Set in a desolate 1991, Ravagers presents an Earth ravaged by a nuclear holocaust and ecological devastation. The world is defined by absolute scarcity; the oceans have been poisoned and the land has become largely infertile, rendering natural food growth almost impossible. Survival is a desperate competition between isolated, civilized holdouts and the "Ravagers"—lawless, mutated marauders who prey on the weak. The protagonist, Falk, travels through this wasteland toward a rumored sanctuary known as "Genesis," where life is said to still thrive.

Societal dynamics in the film reflect a total collapse of central governance, replaced by a triad of social classes: "Flockers" who defend stockpiled resources in fortified installations, "Neanderthalers" who embrace primitive barbarism, and "Loners" who scavenge for survival. The film portrays Earth as an abandoned shell of its former self, where remnants of the old world—such as beached battleships and military installations—serve as the only viable shelters against both the elements and the predatory gangs. This 1991 is an alternate timeline where the Cold War tensions of the 1970s escalated into a terminal conflict, diverging from our reality's post-Soviet transition period.

The film’s central prediction of total agricultural and environmental collapse by the early 1990s was significantly more pessimistic than reality. While the film suggests a world where food is only found in pre-apocalypse tin cans, the real 1991 saw the expansion of globalized trade and the "Green Revolution's" continued yield. However, the depiction of fortified survivalist enclaves and the threat of water poisoning as a catalyst for conflict mirrors later real-world anxieties regarding resource security. Its vision of 1991 serves as a stark reflection of 1970s fears regarding nuclear proliferation and the fragile state of the global biosphere.