Podcast 59: Red Dawn (1984)

April 28, 2022 Jon S Movies, Podcasting 01:18:03110MB 0 Comments
Red Dawn

The 3 Guys Podcast

Recorded on 4/21/2022

In our time, no foreign army has ever occupied American soil. Until now. In this episode we review the 80s classic movie, Red Dawn (released 1984) starring Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson, Jennifer Grey, Ben Johnson, Harry Dean Stanton, Ron O’Neal, William Smith and Powers Boothe. This week we welcome back our special guest Jill. WARNING: There will be SPOILERS!

The 3 Guys Rating

3.2/5
Red Dawn

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Notes From The Show

  • Quick Synopsis

  • Released: August 10, 1984

    Directed By:   John Milius

    Screenplay By:   Kevin Reynolds & John Milius

    Stars: Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson, Jennifer Grey, Ben Johnson, Harry Dean Stanton, Ron O’Neal, William Smith and Powers Boothe

    Tagline: In our time, no foreign army has ever occupied American soil. Until now.

    How did this movie do
    Budget: $17 Million
    Box office: $38 Million

  • Casting

    • Emilio Estevez was originally cast as Jed, but had to drop out due to other filming commitments.

  • Connections

    • The film’s opening prologue states: “Soviet Union suffers worst wheat harvest in 55 years. Labor and food riots in Poland. Soviet troops invade. Cuba and Nicaragua reach troop strength goals of 500,000. El Salvador and Honduras fall. Greens party gains control of West German Parliament. Demands withdrawal of nuclear weapons from European soil. Mexico plunged into revolution. NATO dissolves. United States stands alone”.

    • In the movie, United States is strategically isolated after NATO is disbanded, which is a recent political point made by various politicians (that we should pull out of NATO). Far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen, one of the candidates currently in France’s presidential election, wants to pull France out of NATO.

    • The Gun Owners of America honored Milius for “dramatically depicting the importance in our time of the Second Amendment”.

    • Unsecured borders is another point made in this film. The plot, a Soviet and Cuban invasion from Mexico, was based on C.I.A. and War College studies of U.S. weaknesses at the time.

    • The operation to capture former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was named Operation Red Dawn and its targets were dubbed “Wolverine 1” and “Wolverine 2”. Army Captain Geoffrey McMurray, who named the mission, said the naming “was so fitting because it was a patriotic, pro-American movie.” Milius approved of the naming, saying “I was deeply flattered and honored. It’s nice to have a lasting legacy.”

    • During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, several Russian armored vehicles destroyed by the Ukrainians appeared with the word “Wolverines” spray-painted in white, a clear reference to the film. One theory is that numerically the Ukrainian are outnumbered by the Russians. Similar to the scenario depicted in the movie Red Dawn.

    • The U.S. flag in the classroom at the start of the movie, and other scenes, is a forty-eight-star flag. This was the flag during World War II, and a symbolic reference for a movie portraying the start of World War III.

    • The original movie tagline said, “In our time, no foreign army has ever occupied American soil.” Some historians believe that is historically inaccurate. British troops occupied American territory during the War of 1812. They occupied an area outside of New Orleans, and occupied and burned large parts of Washington, D.C., including the White House, in 1814. Japanese forces occupied several islands off the coast of Alaska during World War II. However, the statement “In our time” (within a viewer’s lifetime) is technically correct. No viewer was alive during the War of 1812, and Alaska was still a territory when Japan invaded. It became a state in 1959.

    • The script was intended to be anti-war. John Milius wanted the movie to show the futility of war.

    • In game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the campaign where the Russians invade the United States is named ‘Wolverines!’

    • Milius was reportedly “suggested” by the government to tone down the violence in the movie to get a PG-13 rating, rather then an R. The Pentagon viewed the film as a way to recruit kids into the military and didn’t want to prevent teenagers from seeing it.

    • The film and its makers faced widespread criticism for promoting right-wing attitudes and glamorising gun violence to young audiences. On release, The New York Times called the film “rabidly inflammatory,” whilst The Hollywood Reporter declared it to be “full of grand heroic flourishes that border on the self-parodic.”

    • Famed critic Roger Ebert was more damning, blasting the film as “corrupt from beginning to end… it’s a total fantasy pandering to teenagers.” Red Dawn is one of a number of 80s movies mocked in the Dead Kennedys song Rambozo the Clown: “War is sexy! War is fun! Iron Eagle! Red Dawn!”

    • Patrick Swayze argued that the film was more about the will to survive and the power of the human spirit, rather than politics.

    • Charlie Sheen declared, regarding this movie, “I am fed up with the Soviets. If they ever walked in, I’d be armed and ready.” He also mocked his liberal father Martin Sheen, jeering, “My father’s such a goddamn activist, he thinks he’s f***ing Gandhi.”

    • John Milius claims he was blacklisted by Hollywood because of the film’s political overtones.

  • Trivia

    • Originally titled Ten Soldiers

    • It was the first film to be released in the U.S. with a PG-13 rating

    • At the time it was released, Red Dawn was considered the most violent film by the Guinness Book of Records and the National Coalition on Television Violence, with a rate of 134 acts of violence per hour, or 2.23 per minute.

    • The 2007 DVD Special Edition includes an on-screen “Carnage Counter”.

    • DELETED SCENE: Lea Thompson said the original cut featured a love scene between her and Powers Boothe but it “was cut out after some previews because of the age difference. And that was the main reason I took the movie—it was such a terrific scene.

    • DELETED STORYLINE: A more in-depth love story between Jed (Patrick Swazye) and Toni (Jennifer Grey) was cut from the final movie.

