C. Thomas Howell

Ryan Phillippe stars as an ex-special forces operative who goes off-grid when his daughter is kidnapped by a violent community. Alone and armed with tactical skill, he heads into the wilderness to track them down, take them apart, and bring her home.

A former special forces operative (Ryan Phillippe) is forced back onto a remote island when a violent, secretive community takes revenge by abducting his daughter, launching a relentless hunt against enemies prepared for his every move.

A gifted high-school football player must learn to embrace his talent and his faith as he battles racial tensions on and off the field. When Woodlawn High School in Birmingham, Alabama is controversially desegregated in 1973, Tony Nathan, a gifted Black high-school football player, joins the school's predominantly white football team along with several other Black players. The coach, Tandy Gerelds, tells the team to use their shared anger to unite them, but Black and white players clash on and off the field. After a riot at the school, Gerelds consents to allowing traveling sports chaplain Hank Erwin to speak to the team as a "motivational speaker". Hank's speech moves nearly the entire team to accept Hank's invitation to commit their lives to Jesus Christ, and join together in prayer. Gerelds does not accept the invitation, and is unsure what to make of the event.

Peter Parker, an outcast teen, struggles with his first crush, the mystery of his parents` disappearance and a radioactive spider bite that gives him superpowers.

A law student comes to California for the summer and ends up playing professional volleyball. Midwestern law student comes to California for summer work. Instead, hangs out at the beach and chases waitresses. Meets up with a washed-up King of the Beach, and the rookie wins the biggest tournament of the year in only his second tournament. —Todd Christensen <todd.christensen@atlantaga.ncr.com>

Set in a small Midwestern American town of Grandview, Illinois, Tim Pearson (C. Thomas Powell), a Grandview High School senior, wants to study oceanography in Florida after graduation. His father Roger (Ramon Bieri) loans him his brand new Cadillac to go to the senior prom with Bonnie Clark (Elizabeth Gorcey). Later, while Tim and Bonnie are making out in the car near a stream, the car's parking brake fails and the car literally rolls in, so they walk to "Cody's Speedway", a local garage, for a tow. When Bonnie's father (M. Emmet Walsh) comes for her, he punches Tim in anger. Mechanic Michelle "Mike" Cody (Jamie Lee Curtis) defends him, and has local demolition derby driver Ernie "Slam" Webster (Patrick Swayze) tow the car with Tim. Slam first stops at the local bowling alley asking for his wife Candy (Jennifer Jason Leigh), who hasn't been there all day. Slam suspects that Candy might be cheating on him. The next morning, when Tim visits his father at work, he tells Tim he does not want him to drive his car again. Running into Mike, he thanks her for helping him with the car and asks to drive in the derby. Tim goes out to the Speedway, where he meets Mike's mentally challenged brother, Cowboy (John Philbin). Later on that night, Mike goes to the bar to see her uncle Bob (William Windom), asking to borrow $10,000 to fix up the Speedway. He doesn't have the money, but wants to help. Just then, they both hear a drunken Slam beating on a video game machine after loosing. Mike and Bob help him out to his truck, and she and Slam talk about old times. Hungover at work the next morning, Slam's boss sends him home. When he arrives, he finds Candy with Donny Vinton (Troy Donahue). Enraged, he jumps on his car demanding she come back to him, in the process Donny shoots himself in the foot. At the hospital, Candy doesn't press charges, but won't come home. She files a restraining order so Slam cannot be within 50 feet of her. That night, when Mike sees Slam sleeping in his truck, she comforts him, believing he does not really love Candy but is only afraid of being alone. Later, he invites Mike out to dinner but she can't. (She has a County Commission meeting, but doesn't say so.) Tim and his dad also go to the meeting, and he tells him he's declining his ISU scholarship to go to Florida to study oceanography; Roger isn't too pleased. At the Town Hall, Roger asks Tim to get something in his office. There, he sees the Speedway renovation plans. At the meeting, Mike requests more time to get the money to fix up the Speedway, but the commission won't give it to her. Tim reveals they plan to put a country club and golf course on Mike's land. (Roger has already bought all of the adjacent property to the Speedway and will go bankrupt if the deal doesn't go through.) Tim then argues with his father and leaves. Tim runs into Mike, who thanks him for saving her place. Going for a burger, she invites him over, and they spend the night together. Mike offers Tim a car to drive in the Derby. In the morning Slam shows up, finding them in bed together; he leaves upset, thinking Mike turned him down because of Tim. Later on that day, Roger apologizes to Tim about the fight. He asks Tim to reconsider Illinois State University, but he still wants to go to Florida. At the Speedway, Mike sells her old cars to make extra money, upsetting Cowboy, who runs off crying. Slam goes to his house and sees his stuff on the lawn, getting wet under the lawn sprinkler. Donny taunts him by the door with a shotgun, telling him he called the cops. Slam leaves with his wet things. Later that night, at the Demolition Derby, Tim is competing against Slam in the race. At the climax, Slam crashes into Tim, injuring him. Thinking he did it on purpose, Mike sends him off the track. Then, as Candy and Donny are having sex in his house, Slam bulldozes it and he is arrested. As Tim and Mike drive home from the hospital, they see firetrucks and find the Speedway has burned down. Mike asks her mother what had happened, but she doesn't know. In the morning, however, the police discover that the gas tank was unlocked. Cowboy had started the fire because Mike sold the old cars. Tim and Mike talk, and she admits she is in love with Slam. Mike bails Slam out of jail and he offers to help fix the Speedway, but she says she'll sell to Roger so they can afford to start a life together. She then asks him for a favor. In the final scene, Tim is a bus stop on his way to Chicago. As the bus leaves a car comes alongside, forcing him off; Slam gives Tim the old car and money for his trip to Florida. Mike and Slam, now a couple, go to the local parade.

