The threat of nuclear warfare looms large over our pop culture, from video games like Fallout 3, Metro Exodus and Far Cry: New Dawn, to iconic film franchises like Godzilla and The Terminator. But while nuclear weapons are often the centerpiece of a lot of the movies and games we experience, they remain, in reality, a devastating and immoral force of destruction. So that begs the question: why have we adopted nuclear annihilation as a common setting for our escapism?