Everything about Red Dawn totally explained
Red Dawn is a
1984 film by
John Milius about an invasion of the
United States by the
Soviet Union,
Cuba and other communist Central American armies, and the resulting
guerrilla actions of a group of American
high school students in the town of
Calumet,
Colorado. The movie features
Patrick Swayze,
C. Thomas Howell,
Lea Thompson,
Charlie Sheen,
Jennifer Grey, and
Powers Boothe.
Red Dawn was the first movie to be released with a
Motion Picture Association of America PG-13 rating (
The Flamingo Kid was the first film to receive the rating, but wasn't released for 5 months after certification.) At one time, Red Dawn was considered the most violent film by the Guinness Book of Records and the The National Coalition on Television Violence, with a rate of 134 acts of violence per hour, or 2.23 per minute.
MGM have announced
Red Dawn to be a possible candidate for a future remake.
Plot summary
The plot of the movie is based on an idea that a series of calamities in the late 1980s including the worst harvest in the USSR since the 1930s, worldwide economic problems, and the dissolution of
NATO due to political infighting resulted in the
Soviet Union and
Cuba invading an unprepared and mostly alone United States in 1990, igniting
World War III. The larger war is mostly ignored and the film focuses on the lives of a group of young people who become
partisans, engaging in
guerrilla warfare to resist the resulting
occupation.
In the small Colorado town of Calumet, a normal fall morning is interrupted by an
airdrop of Cuban and Soviet
paratroopers in the empty fields behind the local high school. As the paratroopers begin their attack, a small group of teenagers obtain weapons and supplies and flee to the nearby mountains. They begin a
resistance against the Soviet-allied occupation force. The group calls themselves the
Wolverines after their school’s
team/
mascot and proceeds to attack the occupying forces using
ambushes,
sniper attacks,
booby traps, guerrilla-style bombings on Soviet positions in the town itself, and raids on the occupiers' supply depots and convoys.
Over time, the Wolverines are joined by a downed
Air Force fighter pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Tanner, who instructs them in more formal military tactics. The Wolverines later liberate a "
political prisoner camp" where the occupation force has rounded up citizens who they suspected may resist the occupation.
Eventually, the Wolverines make a foray to the front lines of the war in a
Rocky Mountain pass where
M1 Abrams and
T-72's are engaging each other, resulting in the deaths of Tanner and Arturo.
As the result of escalating guerrilla attacks the Soviet field commanders now view the Wolverines as a serious threat. Initially the occupiers had tried terror tactics, executing groups of civilians following every Wolverine attack, in order to intimidate the local population and the Wolverines into halting their attacks. However, this tactic backfired resulting in the civilians lending increasing support to the Resistance. Following a rise in popular support for the Wolverines, Strelnikov, a Soviet counterresistence specialist, arrives to declare that there will be no more reprisals against civilians. Instead the specialist sends
Spetsnaz commandos into the mountains in order to eliminate the Wolverines. This new strategy fails when the commandos are ambushed and killed by the Wolverines.
Following the ambush on the commandos the group finds a
tracking device among the dead soldiers. Daryl, the son of the
collaborating mayor of the town, admits that the Soviets had forced him to swallow a signal emitter, explaining that he only did it because he was tortured (after being handed over to the Soviets by his own father). Jed shoots the sole Russian survivor of the commando squad but is unable to bring himself to kill his friend. Robert then executes Daryl without emotion. The Wolverines break camp out of fear of additional raids by the Soviets.
Things become increasingly hard for the Wolverines; their morale has eroded as the
war of attrition takes its toll on their numbers. The Soviet occupation forces are pushing them to the breaking point, although the Soviets hopes for keeping the civilian population shocked into complacency and unable to fight back have all but collapsed.
The remaining Wolverines are then ambushed while eating food from crates deliberately dropped from a passing Soviet convoy they'd intended to attack. Several heavily armed
Mil Mi-24 gunships appear and attack the Wolverines, and though Robert is able to disable one with an
RPG-7, they suffer severe and demoralizing losses. Robert chooses to die in a hail of gunfire. Toni is mortally wounded and asks Jed to leave her behind. Keeping a hand grenade as the others retreat, she kills a Russian soldier and herself.
