Who Is Mr. Robert House in FALLOUT? The History of New Vegas’ Ruler, Explained

The house always wins. Robert House, played by Rafi Silver, was seemingly our only human cameo from the Fallout games in season one of the Prime Video TV series, and with New Vegas looming on the show’s horizon, it felt only natural that Robert House has a major role in Fallout season two. In June of 2024, the series showrunners confirmed, “Many of our lead characters are Vegas-bound… Las Vegas in the world of Fallout is Robert House’s town. Robert House will be involved in Season 2.” And now, as Fallout season two begins, we can officially welcome Mr. Robert House to the world of the series. Against our expectations, live-action Mr. House is played by Justin Theroux in the second chapter of Fallout.

But just who is Mr. House? Fallout‘s Robert House is an insufferable libertarian to some and based inspiration to others. In Fallout season two, he’s an incredibly important figure. Here’s everything the Fallout games tell us about New Vegas’ enigmatic autocrat and everything we understand about him so far in the Prime Video series. 

Who Is Robert House in the Fallout Universe?

Robert House is the founder and CEO of RobCo Industries. His company is the source of much of Fallout’s classic tech, such as the Mr. Handys (the robotic butler we see trying to ‘borrow’ Lucy’s organs in the show) and, of course, the Pip-Boy, a product that was a partnership between RobCo and Vault-Tec. Worn on the wrist of every game protagonist, and now with Lucy carrying on its tradition—RobCo is an inescapable force in the Fallout universe. 

Robert House’s History Before the War

Robert Edwin House was born on June 25th, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada, to the owners of the H&H Tool empire. House was orphaned at age two when his parents died in a freak auto-gyro-lightning-bolt accident. (Fallout is weird.) House was cheated out of his sizable inheritance by his half-brother Anthony. However, with that chip firmly on his shoulder and a genius IQ under his belt, House persevered. He eventually got into the Commonwealth Institute of Technology, the Fallout universe’s MIT equivalent. After graduating at the ripe old age of twenty-two, House founded RobCo industries. 

Thanks to House’s impeccable business acumen and intrinsic technical know-how, RobCo became one of the most profitable companies in the world over the next eight years. House was known for his ruthless, excessive corporate expansion. He’d gobble up smaller companies and eventually create a veritable monopoly in some tech markets, especially software. If you look closely at any terminal in the games or show, you’ll see that it’s running on a RobCo operating system. 

Robert House as a character was very much in the spirit of Howard Hughes a.k.a. the classic eccentric billionaire trope. But House, and by extension his hobbies, were more bizarrely pragmatic. House personally designed mathematical paradigms to attempt to predict major world events. He’d base this on a stream of constantly updating information with thousands of geopolitical and socio-economic factors.

House determined that on October 23rd, 2077,  at approximately 8pm EST, nuclear fire would rain from the sky. You gotta give it to the guy. He was only off by twenty hours. 

Mr. House Devises a Plan for Las Vegas to Survive the Impending War

With the date in mind, House began working towards making sure that Las Vegas would survive the war, and just as important—he would survive the war. Like any good billionaire, House owned a Vegas casino known as the Lucky 38. Using the vast wealth and resources of RobCo, House began outfitting the Lucky 38 so that it could protect Vegas against the brunt of a nuclear assault. He also decided that drastic measures would have to be taken for him to remain alive indefinitely to handle the crisis personally. House had his fleshy, mortal body sealed into a life support device that would keep him alive—relatively and theoretically—forever. Meanwhile, his brain was wired into a massive supercomputer. 

House also created an army of Securitrons to act as his eyes, ears, and hands post-war. The Securitrons are some of RobCo’s stronger combat robots. He knew they would at least be enough to deter most trouble makers that might crop up after the end of the world. House knew that the current capabilities of the Lucky 38 and the Securitron army that he possessed were not going to be enough to completely spare Vegas. The Strip would likely remain relatively unharmed, but the surrounding environs, not so much.

A new operating system (OS) was designed, one that would upgrade House’s laser grid to better ensure a completely untouched Las Vegas. It would also greatly increase the offensive capabilities of his Securitron army. The OS was downloaded onto the Platinum Chip, and was set to be delivered via courier to House the morning of October 23rd, 2077. Unfortunately, the courier didn’t make it in time. 

Even with the inferior operating system, House was still able to stop sixty-eight of the seventy-seven nuclear missiles from hitting Las Vegas. While portions of the city were still destroyed, it was largely spared. When the impact hit, House’s life support systems went out of whack, and he fell into a coma for the next fifty years, while chaos reigned unchecked in the world outside. 

Robert House Comes Out of a Post-War Coma and Establishes New Vegas

House regained consciousness in 2138. He initially chose to bide his time and observe the goings-on of the Mojave Wasteland instead of immediately revealing himself. Waiting and watching, House made his move when reports of NCR scouts in the area reached him around 2274. The Securitrons finally, after so many years, left the Lucky 38. With the hopes of having staff that had pulses, House gave the raiders currently occupying the Vegas Strip three options. They could leave, work for him, or die. Three raider tribes chose to work for him. They became the Chairmen, the Omertas, and the White Glove Society, who would run New Vegas’ three restored casinos.

Once established and later ensconced within the cultural and economic conscience of the Mojave, House made a deal with the NCR to coexist in relative peace. The NCR got to have McCarran Air Force Base and an embassy on the Strip. House got to have free power from Hoover Dam, and all the money from the NCR citizens desperate for a vacation. What happened to New Vegas and Mr. House after 2281—well, only the show can really answer that now. 

What Is Mr. Robert House Up to in Prime Video’s Fallout Series?

