# Red Dawn - Is this map correct? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 20, 2008, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-is-this-map-correct/449917 "2008-05-20T00:55:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Two\_and\_a\_Half\_Inches\_of\_Fun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea666f/32.png) [@Two\_and\_a\_Half\_Inches\_of\_Fun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_and_a_Half_Inches_of_Fun)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-is-this-map-correct/449917/1 "2008-05-20T00:55:22Z")
I tried to search for the script online, but could not find it. I seem to remember Colonel Tanner saying that the Soviet forces came up through Mexico to invade the Great Plains. They got stopped at the Rockies and the Mississippi. I remember that the Soviet were at least as far north as Kansas. The nuke strikes do not seem right either. I know there were strikes in the Dakotas (silos). [![](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Red_dawn_1984_movie_start_of_ww3.PNG) ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Red_dawn_1984_movie_start_of_ww3.PNG) ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-is-this-map-correct/449917/2 "2008-05-20T11:32:50Z")
I really think they would have had some problems getting through Texas. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-is-this-map-correct/449917/3 "2008-05-20T12:18:20Z")
Not if they disguised themselves as illegal immigrants. No one would be able to stop them, apparently. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-is-this-map-correct/449917/4 "2008-05-20T18:19:20Z")
Whereas the ditch at the US-Canadian border stopped them quite effectively. ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-is-this-map-correct/449917/5 "2008-05-20T20:13:47Z")
[QUOTE=Two and a Half Inches of Fun] I tried to search for the script online, but could not find it. I seem to remember Colonel Tanner saying that the Soviet forces came up through Mexico to invade the Great Plains. They got stopped at the Rockies and the Mississippi. I remember that the Soviet were at least as far north as Kansas. The nuke strikes do not seem right either. I know there were strikes in the Dakotas (silos). > **[File:Red dawn 1984 movie start of ww3.PNG](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Red_dawn_1984_movie_start_of_ww3.PNG)** > > čeština ∙ Deutsch ∙ English ∙ македонски ∙ português do Brasil ∙ +/− > Map of fictional events in the 1984 movie Red Dawn, at the start of World War III. > At the end of the movie the US is implied on a plaque as having won the war, although how they did it is not explained. > If The US stopped them at the Mississippi River, then the color used for the US state Mississippi is incorrect. Mississippi would be part of F.A. (Free America) not occupied as the map indicates. [/QUOTE] Quebec is also missing from the invasion map Declan ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-is-this-map-correct/449917/6 "2008-05-20T20:27:52Z")
On a slight hijack. they’re talking about a Red Dawn remake. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-is-this-map-correct/449917/7 "2008-05-20T21:06:06Z")
[QUOTE=Love Rhombus] On a slight hijack. they’re talking about a Red Dawn remake. [/QUOTE] How would they do it? Would it be far enough in the future that the U.S.S.R. came back? Or more of an alternate-history type of thing, like “what if the U.S.S.R. never dissolved?” ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-is-this-map-correct/449917/8 "2008-05-20T21:07:31Z")
[QUOTE=bouv] How would they do it? Would it be far enough in the future that the U.S.S.R. came back? Or more of an alternate-history type of thing, like “what if the U.S.S.R. never dissolved?” [/QUOTE] They could probably do it with China , except the how they get here part. But I am pretty sure the movie would go over like siege did. Declan ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-is-this-map-correct/449917/9 "2008-05-20T21:15:42Z")
[QUOTE=Declan] They could probably do it with China , except the how they get here part. But I am pretty sure the movie would go over like siege did. Declan [/QUOTE] The only people on our side is the U.K. and 600 million screaming Indians. ---
**Author:** ![Grossbottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ba8739/32.png) [@Grossbottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grossbottom)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-is-this-map-correct/449917/10 "2008-05-20T21:44:39Z")
I thought there were a billion screamin’ Indians. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-is-this-map-correct/449917/11 "2008-05-20T22:54:42Z")
not much info on it that I could find. [Just this.](http://www.cinematical.com/2008/05/17/mgm-plans-to-remake-robocop-and-red-dawn/) ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-is-this-map-correct/449917/12 "2008-05-20T23:34:33Z")
