The representation of nuclear disaster and its aftermath in American narrative film has been limited to a fairly narrow range of possibilities both structurally and metaphorically. Although there have been periods of widespread antinuclear activism since 1945, most recently in the early 1980s, cinematic representations of nuclear disaster, including those with serious and didactic intent, often and perhaps necessarily seem inadequate in their depictions of nuclear issues. Films which feature nuclear disaster as a narrative event have at least one other primary area of interest, often the primary discourse of the film, which relegates the event of nuclear disaster to a secondary position. Representations of the aftermath of nuclear war, especially in the neobarbarian subgenre are conventionalized to the point of cliche. Even postnuclear futures, by their very existence, are essentially optimistic at the most basic level: humankind survives. Nuclear weapons inspire and frighten people in the same way that fear of the supernatural inspired and frightened our ancestors.