ABSTRACT
A series of nuclear explosions fill the screen in quick succession, pausing periodically to let the mushroom clouds reach upward. The spreading clouds are tinted beautiful colors: combinations of pink, orange and red. The potential for nuclear apocalypse in the modern age has certainly contributed to these cultural expressions of a dismal future. Some films bleakly project the current pessimism onto a future that seems inevitably worse than the present. Others seem to celebrate the neobarbarian future most frequently depicted in postnuclear films. A Boy and His Dog begins with a series of stylized nuclear explosions which overtly connects this dystopic film world to nuclear anxiety. The nuclear bomb is a development of modern technology that eclipses all others in its power and destructive potential. “Nuclear fear”, the most justified, manifestation of the anxiety that has always accompanied technological advances.
