In The Omega Man, the world of 2007 is a barren, sun-scorched necropolis following a global biological war that occurred in the mid-1970s. This conflict, sparked by a border skirmish between the Soviet Union and China, unleashed weaponized bacteria that decimated the global population. The surviving humans have mutated into "The Family," a nocturnal, albino cult that views science and technology as the primary evils that destroyed the world. The film depicts a Los Angeles reclaimed by silence and dust, where the only "normal" human, Dr. Robert Neville, maintains a fortified existence surrounded by the relics of high-art and 1970s luxury.

Societally, the film explores a harsh divergence between scientific rationalism and a new-age primitivism. The Family, led by a former news anchor, represents a radical rejection of the tools of civilization—including the wheel and electricity—mirroring 1970s anxieties regarding counterculture movements and cult figures like Charles Manson. Earth is depicted as a graveyard of the industrial age, where the remaining untainted survivors are forced into a nomadic, scavenging lifestyle. Unlike the source novel, the film frames the struggle as a battle for the legacy of Western progress against a perceived slide into tribalism and superstition.

While the film’s 2007 setting failed to mirror the actual year's technological boom, it offered eerie prediction signals regarding biological threats and the fragility of urban infrastructure. The experimental vaccine developed by Neville serves as a precursor to modern cinematic tropes of the "miracle cure" found in real-world pandemic discourse. Comparisons to actual history show a divergence: while 1971 audiences feared germ warfare, the real 2007 was defined by digital connectivity and the War on Terror rather than total biological collapse. However, the depiction of an empty, desolate Los Angeles remains a hauntingly accurate visual metaphor for the psychological toll of extreme social isolation.