    • DELETED STORYLINE: Powers Boothe’s character was originally written as a proud military man who was also anti-war, and who served as the movie’s “voice of reason.” Boothe was less than thrilled when the character was made into a less complex and more conventional warrior.

    • ALTERED ENDING: The upbeat epilogue showing Partisan Rock, with the voice-over explaining that America eventually won the war, was added at the studio’s insistence. John Milius for his part, viewed the ending as darkly ironic, suggesting that the characters’ struggles were ultimately reduced to a lonely monument.

    • Five of the thirty-six paratroopers in the beginning of the movie did get blown as much as a mile off course during filming. One of them got stuck in a tree. He had to convince locals that he wasn’t really an enemy soldier.

    • The plot, a Soviet and Cuban invasion from Mexico, was based on C.I.A. and War College studies of U.S. weaknesses at the time.

    • As it got colder, the actors and actresses had to adapt to freezing temperatures, often well below 0°F (-17.7°C).

    • Patrick Swayze got frostbite during filming. A few years later, he said it still felt like someone shoving toothpicks up his fingernails when he got too cold.

    • Thomas Howell had been a rodeo cowboy. He helped teach the rest of the cast to ride horses.

    • Real Green Berets helped with the actors’ boot camp training.

    • During their boot camp training, the actors only got to eat when their instructor felt they earned it.

    • The actors trained using real weapons so that they wouldn’t make mistakes using the prop ones. Lea Thompson recalled, “We went to a firing range and there was every kind of gun you could imagine.”

    • Patrick Swayze stayed in character throughout filming. He said, “I became Jed Eckert”.

    • Two C.I.A. men came to the set, having received reports of Russian tanks in the area. They were relieved to hear the tanks were just for a movie.

    • Charlie Sheen’s feature film debut.

    • Many of the fighting techniques the actors learned came from Native American tribes, like the Apaches.

    • The illustration of Genghis Khan in the high school classroom at the beginning of the film is a caricature of writer and director John Milius.

    • Captain Dale Dye was the military adviser for this film, he was also in charge of putting the cast and soviet troop extras through boot camp. Dale Dye also advised films such as Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, and Platoon. Charlie Sheen would see Dale Dye again when he was cast as the main actor in Platoon, 2 years later.

    • The movie theater in the movie is showing Alexander Nevsky (1938), about a Russian Prince fighting off an invading army.

    • The Russian text seen in red lettering above the movie’s title in the film and on movie posters is Russian for “Red Dawn”.

    • William Smith, Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, and Darren Dalton appeared in The Outsiders (1983).

    • Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze starred in Dirty Dancing (1987).

    • Charlie Sheen and Jennifer Grey appeared in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986).

    • John Milius, Basil Poledouris, and William Smith previously worked together on Conan the Barbarian (1982).

    • Pancreatic cancer claimed three actors from this movie. Ron O’Neal died of pancreatic cancer in 2004, Patrick Swayze died of the disease in 2009 and Powers Boothe died of a heart attack after battling pancreatic cancer in 2017.

    • CONTINUITY ERROR: The movie takes place during the span of 6 months plus but during this time, none of the characters’ hair change at all.

    • During the scene where Lea Thompson’s character interrogates Powers Boothe’s character on the Capitol of Texas she incorrectly claims it is Houston. But factually, Houston was the capitol of the Republic of Texas from 1837 to 1839.

    • The movie was released in 1984, the same as the title of a George Orwell novel about totalitarianism taking over the world.

    • Jed writes his own name as well as Matt’s name on the rock before both are shot and presumably killed at the end of the movie.

    • John Milius asked actresses whether they’d be willing to kill a rabbit to survive at the audition.

    • Fans still yell “Wolverines!” at C. Thomas Howell. “I get that about twice a week in real life,” Howell told USA Today in 2012. “And about 40 times a day through Twitter.” He said in real life he doesn’t shout back, “but on Twitter, I cannot help typing a ‘Wolverine’ with a few exclamation points on it.”

    • John Milius Directed Feature Films: Dillinger (1973), The Wind and the Lion (1975), Big Wednesday (1978), Conan the Barbarian (1982), Red Dawn (1984), Farewell to the King (1989), Flight of the Intruder (1981)

    • John Milius wrote the screenplays for many movies including Apocalypse Now (1979)

Released: August 10, 1984

Directed By:   John Milius

Screenplay By:   Kevin Reynolds & John Milius

Stars: Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson, Jennifer Grey, Ben Johnson, Harry Dean Stanton, Ron O’Neal, William Smith and Powers Boothe

Tagline: In our time, no foreign army has ever occupied American soil. Until now.

How did this movie do
Budget: $17 Million
Box office: $38 Million

  • Emilio Estevez was originally cast as Jed, but had to drop out due to other filming commitments.
  • The film’s opening prologue states: “Soviet Union suffers worst wheat harvest in 55 years. Labor and food riots in Poland. Soviet troops invade. Cuba and Nicaragua reach troop strength goals of 500,000. El Salvador and Honduras fall. Greens party gains control of West German Parliament. Demands withdrawal of nuclear weapons from European soil. Mexico plunged into revolution. NATO dissolves. United States stands alone”.

  • In the movie, United States is strategically isolated after NATO is disbanded, which is a recent political point made by various politicians (that we should pull out of NATO). Far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen, one of the candidates currently in France’s presidential election, wants to pull France out of NATO.

  • The Gun Owners of America honored Milius for “dramatically depicting the importance in our time of the Second Amendment”.

  • Unsecured borders is another point made in this film. The plot, a Soviet and Cuban invasion from Mexico, was based on C.I.A. and War College studies of U.S. weaknesses at the time.

