Red Dawn

Five of the 36 paratroopers in the film's opening drifted about a mile off course during filming. One became stuck in a tree and had to convince local residents that he was not actually an enemy soldier.

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Patrick Swayze froze during filming. Years later, he said it still felt as if someone were sticking a toothpick under his fingernails whenever he got very cold.

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The plot, a Soviet and Cuban invasion from Mexico, was based on the CIA and the Army War College's studies of America's weaknesses at the time.

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C. Thomas Howell was a rodeo cowboy. He helped teach the rest of the cast how to ride horses.

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The film contains no computer-generated effects, bluescreen composites or miniatures. All of the explosions are real and full-scale.

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Lea Thompson said it was the best time she ever had on a film.

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Real Green Berets helped with the cast's basic training camp.

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Before filming began, the cast underwent an intensive eight-week military training course.

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Patrick Swayze stayed in character throughout filming. "I became Jed Eckert," he said.

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The story was originally to be set in the real town of Calumet, Michigan. It was moved to a fictional version of Calumet, Colorado, a more central location in the United States that suited the story better. In real life, Calumet, Colorado, is a small former mining town abandoned in the 1970s.

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The original trailer on the LaserDisc release included a scene of a tank rolling toward a McDonald's where enemy soldiers were eating. The scene was not in the final cut and was probably removed because of the mass shooting at a McDonald's in San Ysidro, California, a few weeks before the film's release.

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The upbeat epilogue showing Partisan Rock, and the voiceover at the end declaring that America won the war, were added at the studio's insistence. John Milius considered the ending extremely ironic, suggesting that the characters' struggles were ultimately reduced to a lonely monument.

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As the weather grew colder, the actors and actresses often had to cope with freezing temperatures well below -17.7°C (0°F).

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It was the first film released with an MPAA PG-13 rating, on August 10, 1984. The first film to receive the PG-13 rating, The Flamingo Kid (1984), sat on the shelf for five months before its release.

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"Red Dawn" was the code name of the military operation in which Saddam Hussein was captured on December 13, 2003. Writer and director John Milius was honored by it.

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During the basic training camp, the cast could eat only when their instructors decided they had earned the meal.

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A more extensive love story between Jed and Toni was cut because Patrick Swayze did not think it worked in the context of the film's subject. Swayze and Jennifer Gray later starred in Dirty Dancing (1987).

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Red Dawn was initially banned in Finland due to its extreme violence, disagreements with Finland's foreign policy, and for being "too anti-Soviet." It was eventually released there on video.

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The love scene between Lea Thompson's and Powers Boothe's characters was cut after preview audiences were uncomfortable with the age difference.

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After basic training, John Milius pitted the cast against National Guard exercises as a force so they could understand how a guerrilla fighter uses tactics.

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Red Dawn was Charlie Sheen's first feature film.

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Because of the extreme cold, the entire cast and crew had to wear Everest assault clothing.

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Red Dawn is one of the coldest productions ever recorded, with temperatures dropping to -30 degrees below zero several times, most notably during the school's final playground scene.

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Soldier of Fortune Magazine said the film's T-72 tank was such a good replica that "while it was being transported around Los Angeles, two CIA officers followed it to the studio and wanted to know where it came from."

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At the end of the film, before both are shot and presumably killed, Jed writes both his own and Matt's name on the rock.

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The exploding jet's blast was so powerful that it blew five trailers off their foundations.

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During Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, some abandoned Russian tanks in Ukraine were spray-painted with "Wolverines" as a tribute to the film.

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In the film, Toni secretly enters the town and blows up the Soviet-American Friendship Center. The real-life National Council of American-Soviet Friendship (NCASF), made up of Soviet and Communist sympathizers, angrily condemned the film as paranoid and militaristic. The NCASF disbanded after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991.

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Most of the fighting techniques the actors learned came from Native American tribes such as the Apache.

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According to Powers Boothe, Charlie Sheen came up to him during a scene and asked whether he was doing a good job. Boothe assured him that he was.

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Captain Dale Dye was the film's military advisor; he was also responsible for putting the cast and the Soviet soldier extras through basic training camp. Dale Dye also consulted on films such as Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers and Platoon. Charlie Sheen would see Dale Dye again when he was cast in the lead role of Platoon two years later.

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At the beginning of the film and in other scenes, the US flag in the classroom is a 48-star flag. This was the flag during World War II, a symbolic reference for a film about the start of World War III.

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The production crew built a gas station. Passing tourists thought it was real and tried to fill up there.

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On all modern tanks the drive sprocket is at the rear. The Soviet equipment replicas were mostly made from American M-48 tanks. Driving the tanks in reverse and adding a fiberglass turret gave the replicas a more authentic look.

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Writer and director John Milius carried a loaded pistol with him on set.

