Everything Action Theater: Red Dawn

Along with Road House, Dirty Dancing, and Ghost, Red Dawn is one of the movies that made Patrick Swayze a beloved icon of the 80s and early 90s and you can watch all the Soviet fighting action in the latest Everything Action Theater.  Set in an alternate 1980s where the US is isolated after NATO dissolves, leaving the Soviet Union as a global superpower that begins taking over the entire world with its allies.  Cuban, Nicaraguan, and Soviet troops parachute into the US, leading to an invasion of the country.  Caught in the crossfire in Colorado are a group of high school kids, who become a guerrilla fighting force called the Wolverines, launching attacks against various Soviet targets.  Along with Swayze, Charlie Sheen, Lea Thompson, Jennifer Grey, C. Thomas Howell, Darren Dalton, Brad Savage, Harry Dean Stanton and Powers Booth co-starred and it was directed by the great John Milius, who had previously directed The Wind and The Lion and Conan the Barbarian.  Upon its release, Red Dawn was the first movie to ever get a PG-13 rating, after the rating was created in the wake of PG movies like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Gremlins.  The movie was a commercial success, making over double its budget back, and has inspired pop culture for decades, especially in video games with games like Freedom Fighters, Homefront, and Call of Duty.  Just yell “Wolverines!” and everyone will know what you are talking about.  There was a 2012 remake starring Chris Hemsworth but that version paled in comparison to the original.  You can watch the entire 80s classic below thanks to YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7V0IZ51wDg