10/08/2025
the American action drama film "Red Dawn" released. August 10, #1984 Directed by John Milius, from a screenplay co-written with Kevin Reynolds. The film depicts a fictional World War III centering on a military invasion of the United States by an alliance of Soviet, Warsaw Pact, and Communist Latin American states. The story follows a group of teenage guerrillas, known as the Wolverines, in Soviet-occupied Colorado. The film stars Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson and Jennifer Grey, with supporting roles played by Ben Johnson, Darren Dalton, Harry Dean Stanton, Ron O'Neal, William Smith and Powers Boothe.
The film became a commercial success, grossing $38 million against a budget of $17 million. It was the first film to be released in the U.S. with a PG-13 rating under the modified rating system introduced on July 1, 1984. A remake was released in 2012.
Originally called Ten Soldiers, the script was written by Kevin Reynolds.
Five of the 36 paratroopers in the beginning of the film got blown as much as a mile off-course during filming. One got stuck in a tree, and had to convince locals that he wasn't really an enemy soldier.
C. Thomas Howell had been a rodeo cowboy. He helped teach the rest of the cast to ride horses.
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.
The film contains no computer graphics effects, chroma key composites, or miniatures. All of the explosions are real, and actual size. The film made the Guinness Book of Records for the most acts of violence in any film up to that time. According to their calculations, 135 acts of violence occur per hour, or 2.23 per minute.
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."
The original trailer, on the LaserDisc release, includes a scene in which a tank rolls up to a McDonald's where enemy soldiers are eating. The scene did not appear in the final cut, and was likely removed due to a mass shooting at a McDonald's in San Ysidro, California, a few weeks before the film opened.
"Red Dawn" was the code name for the military operation that captured Saddam Hussein on December 13, 2003. Writer and director John Milius felt honored by that.
This was the first film released with a MPAA PG-13 rating, on August 10, 1984. The Flamingo Kid (1984), the first film to get a PG-13 rating, sat on the shelves for five months before release.
A more involved love story between Jed and Toni was cut because Patrick Swayze didn't feel it would work in the context of the film's plot. Swayze and Jennifer Grey later appeared in Dirty Dancing (1987).
A love scene between Lea Thompson and Powers Boothe's characters was cut after preview audiences found the age difference uncomfortable.
During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, some abandoned Russian tanks in Ukraine were spray painted with "Wolverines" across it in homage to this movie.
The U.S. flag in the classroom at the start of the movie, and other scenes, is a 48-star flag. This was the flag during World War II, and it's a symbolic reference for a movie portraying the start of World War III.
Robert, played by C. Thomas Howell, wears a Star Wars cap early in the film. It's a nod from John Milius to his friend, George Lucas.
Patrick Swayze, Ron O'Neal, and Powers Boothe all died from pancreatic cancer.
