Red Dawn is going to be on TNT tonight

[theboss]

50. John Milius - being John Milius - actually gives a ridiculously detailed explanation of the invasion

It helps to have watched it 50 times and have a photographic memory.

You have to watch the pre-credit sequence.

NATO dissolves as the German Greens force a pull out. At the same time, Mexico, Honduras, and El Salvador fall to a Communist Insurrection. Meanwhile, Russians are starving due to a bad wheat harvest.

Granted, this is crazy, but it explains how the US became isolated and how the Soviets are able to invade before anyone knows what the heck is going on.

Somehow, Soviet commando units infiltrate the US via commercial airlines and secure "passes" in the Rockies (I guess it is 1872 and this is important). This is coordinated with nuclear attacks on communication points - like Washington DC and Omaha- and missle silos (with missles presumably launched from Mexico and Cuba). At the same time Cubans and Nicaraguans come across as "illegals" and attack major SAC bases. I'm guessing all this explains why the Soviet Union is not a smoking tire fire in the first twenty minutes of the movie.

Are you with me so far?

Now Cuba and Nicaragua invade through Mexico while the Soviets go through Alaska, down through Canada and try to link up with the Southern Army in the Midwest.

Now, California is "Free" while Denver is under seige and the two armies have never met up so it looks like the battle lines are somewhere in the Midwest - which seems like a weird place for an invading army to want to be. Those supply lines are ridiculously long.