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)
Red Dawn (1984)
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Directed by: John Milius
Starring: C. Thomas Howell, Charlie Sheen, Harry Dean Stanton, Lea Thompson, Patrick Swayze
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Prologue/Opening Narration: Soviet Union suffers worst wheat harvest in 55 years... Labor and food riots in Poland. Soviet troops invade... Cuba and Nicaragua reach troop strength goals of 500,000. El Salvador and Honduras fall... Greens Party gains control of West German Parliament. Demands withdrawal of nuclear weapons from European soil... Mexico plunged into revolution... NATO dissolves. United States stands alone.
Trivia: The cast underwent an intensive 8-week military training course before filming started.
Question: When Daryl is confronted by his friends, he tells them that he was forced to swallow something. What was it and why kill him if he was forced to do it?
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Answer: It was a tracking device which gave away their location. Since they couldn't remove it, they decided to kill him as he was now a liability.
Gavin Jackson
They killed him because he betrayed them.