  • The operation to capture former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was named Operation Red Dawn and its targets were dubbed “Wolverine 1” and “Wolverine 2”. Army Captain Geoffrey McMurray, who named the mission, said the naming “was so fitting because it was a patriotic, pro-American movie.” Milius approved of the naming, saying “I was deeply flattered and honored. It’s nice to have a lasting legacy.”

  • During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, several Russian armored vehicles destroyed by the Ukrainians appeared with the word “Wolverines” spray-painted in white, a clear reference to the film. One theory is that numerically the Ukrainian are outnumbered by the Russians. Similar to the scenario depicted in the movie Red Dawn.

  • The U.S. flag in the classroom at the start of the movie, and other scenes, is a forty-eight-star flag. This was the flag during World War II, and a symbolic reference for a movie portraying the start of World War III.

  • The original movie tagline said, “In our time, no foreign army has ever occupied American soil.” Some historians believe that is historically inaccurate. British troops occupied American territory during the War of 1812. They occupied an area outside of New Orleans, and occupied and burned large parts of Washington, D.C., including the White House, in 1814. Japanese forces occupied several islands off the coast of Alaska during World War II. However, the statement “In our time” (within a viewer’s lifetime) is technically correct. No viewer was alive during the War of 1812, and Alaska was still a territory when Japan invaded. It became a state in 1959.

  • The script was intended to be anti-war. John Milius wanted the movie to show the futility of war.

  • In game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the campaign where the Russians invade the United States is named ‘Wolverines!’

  • Milius was reportedly “suggested” by the government to tone down the violence in the movie to get a PG-13 rating, rather then an R. The Pentagon viewed the film as a way to recruit kids into the military and didn’t want to prevent teenagers from seeing it.

  • The film and its makers faced widespread criticism for promoting right-wing attitudes and glamorising gun violence to young audiences. On release, The New York Times called the film “rabidly inflammatory,” whilst The Hollywood Reporter declared it to be “full of grand heroic flourishes that border on the self-parodic.”

  • Famed critic Roger Ebert was more damning, blasting the film as “corrupt from beginning to end… it’s a total fantasy pandering to teenagers.” Red Dawn is one of a number of 80s movies mocked in the Dead Kennedys song Rambozo the Clown: “War is sexy! War is fun! Iron Eagle! Red Dawn!”

  • Patrick Swayze argued that the film was more about the will to survive and the power of the human spirit, rather than politics.

  • Charlie Sheen declared, regarding this movie, “I am fed up with the Soviets. If they ever walked in, I’d be armed and ready.” He also mocked his liberal father Martin Sheen, jeering, “My father’s such a goddamn activist, he thinks he’s f***ing Gandhi.”

  • John Milius claims he was blacklisted by Hollywood because of the film’s political overtones.
  • Originally titled Ten Soldiers

  • It was the first film to be released in the U.S. with a PG-13 rating

  • At the time it was released, Red Dawn was considered the most violent film by the Guinness Book of Records and the National Coalition on Television Violence, with a rate of 134 acts of violence per hour, or 2.23 per minute.

  • The 2007 DVD Special Edition includes an on-screen “Carnage Counter”.

  • DELETED SCENE: Lea Thompson said the original cut featured a love scene between her and Powers Boothe but it “was cut out after some previews because of the age difference. And that was the main reason I took the movie—it was such a terrific scene.

  • DELETED STORYLINE: A more in-depth love story between Jed (Patrick Swazye) and Toni (Jennifer Grey) was cut from the final movie.

  • DELETED STORYLINE: Powers Boothe’s character was originally written as a proud military man who was also anti-war, and who served as the movie’s “voice of reason.” Boothe was less than thrilled when the character was made into a less complex and more conventional warrior.

  • ALTERED ENDING: The upbeat epilogue showing Partisan Rock, with the voice-over explaining that America eventually won the war, was added at the studio’s insistence. John Milius for his part, viewed the ending as darkly ironic, suggesting that the characters’ struggles were ultimately reduced to a lonely monument.

  • Five of the thirty-six paratroopers in the beginning of the movie did get blown as much as a mile off course during filming. One of them got stuck in a tree. He had to convince locals that he wasn’t really an enemy soldier.

  • The plot, a Soviet and Cuban invasion from Mexico, was based on C.I.A. and War College studies of U.S. weaknesses at the time.

  • As it got colder, the actors and actresses had to adapt to freezing temperatures, often well below 0°F (-17.7°C).

  • Patrick Swayze got frostbite during filming. A few years later, he said it still felt like someone shoving toothpicks up his fingernails when he got too cold.

  • Thomas Howell had been a rodeo cowboy. He helped teach the rest of the cast to ride horses.

  • Real Green Berets helped with the actors’ boot camp training.

  • During their boot camp training, the actors only got to eat when their instructor felt they earned it.

  • The actors trained using real weapons so that they wouldn’t make mistakes using the prop ones. Lea Thompson recalled, “We went to a firing range and there was every kind of gun you could imagine.”

  • Patrick Swayze stayed in character throughout filming. He said, “I became Jed Eckert”.

  • Two C.I.A. men came to the set, having received reports of Russian tanks in the area. They were relieved to hear the tanks were just for a movie.

  • Charlie Sheen’s feature film debut.

  • Many of the fighting techniques the actors learned came from Native American tribes, like the Apaches.

  • The illustration of Genghis Khan in the high school classroom at the beginning of the film is a caricature of writer and director John Milius.

  • Captain Dale Dye was the military adviser for this film, he was also in charge of putting the cast and soviet troop extras through boot camp. Dale Dye also advised films such as Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, and Platoon. Charlie Sheen would see Dale Dye again when he was cast as the main actor in Platoon, 2 years later.