Sergeant Major Zack Carey (James Garner) arrives at his last duty post, an Army base in Georgia called Fort Clemons, with his wife Ladonna (Shirley Jones) and his son Billy (C. Thomas Howell). The guard at the main gate welcomes him as he enters with his family in a station wagon. Behind him is a moving van with their belongings and a World War II Sherman tank on a trailer (he tells the guard he never said he travelled light). Personnel help him remove the tarps from his prized possession as Ladonna supervises the moving of furnishings into their on-base housing. As Zack rolls the tank onto solid ground, a staff sergeant reporter from Soldier Magazine named Jerry Elliott (Mark Herrier) interviews him, as he is the only Army man who owns a tank. He has restored it over fifteen years, adding a radio and PA system so he can drive it in parades and other events. Of his two sons, his eldest son Jonathan has died and Billy, born six years later, is just 16. When asked why anybody would want to own a tank, he replies that it is very hard to shoot yourself while cleaning it. Zack visits the base commander, Major General V.E. Hubik (Sandy Ward), who is familiar with him, welcomes him wholeheartedly and takes him on a tour of the base. Zack has made an offer on a fishing boat on which he and his wife can enjoy retirement. The General says Zack could be the next senior Sergeant Major of the Army and work out of the Pentagon, but Zack says he has only one son left who will go on his own soon, and he doesn't want to miss any quality time with him. Back at the house Elliott the reporter asks Billy what his father is like, and Billy says he is a cross between George Patton and Danny Thomas. Ladonna recommends that Zack goes to the local NCO club and he finds its more like a disco, geared to a younger crowd and much too noisy for his tastes. He does run into an old friend, Ed Tippett (Dorian Harewood) who works at the base Provost Marshall's office. When Ed says to come meet the wife, Zack says he knows Linda and Ed corrects him: Gwen is the new wife. At home Zack is slightly disheartened and talks to Ladonna about the club and his friend's divorce, saying all he wants to do is finish his duty and get on the boat, then the couple share a cuddle. At his first assembly with his command personnel the next morning, Zack stresses taking care of their own without problems reaching their superiors, and keeping to Army regulations in all matters. He also says he wants to see a proper bar on the base so Army personnel of a certain age don't have to dance, as he calls it, the funky monkey. Early the next morning Zack hits the battalion field to do his morning jog and shouts for all to hear that he finds himself alone; in moments the entire battalion has filed out of their barracks and they form ranks on the field to engage in early morning physical training with their sergeant major. The General is awakened by the sound of the troops passing. He watches Zack out his bedroom window and smiles. Sometime later, when Ladonna gets home, Zack happily announces that the sellers accepted their offer on the boat. He forgot she is entertaining the NCO wives in the house that night, so they can't eat dinner at home or celebrate yet. She suggests Zack go into town for dinner. He stops at the local bar, the Outpost Café, and talks with a woman named Sarah (Jenilee Harrison), who has aspirations to go to California and become a beautician. Zack becomes loose with the beer, says he has been in the Army for 30 years and jokes that he should go into the Navy now that he is a boat owner. He starts singing a loud shanty which interrupts a pool game being played by Deputy Euclid Baker (James Cromwell) and some of his friends. Euclid quickly makes it obvious to Zack that the Army isn't particularly welcome. He then tells Sarah she has wasted too much time on Zack and should be turning tricks with paying customers, then he slaps her. Zack says that the display was not necessary, but Euclid takes another swing at Sarah. Zack punches and roughs up Euclid, then gets hold of the deputy's service pistol; the bar patrons step back in alarm, but he simply drops it in the fish tank on the bar and leaves. Sarah yells at him that she could have lost her job, but he says a simple thank you would have sufficed. He immediately goes to Ed's house to tell him what happened, knowing he has made a mistake which will bring the local constabulary looking for him. Ed says the sheriff is a particularly mean variety of Georgian cracker, and it might take considerable money to get out of the situation. The next morning Euclid greets the sheriff, Cyrus Buelton (G. D. Spradlin) and brings his morning cup of coffee. Buelton upbraids Euclid for getting beaten up by somebody and not putting that person in jail. A mark on the deputy is a mark on him, and something he won't tolerate. Zack is spotted eating at the enlisted mess hall instead of the NCO mess, ruffling the feathers of Mess Master Sergeant Johnson (John Hancock), to whom it appears to be an unannounced inspection and a breach of etiquette. He storms over to Zack in a huff, but Zack explains he chose to come in because the food smelled good. He praises the clean facility, the quality of the food and that nobody slopped food onto the plates, all of which Johnson says is no less than he expects of his staff. When Zack gives high praise to the mess sergeant's own apple cobbler, the man softens and Zack earns his respect. Buelton and Euclid visit Sarah in her trailer. The sheriff awakens her and asks if she believes in Wonder Woman or the Lone Ranger. When she seems confused, he talks to her about thinking that Zack and Army men like him are her heroes. He demands that she roll over and drop her pants so he can enforce the lesson with his belt that there is no Lone Ranger. She complies. When he sees Euclid looking down at her and smirking, he whacks him upside the head before proceeding with Sarah's whipping, which she silently and tearlessly endures. The sheriff then visits the