Something that this article only touches on indirectly (when it talks about walking out of the theater to the real world) is timelines. Even if a post apocalypt

Something that this article only touches on indirectly (when it talks about walking out of the theater to the real world) is timelines. Even if a post apocalyptic film presents the hero making the world a better place in the future, we won't be around for that. The part of the timeline that the viewer will experience is the dystopia. In that respect, I don't see how dystopian/post-apocalyptic fiction can generally be optimistic for the viewer.