You can call Fallout’s Vault-Tec phone number, but prepare to be scared

Vault-Tec’s phone number briefly appears on the screen in the Fallout TV series. It’s real, and you can call it right now — but a note of caution: it may ruin your day.

In the early scenes of Fallout Episode 6, Cooper Howard takes viewers on a tour of Vault 4, a “veritable Camelot of the nuclear age.” After lauding its lead casing (which keeps out “the rats… and the Reds”), he meets the Lawthorns, a family trialing the vault before thousands flee underground.

At the end of the commercial, Howard urges people to purchase a residence in a Vault-Tec vault. “If the worst should happen tomorrow, the world is gonna need Americans just like you to build a better day after,” he says.

A phone number then appears on the screen: 213-25-VAULT. Yes, you can phone it yourself right now, but you won’t be connected to a Vault-Tec operator: all you’ll hear is a man screaming in agony for 20 seconds before the line disconnects.

Prime Video

Bear in mind that additional charges may appear on your phone bill, depending on where you are. “That was f**king amazing. Worth the international call fee from Canada,” one Redditor wrote.

“I called that shit and got f**king scared,” another commented. “I’m wondering if this is some sort of legitimate easter egg. I doubt they just picked a random number to use, and I feel the decision to make it screams instead of some vault ad gimmick had to be purposeful,” a third speculated.

As one fan pointed out, this isn’t an unprecedented gag in the Fallout franchise. First shared in Fallout 3 and revived for the fourth game, there’s another number you can call to secure a vault: 1-888-4-VAULTTEC. That one is decidedly more upbeat, so feel free to give it a ring and prepare for the future!

Fallout is streaming on Prime Video now. Find out everything we know about Season 2, questions the second season needs to answer, and all of the main characters’ SPECIAL scores and perks.