  • The movie theater in the movie is showing Alexander Nevsky (1938), about a Russian Prince fighting off an invading army.

  • The Russian text seen in red lettering above the movie’s title in the film and on movie posters is Russian for “Red Dawn”.

  • William Smith, Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, and Darren Dalton appeared in The Outsiders (1983).

  • Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze starred in Dirty Dancing (1987).

  • Charlie Sheen and Jennifer Grey appeared in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986).

  • John Milius, Basil Poledouris, and William Smith previously worked together on Conan the Barbarian (1982).

  • Pancreatic cancer claimed three actors from this movie. Ron O’Neal died of pancreatic cancer in 2004, Patrick Swayze died of the disease in 2009 and Powers Boothe died of a heart attack after battling pancreatic cancer in 2017.

  • CONTINUITY ERROR: The movie takes place during the span of 6 months plus but during this time, none of the characters’ hair change at all.

  • During the scene where Lea Thompson’s character interrogates Powers Boothe’s character on the Capitol of Texas she incorrectly claims it is Houston. But factually, Houston was the capitol of the Republic of Texas from 1837 to 1839.

  • The movie was released in 1984, the same as the title of a George Orwell novel about totalitarianism taking over the world.

  • Jed writes his own name as well as Matt’s name on the rock before both are shot and presumably killed at the end of the movie.

  • John Milius asked actresses whether they’d be willing to kill a rabbit to survive at the audition.

  • Fans still yell “Wolverines!” at C. Thomas Howell. “I get that about twice a week in real life,” Howell told USA Today in 2012. “And about 40 times a day through Twitter.” He said in real life he doesn’t shout back, “but on Twitter, I cannot help typing a ‘Wolverine’ with a few exclamation points on it.”

  • John Milius Directed Feature Films: Dillinger (1973), The Wind and the Lion (1975), Big Wednesday (1978), Conan the Barbarian (1982), Red Dawn (1984), Farewell to the King (1989), Flight of the Intruder (1981)

  • John Milius wrote the screenplays for many movies including Apocalypse Now (1979)

About The Movie From IMDB

Red Dawn Action, Drama, Thriller, War | August 10, 1984 (United States) 6.3
Director: John MiliusWriter: Kevin Reynolds, John MiliusStars: Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, Lea ThompsonSummary: From out of the sky, Soviet, Nicaraguan, and Cuban troops begin landing on the football field of a Colorado high school. In a few seconds, the paratroopers have attacked the school and sent a group of teenagers fleeing into the mountains. Armed only with hunting rifles, pistols, and bows and arrows, the teens struggle to survive the bitter winter and the Soviet K.G.B. patrols hunting for them. Eventually, trouble arises when they kill a group of Soviet soldiers on patrol in the highlands. Soon they will wage their own guerrilla warfare against the invading Soviet troops under the banner of "Wolverines!" ?Derek O'Cain

Photos


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Videos


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Cast

Patrick Swayze
...
Jed
C. Thomas Howell
...
Robert
Lea Thompson
...
Erica
Charlie Sheen
...
Matt
Darren Dalton
...
Daryl
Jennifer Grey
...
Toni
Brad Savage
...
Danny
Doug Toby
...
Aardvark
Ben Johnson
...
Mr. Mason
Harry Dean Stanton
...
Mr. Eckert
Ron O'Neal
...
Bella
William Smith
...
Strelnikov
Vladek Sheybal
...
Bratchenko
Powers Boothe
...
Andy
Frank McRae
...
Mr. Teasdale
Roy Jenson
...
Mr. Morris
Pepe Serna
...
Aardvark's Father
Lane Smith
...
Mayor Bates

See full cast >>
Countries: United StatesLanguages: English, Russian, SpanishBudget: $17,000,000 (estimated)
Source: imdb.com
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6.3
Red Dawn Action, Drama, Thriller, War | August 10, 1984 (United States)
Director: John MiliusWriter: Kevin Reynolds, John MiliusStars: Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson
Summary: It is the dawn of World War III. In the west mountains of America, a group of teenagers band together to defend their town, and their country, from invading Soviet forces.
Countries: United StatesLanguages: English, Russian, Spanish
Source: imdb.comDisclaimer: This plugin has been coded to automatically quote data from imdb.com. Not available for any other purpose. All showing data have a link to imdb.com. The user is responsible for any other use or change codes.

Quotes

Col. Andy Tanner: All that hate's gonna burn you up, kid.

Robert: It keeps me warm.

Col. Andy Tanner: [Describing the invasion] West Coast. East Coast. Down here is Mexico. First wave of the Soviet attack came in disguised as commercial charter flights the same way they did in Afghanistan in January 1980. Only they were crack Airborne outfits. Now, they took these mountain passes in the Rockies.

Jed Eckert: So, that's what hit Calumet?

Col. Andy Tanner: I guess so. They coordinated with selective nuke strikes and the missiles were a hell of a lot more accurate than we thought. They took out the silos here in the Dakotas, key points of communication.

Darryl Bates: Like what?

Col. Andy Tanner: Oh, like Omaha, Washington, Kansas City.

Darryl Bates: Gone?

Col. Andy Tanner: Yeah. That's right. Infiltrators came up illegal from Mexico. Cubans mostly. They managed to infiltrate SAC bases in the Midwest, several down in Texas and wreaked a helluva lot of havoc, I'm here to tell you. They opened up the door down here, and the whole Cuban and Nicaraguan and Latin American armies come walking right through, rolled right up here through the Great Plains.

Robert: How far did they get?

