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Begin again, let go.
”— Vera Keyes, Dead MoneyVera Keyes was a pre-War starlet for whom Frederick Sinclair built the Sierra Madre Casino.
Background
Vera Keyes was a well-known starlet before the war, starring in films such as Love Sets Sail!, and one of the celebrities invited to the Grand Opening of the Sierra Madre Casino. Of all the guests there, she had a special connection to the casino - she was the inspiration for its construction by its founder, Frederick Sinclair. Sinclair worshiped the ground she walked on, and built the casino as both a monument to her - and a fortress to protect her. Sinclair wasn't a stupid man, he could see the war on the horizon, and he wanted his love to be safe from it. So he built the Sierra Madre, with its vault as the ultimate nuclear fallout shelter, for him and his love. Vera's voice was the key to the casino's vault, specifically, the words "begin again" and "let go", spoken in her voice into a specific terminal in the casino would activate the elevator down into the casino's bowels.
Dean Domino, an old flame of Vera's, introduced her to Sinclair after seeing that she had caught his eye. But things are never simple. Dean had grown resentful of the other man and decided to take everything from him, and Vera had agreed to help with his plan. When she later started to get cold feet, he secured her assistance by blackmailing her with evidence of "indiscretions" and addictions to Med-X and super stimpaks. What he did not know was that the addictions stemmed from her taking the drugs as pain relief, a refuge from a terminal illness. Vera, eventually overcome with guilt, told Sinclair of the plot. Although he had long known of her and Domino's intentions, he had managed to bear that fact. But this knowledge blackened Sinclair's heart, and he turned the vault into a trap for Domino, making it impossible to leave so that the he would have an eternity to contemplate his betrayal. Sinclair eventually relented, and attempted to return the casino to its original purpose, but this proved impossible - it had been built simply too well. He did what he could and hoped that after the doors to the vault locked, the Sierra Madre Broadcast, the casino's emergency signal, would bring help from the authorities and unlock the vault's treasure - Vera.
On the night the bombs dropped, the night of the Grand Opening, the casino locked its doors and its security systems activated. The holograms massacred the guests, and Vera was trapped in her room, with only one way out. She wrote her last words on the wall, and took an overdose of the chem cocktail which had both saved her from and caused so much pain already. A malfunction with the Emergency Broadcast - something to do with the Gala Event drawing power from the security systems to save money - caused the advertisement for the casino's grand opening to be sent across the airwaves, rather than the intended broadcast. For over two centuries, Vera's voice would act as bait, not for the rescue Sinclair had hoped for, but for potential treasure hunters, luring them to their deaths, urging them to come to the Sierra Madre, a place where they could begin again.
Inventory
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Starlet Wig Vera's Outfit |
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No additional items |
Appearances
Vera Keyes' corpse, recorded voice, and holograms in her likeness appear in Dead Money. She is also mentioned in Old World Blues with many posters and pictures of herself.
Notes
- Her likeness appears in holograms around the Villa and casino, the holograms in the casino will attack if they see you, but the the villa hologram will not.
- Her skeletal corpse can be animated using the resurrect command, but is unresponsive.
 | The following is based on Fallout New Vegas cut content and has not been confirmed by canon sources. |
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- Two unused versions of Vera Keyes exist "in the flesh"; one is a placeholder used to run some scripts for the recording in the SM executive suites and the ending slides. The other is a ghoul intended for use as a corpse; her charred (yet fully clothed) skeleton was used instead.
| End of information based on Fallout New Vegas cut content. |
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- Vera's skeletal corpse can be devoured if the player has the Cannibal perk.
- Her skeletal corpse can also be dismembered.
Behind the scenes
- One of her songs, Begin Again, can be heard on the Bethesda Blog. It is performed by Stephanie DeBrule and Justin Bell, with lyrics by Mikey Dowling and Chris Avellone. Other songs by her include Let the Bright Tomorrow in
and Go to the Faraway. - She highly resembles and is likely based on Audrey Hepburn, a famous actress from the 1950s.
Gallery
Vera Keyes last words
Holographic projection of Vera
An unused photo of Vera, from the game files
Human model of Vera used as a base for the holographic projection
Ghoul model of Vera that was unused in the game
The skeleton of Vera Keyes, reanimated by a console command.