Provost Marshall's office. Ed has expected his arrival and excuses the white clerk at the counter to take on the visitor himself. Buelton says he wants Zack in his own jail and demands he be handed over. Ed casually says he will have him delivered at once, but doesn't move. Buelton challenges Ed and calls him Sambo. Ed says he will also order that by five o'clock the town be off limits to all military personnel to prevent more problems, knowing it would affect the town's livelihood. Ed then warns the sheriff, calling him Jim (as in Crow), not to exceed the speed limit leaving the base or risk spending time in his jail. Insulted, Buelton returns to his office and demands Euclid get every piece of information available on Zack. At a visit to the post hospital Zack sees a crying five-year-old boy being held down by his mother while a doctor stitches cuts to his bloodied face. The mother says his daddy isn't mad at him anymore, and Zack realizes what has happened. He calls the kid's Army father, Corporal Harris (Larry Jordan), into his office and asks if he hit his son. The man becomes defensive and says it is none of his business, but Zack makes it his business, offering to spar with him at the base gym if he feels the need to vent anger, and demands he get counseling. Harris continues to be stubborn, so Zack puts him against the wall and warns that he will visit the hospital daily to make sure the man doesn't lay another hand on the boy, threatening to risk his rank, retirement and the stockade if necessary to stop him, and the chastened man is dismissed. Zack and Billy talk about the boat at home, and Billy mentions naming it the Johnny Boy, saying it would be fitting since Johnny was his favorite son. Zack sets him straight, saying he and his mother had a different and unique relationship with Johnny, who always tried to prove himself (which might have been what had gotten him killed). Billy should never feel that Ladonna or he loved either of them more or less than the other. At school Billy is summoned to his locker. Euclid and Sherriff Buelton ask him to open his locker, but he finds a different lock on it and his combination doesn't work. On orders, the maintenance man breaks off the lock, and a bag of marijuana has been planted inside. Zack contritely visits the jail to see Buelton, and he and Euclid take great joy in humiliating him as he admits his fault and asks what he needs to do to get Billy back. Buelton says that the judge, who happens to be his brother-in-law, will surely send Billy to the county farm for two or three years of hard labor. The sheriff takes Zack on a tour of one of the work farms and has a supervisor pull a black worker off a truck, where he was on break from the work detail, to exercise negative feedback, which consists of beating the man for malingering. Buelton demands $10,000, which he feels Zack can afford after getting word of the article in the magazine. He also warns not to bring in any lawyers. Zack says he will play it his way as long as Billy is safe. He visits his son in jail and tells Billy that Buelton is getting revenge, he will be set free soon and to stay strong. Billy calls his dad sir, and Zack stresses to Billy that he should be as polite to his captors. Back at home Ladonna slaps Zack, furious at him for "whoring" and putting their son in danger. She refuses to listen and says she wants to get a lawyer and bypass any of his ideas. The next day, while Zack is conducting a firearms inspection, Ladonna pulls up in the car and confesses that she had no idea what kind of man Buelton was. At the sheriff's office, Zack quietly hands Buelton the money in a bag, which the sheriff says will keep Billy alive for a while, and Zack argues additional shakedowns had not been part of their deal. The sheriff says hiring the lawyer was dumb. Billy has been tried and sentenced to three years of hard labor at the work farm where, without protection, he might be victimized by degenerates or shot while trying to escape. In the jail cell, Billy has suffered a beating and yells at his father, as he has been told a version of what happened with Sarah at the bar, asking if she was worth it. Zack goes home and thinks things over, weighing his options. At dawn he goes to his tank, prepares the vehicle and then drives it toward the main gate. Major General Hubik is apprised of the situation, and he tells the guards to bar the gate. Zack simply swerves past them, taking down part of the fence as he heads into town. Zack awakens Euclid at the jail with his tank and trains the muzzle on him, asking him to let his son out of jail. Euclid says Billy was taken to the county farm overnight as a precaution, and only a couple of drunks are inside. Sarah has come out of her trailer and says the lawyer they hired is also in the jail. Zack has her retrieve Euclids keys to release the prisoners, then tells him to take the radio out of the squad car. Euclid refuses, saying it's a new radio and the sheriff would kill him if it got ruined, so Zack uses the main gun on the tank to take out the squad car. Then he shoots the main phone line out of town with a machine gun. He drives through the jail using his tank as a juggernaut to level the building. Finally he has Euclid strip naked and Sarah handcuffs him to a telephone pole. She asks Zack to take her with him, as she can't stay there anymore, and he agrees. Outside the work farm, they observe Billy through binoculars, helping a work crew. Zack blasts a truck as a diversion and uses the sound system in the tank to tell Billy to lie down flat; he aligns the tracks vertically on either side of Billy and drives the tank over his son to retrieve him using the hatch in the floor, and the trio take off. The police are called in to block the road, but Zack drives the tank over the squad cars. Buelton talks to the governor of Georgia (Wallace Wilkinson) saying he has a 52-year-old sergeant major who is crazy, along with a sixteen-year-old "dope fiend" and a 20-year-old hooker in a Sherman tank, and asks for help, but