Red Dawn

Factual error: The Russians use a beeping "radio direction finder" to find the partisans by detecting a bug swallowed by the Mayor's son. In closeups the "direction finder" is seen to be an impedance meter (used for measuring AC resistance) - it's labeled "X=(down arrow) x (up arrow)(omega)". X is the standard abbreviation for impedance, omega means "ohms" (the unit of impedance/resistance), so the label says "impedance is lower dial times upper dial, in ohms". There is a piece of spiral twisted wire across the terminals of the impedance meter which would be useless for radio direction finding. (01:19:15)

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Factual error: When the Russian tank rolls up to the two gas pumps, the crew have a choice of regular gasoline (as indicated on the pump), or Good Gulf (a premium gasoline). And in fact one of the tankers tells the attendant, "Gasoline." The trouble is, all Soviet tanks, from the T-34 up through the T-80, have diesel engines for safety reasons. (00:46:55)

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Suggested correction: Most variants of the T-80 use a Gas Turbine engine, which can use basically any flammable liquid.

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Factual error: In the opening scene of the movie, the Soviet paratroopers are seen wearing smooth, black, leather parachute helmets. But Soviet Paratroopers have always worn tan, cloth parachute helmets with ridges that resembled tanker helmets. (00:05:00)

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Suggested correction: Actually no, The Soviet airborne would have had leather helmets when they jumped in circa 1984.

Factual error: When the Soviet airborne troops first drop into Calumet in the first few scenes of the movie they are using US Army issue parachutes - MC1-1B. (00:04:45)

More mistakes in Red Dawn

Col. Andy 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.

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More trivia for Red Dawn

Question: Where can I find out who the extras were in the movie? My uncle was one of the paratroopers at the beginning, I just want to know which one, and no I can't call him.

toby1kenobi

Chosen answer: I was one of the actual paratroopers in the movie. There were at least two different companies providing the extra's. The company that provided the actual paratroopers was Delta Productions, Inc. owned by John Early who owned the Parachute Center in Albuquerque, NM. John was a former Green Beret and professional soldier and was hired to be the technical adviser to the film. As far as I know, Delta Productions is no longer in business. The other company that hired extras provided the non-paratrooper extras. I do not have any information concerning that company but I do know that most were locals who lived in Las Vegas, NM. I know this because I met one of them in the Marine Corps years later. To answer your actual question, I have no knowledge if that information was kept other than those companies that hired them.

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