11 quotes
American Identity and Knowledge in Red Dawn
Erica Mason
You American?
Col. Andrew Tanner
Red-blooded.
[Indicating the American flag on his flight suit]
Mason
What's the capital of Texas?
Tanner
Austin.
Mason
Wrong, commie; it's Houston!
[proceeds to kick Col. Tanner; racking the bolt on her AK-47]
Tanner
Easy, darlin'! I'm cold... and you've seen too many movies!
The Duality of Hate and Warmth
Col. Andy Tanner
All that hate is gonna burn you up kid.
Robert Morris
It keeps me warm.
Facing Death with Courage
Jed Eckert
C'mon! We're all going to die, die standing up!
[While giving guns to newly freed prisoners]
The Nature of Warfare and Its Hypocrisy
Colonel Strelnikov
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? 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.
[briefing Soviet Army officers and troops about the Wolverines; in Russian; points to board]
Understanding the Symbolism of "Wolverine
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 ]: "]
[[w:Vietnam War|Vietnam; [w:Winning hearts and minds|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 "Wolverines.
[to Bella in disdain]
Nicaraguan Captain
Are you all right?!
[to Colonel Bella]
Bella
Yes, yes, help them! You were saying, comrade? Huh?!
[gesturing impatiently to others fallen nearby; to Bratchenko]
Bratchenko
Shut up!
Conflict Over Rules and Blindfolds
Jed Eckert
Do you want blindfolds?
Stepan Gorsky
This violates the ]!
[[w:Geneva Conventions|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
Boy, say at me you are friend, so I will not die alone.
[to Daryl]
Matt
What's the difference, Jed?
Robert
I'll do it.
Matt
Shut up, Robert! Tell me what's the difference between us and them!
[to Jed]
Jed
Because ... we live here!
[kills Gorsky and when he hesitates with Daryl, Robert kills him]
Survival in a Siege: Harsh Realities
Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Tanner
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.
[talks to the teenagers over their supplies]
Weapon Acquisition Discussion in Red Dawn
KGB Major
Do you want to see me?
Colonel Bella
Yes ... yes. Go to the sporting goods store. From the files, obtain ]. These will contain descriptions of weapons, and lists of private ownership.
[[W:Form 4473|forms 4473]
Colonel Tanner's Introduction and Inquiry
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
I'm Jed.
Col. Tanner
How you doing, Jed?
Jed
Good as can be.
Reflections on Time in the Mountains
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
Until we don't hear that no more.
[indicating the jets above them]
Strategic Military Attack Unfolds in Conversation
Col. Tanner
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.
[gestures to parts of the campfire]
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]