Red Dawn (2012)

A group of teenagers look to save their town from an invasion of North Korean soldiers.

Director:

Dan Bradley

Writers:

Carl Ellsworth (screenplay), Jeremy Passmore (screenplay)

Stars:

Chris Hemsworth, Isabel Lucas, Josh Hutcherson

1 win & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Chris Hemsworth	...	Jed Eckert
Josh Peck	...	Matt Eckert
Josh Hutcherson	...	Robert Kitner
Adrianne Palicki	...	Toni Walsh
Isabel Lucas	...	Erica Martin
Connor Cruise	...	Daryl Jenkins
Edwin Hodge	...	Danny
Brett Cullen	...	Sgt. Tom Eckert
Alyssa Diaz	...	Julie
Julian Alcaraz	...	Greg
Will Yun Lee	...	Captain Cho
Jeffrey Dean Morgan	...	Sgt. Maj. Andrew Tanner
Fernando Chien	...	Lt. Pak
Kenneth Choi	...	Smith
Matt Gerald	...	Hodges

Storyline

The city of Spokane, Washington is awakened by a North Korean paratrooper invasion. Marine Corps veteran Jed Eckert and his civilian brother, Matt, escape with a group of friends to an isolated cabin in the woods, where they witness the execution of their father at the hands of the ruthless Captain Cho. The brothers unite with their friends to form a guerrilla resistance group--the Wolverines--to drive the invaders from their home.

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Plot Keywords:

invasion | woods | teenager | courage | rescue | 

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Taglines:

Welcome To the Home of the Brave

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Genres:

Action | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense war violence and action, and for language

Did You Know?

Trivia

To help get in shape for the role of a high school quarterback, Josh Peck spent time working out with and practicing with the Saddleback College football team in Orange County, California. Growing up with multiple health problems, Peck had never played football before and didn't know much about the sport in general, but wanted to implement real life quarterback tactics into the film.

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Goofs

An EMP-style weapon fried all electronics, but they seem to have a working cell phone.

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Quotes

[first lines]
News Anchor: Fears of a second recession has caused panic in Europe's financial markets.
President Obama: The severity of this recession will cause more pain before it ends.
American Man: European Union cannot "bail out" Greece. You've seen the- the government of Spain coming out and saying, "We've had the same problem." Portugal says the same thing. There's some talk that Italy may be in trouble.
News Anchor: U.S. intelligence officials are growing more and more concerned that foreign operatives are surveilling computer systems that ...
[...]

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Connections

References Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2011)

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Soundtracks

Stupid Grin
Written by Martina Sorbara and Dan Kurtz
Performed by Dragonette

User Reviews

Wolverines ride again

Ending on a far more positive note that the first Red Dawn, this updated 21st century adaption of that Cold War classic has the USA invaded by North Korea and of course with help from Russia. Interesting how the film was made in 2009 and shelved for two years while we changed the villains from Chinese to North Korean because we have to think of that big Chinese market. That's capitalism at its finest.

Geopolitically it doesn't make much sense either. The Russians if anything have become super nationalist with the Russian Orthodox Church having more power than they did with the Czars. I doubt they would be helping the government of the still true believers in Revolution. Ditto the Chinese. Back in the day I remember when one did not refer to mainland China without the prefix Red attached to it. But about 30 seconds after Mao Tse-tung could not fog a mirror the revolution was over in China and not a moment too soon. Those who survived Mao's Red Guards could testify to that. Now they're as capitalist as we are with certain lip service paid to Mao just like in Russia lip service to the ideals of Lenin.

What these two did do after the fall of the Soviet Union which kept North Korea alive is say you're on your own Kim family and the little family enterprise you call a country. Like Prussia, it's a state that supports an army because if you don't join the army, you and your family might starve. And now they can't feed their people, but they can build their own nukes to threaten all around who enjoy prosperity. That's all of their neighbors.

The recent saber rattling of North Korea has given some credence to the popularity of this film as it did in the recent Olympus has fallen. The North Koreans invade, thousands of paratroopers over the Pacific rim and we're told that Russians are in the East Coast. They declared cyber warfare by screwing up our military defense systems and invaded.

And like the first version some high school kids fight the invaders and they call themselves Wolverines after their football team. The Wolverine which ironically is an endangered species is one fierce animal that never gives up and will take on a bigger foe and win.

Unlike the first version the kids are lucky enough to have Chris Hemsworth who was in Iraq to train them. Hemsworth's brother is Josh Peck and they gather a crew together and reek havoc on the occupiers. The action is also located in the Pacific Northwest and the Wolverines do some urban guerrilla warfare. The original story had the kids living and doing their thing in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and Wyoming.

In the original which I liked more than this both Patrick Swayze and C. Thomas Howell were killed and the story had an Ishmael like ending with one Wolverine surviving to tell the tale of the kids who fought back while America regrouped to reclaim itself. This one ended on a more upbeat, but false note.

Then again it was a far wackier premise with this plot than with the other version.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official Twitter

Country:

USA

Language:

English Korean

Release Date:

21 November 2012 (USA)

Also Known As:

Red Dawn

Filming Locations:

Polsa Rosa Ranch - 5726 Soledad Canyon Road, Acton, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$65,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$14,276,668, 25 November 2012

Gross USA:

$44,806,783

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$50,950,296

Company Credits

Production Co:

FilmDistrict, Contrafilm, FilmNation Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital Datasat SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1