“Air Raid” is a story about how human life always holds the potential to get worse and even possibly be destroyed, but the one way to prevent this catastrophic destruction is to look to the past to find the way to save the future. This is illustrated by the reflective scene after the Snatch Team has successfully returned to the future with the “goats”, or the plane survivors from 1979. The tone of this scene is very nostalgic and even hopeful as Mandy rests her head on Gene’s shoulder and adoringly watches the people of 1979 as she proclaims them as “the best” and the future’s “very brightest hope.” This hopeful, admiring, and even envious view of the people of 1979 is ironic as they have been ripped from the past, forced to travel to the future, and to start a new life to save all of the future human race which is pretty terrifying and unfortunate, yet Mandy still is envious of them as she acknowledges that even “At their lowest ebb, this very moment, they were so much better than us.” The nostalgic tone combined with Mandy’s ironic and skewed view of who holds the luck in this scenario further suggests that even if the people of 1979 see this moment as the very worst moment of their lives and as if nothing could ever get worse, …show more content…
If things didn’t already seem rough to the people of 1979 who went from average-Joes just trying to travel to being responsible for saving the future human race, they are being thrown into an unknown “new” Earth that the briefing officer labels as “Centauri Three.” The name “Centauri” may be a reference to the star constellation Centaurus, which further establishes the spacey, infinite, expansive, unknown qualities of future Earth. This title combined with a number, “Three”, suggests a sterile and not hospitable environment despite what the briefing officer tries to tell the plane