In the depicted year of 2019, Earth has been reduced to a scorched wasteland following a global nuclear holocaust that occurred ten years prior. The remnants of humanity exist as nomadic scavengers or religious pilgrims, hounded by the Templars—a fanatical, white-clad cult led by a despot named One. This post-apocalyptic landscape is characterized by resource scarcity, where survival depends entirely on motorized combat and the protection of lone warriors like Scorpion.

The film suggests a world where centralized government has entirely vanished, replaced by tribal warfare and ideological extremism. Technological development has shifted toward the modification of pre-collapse machinery; for instance, characters utilize heavily armored vehicles equipped with pneumatic drills and mortar cannons. While the film focuses on the American-Italian wasteland aesthetic, it implies that the entire Earth has been "purified" by fire, leaving behind a civilization that prioritizes kinetic weaponry and visual intimidation over rebuilding infrastructure.

From a predictive standpoint, the film’s vision of 2019 diverged significantly from reality. It anticipated a nuclear war in the early 2000s that never occurred, and its technological predictions were largely aesthetic rather than functional. Examples include the use of clear plexiglass body armor and vehicles with bubble-domes that lack practical aerodynamic or defensive value. However, the film accurately captured the 1980s cultural anxiety regarding societal fragmentation and the potential for extremist groups to fill the power vacuum left by a collapsed state.