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In Fallout season two, episode seven, we got a sneak peek into something I wasn’t sure the TV series would touch on: the relationship between the United States and Canada before the bombs dropped in the Great War. Sit down with me, friends, and let’s talk about the US’ annexation of Canada in Fallout‘s lore. This is a horror story, so grab your blankies. 

The United States Occupies Canada in Fallout‘s World

In the opening of Fallout 1, we’re shown a US propaganda film. In said film, there’s footage of a US soldier in full Power Armor. Before him is a Canadian civilian, on his knees and bound at the wrists. The soldier executes him in the middle of the street. He then laughs and waves at the camera. This chilling imagery exemplifies the dynamic between the United States and Canada in Fallout—it wasn’t just one innocent with a gun to his head. The whole of Canada had a gun to its head. Its military could not and did not stand up to the will of the United States in this version of history. What started as a consensual deal to manage the front in Alaska in Fallout quickly morphed into a full-scale military occupation by the US. 

Let’s talk about how it happened. 

The Resource Wars Began an International Conflict

The wars to end the world started as resource wars, first between Europe and the Middle East, then between America and China, sparking the Sino-American war. In the Fallout universe, things like wind power, hydroelectric, and solar weren’t relied upon the way they are in our world. Renewable energy found a home in the apocalypse—Hoover Dam powers the NCR-occupied portions of the Mojave, as well as the Vegas Strip, per their standing deal with House circa 2276. Acadia, an all-synth settlement in Maine, operates a wind farm to provide its residents with power. As the player character in Fallout 4, you can even build windmill generators yourself. But in the 21st century? It was drill, drill, drill and mine, mine, mine.

It’s often speculated that in the Fallout timeline, transistors were not invented until the 2060s. In our world, they came about in 1947. Development teams across Interplay, Bethesda, and Obsidian have not confirmed nor denied this. But the theory explains why so much of the tech in Fallout is hulking and bulky. It’s why cell phones don’t exist. It’s also why the internet doesn’t exist in the traditional sense, just client terminals hooked up to independent mainframes and networks. 

Canada Retained Resources, so It Was in Trouble on Fallout

When humanity hunted for greater power in our world, as East and West disarmed from the edge of nuclear war, we (at least in part) reached for renewable resources. In Fallout, the United States needed oil and uranium because the infrastructure of its country, and more importantly, its military, was utterly dependent upon it. Instead of changing, they waged war on the world. The Chinese were the enemy, sure—but so was anyone else in the United States’ way. Like Canada. Canada, a country that was still rich in uranium deposits and untapped oil in Fallout‘s world, soon got caught in the United States’ crosshairs and greed. 

The Anchorage Front Line Forced Canada to Let the United States Military Enter Its Borders in Fallout

Speaking of oil, Alaska’s rich oil fields became a key target in the Sino-American War. To reinforce and defend these vital reserves, the United States established the Anchorage Front Line. In Fallout‘s history, the United States increased its military presence significantly, fortifying a defense system that could keep Canada safe from the encroaching threat of the People’s Republic of China. The United States began to pressure Canada to allow the US military to guard the Alaskan pipeline. Tensions rose between Canada and the United States in Fallout, as you can imagine. 

Just as the Chinese spread up through Russia like an infection in Fallout‘s timeline, across the sea, the United States was doing the exact same thing to Canada. In the end, only Alaska would separate them. That, and a whole lot of ocean. Damn, Disco Elysium was right, geopolitical conflict IS always about mineral rights. 

Operation: Anchorage lasted eleven long, long years. While the initial surge of troops left the Chinese with plenty of forward operating bases and land, they weren’t able to resist the might of the US military indefinitely, especially once T45 Power Armor was introduced to the troops. I know Cooper thinks it’s the shits, but it was the edge they needed to turn the tide permanently. A mainland invasion of China swiftly followed after they were pushed out of Alaska. The bombs fell not long after.

In Fallout, The United States Quietly Began Its Annexation of Canada Without Permission

But forget China! We were talking about Canada. Once Canadian leaders gave in to rising pressures from the United States and allowed the military to set up outposts along the Alaskan Pipeline in Fallout, it was already over. The subtle annexation of Canada by the United States had begun in earnest. Once the war was truly underway in Fallout, the United States escalated its military presence in Canada tenfold, with the goal of mutual defense. Supposedly. 

The United States seized control of Canadian resources in order to fund the war effort in Fallout. Vast stretches of timberland were destroyed, other resources in Canada were stretched to the breaking point. Many Americans refer to Canada as Little America (LITTLE? Have you SEEN Canada?). Widespread Canadian protests went unheard. Even in the US, protests broke out, with people standing up for the rights and well-being of their neighbors to the North. 