Col. Andy Tanner: Cheyenne, Wyoming... . across to Kansas. We held them at the Rockies and the Mississippi. Anyway, the Russians reinforced with 60 divisions. Sent three whole army groups across the Bering Strait into Alaska, cut the pipeline, came across Canada to link up here in the middle, but we stopped their butt cold. The lines have pretty much stabilized now.

Robert: What about Europe?

Col. Andy Tanner: I guess they figured twice in one century was enough. They're sitting this one out. All except England, and they won't last very long.

Jed Eckert: How did you get shot down, Colonel?

Col. Andy Tanner: It was five to one. I got four.

Col. Andy Tanner: The Russians need to take us in one piece, and that's why they're here. That's why they won't use nukes anymore; and we won't either, not on our own soil. The whole damn thing's pretty conventional now. Who knows? Maybe next week will be swords.

Darryl Bates: What started it?

Col. Andy Tanner: I don't know. Two toughest kids on the block, I guess. Sooner or later, they're gonna fight.

Jed Eckert: That simple, is it?

Col. Andy Tanner: Or maybe somebody just forget what it was like.

Jed Eckert: Well... . who is on our side?

Col. Andy Tanner: Six hundred million screaming Chinamen.

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

Col. Andy Tanner: There were... .

[he throws whiskey on the fire; it ignites violently, suggesting a nuclear explosion]

Prologue/Opening Narration: Soviet Union suffers worst wheat harvest in 55 years... Labor and food riots in Poland. Soviet troops invade... Cuba and Nicaragua reach troop strength goals of 500,000. El Salvador and Honduras fall... Greens Party gains control of West German Parliament. Demands withdrawal of nuclear weapons from European soil... Mexico plunged into revolution... NATO dissolves. United States stands alone.

Radio Free America Announcer: It's 11:59 on Radio Free America; this is Uncle Sam, with music, and the truth until dawn. Right now I've got a few words for some of our brothers and sisters in the occupied zone: "the chair is against the wall, the chair is against the wall", "john has a long mustache, john has a long mustache". It's twelve o'clock, American, another day closer to victory. And for all of you out there, on, or behind the line, this is your song.

[the Battle Hymn of the Republic begins to play]

Colonel Ernesto Bella: [writing a letter to his family back home]

[in Spanish; voice-over]

Colonel Ernesto Bella: I can't remember what it was to be warm. It seems a thousand years since I was a small boy in the sun. How did I come to this high, desolate place where there is nothing but loneliness? So much is lost. I want to look into your eyes and forget. It all seems so far away: a warm house where my shadow never falls; your long, black hair in my hands. There is no more revolution, only you to come back to. I will post my resignation from the Cuban Army.

Erica: You American?

Col. Andy Tanner: Red-blooded.

Erica: What's the capital of Texas?

Col. Andy Tanner: Austin.

Erica: Wrong, commie! It's Houston.

[Robert sawing off a shotgun]

Danny: They were people!

Robert: Yeah, well, so was my dad.

Aardvark: What was it like?

[Robert stops sawing]

Robert: It was good.

[Robert resumes sawing]

Col. Andy Tanner: You think you're tough for eating beans every day? There's half a million scarecrows in Denver who'd give anything for one mouthful of what you got. They've been under siege for about three months. They live on rats and sawdust bread and sometimes... on each other. At night, the pyres for the dead light up the sky. It's medieval.

Jed Eckert: [the Wolverines discover that Daryl has been "bugged" by the Russo-Cubans] Daryl... Where is it? Where is it?

[Jed grabs Daryl, gets in Daryl's face and shouts]

Jed Eckert: GOD-DAMMIT, WHERE'S THE BUG?

Darryl Bates: They made me swallow it.

Matt Eckert: Daryl, what have you done?

Darryl Bates: [nearly in tears] I went into town... and got caught.

Jed Eckert: [shaking him and screeching with rage] YOU WENT AND GOT CAUGHT! WHY?

Darryl Bates: [His voice breaks] You said we couldn't...

Robert: You told them where we were, didn't you? You told them!

Darryl Bates: [sobbing] My father turned me in. Oh God, they do things you can't imagine.

Jed Eckert: [throws him down, growling with rage] AAAAGGHHH! You SON OF A BITCH!

Col. Andy Tanner: [his dying words, after being killed while dropping a smoke bomb into a Russian tank] Come on, buddies! Come and get 'em! Shoot straight for once, you Army pukes.

[gets blown up by an American tank]

Toni: [her dying words, to Jed] Go on ahead. I'm just gonna stay here and listen to the wind a while, okay?

[He gives her a grenade, pulls the pin for her and kisses her goodbye; she then rigs herself as a boobytrap]

Tom Eckert: Boys.

Matt Eckert: Daddy. Dad.

Tom Eckert: Don't talk. Don't say anything. Let me look at ya. I knew I was right. I knew it. You're alive. I was tough on both of you. I did things that made you, made you hate me sometimes. You understand now, don't you?

Jed Eckert: What happened, dad? Why are you here? What'd you do?

Tom Eckert: It doesn't matter. One way or another, for one reason or another, we're all gone. It's all gone. Remember. Remember when you used to go in the park and play, and I used to put you two on the swings? Both of you were so damn little.

Jed Eckert: I remember. I remember all of it.

Tom Eckert: Well, I won't be there to pick you up when you fall now. Both of you have to take care of each other now.

Matt Eckert: We'll never see you again, dad.

Tom Eckert: Yes you will. I don't want to hear that, Maddy.

Matt Eckert: What happened to mom, dad? Where is she?

Tom Eckert: She's not here. I don't know where they took her. You can't afford to be crying anymore now. I don't want either one of you to ever cry for me again. Don't ever do it. Not as long as you live.

