How did fears about atomic warfare influence film noir stories?

In the post-World War II era, the looming threat of atomic warfare contributed to a pervasive sense of uncertainty and disillusionment within the American psyche. This collective anxiety, alongside factors like an unstable peacetime economy and McCarthyism, helped shape the dark, cynical tone of film noir.1

The genre embodied these fears through a claustrophobic and corrupt world that reflected the disenchantment of the times. Many noir narratives featured war veterans returning home to find that the society they fought for had vanished, replaced by a modernized, heartless environment characterized by political corruption and organized crime. By rejecting the straightforward good-versus-evil models of the past in favor of muddled morality and pessimism, film noir captured the profound sense of foreboding that many felt as the world entered the nuclear age.123