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Robert, played by C. Thomas Howell, wears a Star Wars hat early in the film. It is a nod from John Milius to his friend George Lucas.

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The film is set in 1989.

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Some posters for the film carried a long prologue: "08:44 a.m. Full-scale military invasion by foreign troops begins. A complete surprise. Almost a complete success. A gang of high school kids becomes the last line of defense."

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It was claimed that in 1984, after filming Red Dawn, Patrick Swayze fell in love with the Las Vegas, New Mexico area and said he planned to return there. In 1997, Charles S. Middleton and Son represented the former owners in the sale of the 7,200-acre Rancho de Dias Alegres ranch near Las Vegas, New Mexico to Patrick and Lisa Swayze. Then, 23 years later, in September 2020, Lisa Swayze decided to sell the property. As of 2021 the ranch had been purchased and has a new owner, but Lisa Swayze retains 50% of the mineral rights (if any) of the former property. Lisa Swayze was reported to have said publicly about the New Mexico ranch: "Patrick and I searched for years and years all over the US for our 'dream ranch' until we found this one. We loved its rugged beauty and the opportunity to ride our wonderful horses, camp, host special friends, work the cattle and be good stewards of the land. It was also big enough that we could explore and never run out of new discoveries. It was also a great place to read film scripts and we even set up a ranch. Instead of going back to Los Angeles, we would occasionally hold table reads for projects in the dining room. It was a beautiful and magical property with something very special about it. Patrick loved being on the ranch so much that when we had to leave, it almost took a crowbar to get him out of there! When we first visited the ranch, one of the previous owners told us: 'This ranch is called Rancho de Dias Alegres, which means 'Ranch of Happy Days.' Then he came closer and added: 'And it is.' And he was right. We were always very happy there."

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The napalm was created by filling a plastic plumbing pipe with gasoline and detonating it in sections.

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John Milius wanted the film to show the senselessness of war.

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The film shows Alexander Nevsky (1938), which depicts a Russian prince fighting an invading army.

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Emilio Estevez was originally cast as Jed but had to leave the production due to other filming commitments.

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The Soviet Mi-24 Hind helicopters shown in the film are modified Sud-Aviation SA 330 Pumas fitted with bolted-on wings like real Hind helicopters. Similarly modified Pumas also appeared as Soviet Hind helicopters in Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) and Rambo III (1988).

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Jed's ivory-handled gun inherited from his grandfather is an 1873 model Colt Single Action Army. Also known as the Colt Peacemaker, this Wild West-era weapon must be manually cocked with the thumb for each shot. Although outdated compared with the other firearms in the film, the Peacemaker was sturdy, reliable and accurate, and its.45-caliber cartridge packed a serious punch. As of 2023 Colt still produces them, and a dozen other companies offer clones.

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When Erica finds the airman, she tries to determine his nationality by asking him to name the capital of Texas. When he says Austin, Erica mistakenly says Houston. The wrong answer is a joke; Powers Boothe is a Texas native and Patrick Swayze is from Houston.

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Jed's truck was a 1977 Chevrolet K-10 Cheyenne Stepside.

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The film's closing epilogue, matching the text on the "Partisan Rock" plaque, reads: "… In the early days of World War III, 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 shall not perish from the earth." The second half paraphrases Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

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The Russian text seen in red letters above the film's title in the film and on its posters is the Russian for "Red Dawn."

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Although the story is set in Colorado, it was mostly shot in Las Vegas, NM. In the brief montage of wrecked Soviet vehicles tagged with Wolverines graffiti, a highway sign in the background (bearing a large fish) advertises Storrie Lake, a New Mexico state park about five miles north of Las Vegas, NM.

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After the USAF LTC is shot down in his F-15 and found by Lea Thompson's character, he interrogates Andy about the "capital of Texas." After Andy gives the correct answer, he angrily tells him it is actually (and incorrectly) Houston. Willingly or not, Powers Boothe, who plays the character, was in fact born in 1948 in Snyder, Texas (West Texas, between Lubbock and Abilene), did hard physical work such as "chopping cotton" in his youth, and certainly does not hide his Texas drawl in the film, which probably suggests he could easily know the answer to the question because he is a Texan.

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In the scene where the T-72 pulls up to the gas station, a Russian officer wearing a blue beret is visible. This officer is the film's military adviser, Fred Rexer. He also appears at the start of the film as the paratrooper waving a pistol on the radio.

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In the game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the operation in which the Russians invade the United States is named 'Wolverines!'.

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Patrick Swayze, Ron O'Neal and Powers Boothe all died of pancreatic cancer.

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The AK-47s used in the film are Egyptian Maadi ARM rifles. In 1983 about 2,000 rifles were imported into the US by Steyr. A large portion of these first imports were used in the film and were even converted to automatic fire for the film's purposes. The rifles are the closest thing to a Russian-made AK-47 you can own in the US because they were made on Russian machines, using Russian raw materials, and under the guidance and supervision of Russian gunsmiths and factory managers. Among collectors, the Egyptian Maadi ARM imported by Steyr is highly sought after.

