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Red Dawn

1984 film directed by John Milius

Red Dawn is a 1984 movie about a fictional Soviet invasion of the United States of America.

WOLVERINES!
Directed by John Milius. Written by John Milius and Kevin Reynolds.
In our time, no foreign army has ever occupied American soil. Until now.
"What started it?"
"Two toughest kids on the block, I guess. Sooner or later they gonna fight."
"All that hate is gonna burn you up, kid."
"It keeps me warm."
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 down the fox, find where it lives and destroy it! How do we do this? Become a fox.
"How'd you get yourself shot down, Colonel?"
"It was five to one. I got four."

Jed Eckert

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  • [While giving guns to newly freed prisoners] C'mon! We're all going to die, die standing up!

Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Tanner

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  • [talks to the teenagers over their supplies] 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.

Colonel Strelnikov

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  • [briefing Soviet Army officers and troops about the Wolverines; in Russian] 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! Do you know who we are fighting? [points to board] We are fighting Wolverines: small, ferocious animals. For them, you need a hunter. And you know, I am a hunter. 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 down the fox, find where it lives and destroy it! How do we do this? Become a fox.

Dialogue

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[During the evening battle, when a KGB Major approaches Col. Bella]
KGB Major: Do you want to see me?
Colonel 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.
[The Eckerts head to the mountains with some friends]
Jed Eckert: 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?
Jed Eckert: [indicating the jets above them] Until we don't hear that no more.
[Cuban Army Col. Bella and Soviet Army General Bratchenko go for a walk outside the local Soviet-American Friendship Center]
General Bratchenko: What is a "Wolverine"?
Colonel Bella: A small animal...like a badger, but terribly ferocious. It is also the name of the local school sports collective.
Bratchenko: They're beasts, Ernesto. You must kill every one of them eventually. It's the same as Afghanistan. They'll never stop.
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."
Bratchenko: And they lost, Ernesto.
Bella: Of course, General.
Bratchenko: Things are paralyzed at the front, Ernesto. Morale is crucial right now. Keep the men in the secured areas. You'll see how they forget about these [to Bella in disdain] "Wolverines."
[the Soviet-American Friendship Center explodes behind them; a Nicaraguan Army captain runs up to them]
Nicaraguan Captain: [to Colonel Bella] Are you all right?!
Bella: [gesturing impatiently to others fallen nearby] Yes, yes, help them! [to Bratchenko] You were saying, comrade? Huh?!
Bratchenko: Shut up!
[When Lieutenant Colonel Tanner is first found]
Erica Mason: You American?
Col. Andrew Tanner: [Indicating the American flag on his flight suit] Red-blooded.
Mason: What's the capital of Texas?
Tanner: Austin.
Mason: [proceeds to kick Col. Tanner; racking the bolt on her AK-47] Wrong, commie; it's Houston!
Tanner: Easy, darlin'! I'm cold... and you've seen too many movies!
Col. Tanner: You the honcho, sport?
Jed: Who're you?
Col. Tanner: Andrew Tanner, Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Air Force.
Jed: How'd you get yourself shot down, Colonel?
Tanner: It was five to one. I got four.
[Jed smiles and shakes hands with Tanner]
Jed: I'm Jed.
Col. Tanner: How you doing, Jed?
Jed: Good as can be.
[Col. Tanner explains the war situation using the campfire as a representation of the US]
Col. Tanner: [gestures to parts of the campfire] West Coast, East Coast. Down here's Mexico. First wave of the attack came in disguised as commercial charter flights, same way they did in Afghanistan in '80. They were crack airborne outfits. They took these passes in the Rockies.
Jed: So that's what hit Calumet?
Col. 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: Like what?
Col. Tanner: Oh, like Omaha, Washington, Kansas City.
Darryl: Gone?
Col. Tanner: Yeah. That's right.
Darryl: Jesus Christ.
Col. Tanner: Infiltrators, came up illegal; Cubans, mostly. They managed to infiltrate SAC bases in the Midwest, several down in Texas, wreaked a hell of a lot of havoc, I'm here to tell. They opened up the door, and the whole Cuban and Nicaraguan armies come walking right through, rolled right up here through the Great Plains.
Robert: How far'd they get?
Col. Tanner: Cheyenne, across to Kansas. We held 'em at the Rockies, and at 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, link up here in the middle but we stopped 'em but cold. Lines've pretty much stabilized now.
Matt Eckert: What about Europe?
Col. Andrew 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. The Russians need to take us in one piece, and that's why they're here now. That's why they won't use nukes anymore, and we won't either, not on our own soil. Whole damn thing's pretty conventional now. Who knows? Maybe next week will be swords.
Darryl: What started it?
Col. Tanner: Two toughest kids on the block, I guess. Sooner or later they gonna fight.
Jed: That simple?
Col. Tanner: Maybe somebody just forgot what it was like.
Jed: Well, who is on our side?
Tanner: Six hundred million screamin' Chinamen.
Darryl: Well, last I heard, there were a billion screamin' Chinamen.
Tanner: There were. [throws whiskey into fire, and it violently ignites for a moment, possibly signifying a Soviet nuclear strike on China]
[Robert is scratching tally marks for communist soldiers he has killed on his AK when Colonel Tanner passes by]
Col. Andy Tanner: All that hate is gonna burn you up kid.
Robert Morris: It keeps me warm.
[The gang prepares to kill a Soviet Spetsnaz commando and their friend, Daryl Bates, who was forced to swallow a homing device that led the Spetsnaz to them]
Jed Eckert: Do you want blindfolds?
Stepan Gorsky: This violates the Geneva Convention!
Eckert: I never heard of it!
Gorsky: Dogface! I show you how Soviet dies.
Robert: I've seen it before, pal.
Danny: 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: WHAT DID YOU SAY?
Matt: We're not doing it!
Gorsky: [to Daryl] Boy, say at me you are friend, so I will not die alone.
Matt: What's the difference, Jed?
Robert: I'll do it.
Matt: Shut up, Robert! [to Jed] Tell me what's the difference between us and them!
Jed: Because ... we live here! [kills Gorsky and when he hesitates with Daryl, Robert kills him]

Cast

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