he refers the sheriff to the Army. Billy helps Zack with tank maintenance while Sarah washes in the river. He has a disagreement with his father because of Sarah's presence, but Zack says she is willing to testify how she was arrested for vagrancy and forced into prostitution by Buelton on a trumped-up charge, lending weight to their cause, and Zack can then add his testimony as well. He tells Billy they're not running from, but to, the law, hoping to go over the state line, where true authority in neighboring Tennessee can put a stop to Buelton's abuse of power. Buelton visits Hubik to demand aid from the military. Hubik replies the only indiscretion the Army has against Zack is his destruction of a 20-foot section of fence, and Zack had resigned earlier in the day. Then he mentions the Posse Comitatus Act, a law prohibiting the Army rendering aid in a civilian matter without the permission of their Commander in Chief: the President of the United States. The sheriff, unfamiliar with the term, misinterprets it and takes umbrage, thinking he has been called a "pussy communist," and storms off to deal with Zack in his own way. The news media has received word of the fugitives in the tank. Buelton puts his men at every gas station to the state line to stop Zach from refueling. When the tank begins to run out of gas, they pull up to some gas pumps at an off-road home. When Zack restrains the owner, he is surprised when Mr. Gant (Danny Nelson) doesn't protest. He says Zack can have anything he wants, as his sister's son was sent to the work farm and never got out. After a quick rest and a meal, they continue on their way. Buelton speaks to his supporters about Gant abetting a felon. Folks appear at the property with torches to burn the home down and have him serve as a lesson to others. He stands up to them, and suddenly the tank appears. Zack has doubled back to help Gant and drives the mob off. As they take on supplies from Mr. Gant, Billy works with Sarah. He has been cool toward her until finally she sets him straight. Zack only wanted to talk, she says, and if he had taken her back to the trailer to cheat on Ladonna, as most men shes known has, the events would have played out differently. Billy realizes Zack did nothing wrong and gains a new understanding of his father. Meanwhile Gant helps Zack plan his trip to the Tennessee border, suggesting a rougher route which will take them away from a bog where Buelton suspects he may be headed. The tank slips a track as they detour through some rough country, and Zack and Billy work on it together. Billy mans the tank to move it forward when his dad gives the word to Sarah, but Zack mumbles to himself while readying the tank to reset the track, Sarah mishears him as giving the okay and signals Billy to move the tank. The tank jerks and Zack takes a blow from a crowbar to the torso, causing immediate pain. He says his ribs are broken, and later he starts coughing up blood. It becomes apparent that he has internal bleeding, and they need to reach the state line and help soon. Billy says he can handle the tank, as he helped build it. When Zack protests that Billy doesnt have to prove anything like Johnny used to, Billy says he is not like his brother, but more practical like his mother. He realizes his dad took the blame for something that was not his fault. Billy decides to go flat out toward the border rather than moving only by night, to get them out of danger faster. Ladonna talks to Billy and Zack via the military radio and apologizes to her husband for what she said to him. Then she goes to the governor of Tennessee for help, but at first he refuses to see her. She talks to the television news reporter, asking the wives watching to call the governor if they support her cause and ask that he give her five minutes of his time. A helicopter carrying a newsman hovers over the tank while broadcasting on live television, and he interviews Billy through the tanks radio. Billy tells the people that he loves and respects his dad and has no intention of giving Zack over to Buelton. Watching the show is a gang of bikers at a bar who admire Billy and his old man. With the public's outcry, the governor finally gives in and talks to Ladonna in his office. If Zack can cross the state line, she wants the governors promise that a fair trial can be held there instead of in Buelton's jurisdiction. The governor has issues because one of the fugitives is an alleged prostitute, and Ladonna says that it is her own husband and son with the alleged 20-year-old prostitute, and he should have no problem with the matter if she doesn't. She then mentions that she has reporters and his own voters outside waiting for her to deliver his answer, suggesting that he should consider if he will be perceived as a man who wants to see justice done, or as an asshole. He asks if she is threatening him with blackmail, and she brazenly says she is. He agrees to help Zack if the tank arrives, promising in a television interview that there will be a hearing in his state before any extradition is considered. Buelton gets his own supporters together to force the tank, with the aid of roadblocks, to detour into a recessed open field by the side of the only road leading to the state line. The plan is to stall the tank there with mud, and water tanker trucks begin hosing down the dirt in the field as the semis to block the highway are put in place. He has a man named Avery (Don Young) set up a bazooka to fire rounds at the tank when it arrives to ensure it is disabled. At the crossroad on the other side of the border, hundreds of Zack's supporters, who have watched the story play out on television, come to help in any way they can, along with television crews and helicopters. The bikers have also set up to await their arrival. Ladonna gets on the radio to the tank and tells her family and Sarah that they have won. Buelton and his crew hide at the edge of the road with their guns. As the tank approaches the border and he sees the way blocked, Billy steers the