Red Dawn (1984) on Netflix
PG-1319841h 54mDramaThrillerWar
Students in Calumet, Colorado, see a Soviet-led invasion take over their town. Brothers Jed and Matt Eckert and four friends gather camping gear, food and weapons and head for the mountains.
- Netflix2.9/5
- IMDb6.4/1069,559 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes50%
Trailer
Plot summary
With NATO dissolved and Western Europe's nuclear weapons withdrawn, the United States stands alone. A failed wheat harvest leaves the Soviet Union desperate enough to send troops into Poland to crush riots over food and labor. Cuba and Nicaragua enlarge their armies and extend their reach through El Salvador and Honduras, while a coup in Mexico installs a government friendly to Moscow. In Calumet, Colorado, high school students watch Soviet paratroopers seize their town. Jed and Matt Eckert get away, and with Robert, Danny, Daryl and Arturo they take camping gear, food and weapons and escape to the mountains.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Red Dawn (1984)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The 2003 U.S. military operation that captured Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was named Operation Red Dawn, and its targets were code-named "Wolverine 1" and "Wolverine 2". Army Captain Geoffrey McMurray said the name was fitting for "a patriotic, pro-American movie", and John Milius called it a flattering lasting legacy.
- A scripted sleeping-bag sex scene between Jed and Toni was abandoned after a failed take: Jennifer Grey said Patrick Swayze was drunk and couldn't remember his lines while she was high on marijuana. Her negative interaction with Swayze made her anxious about working with him again in Dirty Dancing.
- John Milius wanted Robert Blake to play the American pilot in Red Dawn, but Frank Yablans overruled him and Powers Boothe was cast in the part instead.
- John Milius was signed to direct Red Dawn for a fee of $1.25 million, plus a gun of his choice.
- Red Dawn was the first film released in the United States with a PG-13 rating, under the modified rating system that took effect on July 1, 1984.
- Red Dawn was named the most violent film by the Guinness Book of Records and the National Coalition on Television Violence, with 134 acts of violence per hour, or 2.23 per minute. The 2007 DVD Special Edition added an on-screen "Carnage Counter" in a nod to that.
- The Soviet Mi-24 "Hind-A" gunships in Red Dawn were mock-ups built around French SA 330 Puma helicopters. Some of the weaponry devised for the film did not work, and the futuristic helicopters lacked FAA approval to fly over people.
- MGM's executives dropped the idea of a "poignant little antiwar movie" and turned the script into a teen Rambo with John Milius directing. Board member General Alexander Haig, the former Nixon chief of staff, was keen, hoping to supervise the film himself and develop a movie career.