The Wolverines are down to four; Jed, his brother Matt, Danny and Erica. Jed and Matt realize that they can't outlast the Soviets and if they keep fighting, that'll all die. Matt tells Danny and Erica to head for "Free America," that he and Jed are "all used up," and insisting that some of their number must survive. The two brothers, meanwhile, stage a diversionary attack on the Soviet regional headquarters in town so that Danny and Erica can escape. Jed and his brother are both shot by Colonel Strelnikov, although Jed manages to shoot and kill him as well. Jed staggers away as he carries his mortally wounded brother Matt in his arms. Bella, the Cuban colonel who has commanded the occupation forces from the start of the invasion, has the chance to shoot the two brothers, but instead lets them go. Bella, a former guerrilla himself, had been composing a letter to his wife just minutes before the attack, telling her he was planning on handing in his resignation. Jed staggers away with his brother to a park bench to wait out his final moments. Meanwhile, Danny and Erica successfully escape to "Free American" territory.
The film’s epilogue, narrated by Erica, suggests that the United States wins the war some years later; a
plaque is displayed with "
Partisan Rock" in the background, which pays tribute to the Wolverines
killed in action, and reveals that the events in the film occurred during the "early days of
World War III."
Backstory
Much of the progress and politics of the war is left to the viewers’ speculation in the film’s first half (putting the audience in the position of the characters, who also have no idea what is going on beyond their immediate surroundings), but specific facts are later provided by a downed
U.S. Air Force pilot,
Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Tanner.
Director/screenwriter John Milius reported that he'd obtained the help and input of former
Secretary of State and
NATO commander General
Alexander Haig to create the backstory/scenario, which required an invasion of the US by communist countries with minimal use of nuclear weapons on both sides.
The film’s backstory involves several
alternate history political precedents. The
Green Party came to power in
West Germany, forcing the removal of U.S. forces from that nation and all nuclear weapons from Europe. The resulting upheaval left
NATO as a political nonentity, with only
Britain remaining as a U.S. ally. At the same time, Soviet allies
Cuba and
Nicaragua each expanded their armies to 500,000 men, subsequently overrunning
El Salvador and
Honduras. A
civil war in
Mexico resulted in that country falling behind the
Communist "
Iron Curtain." In a parallel to
Operation Barbarossa, the
Soviet Union, like
Nazi Germany, now had a broad base from which to invade its primary enemy, and thousands of troops from
satellite nations to augment their own armies.
During this time, the
Soviet Union was suffering its worst wheat harvest in 55 years and food riots were occurring throughout the nations of the
Warsaw Pact. Apparently desperate for food to feed its people, the Soviet Union and its allies launched a full scale invasion of the United States. Although the movie was released in 1984, the story itself takes place in the near future, starting in 1989 and ending in 1990, because the
Holodomor of 1932-1934 is probably what is being referred to in the opening narration as the previous "worst wheat harvest" that happened 55 years beforehand.
The Soviets utilize a three-phase attack. First, they use
strategic nuclear strikes to destroy key points of communication including several major U.S. cities (
Omaha,
Kansas City and
Washington, D.C. are specifically cited). Strategic nuclear weapons are also used to destroy
ICBM bases in Montana and the Dakotas. In addition, it's hinted that Cuban infiltrators aid in confusing U.S. forces by raiding
Strategic Air Command bases throughout the Midwest and Texas. Coupled with these nuclear attacks, Soviet transport aircraft containing elite Soviet
VDV and Cuban
paratroopers slipped through the U.S. radar disguised as commercial airliners.
The second phase saw Cuban and Nicaraguan armies (with small contingents of Soviet forces) pouring across the
U.S.-Mexico border into the
Great Plains of the United States. The third phase involved a Soviet invasion of
Alaska across the
Bering Strait from
Siberia. They crossed into
Canada occupying the
Yukon,
British Columbia and Western
Alberta, most likely including
Calgary, and cut the
Alaskan Pipeline, but were decisively stopped at the
U.S.-Canadian border by U.S. forces (thus preventing a link-up with Soviet forces occupying the Great Plains).
Elsewhere, Britain remained loyal to her American allies, but suffered heavily for it, Tanner's remark that the UK won't last long suggests that without support from mainland Europe and the US, the
Red Banner Northern Fleet had defeated the
Royal Navy and cut off the British Isles.
