‘Red Dawn' 40th anniversary: ... "Red Dawn" became the first American film released with the new rating. ... The cast went through eight weeks of military training before filming began.

On August 10, 1984, Red Dawn stormed into theaters. The Cold War-era film envisioned a WWIII-like scenario of what it would look like if Communist Soviets and Cubans invaded a small Colorado town ...

When MGM started work on a reboot of “Red Dawn,” China was the obvious aggressor. By the time the movie was shot, that decision represented political suicide. North Korea got the part instead.