The United States didn’t care.

The Annexation of Canada in Fallout

Canadian rebel forces grew with time in Fallout‘s history, but they didn’t have one-hundredth of the manpower needed to take on an occupying force the size of the one the United States had in Canada. Any attempt at resistance was a desperate effort that almost always ended in tragedy. Just ask Overseer Steph’s Mom. Oh, wait, you can’t, she’s dead.

Tensions boiled over into violence after an attempted sabotage of the Alaskan Pipeline by unknown forces. The discovery of this ‘mysterious plot’ gave the US the last excuse it needed to fully annex Canada in Fallout. Context clues would perhaps imply that this was an inside job. American troops began seizing control of Canadian infrastructure and resources. Canadian cities quickly fell under martial law, with American troops patrolling the streets. Canada was no longer a sovereign nation. The United States had annexed Canada.

The official annexation of Canada by the US began in 2072 in Fallout. When the Canadian resistance cells joined forces into a cohesive movement and started their campaign of sabotage and guerrilla warfare, the United States responded with an abundance of force. People were put down in the streets like dogs for perceived disobedience. 

The text in the propaganda film preceding the scene I mentioned is as follows:

“Our dedicated boys keep the peace in newly annexed Canada.”

And we’re back to the start. 

Canada’s Annexation Was Horrifying

Pictures of these atrocities made their way to the United States, even without the help of the internet or the 24-hour news cycle. Civil unrest reaches an all-time high in the United States, ending in riots and mass killings of protestors. By 2077, the annexation of Canada was complete in Fallout‘s world. Canada ceased to exist as an independent nation. Canadian provinces became US territories. It was stated that any protestors or resistance members would be shot on sight. The United States gained valuable land, resources, and infrastructure. 

During the intro sequence for Fallout, you can see a sign at the border that declares “The Big 51” — presumably a new nickname for Canada. I guess it’s better than Little America? The bodies of murdered mounties can be seen dangling from it. 

Uranium Fever Has Done and Got Me Down

Fallout does love to create twisted reflections of the real world. In Fallout season two, we see Steph and others escaping from the “Uranium City” Internment Camp in Canada. Uranium City is actually a real place, actually, in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. North of Lake Athabasca and Beaverlodge Lake, Uranium City sits on Martin Lake, at the mouth of the Fredette River. The site of the town was discovered in 1949 by S. Kaiman, while he was doing research on nuclear materials for El Dorado Mining and Refining, a crown company handling the uranium mining operations in the region. Uranium City itself was founded in 1952 to serve the mines in the Beaverlodge Uranium Area.

A concerted effort was made to move miners’ living quarters from the El Dorado camp to Uranium City in 1960. It was a thriving town up until 1982, with a population approaching 2,500 and infrastructure planned to support 5,000. However, the closure of the mines that year led to total economic collapse that resulted in the departure of most of its residents. 

In other words, Uranium City is a uranium boomtown, phased out when all of that juicy ore had been sucked from the earth with an industrial straw. And, in the Fallout universe, it’s a work camp for political dissidents in Canada. Or maybe random Canadians (who were physically able) were taken from their homes and forced to work the mines. I suspect we may find out more as Stephanie begins to truly unravel, and we learn about her dark and difficult past.

Canada in Fallout Season 2

Speaking of, for now, we get merely a glimpse of the horrors that Stephanie and other Canadians went through after America annexed Canada in Fallout season two. And that leads us to the best of all Fallout lines, when Steph’s mother tells her, “Don’t think of them as human beings, think of them as Americans.” It’s clear the horrors in Steph’s past are still with her, and she’s still running and running through that snow, trying to escape the Americans who have invaded Canada and ruined her life. But horrors have a way of begetting horrors. America’s annexation of Canada in Fallout may seem like a global atrocity, but we bet it’ll end with pain for everyone on a very personal level. And that’s what Fallout is so good at showing us.

Fallout season two is streaming now on Prime Video.

The post What’s the Deal with Canada In FALLOUT? The Game and Season 2 Lore, Explained appeared first on Nerdist.