China also declared war upon the Soviet Union; the reason for this is unexplained, though there was some long-standing animosity between the two powers resulting from the
Sino-Soviet split. Colonel Tanner refers to there being some "600 million screaming
Chinamen" on the American side. When asked "I thought there were a billion screaming Chinamen?", he cryptically replies "There were" and throws his drink in the fire, causing it to flare and suggesting China had suffered Soviet
nuclear strikes. In the film, the effects of the nuclear weapons are not shown because the location (northern
Colorado) is far from any bombed sites.
The Communist forces manage to occupy and control a large region of the central United States, extending as far west as the Rocky Mountains, and north to
Cheyenne, Wyoming, across
Kansas to the Mississippi River in the east.
Denver is also under siege. Tanner mentions that conditions in Denver are particularly bad, with people living on "rats, sawdust bread, and, sometimes, each other." He says the remaining holdouts most likely won't survive.
Once the lines are stabilized, it quickly becomes a
conventional war with both sides ceasing their use of
nuclear weapons. Colonel Tanner explains that the Soviets are reluctant to use any more nuclear weapons, as they want to conquer the United States, not destroy it utterly, and the U.S. government is unwilling to use tactical nuclear weapons on or over their own soil against the invading armies. The Soviets work through American collaborators, such as Daryl's father, at the local level to help them maintain order.
Cast
Themes
Red Dawn depicts
collaboration, portraying the local mayor as someone who works with the occupational forces. Actor
Lane Smith plays the role of the “
Vichyite” mayor who tries to appease the occupational authorities. He watches as several of the residents of his town are executed as insurgents and later gives up his own son (who is later executed by the Wolverines as a result) to the
KGB.
Director Jon Milius, a strong supporter of the Second Amendment portrays the private ownership of weapons as a necessary element of
anti-Communism. Early in the film, a bumper sticker seen on a truck states a classic gun owner’s creed; “They can have my gun when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers.” The shot moves down to a dead hand holding an empty
Colt pistol as well as shots of the same pistol being pried from the dead person's hand by a
Soviet paratrooper. As the protagonists flee the initial invasion of Calumet, they stop at a local sporting goods store owned by one of their fathers. He tells them to gather supplies and gives them several rifles and pistols along with boxes of ammunition. (The father and his wife are later executed because of the guns missing from the store’s inventory.) In a later scene, Colonel Bella, the Cuban officer, instructs the KGB to go to the local sporting goods store and obtain the paperwork of local citizens who own firearms. The Cuban officer specifically refers to
Form 4473, which is the actual BATF form used to record the sale of a firearm by a
dealer to a private citizen in the United States. Later in the film the Wolverines make almost exclusive use of captured Soviet arms from their first engagement onwards, possibly due to limited stocks of ammunition for their own civilian weapons (
revolvers,
pump-action shotguns,
lever-action rifles and
bolt-action rifles) or the greater effectiveness of the captured military weapons (such as the
AKM,
RPK and
RPG-7).
Although most of the high school partisans are killed, a voice-over appears at the end of the movie by Erica (
Lea Thompson), (one of the two survivors) showing a World War III memorial. The
American flag flying above it implies the United States had—eventually—won the war.
The exact quote framing "Partisan Rock" is:
"I never saw the brothers again. In time, this war, like every other war, ended. But I never forgot, and I come to this place often, when no one else does."
"In the early days of World War 3, guerrillas, mostly children, placed the names of their lost upon this rock. They fought here alone;
And gave up their lives, So that this nation shan't perish from the earth."
Development
The script for
Red Dawn was written by John Milius and
Kevin Reynolds (director of
Waterworld and ) from a story by Reynolds. The original screenplay, called
Ten Soldiers, was more akin to
Lord of the Flies, the classic novel (and later a film) about the aggressive nature of man, than to the action film it eventually became. Some of the changes made to
Ten Soldiers included a shift in focus from the conflict within the group of teens to the conflict between the teens and their oppressors, and the acceleration of the ages of some of the characters from early teens to high school age and beyond. John Milius was inspired to a degree by the
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, basing the tactics of the "Wolverines" off those of the
mujahideen in fighting the occupying Russian army.
