One is Bartertown, a barbaric, walled-in trading town in the desert, modeled after various trading towns in history. The other is what has been referred to as Crack in the Earth, an oasis with children who live a primitive, aboriginal life. This movie depicts two societies. One is a barbaric, walled-in trading town in a desert of water, modeled after various trading towns in history. The other is a pirate ship.
Human beings become like animals and apes found a society.
The medieval ape town, enclosed in its own false world view, versus the forbidden zone, where the truth about history can be found in an archeological dig. As noted, the benevolent underground bastion with technology versus the slave city. Also, the surface of the slave city, where the ruling class lives, versus the slave underground. Bartertown, which is corrupt, secular, based on commerce, and without dreams versus Crack in the Earth, which is innocent and immersed in myth. Ape society versus human animals.