Red Dawn: Difference between revisions

* [[Death From Above]]: Early in the movie, a lone American helicopter shows up a couple of times to strafe or fire rockets at Soviet positions, serving as [[The Cavalry]] in a [[Gunship Rescue]] at one point. Gets an [[Ironic Echo]] towards the end when a pair of Soviet Hind gunships slaughter half the group. Also, towards the last act of the film, we see American jets doing bombing runs in "No Man's Land".

* [[Defiant to the End]]: The first group of civilians executed by way of reprisal for the Wolverines' attacks dies singing ''America the Beautiful'' in the face of the Soviet firing squad.

** It was also delayed because the premise of China attacking America scared off all other major distributors, so MGM had to change the villain to North Korea in order to make it more attractive to film companies, and even then it took several months before it finally found a distributor willing to take a chance on the film.

* [[Dirty Communists]]: Averted; though the movie doesn't stint in depicting Communist atrocities, some enemy soldiers are portrayed as human beings rather than evil faceless mooks.

*** Actually, it was mostly done to help the film secure a distributor, as no other major studio wanted to touch a film about China invading America.

* [[Expanded Universe]]: [http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=124063 This thread on alternatehistory.com], which got to 335 pages (!) as of April 2011 before moving to [http://www.tboverse.us/HPCAFORUM/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=31 its current location], is a so-called "double-blind what-if" in which posters role-play veterans of the war depicted in the movie. Much discussion on weapons and campaigns of the war, as well as on the fates of surviving movie characters; for example, {{spoiler|Colonel Bella ended up defecting to the Allied side shortly after the events of the movie, became a U.S. citizen and helped U.S. authorities track down war criminals after the end of the war.}}

* [[Facing the Bullets One-Liner]]: God Bless America...

** Also,

* [[Not So Different]]:

** The Soviet soldiers in general. When they're not getting shot or blown up, they talk about their families, goof around, invent hilarious translations for English signage, and otherwise act a little like tourists.

{{quote|'''Matt''': "What's the difference, Jed? Tell me, what's the difference between us and them?"

'''Jed''': "Because...[[Occupiers Out of Our Country!|WE LIVE HERE!]]" ''(shoots soldier)'' }}

{{quote|'''Bella''': "I have seen this before. But these are my men!"}}

* [[Nuke'Em]]: Precision nuclear strikes wipe out silos in the Dakotas, plus key communications points like Omaha, Washington, and Kansas City. Further strikes are averted by the Soviets' need to take the United States intact. Other countries though...

'''Col. Tanner''': "Six hundred million screaming Chinamen."

'''Darryl Bates''': "Last I heard, there were a billion screaming Chinamen."

** It's never explained what happened to the rest of the Nuclear Triad, like the SSBN's each of which carry at least a dozen Missles and most of which are likely carrying mutiple warheads. Or the Nuclear Armed B-52's, which were often kept on Airborne Alert during the Cold War. Apparently the subs and bombers decided to sit out the war as well.

* [[One Sided Battle]]: The Wolverines regularly wipe out [[Mooks|larger forces]], even though guerilla doctrine advises using a large number of guerillas to attack much smaller army units. There is some thought given to tactics however, such as making an ambushed force take cover in an area covered by claymore mines, or [[We Need a Distraction|using the girls to plant bombs]]. Also by the end of the movie all except two of the Wolverines have been killed.