ABSTRACT
In trying to exploit the dismal idea of the potential destruction of civilization and the planet itself, Hollywood films portrayed the postnuclear environment as survivable and perhaps even advantageous. Throughout most postnuclear films of this period, the United States system remains invulnerable and survives all attempts at annihilation. An example of the ideology can be found in a 1945 issue of Life, which offered a summary of global nuclear war. The most pervasive nuclear war theme in all of science fiction is the "myth of the heroic survivors" that, after an appropriately brief glance at the destruction of their civilization, begins to build new and improved society from the ruins of the old. The epitome of the survivalist idea is found in Five, a movie that went on to become a formula for countless imitators such as The Day the World Ended, The World, the Flesh and the Devil, Last Woman on Earth, The Omega Man, and The Silent Earth.
