In defense of 80's Red Dawn, they were dealing with 80's Russia (before the Soviet Union collapsed) along with Cuban forces. And the rest of the world had gotten pretty fucked up. I think NATO fell apart due to revolutions and civil wars. Also, nukes had been used. I don't remember if they flat out stated it but there was a bit of dialogue that makes it clear.
The US pilot guy was talking to the Wolverines and tells them the only ones on their side are "Six hundred million screaming Chinamen". A kid says "Last I heard there were a billion screaming Chinamen" .
Pilot guy responds with "There were."
And the kids weren't exactly fighting at the front lines.
Not that it makes the movie any better or less propaganda/Yay America schlock
I know, but the idea of nukes getting tossed around annoys me even more because then it begs the question of why the USSR gets to throw Nukes around and none of the other 3 Nuclear Powers they were fighting(UK, PRC and USA) apparently didn't respond in kind. There's just some handwaving of "They took out our Silos in the Dakotas" as if that's supposed to explain it and...that's it? The USSR took out everyone's nukes at the same time without the ability to counterstrike? Did they use their Metal Gears or something to avoid a launch detection? The dozen or so US Navy Boomers on patrol all got taken out as well? SAC, noted to be airborne at all times during the Cold War, all got shot down?
Especially since apparently NOBODY saw this coming, since the school day was coming to an end and the news isn't blaring out alarms about a Soviet invasion incoming. The Soviets are apparently capable of a full scale assault on the American Heartland without so much as one early warning signal to anyone...because I don't fucking know......More Soviet Metal Gears or some shit?
Notice I'm not even touching on Chinese or British Nukes here, which apparently all got taken out by the USSR Yuri clones or something. Or the fact the Soviets are occupying half of the US actually doesn't help them much because there are presumably no Americans occupying the USSR in return, so any US nukes fired at Russian cities or ports(which they NEED for their incredibly stretched logistical lines as it is) have no danger of friendly fire, but a return strike on the US(half occupied) risks hurting the occupying Russian troops.
Also, I'm amused that the movie just throws in "El Salvador and Mexico and Cuba" as USSR allies being part of the invasion despite said nations having significantly less ability to launch an invasion of the US then the USSR did. ALso some hand waving of the Russians sneaking in on Civilian Airliners. I know it's a reference to Warsaw Pact invading Czechoslovakia in 1968. It's still dumb because it kinda of ignores what happened in 1968 that Czechoslovakia was already a communist state surrounded by other communist states loyal to the USSR, not the US sitting on the other side of two oceans with a nuclear arsenal and a ridiculous cold war military build up. Even without NATO, the US still shouldn't have been that easy to just up and invade as the movie seems to imply. The logistics burden on the USSR alone would have been a fucking nightmare(lets not pretend the Communist fan club in Central America in the film is really going to change this much. The USSR is the heavy lift here).
Actually thinking about it the only way Red Dawn is remotely plausible is that it takes place in the Metal Gear universe and the Soviets are the only ones who have them. And now having said that I think Red Dawn could have benefited a lot from Metal Gears in the official lore.