tank off the road as expected and starts across the muddy field. Avery fires the bazooka but misses, since he hasn't used the weapon since his own military days, but his second shot hits the tank, and it shuts down. Buelton announces that they can all wait while the climbing temperatures take their toll on the tank's occupants. The general arrives by military helicopter to join Ladonna. When he says the tank has slipped a track and will only move if it is pulled out, the bikers confer on what to do, then they start to unload supplies off a parked truck. When the driver asks what they're doing, they openly reply, "Stealing," to no objection; everybody pitches in to build what turns out to be a ramp. Billy finally goes over the PA to ask about how his father will be treated if they surrender, as Zack is feeling worse due to his injuries. Buelton gives his word that Zack will go to the hospital immediately. Then a biker rides out on the completed ramp, sailing through the air on his motorcycle carrying a rope to be attached to a tow cable that can help pull the tank out of the mud. Billy exits the tank from the bottom hatch and helps attach the cable while Sarah holds Buelton's gunmen at bay with the machine gun. Everybody, with Hubik and the Tennessee Governor on hand, begins to pull on the cable. Buelton tries to instruct his aides to shoot into the crowd, but the armed troopers on the Tennessee side take aim and warn that there will be another Little Big Horn if they do that, so they run into the field and pull from the rear of the tank, which isn't budging. Buelton jumps onto the tank to demand Zack come out, but Sarah turns the turret to knock the sheriff to the ground. The crowd spots a bulldozer that can handle the cable. It is put into use, and along with pulling supporters against the meager crew on Buelton's side, the tank is slowly pulled up the incline, over the Georgia state line and into Tennessee. The sheriff and Euclid are left in the mud. Ladonna embraces Zack and Billy as they exit the tank, and Billy kisses Sarah as the crowd cheers.

"Red Dawn" envisions an alternate history of mid-1980's America. A few title cards that precede the opening credits tell of famine in the Soviet Union, leading to food riots in Poland. The USSR subsequently invades Poland. Troubles in Central America include Cuba and Nicaragua building their armies to immense, unprecedented numbers and invading the nations of El Salvador and Honduras. A Communist revolution breaks out in Mexico. In Europe, political divisions in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) lead to the dismantling of nuclear weapons. Finally, NATO dissolves, leaving the United States with no allies or support. The story is set in a small Colorado mountain town called Calumet. Before an autumn school day in September a young man named Jed Eckert (Patrick Swayze) is dropping his younger brother Matt (Charlie Sheen) and their friend Arturo (Doug Toby) off at school. While giving a lecture on Genghis Khan's tactics in conquering Asia, their history teacher (Frank McCrae) notices paratroopers landing outside in the school football field. Thinking they may be American soldiers who are off course, he leaves the classroom to investigate and is immediately shot and killed by one of the soldiers, who then open fire on the classroom, killing at least one student. Matt and Arturo ("Aardvark") escape the chaos when Jed pulls up, having quickly returned. They are also joined by their friends Daryl (Darren Dalton), Robert (C. Thomas Howell), and Danny (Brad Savage). They drive through town, witnessing more of the invasion. Arturo's father is seen being chased by the invaders and tries to reach them but is apprehended in the street. The group drives out of town to Robert's father's gas station on the highway. Robert's father tells them to gather supplies for camping and gives them a few rifles and ammunition. They escape to the mountains; Jed's plan is to camp out there until the conflict is over. Back in Calumet, a Cuban colonel named Bella (Ron O'Neal) oversees the hasty occupation of the town. American forces have moved in from all sides and are attacking relentlessly. Bella orders his Cuban and Nicaraguan troops to defensive positions and orders another of his men, a Russian KGB agent, to acquire documents from the gun store identifying local citizens who possess privately-owned firearms. The boys arrive in the mountains and set up camp. An argument erupts between Jed and the high school class president, Daryl (the Calumet's mayor's son), who insists they go back and turn themselves in. Jed orders him to leave, however, Daryl relents and stays with the group. The group also discovers that their radio has been destroyed when they were shot at, so their contact with the outside world is essentially cut off. While hunting deer, Robert makes a kill and drinks some of the deer's blood as part of a ritual that Jed, Matt & their father all took part in. Jed also suggests that everyone will notice a change in Robert from then on. A few weeks later in October, Jed, Matt, and Robert slip into Calumet to find out what has happened in their absence. They talk to a store owner, Alicia, who tells them that the Russians know who they are and tells them that the boys are being blamed for a series of violent crimes in the town. She also tells them that many people have been remanded to a holding camp at the town's drive-in theater. The boys go to the camp that evening and find that it's a communist re-education camp. Jed and Matt's father (Harry Dean Stanton) is a prisoner; when they see him, he has been severely beaten. Telling his sons that he was hard on them for an occurrence like this, he also implores them to avenge him. The next morning, the group next goes to the ranch of their father's friend, Mr. Mason (Ben Johnson), whose property lies far enough outside Calumet to go unnoticed. Mason informs the boys that a large portion of the central United States has been occupied by Soviet and Cuban forces and they are