Red Dawn: Difference between revisions

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* [[Analogy Backfire]]: Only if one assumes this was analogous to the USSR invading Afghanistan. Many Taliban fighters gained experience repelling the Soviets, and would later use those skills attacking civilians.

** And, ironically, Americans.

* [[Anti Villain]]: Colonel Bella, who is an officer in the invading army, but finds himself sympathizing with the guerrillas.

* [[Anti-Villain]]: Colonel Bella, who is an officer in the invading army, but finds himself sympathizing with the guerrillas.

* [[Anyone Can Die]]: Even girls, subverting [[Men Are the Expendable Gender]].

* [[Axe Crazy]]: Robert slides down the rungs.

* [[Battle Cry]]: ''[[Clifftop Caterwauling|"Wolverines!"]]'' The Wolverines are the school football team. The protagonists leave the spray-painted symbol of their mascot at the site of ambushes.

* [[Bilingual Dialogue]]: Cuban and Russian troops speak their own language, with subtitles. Played for laughs in one scene when a Russian officer playing tourist [[Fun With Foreign Languages|pretends to translate]] a forestry sign, saying it commemorates [[In Soviet Russia Trope Mocks You|a bloody Indian revolt]].

* [[Bilingual Dialogue]]: Cuban and Russian troops speak their own language, with subtitles. Played for laughs in one scene when a Russian officer playing tourist [[Fun With Foreign Languages|pretends to translate]] a forestry sign, saying it commemorates [[In Soviet Russia, Trope Mocks You|a bloody Indian revolt]].

* [[Bittersweet Ending]], The kids lose their innocence and {{spoiler|All but two lose their lives}}, though it's suggested by the Partisan Rock memorial that [[America Wins the War]].

* [[Black Dude Dies First]]: The History teacher at the beginning of the movie is the ''very first person'' killed onscreen when he walks up to some [[Its Raining Men|heavily armed paratroopers]], [[What an Idiot|asking them]] [[Too Dumb to Live|what's going on]].

* [[Black Dude Dies First]]: The History teacher at the beginning of the movie is the ''very first person'' killed onscreen when he walks up to some [[Its Raining Men|heavily armed paratroopers]], [[What an Idiot!|asking them]] [[Too Dumb to Live|what's going on]].

** Everyone thought it was a military training drop which had been blown off course -- people don't automatically [[Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here|assume they're being invaded]].

** In addition, Aardvark, the [[Token Minority|one Latino]] among the Wolverines, is the first one of them to get killed.

* [[Broken Bird]]: It's [[I'll Kill You|strongly implied]] that one of the girls was raped by Soviet soldiers.

* [[Broken Bird]]: It's [[I'll Kill You!|strongly implied]] that one of the girls was raped by Soviet soldiers.

* [[Child Soldiers]]: The movie does a good job of showing how warfare can psychologically scar child soldiers.

* [[Clifftop Caterwauling]]

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* [[Eagle Land]] (Type I, of course.)

* [[Elite Mooks]]: Soviet ''spetsnaz'' are brought in to track down the Wolverines. They're as effective as all the other mooks. They may however have been the ones responsible for the ambush that got {{spoiler|Robert and Toni}} killed. Colonel Strelnikov is also the one who kills {{spoiler|Jed and Matt, although Jed kills him too}}.

* [[Et Tu Brute]]: {{spoiler|The revelation that one of their own has betrayed them signifies a turn for the worst for the Wolverines fortunes.}}

* [[Et Tu, Brute?]]: {{spoiler|The revelation that one of their own has betrayed them signifies a turn for the worst for the Wolverines fortunes.}}

* [[Exact Words]]: Early in the movie, a bumper sticker appears, with the line "[[Tempting Fate|They can have my gun when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers]]". The camera pulls back to show a communist soldier prying a handgun...

* [[Executive Meddling]]: Writer-director John Milius wanted to focus on the [[War Is Hell|war is hell]] aspect, while the studio pressed for a more idealized presentation. The most obvious result of this is the tacked-on epilogue, which explicitly states that Americans won the war due to bravery of fighters like the Wolverines. Without it, the movie would have left it open if the efforts of the Wolverines changed ''anything'' in the end. The darker approach shows through in several places, such as how many of the heroes meet their ends in meaningless deaths.