Robert: Where's my dad, Mr. Eckert? Is he here?

Tom Eckert: I don't know, son. I don't know. You all get going. Get out before they find you.

Jed Eckert: Dad, I love you.

Tom Eckert: I know you do, son. I love you too.

[Tom, Jed, and Robert Leave]

Tom Eckert: Boys! Avenge Me! Avenge Me!

Jed Eckert: [in the mountains] Matt and I have been coming up to these mountains with our dad our whole lives. We can hunt, we can fish, we can stay up here a long, long time.

Robert: How long, Jed?

[fighters and bombers pass overhead]

Jed Eckert: [indicating the jets above them] Until we don't hear *that* no more.

[while giving guns to freed Americans]

Jed Eckert: C'mon! We're all going to die, die standing up!

Mayor Bates: [in Mayor Bates' office, where he is being questioned by Colonel Bella] Daryl, he wouldn't hurt a fly. I know my son, Colonel. He's not the guerrilla type.

Colonel Ernesto Bella: According to records, Mayor... your son is a prominent student leader.

Mayor Bates: Yes, well... he's a leader, but not in a violent or physical way. You see, Daryl... he's more of a politician, like his father.

Colonel Ernesto Bella: A member of an elite paramilitary organization: "Eagle Scouts."

Mayor Bates: Yes, but that's not military. If he's alive, he's scared, he's hungry... and he's just as anxious to avoid conflicts as you and me. He's not a troublemaker.

Colonel Ernesto Bella: Then who is?

Mayor Bates: ...It runs in some of the families.

Colonel Ernesto Bella: [to an aide-de-camp] This community is indeed fortunate to have a shepherd like him.

Mayor Bates: Well, I just want to see this thing through, Colonel.

Matt Eckert: [after Toni and Robert are KIA, the Eckert Brothers plan a diversion while Danny and Erica cross the enemy lines] We're all that's left. Somebody's gotta live. Somebody's gotta make it. Me and Jed, we're all used up.

Erica: I'm never gonna forget... as long as I live.

Matt Eckert: Don't.

Danny: You're never gonna know who won.

Matt Eckert: Who WILL?

KGB Major: Do you want to see me?

Colonel Ernesto Bella: Yes... yes. Go to the sporting goods store. From the files obtain forms 4473. These will contain descriptions of weapons, and lists of private ownership.

Jed Eckert: [at the execution of Daryl Bates and Stepan Gorsky] Do you want blindfolds?

Stepan Gorsky: This violates the Geneva convention.

Jed Eckert: I never heard of it!

Stepan Gorsky: Dogface! I show you how Soviet dies!

Robert: I've seen it before, pal.

Danny: [who is tied up in the distance, with the horses] This isn't happening! Jed, let him go! He was one of us!

Jed Eckert: Shut up, Danny! Shut up!

Robert: He told them where we were!

Jed Eckert: He did. Now get your rifles.

Matt Eckert: *No!*

Jed Eckert: WHAT DID YOU SAY?

Matt Eckert: *We're not doing it!*

Stepan Gorsky: [to Daryl] Boy, say at me you are friend, so I will not die alone.

Matt Eckert: What's the difference, Jed?

Robert: I'll do it.

Matt Eckert: Shut up, Robert!

[to Jed]

Matt Eckert: *Tell me what's the difference between us and them!*

Jed Eckert: Because WE *LIVE* HERE!

[kills Stepan; Robert kills Daryl]

Col. Strelnikov: [he lectures the Russo-Cuban Army about what must be done regarding the Wolverines; in Russian; subtitled] From this moment on... there will be no further reprisals against civilians. This was stupid. Impotence. Comrades... if a fox stole your chickens... would you slaughter your pig because he saw the fox? No. You would hunt the fox. You would find where it lives and destroy it! And how do we do this? Become a fox.

Colonel Ernesto Bella: [in the now-occupied Calumet, Colorado]

[in Russian; subtitled]

Colonel Ernesto Bella: Look, I was always on the side of the insurgents. I have no experience in these matters, but it would seem necessary to win the support of the people. As our opponents used to say in Vietnam: "Win their hearts and minds."

General Bratchenko: [in Russian] And they lost, Ernesto... Morale is crucial right now. Keep the men in the secured areas. You'll see how they forget about these "Wolverines."

Colonel Ernesto Bella: [Toni blows up a nearby "Soviet-American Friendship Center."]

[in Russian]

Colonel Ernesto Bella: You were saying, Comrade?

General Bratchenko: [in Russian] Oh, shut up!

Robert: Wolverines!

Col. Andy Tanner: [using a crude diorama, the Wolverines prepare for an assault on the Calumet Drive-In, which is now a Russo-Cuban "Re-education Camp"] All right. Four planes. Cuban bunker, Russian bunker. munitions dump, troop tents. Four machine gun bunkers. Back here by the drive-in screen are your political prisoners. We'll cause a diversion over here... cut holes in the wire here, fire on all these machine gun positions. The B-Group comes across this area in a flanking maneuver... and when you reach this bunker, you lay down grazing fire on this defilade. I think that's pretty simple. Anybody got any questions so far?

Aardvark: What's a "flank?"

Toni: What's a "defilade?"

Robert: What's "grazing fire?"

Col. Andy Tanner: [out loud, to himself] I need a drink.

Darryl Bates: [Pouring a can of soup in the pot] That's the last of it... except for the olives.

Matt Eckert: We still got plenty of meat left.

Danny: Just stuff you shot.

Matt Eckert: So tell me, dork, where do you suppose hamburgers come from?

Danny: Nobody shoots them.

Darryl Bates: We need food.