all 40 miles behind enemy lines. Beyond the Soviet/Cuban front lies "FA" or "Free America". They also tell Robert that his father was killed by the enemy; while gathering their supplies at his father's store before fleeing to the mountains, the group also took several rifles. The Soviet authorities had Robert's father publicly executed for providing insurgents (the boys) with weapons. Mason doesn't know what happened to Robert's mother. Robert breaks down and a distressed Jed feels obvious guilt for their deaths. Mason tells the boys that they are not at fault and that the lesson learned from the incident (symbolizing that of US government registration of privately-owned firearms) should sink in to them all. Before they leave, Mason gives them a radio and also asks that the boys take his teenage granddaughters with them. The two new additions are Toni (Jennifer Grey) and her sister Erica (Lea Thompson) who ride back to the camp with them on a few horses Mason gives them. Meanwhile, Daryl's father, Calumet's mayor, Bates (Lane Smith), a collaborationist of sorts, tries to appease the occupation authorities under Colonel Bella. He offers his assistance in getting the citizens of his town to adhere to the new laws that Bella imposes. Back in the woods, the group hears a radio announcement from the Free Zone that tells them the war is far from over ("John has a long mustache") and the combat is at a standstill ("The chair is against the wall"). The next day, the group sees a Russian patrol of three soldiers headed toward their position. While taking in the sites, the patrol sees the group and attempts to arrest them. Jed, Robert & the others kill them all. Robert later talks of his enjoyment of killing them, probably seeking revenge for the deaths of his parents. Jed remarks that they cannot return to town ever again because they'll be hunted. In reprisal, Colonel Bella orders the killing of several of the town's residents after they dig graves for the dead Soviets. A mass execution takes place, one that Matt witnesses from a distance. Among those killed are his and Arturo's fathers. Also present is Daryl's father, who is visibly sickened. Jed later tells everyone not to cry over their families' deaths. In retaliation, the teens continue their guerrilla campaign, dubbing themselves "Wolverines" after their high school football team's mascot. They ambush Soviet and Cuban patrols, shoot up armored columns, and raid local armories to steal weapons such as AK-47 rifles, sniper rifles, ammunition, land mines and RPG launchers, among many other weapons. A month later, Erica, while on patrol, sees a pilot land nearby by parachute. The pilot is an Air Force Colonel, named Andy Tanner (Powers Boothe), who joins the team and fills them in on the events of the war. The occupying forces are made up of Cuban and Soviet commando forces who invaded from both Mexico and Canada. The Soviet forces crossed into Alaska (cutting the Alaska oil pipeline). Tactical nuclear weapons were used to take out key U.S. nuclear missile and communication locations. However, by this time the front lines of combat have mostly stabilized. Tanner tells the teens that the United States' only allies are Great Britain, who are suffering huge defeats, and about 600 million Chinese. When Daryl says that China's population is supposed to be over one billion, Tanner implies that they've been defeated by the Soviets as well, perhaps by mass slaughter in combat or by nuclear weapons. The team invites the Colonel to join their guerrilla efforts. Tanner also teaches them basic tactics for attacking larger targets; they attack an airbase located near the re-education camp. They free the prisoners and destroy a few key military targets. Tanner later notices Robert carving hash marks into the stock of his AK-47 rifle for every enemy soldier he kills. Tanner tells the boy that "all that killing is gonna burn you up inside." Robert replies, "Yeah, but it keeps me warm." Jed takes Tanner to meet Mr. Mason where he tells them both that there are rumors of the Soviets dropping special forces units into the occupied zone to hunt the Wolverines. There is also talk of sending in American Special Forces troops to aide them. Jed believes their only chance to survive the war is to cross the front lines into Free America. Tanner decides to show them the way out of the occupied territory. They go to the front lines of combat where an M1 Abrams American tank is engaged in a fierce battle with a few Soviet T-62 tanks. Tanner tells Jed that they'll have to cross the no-man's land between the tanks to reach the free zone where Soviet jets are dropping napalm. As they prepare to move forward, another Soviet tank moves up to their position, unaware that Tanner and the team are nearby. The tank begins to fire on the American tank and Tanner sees an opportunity to disable the enemy. In the skirmish, Arturo is killed and Tanner is critically wounded by a grenade. Before he succumbs to his injuries, he is able to mark the tank with a colored smoke bomb, making it visible to the American forces. They destroy the tank and Tanner along with it. Back in camp, Erica becomes deeply depressed over his loss, having been attracted to him. A small funeral is held for Tanner and Arturo. Their names are carved by the team into a nearby rock as a memorial. Meanwhile, Colonel Bella and his superior, the Russian Cossack Major General Bratchenko (Vladek Sheybal), call in a Soviet special forces team to hunt the Wolverines. Before they move in, their commander, Major Strelnikov (William Smith), orders the forces in the area to cease their reprisals and atrocities against the local population, saying terror tactics like those will not win the conflict for them in the long term. The Soviet commandos move into the mountains, using a tracking device to find the Wolverines, however, the teens are waiting for them and kill most of the commandos. One is left alive and is interrogated by the group. They discover the tracking device, which reveals that the Daryl