The Fort centers around an underground bunker built by a wealthy eccentric named Bennett Delamere. The videotapes and records stored there suggest that he built his bomb shelter in the 1970s, but the apex of American concern about nuclear attack came much earlier. By the end of World War II, America’s military alliance with Russia transformed into a competitive arms race. Anxiety in the United States accelerated when Russia tested its first nuclear weapon in 1949.

The American government responded to this new threat by suggesting that citizens could survive a nuclear blast if they built underground shelters adjacent to their homes. By 1955, the Federal Civil Defense Administration provided detailed specifications for such structures. The intention was to shelter underground for a week after a nuclear attack. Families were advised to stockpile seven days’ worth of canned goods and other supplies. During the late 1950s, it was not uncommon for department stores to feature collections of items needed to stock a fallout shelter. The Fort alludes to this practice of keeping a large quantity of nonperishable goods on hand as the boys eat their way through Bennet Delamere’s stash of canned entrees.

During the Cold War era, brochures promoting the advantages of bunkers generally showed a white middle-class family consisting of a father, mother, and one or two children.