Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome is the the third film in the Mad Max series, so it has already been established that the world is post-apocalyptic. In this film, he meets with a group of hopeful children searching for a captain to pilot their salvaged plane and bring them back to the world before. Max has to take it upon himself to break the news to these children that the world they have been waiting to return to no longer exists. He instead brings them to Bartertown and works to overthrow the people in charge so that it is no longer a dog eat dog environment.
These post-apocalyptic movies always make me think about how people can change so quickly. I like to believe that they are a gross exaggeration of how humans would react, and that we would instead begin rebuilding rather than turn into savages. It also makes you appreciate the society we have formed. It is not perfect and in many places it is far below ideal, but at least we don’t have a universal terror. Even if these are just movies, I hope the thought of a fallout of this magnitude would deter the majority from allowing nuclear destruction to occur in the modern era.