Danny: [at the Wolverines' funeral for Colonel Andy Tanner and Arturo "Aardvark" Mondracon] These were good friends. Take them away from here... someplace safe... where this world's war never happened. And as we remember... please let them forget, O Lord... so they can be little again.

Tom Eckert: Boys! Avenge me! Avenge me!

General Bratchenko: [in Russian; subtitled] What is a "Wolverine"?

Colonel Ernesto Bella: [in Russian] A small animal, like a badger, but terribly ferocious. It is also the name of the local sports collective.

General Bratchenko: [in Russian] They're beasts, Ernesto. You must kill every one of them eventually. It's the same as Afghanistan. They'll never stop.

General Bratchenko: [in Russian; subtitled] What I despise most about warfare is the hypocrisy it often breeds. I've heard euphemisms that we are containing the enemy, that our sector of pacification is growing. These are the tactics of the lie. Lies have the stench of death and defeat. You can only win a war by exterminating the enemy.

[last lines]

Erica: [closing narration] I never saw the Eckert 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.

[we see "Partisan Rock," with its memorial plaque, which she reads for us]

Erica: "... In the early days of World War 3, guerillas - mostly children - placed the names of their lost upon this rock. They fought here alone and gave up their lives, so that this nation should not perish from the earth."

Re-education Film Narrator: [at what once was the Calumet, Colorado Drive-in Theater] America is a whorehouse... where the revolutionary ideals of your forefathers... are corrupted and sold in alleys by vendors of capitalism...

General Bratchenko: From this moment on there will be no further reprisals against civilians. This was stupid. Impotence. Comrades, if a fox stole your chickens, would you slaughter your pig because he saw the fox? No, you would hunt the fox, find where it lives and destroy it! And how do we do this? Become a fox.

Jed Eckert: My family would want me to stay alive. Your family would want you to stay alive. You think you're so smart, man, but you're just a bunch of scared kids.

Danny: So what do you think *you* are?

Jed Eckert: ...Alone, I guess.

Matt Eckert: [comes and stands with him] No, you're not.

Stepan Gorsky: Boy, say if you're a friend so I will not die alone.

Jed Eckert: [after the deaths of Aardvark and Colonel Tanner] It's kind of strange, isn't it? How the mountains pay us no attention at all. You laugh or you cry... The wind just keeps on blowing.

Matt Eckert: You're getting pretty low on feelings, aren't you?

Jed Eckert: I can't afford them.

Matt Eckert: Even if that had been me instead of Aardvark?

Mr. Mason: [the Wolverines arrive at the Mason house, where they will be joined by Toni and Erica] We got us some outlaws here.

Jed Eckert: Wow, a house.

Mr. Mason: Go on and find a chair.

Robert: Last time we were in a house was five weeks.

Mr. Mason: You look it.

Darryl Bates: [he and the other Wolverines are gathering food, weapons and survival equipment from Robert Morris's father's store] And grab some toilet paper; I ain't gonna use no leaves.

Tom Eckert: [at the Calumet Drive-in, which is now a Communist "re-education camp"] Remember when you used to go in the park and play... and I used to put you on the swings... and both of you were... so damn little?

Jed Eckert: I remember. I remember all of it.

Tom Eckert: [to Jed and Matt] I ain't gonna be around to pick you up when you fall now. Both of you gotta take care of each other now.

Erica: [after colonel dies] I'll never love anybody again!

Robert: If you didnt't love anybody, you wouldn't be here right now...

[Yuri's 2 fellow soldiers have just been killed by Toni and Robert, and Yuri has managed to escape back to the jeep despite serious wounds]

Yuri: [speaking Russian into radio mike] God help me!

Yuri: God help me!

[Jed catches up to Yuri at the jeep, armed with a .45 pistol. Yuri looks at him with terror, then turns his head away, knowing what is coming. Jed then executes the Soviet soldier with the pistol]

[3 Soviet soldiers on patrol in the highlands of Arapho National Forest have found an arrow at the side of the road]

Yuri: [speaking Russian] Look. Look what I've found. An Indian arrow.

Soldier #1: [notices it is a manufactured arrow] I did not know these Indians used steel.

Yuri: Sure, you fool. They used the melted sabers of Federalist Cossacks.

Soldier #1: [notices the platic tail] Did these Indians work in plastic too?

Yuri: You idiot, this is bone, polished to a high sheen.

Yuri: [after spotting Toni & Erica] Stop!

Soldier #2: Watch out! She has a weapon.

Soldier #1: [speaking Russian] Stop, damn it!

[fires his AK-47]

Soldier #1: [Danny has managed to draw a bead on the first soldier & shoots him in the back with an arrow. The man screams & backs away from Erica, then tries to climb up the bank but is pulled off balance by Toni & Erica]

Soldier #1: [speaking Russian] Help me, comrades! I'm dying!

[Toni has managed to get control of the man's AK-47 & kills him with it. The second Soviet soldier goes down a hill when Robert steps out from behind a tree. As the soldier raises his AK-47 to shoot, Robert kills him with a shotgun blast. Yuri takes off toward the jeep with Daryl, Robert & Jed in pursuit and shooting at him]

Jed Eckert: One thing's for sure now... No one can ever go home again. Never.

Danny: You got a family?

Col. Andy Tanner: [long pause] I don't know. They got - caught behind the lines down in Texas. I like to think they're alive; but, I hear stories about what they're doin' to civilians.

