Set in the then-future of 2018, Future Fear depicts an Earth ravaged by a global pandemic caused by a flesh-eating extraterrestrial virus. The world outside the narrative's primary setting—a series of secret underground military installations—is described as rapidly dying, with human civilization on the brink of collapse. The story follows Dr. John Denniel, a geneticist who has successfully isolated a cure, and his fraught relationship with his wife-turned-assassin, Anna, as they navigate a claustrophobic, subterranean landscape that serves as the last bastion of scientific and military power.

The film’s societal dynamics are defined by a military-scientific complex led by the fanatical General Wallace. Utilizing the chaos of the pandemic, Wallace seeks to implement a "Fourth Reich" ideology, intending to use the alien pathogen as a tool for human cleansing to repopulate the planet with a purely Aryan race. Technological advancement in this 2018 is focused almost exclusively on genetic engineering, specifically the splicing of human DNA with other species to achieve immunity, while the atmosphere is heavy with religious zealotry and psychological motifs inspired by Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

In retrospect, the film’s depiction of a society-altering respiratory and flesh-eating virus mirrors the real-world anxieties that culminated in the COVID-19 pandemic, though its extraterrestrial origins remain speculative. The prediction of genetic engineering as a primary defense against biological threats aligns with the development of mRNA and CRISPR technologies, while the theme of radicalized military leaders weaponizing biology reflects modern concerns regarding domestic extremism and biosecurity. Despite these thematic resonances, the film relies heavily on 1990s low-budget sci-fi tropes, presenting a world where underground bunkers and biometric military protocols define the human experience in the late 2010s.