8] Since discovering the truth about Vault-Tec, he would refuse to do his iconic thumbs-up pose, citing the increasing global tension.

Janey helped her father at work whenever she stayed with him, learning the ropes of the trade and forming an even deeper bond. On October 23, 2077, the day of the Great War, he was performing at eight-year-old Roy Spencer's birthday party in Los Angeles with his daughter and witnessed the first missiles impact the city. Rather than force his way into the Spencers' fallout shelter, he fled the party with his daughter on horseback on Sugarfoot as the bombs fell.^[2]

After the Great War[]

At some point in the aftermath of the Great War, Cooper Howard lost contact with his family, with the fates of his daughter and wife unknown. He believed that someone at 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, who became known as the Ghoul, a notorious mercenary drifting aimlessly from one area of the wasteland to the next. He became dependent on inhaler vials containing an unknown chem to stave off feralization. At some point he worked with Honcho's father on a bounty collection. In 2266, the Ghoul was captured by Dom Pedro, a powerful gang leader, and buried in a cemetery; supposedly exhuming him once a year, cutting pieces off of the Ghoul, and then burying him again.^[9] By 2296, he had become known as one of the most fearsome bounty hunters in New California. He has a code of honor but also a ruthless streak.

Fallout TV series[]

By 2296, he was captured by Dom Pedro and buried alive, with an IV drip of drugs. He is reportedly only brought above ground once a year so that Dom Pedro can cut pieces off of the Ghoul. The Ghoul is dug up by Honcho, Slim, and Biggie to collect the bounty of an Enclave researcher named Siggi Wilzig. The Ghoul is informed of this bounty but takes offense to them, considering it their "one last job," and informs them that he bounty hunts "for the love of the game." He then kills Slim and Biggie and then lassoes Honcho around the head, and then kicks him into the grave, leaving him to die.^[2]

He laid low at Filly, watching Ma June's Sundries, eventually finding Wilzig. He shot off Wilzig's foot on the spot, immobilizing him, and in the ensuing firefight, killed ten gunmen. Before he could seize the bounty, he was confronted by Lucy MacLean and attacked by CX404. He stabbed the dog in the belly, but before he could shoot Lucy, he was interrupted by Maximus in T-60 power armor, posing as Knight Titus. In the ensuing confrontation, the Ghoul gained the upper hand due to his military training and knowledge of the T-60's weak spots, severing one of Maximus' breathing pipes and causing the armor to fly him away out of control. Still, the fight allowed Lucy and Wilzig to get away. He followed the trail with CX404 at his side, as rather than let her die, he stitched her up, allowing the dog to accompany him.^[10]

He followed the trail, discovering Wilzig's headless remains at the Soviet satellite Lucy left him at, remaining on her trail. He eventually caught up with her at the flooded remains of Hollywood Boulevard, where she was trying to recover the head from a gulper. He tried to use her as bait, which succeeded, but in the process, he lost his remaining supply of anti-feral medicine, forcing him to make a detour with Lucy as his prisoner. The closest source of the medicine was a local organ harvesting and chem dealing ring, operating out of a fortified Super Duper Mart near Santa Monica Boulevard.

Passing through the Westside Medical Clinic near the derelict California Crest Studios, he paid a visit to Roger, his ghoul associate. Realizing that Roger was on the verge of going feral, he showed him a bit of kindness, reminding him of ice cream and apple pie from before the War, then shot him through the head, much to Lucy's horror. After stripping the body for valuables, he started removing pieces of flesh to make "ass jerky," before having Lucy do it. On the way to the Super Duper Mart, he also forced her to drink contaminated water, delighting her with breaking a Vault dweller. A brief moment of weakness resulted in Lucy attempting to get away, cut short when the Ghoul lassoed her.^[11]

The resulting scuffle resulted in Lucy biting his index finger off. In response, he cut off her own finger, before delivering her to the Super Duper Mart. At gunpoint, he ordered her inside, then collapsed to the ground, exhausted after the door shut, when he no longer had to pretend. When Lucy broke out, rather than killing the Ghoul on the spot, she left the door open and gave him several vials of the medicine, demonstrating that even at her most extreme, she'd stick by her Golden Rule. Dosing himself up, the Ghoul ransacked the deceased organ dealers' drug stash, going on a bender and by chance discovering an intact holotape of The Man from Deadhorse, seeing himself from what was essentially another life.^[11]

After losing consciousness during the bender, he woke up to a group of self-proclaimed sheriffs arresting him for destroying a "legitimate" local business. He was brought over to the local "govermint," which turned out to be little more than a gang run by Sorrel Booker, his former associate. After a sit down where the Ghoul sewed his index finger back on, he shot both of the wannabe sheriffs as Booker ordered him to be killed. Sparing the life of his old associate, the Ghoul accidentally happened upon Lee Moldaver's wanted poster, realizing she was actually Miss Williams, the woman he had met before the War, resolving to track her down to get answers.