is a traitor, having stolen away from the team and into town to see his father despite Jed's strictest orders. While there, he had been forced to swallow a tracing bug and reveal his and his friends' location in the mountains. The team makes a tough decision to execute both Daryl and the Soviet prisoner. Jed, enraged by the Soviet invasion, kills the soldier and turns his gun on Daryl, but is unable to kill him. Robert steps up and very casually and coldly shoots Daryl, leaving the team horrified at his callousness in executing a friend. By March of the following year, after five months of fighting, the Wolverines are physically and emotionally weakened, however, by the attacks and other events, and their morale erodes as the war of attrition continues. Even though the American civilians are increasingly resistant to Soviet rule, the occupation forces are pushing the resistance of the Wolverines to the breaking point. A few days later, while observing a small detachment of Soviet vehicles, Jed notices that they drop a few cartons of food and calls off their attack. They scrounge what's there and take it back to their camp. However, apparently the food had somehow been bugged and three heavily armed Soviet Mi-24 Hind helicopters move in and attack the group. Toni is shot immediately and is taken to cover by Jed. The rest of the group also scatter on their horses and try to make it to cover, however, Robert's horse is shot out from under him. He makes a final stand, damaging one Mi-24 chopper with an RPG, killing the door gunner, and firing his rifle at a second. He is killed in a hail of gunfire. After the three Soviet helicopters leave the scene, Jed and the seriously wounded Toni share a final moment and Jed leaves her a grenade. Later, when Soviet ground troops arrive and find her dead body, the grenade that had been left live under her goes off, taking at least one Russian soldier with it. Jed adds Toni's and Robert's names to those already on the memorial rock. Tired and demoralized by the loss of their friends, Jed and Matt prepare a suicidal attack on the Soviet headquarters in Calumet itself which will serve as a diversion allowing Erica and Danny to escape to Free America. During the climactic final battle, many Soviet, Cuban, and enemy soldiers and officers are killed during the fighting. Jed and Matt kill Bratchenko and blow up his communications trailer with RPGs. While trying to escape on a nearby train, Matt is shot by the pursuing Strelnikov. Jed sneaks up on Strelnikov and the two shoot each other simultaneously at close range. Strelnikov is killed and Jed is wounded in his side. Colonel Bella sees Jed holding his brother, but does not shoot them and lets him pass. Jed takes his fatally wounded brother to a bench in the town's empty, snowy park square and cradles him as he dies. Jed refuses to leave the dead Matt behind and stays, holding his dead brother while waiting to die from his own wounds or for the Soviet troops to find and finish him off. At the same time, Bella, equally war weary and hoping to leave the prolonged conflict, returns to his office headquarters and finishes writing out a letter of resignation from the Cuban Army. The film closes with Erica and Danny being the only two survivors of the original team. They make their way to Free America territory in the Great Plains. Erica narrates the final scene of the film, saying that the war ended an indeterminate time later. She adds that she often visits a memorial to their friends called "Partisan Rock", but no one else ever visits. The memorial has an inscription that invokes the words of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. The memorial, its inscription, and the presence of an American flag indicate America eventually won the war. The plaque reads: "In the early days of World War III, guerrillas - mostly children - placed the names of their lost upon this rock. They fought here alone and gave up their lives, so that this nation should not perish from the earth."

The film opens with Ponyboy Curtis (C. Thomas Howell) sitting at his desk in his room, writing. He talks about walking home from the movies one night. As he is bouncing and messing with a ball, he recites parts of the movie that he's just seen when a group of guys pull up in a red Corvair. They start to call him a greaser because he has greasy hair, and he tries to evade them. They're the Socials, clean-cut teens dressed in Varsity letter jackets and chinos, also known as the rich kids or the South Side Socs. The Socs stop, get out, and attack Pony, knocking him to the ground as he struggles. The soc on top of Pony puts his knees on Pony's elbows, asking, "How would you like that haircut to begin just below the neck?" Ponyboy struggles but is unable to unpin himself. As the socs try and shut him up, the knife accidentally slips and cuts his head slightly. Hearing his screams, Pony's older brothers, Darrel (Patrick Swayze) and Sodapop (Rob Lowe) and the rest of their gang, Johnny Cade (Ralph Macchio), Dallas Winston (Matt Dillion), Steve Randall (Tom Cruise), and Two-Bit Matthews (Emilio Estevez) come to his rescue, chasing off the Socs. Darrel, Sodapop, and Ponyboy lost their parents in a car crash. Darrel, a high school grad with a job, acts as the father figure. Soda is a dropout who works at a gas station. The three are allowed to live together without parental supervision as long as they stay out of trouble. Pony is still in high school at Darry's insistence and is actually a good student, earning good grades. However, Pony is often absent-minded, getting into trouble when he doesn't let his older brothers know where he is after dark and other small slips. Darry is very protective of his two younger brothers, more so with Pony, since they are all still reeling from the trauma of losing their parents. Dallas, Johnny, and Ponyboy go to a drive-in movie and sit in the bleachers. Cherry (Diane Lane) quarrels with her Soc date and leaves his car, going to sit in front of the greasers with her friend . Dallas