Justin Theroux’s Mr. House Arrives in Fallout Season 2

Rafi Silver played the man we thought we saw as Mr. House in Fallout season one. He appeared in Vault-Tec’s meeting to plan the end of the world with other major corporations. But it turns out that wasn’t Mr. House at all, but a fake double that Mr. House presents to the world for his own protection. The real Mr. House, played by Justin Theroux, made his first appearance in Fallout season two, episode one.

We saw Justin Theroux’s Mr. House in the episode’s opening sequence, where he introduced a nefarious new mind-control Computer Interface Implant device into Fallout‘s world. And then, we saw him again, in a look back to that Vault-Tec meeting of the minds, but this time, he was just a shadowy figure, lurking in the balcony as the fake Mr. House, once again played by Rafi Silver, sat at the table, pretending to be the head of RobCo. But that was only the beginning of Mr. House’s Fallout season two appearances.

Moldaver Believes Robert House Is Building the Nuclear Missiles Vault-Tec Will Drop

After hearing his wife propose nuclear war, a shaken Cooper Howard goes to see Moldaver or Miss Williams, as she’s known in the past, for answers. Moldaver thinks that Mr. Robert House is the one who is building the nuclear missile system that Vault-Tec will use to destroy the world. She says, “When the bombs drop, it’ll be Robert House who presses the button.” All he needs, in her opinion, is cold fusion, which Vault-Tec will soon sell to him.

Of course, we know from Fallout: New Vegas that she’s probably mistaken, and Mr. House is actually working on the opposite project, a missile defense system for Las Vegas. But the show has thrown twists into game lore before. We’ll have to wait and see what the Fallout TV series reveals about Mr. House’s creations and if he’s working on anything else we don’t know about.

Will Cooper Howard Kill Mr. House in Fallout Season?

After informing Cooper Howard of all of this, Moldaver seems to immediately propose that Cooper Howard should kill Robert House… and that IS a plot twist. Moldaver says that Barb will be going to sell cold fusion to Mr. House on Vault-Tec’s behalf and that Cooper Howard should go with her… And….

Cooper Howard doesn’t seem keen on killing the world’s richest man, and who could blame him? But, in the end, he doesn’t get to make the first move because, in episode three of Fallout season two, we learn that Mr. House already seems to know that Cooper Howard is after him. Mr. House makes a special visit to meet Cooper Howard in the episode and appears to be trying to get the measure of him. Cooper Howard, of course, doesn’t know who he is because he believes Mr. House to look like his fake double. It’s a charged scene.

Mr. House Believes There Is Another Player at the Table and They Will Drop the Bombs

Ultimately, Cooper Howard rejects the idea of killing Mr. House on Fallout season two, but he does go to Vegas to try to prevent House from getting cold fusion. Mr. House summons him for a proper meeting and reveals much of what he knows about the end of the world. Importantly, he dismisses the idea that Vault-Tec will drop the nuclear bombs in Fallout‘s world, but doesn’t count out Barb Howard or even Cooper Howard himself. He reveals that the birth of Cooper Howard’s daughter had an impact on the timing of the end of the world, as did Cooper Howard’s decision to come to Vegas with his wife. But he doesn’t yet know the part that Cooper Howard plays in the end of the world.

What Mr. House does believe, though, is that there is another player at the table in Fallout season two. A player they cannot see is the true villain in the series, and that is the person who will drop the nuclear bombs and begin Fallout‘s Great War. According to Mr. House, that person is also responsible for the creation of Deathclaws in Fallout‘s world. We believe this mysterious villain is in charge of both Vault-Tec and the Enclave.

Mr. House Begins to Enact His Fallout: New Vegas Plans to Live Forever

In this sequence, we also see the beginnings of Mr. House’s Fallout: New Vegas plans to live forever. Mr. House tells Cooper Howard that he needs Cold Fusion to keep him alive in “robotocized, non-biological form” to protect New Vegas. Of course, we believe Mr. House does not get his hands on Cold Fusion, so we’ll have to see how he eventually manages to keep himself alive into the Wasteland era.

However, we do learn something interesting. Mr. House intends to sell Vault-Tec his brain-control device in exchange for Cold Fusion. We know Vault-Tec never perfects the technology in the past timeline, and neither does Mr. House. But eventually, Hank MacLean manages to do so in Fallout season two’s present Wasterland story. What is Vault-Tec’s original plan for the mind-control device? What does Mr. House intend to do with it? And what role will it play moving forward? Only time will tell.

We’ll See More of Robert House in Fallout Season 2

House’s morality (or lack thereof) has been debated among the Fallout fanbase for the past fifteen years. House is a man with a single-minded focus who allows for no distractions. Monitoring or controlling the lives of the people in the Mojave has never been of any interest to him. The preservation and newfound flourishing of mankind, through throwing off the shackles of the past is, by all accounts, his singular interest. However, with a goal so large and lofty, you can imagine that the man behind these plans might find singular human lives, or even large groups of them …fairly insignificant. His take on democracy is also not the most positive one. 

Love him or hate him, House is a force to be reckoned with. And we can’t wait to see how Mr. Robert House is going to play into the events of Fallout season two moving forward. We can’t wait for him to hopefully show up in the Wasteland.

Fallout season two’s latest season two trailer appeared to offer us a look at a more modern Mr. House in all his supercomputer glory. But the truth is, we don’t know anything about what becomes of Mr. House in the present storyline of Fallout season two. But we’re sure when we find out, it’ll blow our minds. It sure feels like Mr. House absolutely plays a big role in Fallout season two and beyond.

Fallout season two is now streaming on Prime Video.

Originally published on April 25, 2024.