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* [[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.}}

** [[Red Dawn Plus 20|Now has its own TVTropes page]].

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

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

** Also,

{{quote| '''Spetsnaz about to be executed:''' Dogface! [[Lzherusskie|I show you how soldier dies!]]}}

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* [[Insert Grenade Here]]: When the group is pinned down by a tank (which doesn't see them) one of the main characters attempts this but gets hurt pretty badly and is unable to complete the task. {{spoiler|Instead he sets off a smoke grenade so that friendly fire can spot the tank and blow it (and him) up.}}

* [[Invaded States of America]]: Shining example.

* [[~~Its~~ Up to You]]

* [[It's Up to You]]

* [[Just Plane Wrong]]: SA 330 Pumas stand in for Mi-24 Hind-A gunships since the actual chopper wasn't the sort of thing you could borrow back in the day.

* [[La Résistance]]

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** Colonel Bella gets his moment as well when the aftermath of a Wolverines raid [[Heel Realization|reminds]] him of his own guerrilla fighter past:

{{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...

* [[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...

{{quote| '''Jed Eckert''': "Well, who *is* on our side?"<br />

'''Col. Tanner''': "Six hundred million screaming Chinamen."<br />

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* [[A Real Man Is a Killer]]: Robert drinks the blood of the first deer he shoots, and notes he likes the taste. He eventually ends up the most [[Axe Crazy]] of the Wolverines.

{{quote| "Then you'll be a real hunter. My dad said that once you do that, there's going to be something different about you, always."}}

* [[Recycled in Space]]: [[Ripped ~~From~~ the Headlines|The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan]]....in America!

* [[Recycled in Space]]: [[Ripped from the Headlines|The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan]]....in America!

* [[The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized]]: Unarmed prisoners and [[Coup De Grace|enemy wounded]] are shot by the Wolverines.

* [[Shmuck Bait]]: The Wolverines see a Soviet truck drop some supplies on the road so clumsily that it screams too easy, yet they get them without suspicion and pay the price as a Soviet attack helicopter attacks.

** Though to be fair, they were likely starving by that point.

* [[Spot the Imposter]]: On being asked what's the capital of Texas, Colonel Tanner replies "Austin" and is immediately accused by Toni of being a [[Dirty Communist]]. He replies that she's seen too many movies. It doesn't help that Tanner's answer that Austin was the capital of Texas was correct, while Toni was certain that ''[[What an Idiot|Houston]]'' was its capital. Likely a [[Shout Out]] to a well-known incident during the Battle of the Bulge (see the [[Real Life]] section of [[Spot the Imposter]]).

* [[Spot the Imposter]]: On being asked what's the capital of Texas, Colonel Tanner replies "Austin" and is immediately accused by Toni of being a [[Dirty Communist]]. He replies that she's seen too many movies. It doesn't help that Tanner's answer that Austin was the capital of Texas was correct, while Toni was certain that ''[[What an Idiot!|Houston]]'' was its capital. Likely a [[Shout Out]] to a well-known incident during the Battle of the Bulge (see the [[Real Life]] section of [[Spot the Imposter]]).

* [[Truth in Television]]: When the film was released, NPR had a former member of the Dutch Resistance give a review of it. He said the movie exactly portrayed the life of a partisan force, including the desperation, mistrust, and "cannibalism" (ie, "swallowed a bug" scene) that occurs.

* [[Token Minority]]: Averted for the remake. Early scripts mentioned an Asian American Wolverine named Erica Yu. However, "Erica" is now being played by the white Isabel Lucas.

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* [[World War III]]

* [[Yanks With Tanks]]: A single M1 Abrams appears briefly, curiously unsupported by other armour or infantry.

* [[You Meddling Kids]]: And the Reds [[~~Its~~ Up to You|would have won]], too.

* [[You Meddling Kids]]: And the Reds [[It's Up to You|would have won]], too.

* [[Your Mom]]

{{quote| '''Spetsnaz about to be executed:''' Dogface! [[Lzherusskie|I show you how soldier dies!]]<br />

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