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An old Safeway grocery store in Las Vegas, New Mexico, was converted into a sound stage and used for several scenes.

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The film's opening prologue reads: "The Soviet Union is suffering its worst wheat harvest in 55 years. Worker and food riots in Poland. Soviet troops occupy. Cuba and Nicaragua reach a troop goal of 500,000. El Salvador and Honduras fall. The Green Party takes control of the West German Parliament. It demands the withdrawal of nuclear weapons from European soil. Mexico has entered revolution. NATO is dissolving. The United States stands alone."

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Near the end of the film, Jed and Matt climb onto a slowly moving flatcar to escape. The car holds two small anti-tank guns. Both are left over from World War II and, though they look different, both have a caliber of 37 mm. The one with the flat rectangular shield is the American M3, while the one with the sloped shield is the German Pak 36.

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At the end of the film, Colonel Bella says "Vaya con Dios" to Jed. Similarly, in Point Break (1991), Johnny Utah says the same final words to Bodhi.

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The film features numerous classic American firearms; C. Thomas Howell uses a Winchester 1912 12-gauge and, a few minutes later, a Remington 870 Wingmaster shotgun, which he saws off after his first kill; Patrick Swayze has both a Ruger Ultralight and a Colt 1873 SA Army in.45 Colt with an ivory stock, and Charlie Sheen is seen carrying an old S&W Model 66.357 Magnum, while many are seen using what is likely a Marlin 336 in.30-30 Winchester.

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When three Russian soldiers climb into the mountains near where the Wolverines are hiding, they stop in front of an "Arapaho National Forest" sign (located in north-central Colorado, where the film was shot). However, the bottom of the sign reads "Highest Point: Hermit's Peak, 10,212 feet." Hermit's Peak (in the Santa Fe National Forest) is located near Las Vegas, New Mexico, where the film was mostly shot. The highest point of Arapaho National Forest is Mount Evans (14,271 feet).

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

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Daryl's car was a 1969 Pontiac Ventura Hardtop Sedan.

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In the scene where Lt. Col. Andrew Tanner (Powers Boothe) sacrifices himself to disable a Soviet tank, the group is pinned down directly beneath the barrel of the tank's main gun as it fires on American military armor in the field. In real life, each of the Wolverines would be completely deafened after the first shot, because a cannon of that size produces enough decibels and tremendous overpressure in the atmosphere within just a few meters to cause lifelong hearing loss and could probably rupture their eardrums entirely. The production team used a large amount of flash powder to create the flash, but nothing could come close to the light, heat and pressure a real tank cannon would have. Hearing loss has been a serious problem among soldiers since the invention of gunpowder, but modern troops must be trained to protect their hearing from the moment they enter service, because contemporary battlefields are full of weapons that cause enormous damage to soldiers' hearing. In World War II, a single shot from an American warship's gun produced 190 decibels at three meters from the muzzle, enough to deafen a sailor for life. The atmospheric pressure of such a discharge could even strip the paint from the deck of its ship. Anyone serving anywhere near combat must be prepared to preserve or lose their hearing.

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The Mayor's car is a 1963 Cadillac Series 62 Convertible.

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A Cuban soldier uses a shoulder-mounted missile launcher against an American Huey invading the town. The weapon in question is the SA-7 surface-to-air missile launcher, which NATO calls the Kase. It was based on the American-designed FIM-43 Red Eye, the predecessor of the FIM-92 Stinger.

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The film spans more than six months, yet no character's hair changes at all during that time.

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This was the first PG-13 film.

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In 1993, during a debate round at Sacred Heart University, the SHU Debate Society presented the following resolution: "This group believes that the film Red Dawn should be used in the history curriculum of all American high schools to teach the virtues of patriotism and the obligations of citizenship." The parliamentary debaters on the Government (pro) side argued that Lt. Col. Andrew Tanner of the USAF (Powers Boothe) would be awarded the Medal of Honor after his death, along with Jed Eckert (Patrick Swayze), and that all the Wolverines would probably receive the Silver Star or the Distinguished Service Cross for their role in resisting the communist occupation of the United States; the only exception was Daryl Bates (Darren Dalton), who betrayed the Wolverines to the communist invaders when he was captured in Calumet. The team insisted that Red Dawn is a complete depiction of the certain consequences of such an invasion of the continental United States and that seeing it would help prepare young Americans to stand up and fight for their country if necessary. The crowd attending the meeting voted 202 to 3 in favor of the Government team's proposal. Wolverines.

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The original title of the script was "Ten Soldiers."

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In the film, the Wolverines bomb the invaders' regional headquarters. On August 3, 2006, severe storms destroyed the 107-year-old Center Block Building in Las Vegas, New Mexico, where the scene was shot.