Catherine O’Hara, the Canadian actress known for her work across decades of film and television, has sadly passed away, age 71. O’Hara is most famous for her roles in Home Alone, the television series Schitt’s Creek, several Christopher Guest mockumentaries like Best in Show, and the two Beetlejuice films. The original report of her passing comes from Variety. No cause of death was given as of yet. She has received several awards over her fifty years in show business. These include two Primetime Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Catherine O’Hara began her career in the Canadian comedy sketch series SCTV, which she starred in from 1976 to 1984. She then transitioned to acting roles in films, such as After Hours. In 1988, she starred in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice as the kooky stepmother of Winona Ryder, Delia Deetz. But it was in 1990’s Home Alone, playing Macaulay Culkin’s mother, that she truly became a household name. She did a tremendous amount of voice acting, such as in The Nightmare Before Christmas, and most recently, Elemental. It was during the ’90s that she began starring in Christopher Guest’s improv-style mockumentary films, starting with Waiting for Guffman.

In 2015, she received a huge career resurgence thanks to her role as Moira Rose in the comedy series Schitt’s Creek. It was in this series that she starred alongside her frequent collaborator Eugene Levy. For playing family matriarch Moira on the beloved series, she received an Emmy and a Golden Globe. Even though she was mostly famous for her comedic roles, she could still pack in a serious performance. And she did so in season two of HBO’s The Last of Us. She leaves behind her husband, Hollywood production designer Bo Welch, and their two children, sons Matthew and Luke. She also leaves behind a metric ton of fans, who laughed at her every genius line delivery in decades of projects.

The post Catherine O’Hara, Star of HOME ALONE and SCHITT’S CREEK, Dies at 71 appeared first on Nerdist.

In 2022, director Walter Thompson-Hernández released the 13-minute short If I Go Will They Miss Me, centered on a young boy named Lil Ant and his fascination with Pegasus, the Greek mythological figure. The short went on to win the 2022 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Jury Award in U.S. Fiction. In his latest feature-length film of the same name, Thompson-Hernández expands that narrative, inviting audiences to share in Lil Ant’s coming-of-age journey.

Lil Ant, played by Bodhi Jordan Dell, has a complicated relationship with his father, Big Ant, portrayed by J. Alphonse Nicholson, as the two struggle to reconnect after Big Ant returns home following his release from prison. The film’s emotional core rests in the fragile family ties that bind them, explored through a poetic and metaphorical lens rather than conventional storytelling. Lil Ant’s mother, Lozita, played by Danielle Brooks, is also deeply affected by the shifting dynamic between her husband and son. Caught in the middle, she bears the emotional weight of Big Ant’s unresolved anger, which often spills over onto Lil Ant. While she comforts her son, she grapples with guilt and frustration, yearning for Big Ant to become the role model her family needs, something he is not yet prepared to be.

Throughout the film, Lil Ant draws inspiration from Greek mythology, particularly Pegasus, viewing his father as a godlike figure who is powerful, distant, and deeply flawed. This mythological framing adds emotional depth to the story and reinforces how children often mythologize their parents, even when reality falls short.

There is a beautiful, whimsical tone to the film that feels reminiscent of Moonlight. One standout scene at the beach, set against crashing waves, captures a rare moment of connection between Lil Ant and Big Ant. It is a quiet, majestic interlude that lingers long after it ends. The film unfolds in montages and fragments, with intentional non-linear editing that encourages the viewer to immerse themselves in the characters’ emotional states rather than passively observe their story. Thompson-Hernández wants audiences to feel these moments and understand the context behind each character’s choices and the paths they take.

This is very much a Sundance film, poetic, artful, and deeply atmospheric, crafted for cinephiles who appreciate cinema as an emotional and aesthetic experience.

The performances by J. Alphonse Nicholson and Danielle Brooks are superb. Their on-screen chemistry is electric, and it is easy to imagine them excelling together in future projects. Nicholson, in particular, continues to prove himself as a formidable talent. He also serves as executive producer on this movie. I previously interviewed him for his one-man show Freight: The Five Incarnations of Abel Green, which premiered at the American Black Film Festival last year, and he remains an actor well worth watching.

If I Go Will They Miss Me is a film filled with heart, beauty, and tenderness that resonates quietly but deeply. The movie is currently screening at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival and is available to stream online.

The post Sundance 2026 Review: ‘If I Go Will They Miss Me’ is a Tender, Mythic Coming-of-Age Story appeared first on Black Girl Nerds.

The internet often debates how the bar for men nowadays couldn’t sink any lower, but if this man’s TikTok comments section is anything to go by, there’s a new record. Dakota (@dak2official5) was helping his girlfriend in the kitchen when a trick he attempted drew the ire of seemingly all the women on TikTok. Now, people are urging his girlfriend to dump him, but is it really that serious?

One chaotic toss, one very fed-up girlfriend yelling his name, and suddenly TikTok is treating this man like a walking red flag with a frying pan.