Red Dawn’s story and conception are similar to
John Steinbeck’s
The Moon Is Down, which is a story about a town occupied by a foreign army. The book, which was published during the height of
World War II, was widely circulated in underground Europe and extremely popular as propaganda because the people of occupied Europe believed it spoke directly to them in a realistic way. Unlike
Red Dawn,
The Moon Is Down is purposely vague and doesn't name the location of the town or the nationality of the invaders, but it didn't start out that way. In the book’s early form, the town was in America and the invaders were
Nazis. Steinbeck met much resistance for this version of the story from his colleagues because it seemed to be defeatist, and so Steinbeck stripped all national references from the book.
The movie was filmed in and around the town of
Las Vegas, New Mexico. Many of the buildings and structures which appeared in the film, including a historic
Fred Harvey Company hotel adjacent to the
train depot, the Las Vegas train yard, and a building near downtown which was repainted with the name of “Calumet, Colorado” where the movie was set, are still there today as they appeared in the film. An old
Safeway grocery store was also converted to a sound stage and used for several scenes in the movie.
Before starting work on the movie, the cast underwent a "realistic", intensive eight-week military training course. During that time, production crews designed and built special combat vehicles in Newhall, California. Among their “fleet” were 15 Soviet armored vehicles (including a
ZSU-23-4 “Shilka” mobile
antiaircraft gun, several
T-72 main battle tanks, and various
BMP and
BTR armored personnel carriers), several
Yak-38 “Forger” vertical take-off and landing Soviet Naval aircraft (the Soviet Navy flag is clearly visible on the side of the air intake), and three
Mi-24 “Hind-A” helicopter gunships (improvised from
Aérospatiale Pumas). The movie’s Soviet T-72 tank was such a precise replica that “while it was being carted around Los Angeles, two
CIA officers followed it to the studio and wanted to know where it had come from.”
Five of the 36 parachutists who took part in the invasion scene early in the film were injured when high winds blew them as far as one mile off target. Parachutist Jim Fisher, wearing a Soviet paratrooper uniform including full Soviet insignia and including an AKM Assault Rifle, landed in a tree and found himself calling out to local rescuers including armed citizens and police: “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot! I'm not a Russian soldier!”
Taglines
In our time, no foreign army has ever occupied American soil. Until now.
The invading armies planned for everything—except for eight kids called “The Wolverines.”
8:44 A.M. A full scale military invasion by foreign troops begins. Total surprise. Almost total success. A gang of high school kids become the last line of defense.
The original tagline for the movie was “No foreign army has ever occupied American soil.” This had to be changed because it was factually inaccurate. The British Army captured Washington, D.C. during the War of 1812 and set fire to the White House and other buildings. Fort Detroit was held by the British Army and Canadian militia and British forces from Nova Scotia captured most of Northern Maine in 1814 to occupy it until the war's end. In 1916 Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa attacked and looted the town of Columbus, New Mexico killing 19 Americans before being driven off by the US Army. In 1942, the Japanese seized the islands of Attu, Kiska, and Agattu in Alaska’s Aleutian chain. At the time, Alaska wasn't a U.S. state, but it was a territory, so it was still U.S. “soil.” The United States recaptured the islands the following year. Japan also conquered Guam, Wake Island, and the Commonwealth of the Philippines in the course of WWII, though they were later recaptured as well.
Production notes
The plot for the movie, a Russian invasion from Mexico, etc., was based on CIA and War College studies of US weaknesses at the time.
The original trailer shows a tank rolling up to a McDonald’s restaurant where enemy soldiers are eating. This scene doesn't appear in the final cut. It was apparently removed due to a mass murder at a San Ysidro, California, McDonald’s just weeks prior to the film's 1984 opening (see McDonald’s Massacre). The trailer also contains an activation of the Emergency Broadcast System which also doesn't appear in the movie.
William Smith's character, Colonel Strelnikov ("The Hunter"), is named after Tom Courtenay's character from the film Doctor Zhivago (1965). In real life, Smith, a Korean War Veteran and U.S.Air Force Intelligence Specialist, is a fluent Russian speaker who taught the language at UCLA for several years.
Popular culture
The operation to capture former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was named after the movie (Operation Red Dawn), as well as its targets, which were dubbed Wolverine 1 and Wolverine 2. The Army captain who named the mission said that "Operation Red Dawn was so fitting because it was a patriotic, pro-American movie." Director John Millius said about the operation's name: "I was deeply flattered and honored. It's nice to have a lasting legacy."
Further Information
Get more info on 'Red Dawn'.
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