The Ghoul proceeded to interrogate an old associate for information, due to a letter he recovered from his son (one of the men he'd killed in Filly) that linked him to Moldaver. After shooting the man's other son, who tried to avenge his brother's death, he made way for the Griffith Observatory while tracking down Thaddeus, the current holder of the head. At the same time, he crossed paths with CX404 again, who joined him.^[6] Together, they made way for the observatory. The Ghoul played a pivotal role in the ensuing battle; after the Brotherhood pushed into the building, killing everyone in their way, non-combatant or otherwise, he ambushed the attacking group. After confirming that the T-60s shared the same welding fault below the chest plate as the T-45s, which rendered them vulnerable to small-arms fire, he turned out the lights. He killed the attacking knights and most of the light infantry, temporarily pushing back the Brotherhood assault.^[7]

He confronted Hank MacLean, finally tracking down a Vault-Tec executive to interrogate about the fate of his family. Wounding him in the face, the Ghoul let MacLean flee, reasoning that it was easier to "track a stuck pig than listen to it squeal." He then recruited Lucy MacLean to his cause, confronting the people responsible for this horrific world. This time, she joined him willingly.^[7]

Personality[]

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.

This failed to break him, but what did was 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 has 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 find the whereabouts of 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, even after she attacked him. 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 those he intends to cause harm to. 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 using her as bait for a gulper. He also spares those he deems not a threat to him, such as "President" Sorrel of the "Govermint" who he has history with, instead just shooting the two sheriffs as Sorrel seems willing to let him go, or waiting to let Roofus 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 wounded rather than killed Hank McClean so that he could track him to some other Vault-Tec official in the wastes.

Filmography[]

• Gun
• Valley of the Gun
• Under the Covers
• The Man from Calabasas
• The Man from Deadhorse
• A Man and His Dog
• An unnamed film where Cooper Howard played the Sherriff, Charlie Whiteknife played a 'background character' Tallhand Mudlake, and Johnny Morton played a Cattle Rancher that owned half of Missouri.

Inventory[]

Fallout TV series

Fallout Shelter

	Outfit
	The Ghoul's coat
	Weapon
	Mare's Leg

Fallout: Wasteland Warfare

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 is unknown. He was serving in the U.S. military when the T-45 power armor was deployed in 2067. Actor Walton Goggins was around 50 years old when the TV series was being filmed, and Cooper has a middle-aged appearance in 2077. However, no date of birth is ever given for the character, making his exact age uncertain. 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.^[12]

Notable quotes[]

• "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, what makes you think I'd give a good goddamn about that?" – The Ghoul to Honcho about a bounty
• "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 the bounty hunters
• "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 about the bounty for Dr. Wilzig
• "Well, now, that is a very small drop in a very, very large bucket of drugs." – The Ghoul after being shot at by Lucy
• "You got to be fucking kidding me." – The Ghoul after seeing Maximus' arrival
• "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.
• "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
• "Yeah, well, the Wasteland's got its own golden rule. [...] Thou shalt get sidetracked by bullshit every goddamn time."
• "Well, Lucy MacLean, it ain't all canned peaches and marmalade left up here, sweetheart. Sometimes a fella's got to eat a fella." – The Ghoul while harvesting Roger's remains
• "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 the Brotherhood.
• "Oh, you want another autograph, young Henry? Feo, fuerte y formal." – The Ghoul to Hank MacLean.
• "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.

Appearances[]

The Ghoul appears in the Fallout TV series (in all episodes except "The Past") and Fallout Shelter. Cooper Howard is mentioned on several posters in Fallout 76, introduced in the Expeditions: Atlantic City update part two, America's Playground.

Behind the scenes[]

• The Ghoul's makeup and prosthetics are, for the most part, made using practical effects.^[13] Visual effects were used to remove his nose.^[14]
• 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.^[15]
• The Ghoul's main stunt double is Justice Hedenberg. Additionally, Loop Rawlins was Cooper Howard's lasso double in "The End."
• The Fallout social media account recommend a Fallout 76 perk loadout for him:
  • 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[]

Poster

Amazon preview

Cooper advertising Vault 4

In Filly

In Filly

Meeting Hank MacLean

Fallout 76[]

Vault Boy version with Del Lawson

West Coast Duster outfit free via Fallout 1st, available between April 11 to May 9

Datamined Gun poster from Fallout 76

Datamined Valley of the Gun poster from Fallout 76

Datamined Under the Covers poster from Fallout 76

Datamined The Man from Calabasas poster from Fallout 76

Datamined A Man and His Dog poster from Fallout 76

Tabletop games[]

Miniature box for Fallout: Wasteland Warfare and Fallout: Factions

References[]