sentences:  Unlike in the novel, no one is assigned blame for starting the war; the film hints that global annihilation may have arisen from an accident or misjudgment.In early 1964, in the months following World War III, the conflict has devastated the entirety of the Northern Hemisphere, killing all humans after polluting the atmosphere with nuclear fallout.Air currents are slowly carrying the fallout south; the only areas still habitable are in the far reaches of the Southern Hemisphere.