Mr. Teasdale: The Great Huns would always begin with the army spread out in a semi-circle, I would say, about the size of Rhode Island. Then they would ride forward, driving everything before them, beasts, men, even bugs. Now, the ends would kinda close in to form a shrinkin' circle. And everything within that circle panicked to get out. When the Mongols could see each other, they had worked themselves up into a purty good frenzy. Now, when this killing started, it last for days, weeks, even months. And it went on until the young son of the Khan asked his father that the last creature alive - be allowed to go free -

[sees parachutes landing outside his classroom window]

Mr. Teasdale: - oh, now, my friend, oh, now,

History Student #1: Wow, check it out.

History Student #2: All right.

History Student #3: Looks pretty cool, though, man.

Mr. Teasdale: I would say they were *way* off course. This is very unusual.

Matt Eckert: [after their flight from Calumet, Jed is fixing the radiator on his pickup-truck] Did you get it?

Jed Eckert: Yeah, I got it. Only thing is, we got one problem: we don't have any water.

Matt Eckert: How about pissing in it?

Jed Eckert: That's a good idea. Get up here.

[laughs]

Danny: How do you know it'll work?

Jed Eckert: How old are you, kid?

Danny: Fifteen. And the name's Danny, not "kid."

Jed Eckert: Well, when you grow up... then you'll know these things, Danny. Now get up here and piss in the radiator.

Jed Eckert: [having killed Colonel Strelnikov, who has mortally wounded Jed and Matt] You can rest now. Just hang on, Mattie. It's okay... Daddy'll be here soon. Come on, Mattie. I'll hold you as long as I can... You can lean on me, Mattie... I'm so tired...

[He and Matt die in each other's arms]

General Bratchenko: [in Russian; subtitled] Do you know who we are fighting? We are fighting "Wolverines," small ferocious animals. For them you need a hunter, and you know, I am a hunter.

Jed Eckert: [they are surveying a wintery landscape, as several tanks gather on both sides to shoot it out] You got across *that*?

Col. Andy Tanner: Just part of it. I hope our guys are still there.

Jed Eckert: So this is the battlefield?

Col. Andy Tanner: It's a real war, kid. It's here every day.

Theodore Roosevelt: [inscription on a bronze statue in front of Calumet High School] "Far better it is to dare mighty things, than to take rank with those poor, timid spirits who know neither victory nor defeat."

Erica: [to Stepan] Sprechen sie Deutsch?

Matt Eckert: So what if he does? You don't.

Stepan Gorsky: Gorsky, Stepan Yevgenyvitch...!

Robert: NOBODY GIVES A DAMN WHO YOU ARE!

[He and his fellow Wolverines proceed to beat up Stepan]

Danny: [as he and Toni look on] They're gonna hurt him!

Toni: Good!

Tom Eckert: [Jed and Matt have located their father at the Soviet 'Re-education' camp] I was hard on you when you was growin' up. I did things that made you hate me. Now, you can see why I did. I don't want no more tears shed for me, ya hear? I'm not gonna be there for you now, you gotta look out for each other...

Matt Eckert: Why don't you make yourself useful?

Erica: You wash it! We're never doing your washing again! Me and her is as good as any of you!

Matt Eckert: So what's up your ass?

Erica: Shut up! Don't you ever say that again! Hear me? Say that again, I'll kill you! Hear me? I'll kill you.

Matt Eckert: So what did I do?

Toni: What you said was wrong.

Matt Eckert: I'm your brother. Make it count.

Alicia: They're looking for you.

Jed Eckert: Who?

Alicia: The KGB.

Jed Eckert: The Russians?

Alicia: And the Cubans.

Colonel Ernesto Bella: [in Spanish] This... this is a madhouse!

Jed Eckert: It is World War III down there. People are bein' killed. Those could be Russians!

Alicia: Okay, listen. I'm gonna tell you something I'm not supposed to talk about. Nobody is. But...

Jed Eckert: But, what?

Alicia: That they took a lot of people away. People that they thought were gonna make trouble for them. People that had guns or things they wanted. They just took them away!

Jed Eckert: Where?

Alicia: Re-education Camps. That's what they call it.

Mr. Mason: We all figured you boys had headed for FA by now.

Robert: What's FA?

Mr. Mason: Free America. That's the safe zone.

Jed Eckert: Well, where are we?

Mr. Mason: Hell, you boys is in the occupied territory. You're 40 miles behind enemy lines. That's smack dab in the middle of World War III.

Mr. Mason: [opens the cellar door with Jed and Matt] Granddaughters. They spent two days sneaking here. Sons of bitches tried t'havin' their way with 'em. Toni, Erica, this is Matt and Jed Eckert. They're gonna take care of you. And I don't want to know where they're goin'.

Erica: [listening to "Battle Hymn of the Republic" on a radio broadcast from FA] Things are different now.

Yuri: [Looking at an historical marker for "Arapaho National Forest"] What is written here?

Russian soldier: You studied English. Translate.

Yuri: American history... I know this well.

[mistranslating the words on on the marker]

Yuri: Arapaho National Battle field. Here was a great peasant uprising in 1908 of wild Indians. They were crushed by President Theodore Roosevelt leading imperialist armies and cowboys. The battle lasted all winter, more than 35,000 were killed. It was the greatest battle of the American West.

[sign actually reads: Apapaho National Forest. Founded by President Theodore Roosevelt under the Forest Service Act of 1905. The Forest comprises 40,000 acres of virgin timber. One of the largest strands of Blue Spruce in the American West]

Russian soldier: Bravo!

Jed Eckert: Don't cry! Hold it back! Let it turn to something else. Just let it turn - to something else. Okay?

Cuban Soldier: Help! The "Wolverines" are attacking! Follow me, quickly! Hurry! Hurry!

Col. Andy Tanner: Do svidaniya!

Col. Andy Tanner: Fry 'em!

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