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Lane Smith, who plays the mayor collaborating with the enemy in this film, Bates, also plays a collaborating politician in another production. In V (1984), he played the man who declares himself mayor of Los Angeles. The series' enemies, the Visitors, had collaborators. His character's surname in that series was also Bates.

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Roy Jenson plays the father of Robert Morris, one of the main characters in a group of American teenagers who flee to the mountains during the communist occupation of the United States, survive, and learn to wage guerrilla warfare largely by adapting the tribal lifestyle of American Indians. In the original Star Trek episode The Omega Glory (1968), Jenson played Cloud William, chief of the "Yangs" (Yanks), a tribe that survived and prospered on a parallel planet and waged guerrilla warfare against the invading "Kohms" (Communists) by taking to the hills and plains and adapting the tribal lifestyle of American Indians.

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The Soviet aircraft that Colonel Tanner blows up with a grenade is a Yak-38 (NATO name: Forger) vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft. It resembles the British Harrier in design and appearance, but there are unique differences; the Forger uses one primary and two smaller, less powerful engines for takeoff and landing. The Harrier uses a single engine entirely. Only 231 Forgers were produced before production stopped in 1981.

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The film was screened at Camp David for President Ronald Reagan.

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The actors William Smith, Frank McRae and Zitto Kazann all died in 2021.

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It is the second of two films Patrick Swayze made with John Milius. The other is Uncommon Valor (1983).

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

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The invaders' Russian leader is Strelnikov. In Doctor Zhivago (1965), the teacher Pasha Antipov takes the name Strelnikov when he becomes leader of the Red Partisans during the Russian Revolution.

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

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It was the first feature-length screenplay (co-written) ever produced, and it is Kevin Reynolds's story.

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Volkswagen Beetle: At the start of the film, as the kids skip school, a classic yellow VW Beetle with its front right fender missing appears. It is used as a springboard for C. Thomas Howell's character to jump onto a pickup truck and escape.

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Near the end of the film, after three Soviet helicopters ambush Jed and the other Wolverines and they escape, the next scene shows Jed writing the names of the killed Wolverines on the rock, along with his own name and that of his brother Matt. Clearly, they are aware that both of them will soon die in a suicide attack against the Soviets in Calumet.

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The film was initially to be shot in Michigan before being changed to Colorado. One of the Michigan elements was the high school's mascot, and Jed's group adopted the Wolverines. Wolverines are also used for the University of Michigan. Bella was the main enemy of Jed's group and was played by Ron O'Neal. O'Neal briefly attended Ohio State University, the University of Michigan Wolverines' archrival.

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Frank McRae, Ben Johnson and Harry Dean Stanton appeared in Dillinger (1973), also directed by John Milius.

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Leif Garrett was thought to be taking a significant role.

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Patrick Swayze and C. Thomas Howell also appeared together in The Outsiders (1983) and Grandview, U.S.A. (1984).

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Near the end of the film, Colonel Ernesto Bella is seen writing a letter to his wife describing his disillusionment with the war and how he will resign so he can return to Cuba and be with her. In reality, in the middle of an all-out Third World War of which the invasion and occupation of parts of the United States was a part, there would have been absolutely no way his resignation would be accepted. It would have been a luxury that could not be permitted, and in fact, given the Soviet Union's harsh and ruthless wartime regime and military, his request would actually have been seen as a kind of defeat and betrayal, and he could have been shot for even thinking of it, let alone having his resignation request granted.

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Near the end of the film there is a night scene in which Jed, Matt and two other Wolverines discuss their final plans for a two-man attack amid the ruins of a building, and the other two Wolverines say they could escape to the free zone during the attack. Although the film does not explain exactly where they have this conversation, they are among the ruins and rubble of the old school gymnasium because it was deleted, since in the background you can see a collapsed basketball net of what was once the school's gymnasium, and this also explains how Jed was able to get the small framed black-and-white picture he looks at, which he took out of the rubble and brushed the snow off.

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In the first scene inside the classroom, the star pattern seen on the U.S. flag at the upper right suggests that it is a 48-star flag from the early 20th century; this flag had the current star pattern from noon on July 4, 1912, to noon on July 4, 1959. Regardless of the number of stars, any U.S. flag is still an official flag and can always be flown as such.

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The scene in which Jed and the other Wolverines ambush the Russian tank at the gas station by making one of the girls ride a bicycle with a booby trap in her lunch basket was based on a very elaborate plan in which they would put the lunch basket on the tank and the crew would follow it to the site where the Wolverines had dug pre-positioned, carefully camouflaged foxholes to jump out of (rather than just shooting it as it fled) in order to shoot them. In reality, it would have been easier and more effective for the Wolverines to hide at a gas station and suddenly jump out to kill the crew and blow up the tank.

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