Red Dawn is a 1984 American war film directed by John Milius, with a screenplay by Kevin Reynolds and Milius.It stars Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson, Jennifer Grey, Ben Johnson, Harry Dean Stanton, Ron O'Neal, William Smith, and Powers Boothe.It was the first film to be released in the US with a PG-13 rating (under the [[Motion Picture Association of America film rating system#Addition of PG-13 rating|modified rating system]] introduced on July 1, 1984). The film is set in an alternate history timeline in which the United States is invaded by the Soviet Union and its Cuban and Nicaraguan allies.However, the onset of World War III is in the background and not fully elaborated.The story follows a group of American high school students who resist the occupation with guerrilla warfare, calling themselves "Wolverines", after their high school mascot.