Where is the Rebellion?

So I was watching Wall-E with the Bean the other day and noticed something that had escaped my not-so-watchful eye during the other dozens of previous viewings of what is, in fact, one of the better animated films for kids out there. As Wall-E was wandering the ravaged and abandoned landscape of Earth collecting trash and our left-behind treasures, I found myself wondering: "Where is the Rebellion?"

Let's face it. I don't care what the right answer is or the best answer. People don't like to leave home. Your whole town can be evacuated for any number of tragic reasons and there are always those strangely stubborn folk who will not leave. They stay through floods, tornadoes, radioactive dangers, the promise of earthquakes, anything you can throw at them. Like the swordsman in The Princess Bride on a drunken bender, they plant themselves firmly and declare, "I will not be moved!"

I understand that Earth was becoming unlivable. It wasn't a pleasant place, covered in garbage and devoid of plantlife. But I'm not sure that it was ever implied that the planet was completely uninhabitable. Ever see the movie Demolition Man? Remember Dennis Leary's band of rebellious pioneers living underground in filth and happily eating rat burgers? I think those people would also exist in Wall-E's world.

Even if the world was completely destroyed, haven't you played the game Fallout? There are always survivors, those who have evolved, or if not physically changed they have found ways to adapt. We even see it in Mad Max and that under-appreciated film (although I admit it's way too long) Waterworld. People find a way because they are stubborn, stubborn beings.

We know there was power left on Earth. The robots charged by the sun and the video projection ads were still playing. We know there were storms that presumably, occasionally, produced water. There were materials for building and inventing in abundance.

Somewhere on that world, there was a rebellion. And I'd love to see how they would have adapted other Wall-E's and Eva's to help them preserve their retro-survivalist way of life.

Braaaiiin food: How would you use a Wall-E robot to survive on a trash-covered Earth?