[QUOTE=Grossbottom] I thought there were a billion screamin’ Indians. [/QUOTE] There were. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_and\_a\_Half\_Inches\_of\_Fun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea666f/32.png) [@Two\_and\_a\_Half\_Inches\_of\_Fun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_and_a_Half_Inches_of_Fun)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2008, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-is-this-map-correct/449917/13 "2008-05-21T01:32:40Z")
[QUOTE=Weirddave] There were. [/QUOTE] Dude, I know that the death 400 million people is pretty serious, but we can’t exactly go to the store to buy whiskey. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2008, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-is-this-map-correct/449917/14 "2008-05-21T19:50:00Z")
IIRC, the southern invasion came from Nicaragua. A theory set for by Ronald Reagan as to why we had to meddle in that country’s politics to keep soviet tanks that are only hours from US soil. (yes it only takes a few hours to drive a tank through Mexico and I guess the Mexican would be too lazy to stop them) Man that is a fantastically bad movie. ---
**Author:** ![Grossbottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ba8739/32.png) [@Grossbottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grossbottom)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2008, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-is-this-map-correct/449917/15 "2008-05-21T21:42:12Z")
[QUOTE=Zebra] Man that is a fantastically bad movie. [/QUOTE] I have to disagree. As war films go I’d give it 8/10, and as far as depictions of guerilla warfare are concerned, I’d call it one of the few on the subject, and the only one I know of offhand that approaches a realistic depiction. The strategic improbabilities are there, but are certainly no less probable than a bicycle invasion of Malaya. _“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.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Spiny\_Norman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Spiny\_Norman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiny_Norman)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2008, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-is-this-map-correct/449917/16 "2008-05-21T22:51:02Z")
[QUOTE=Grossbottom] I have to disagree. As war films go I’d give it 8/10, and as far as depictions of guerilla warfare are concerned, I’d call it one of the few on the subject, and the only one I know of offhand that approaches a realistic depiction. The strategic improbabilities are there, but are certainly no less probable than a bicycle invasion of Malaya.\* [/QUOTE] I guess I’ll have to disagree with that, then. The strategic improbabilities I’d buy - it’s a movie - but the individual tactics aren’t what I’d call realistic. Back when I wore green, we’d rent it to poke fun at the poor tactics, weapons handling etc. - on both sides, incidentally. Most of the the scene-by-scene details have been mercifully forgotten, but I do recall that basic stuff (don’t skyline yourself, you idiot!) was pretty bad. Of course, a realistic competent guerilla ambush is hard to turn into a gripping movie scene. I do give the movie props for conveying a suitably grim mood. War is not a thrill ride for these kids. And the technical details - weapons, vehicles, even the almost-Hinds - are surprisingly good. ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2008, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-is-this-map-correct/449917/17 "2008-05-21T22:58:52Z")
[QUOTE=Spiny Norman] I do give the movie props for conveying a suitably grim mood. War is not a thrill ride for these kids. And the technical details - weapons, vehicles, even the almost-Hinds - are surprisingly good. [/QUOTE] I think it was RedDawn , but the FBI actually stopped a transport truck carrying the T-72 cause it looked like the real thing. This was back when Soldier of Fortune was offering a million bucks for a real life Mi-24 hind, so I can imagine the feds thinking. Declan ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2008, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-is-this-map-correct/449917/18 "2008-05-22T00:46:49Z")
[QUOTE=Spiny Norman] even the almost-Hinds - are surprisingly good. [/QUOTE] Aerospatiale Alouettes, mocked up to look like Hinds, actually. I used to work for Eurocopter, and one of the guys in a different department had a pretty cool drawing/artist’s rendering of the mockups, and had worked with the film people to help mock them up. Another guy had a little plastic concept model or something. ---
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2008, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-is-this-map-correct/449917/19 "2008-05-22T01:57:06Z")
I know it’s pretty much logistically impossible, but if you were going to conquer the United States militarily, how would you go about it? The _Red Dawn_ scenario is to use a giant pincer movement to cut the country in half. Seeing as that takes them through some of the most rugged geography on the continent, is that a good idea?