tries to chat her up but Cherry seems to connect more with Ponyboy and Johnny. Dallas finally says something offensive and Cherry, unafraid of his tough-guy attitude, tells him to shut his mouth. When Dallas reaches for her, Johnny stops him, being the only member of the group able to do so. Spurned, Dallas stalks off. Pony goes with Cherry to the concession stand. While waiting in line, they talk about their respective friends. Pony's view is that he and his friends are persecuted by the Socs because they're poor, dress differently and are often considered delinquents. Cherry counters, saying that her group has their own problems, ones that the greasers couldn't even imagine. Back at their seats, Two-Bit joins the group and after the movie ends, the three boys and two girls walk together chatting. Cherry's boyfriend, Bob, stops in his car nearby. He's drunk and harshly admonishes her for hanging out with the greasers. Two-Bit immediately pulls out the butterfly knife he carries and smashes the end off a bottle to use as a weapon. To avoid a violent fight, Cherry reluctantly goes with Bob. While they walk past Johnny's house, they hear Johnny's parents having a violent fight. Johnny decides he's going to sleep out in the vacant lot near his house until his parents stop fighting. When he arrives home, Ponyboy is harshly reprimanded by Darry for staying out so late. When his brother tries to stop the argument, Darry pushes Pony a bit too hard, spilling him to the floor. Pony runs out of the house despite Darry's attempts to apologize and he finds Johnny in the vacant lot. Still very much upset, Pony gets Johnny to walk to the local park with him. Not long after, the Socs find Ponyboy and Johnny in the park, still angry about the greasers trying to pick up Cherry and her friend. They mock both Pony and Johnny for having long, greasy hair and Pony throws an insult back. The Socs are further provoked when Pony spits at them and tries to run, making it as far as the park's fountain. The Socs knock Johnny to the ground and dunk Ponyboy's head in the water, nearly drowning him. Johnny pulls out a switchblade to stop them. Bob is left dead and everyone flees. Johnny, unusually calm only a few minutes after he kills Bob, decides that he and Pony should find Dallas, who will be able to help them in their predicament. They go to a house where Dallas had been partying with an old friend (a cameo by singer Tom Waits) and talk to him about hiding out. Dallas gives them instructions to board a train to a small village called Windrixville where they can hide out in an abandoned church. Johnny and Ponyboy hop a freight train and make their way, break into the church, and fall asleep. The next morning Johnny comes back with bologna and bread, cigarettes, a paperback copy of "Gone With the Wind" and, oddly, a bottle of peroxide. Pony is puzzled by the last item until Johnny tells him that they should cut their hair and dye Pony's blonde so they can't fit the descriptions the police will have for them. Johnny also mentions that if they have to appear before a judge, that the judge will order them to get their hair cut anyway. They cut their hair with Johnny's switchblade and Ponyboy dyes his blond. The two hide out in the church for several days, waiting for word from Dallas. The two spend several days playing cards, betting with cigarettes, Pony reads "Gone With the Wind" to Johnny, and they try to trap a rabbit. One morning, Pony wakes up early and sees the valley below the church in the sunrise, admiring its beauty. He recites a Robert Frost poem, "Nothing Gold Can Stay" that Johnny takes to heart. A few days later Dallas arrives and takes them out to eat. He tells Ponyboy about how the police are looking for Bob's killer, even hauling Dallas himself in for questioning. Soda and Darry are both worried about Pony's disappearance but Dallas has assured them that the two are safe. Johnny wants to turn himself in as it sounds like they can claim self-defense, but Dallas tries to discourage him, warning him of what can happen if Johnny gets jail time. On returning to the church, they find it burning and a group of young kids milling about with two adults and a school bus. The woman exclaims some kids are trapped inside. Johnny and Ponyboy feel responsible, thinking that one of them must've dropped a lit cigarette that sparked the fire. Over Dallas' harsh objection, they enter to rescue the kids, Dallas reluctantly following. They find the kids in a back room and carry them to safety, Dallas helping out. Suddenly the roof collapses and Johnny is badly burnt and his back is broken. Dallas pulls both of them to safety. EMS finally arrives and takes them back to their hometown and the hospital. The boys are all hailed as heroes, and Ponyboy is tearfully reunited with Darrel and Sodapop. The Socs and Greasers plan a big rumble to settle things after the death of Bob, and Cherry acts as the go-between: No knives or other weapons; fighting will only be hand-to-hand. Two-Bit and Pony go to the hospital to visit Dallas and Johnny. Johnny is suffering from horrible burns and is in traction, laying on his chest, seemingly paralyzed. The visit is very emotional and Johnny becomes very upset when a nurse tells him that his mother has come to visit. He doesn't want to see her, as he feels she doesn't care about him. He orders the nurse (a cameo by the novel's author, SE Hinton) to send her away, and faints. Pony and Two-Bit leave, shaken by the encounter. When they visit Dallas, he is arguing with a nurse. Dallas asks about Johnny and they tell him the outcome doesn't look promising. Dallas is desperate to join the big rumble and asks Two-Bit for his knife, talking about revenge for Johnny's sake. On the night of the rumble, despite signs of exhaustion, Ponyboy wants to go. Darrell reluctantly lets him participate, telling him and Soda to run if cops arrive. The Socs arrive and the big rumble gets underway in a heavy rainstorm as the groups pair off and start slugging. Both sides get their licks in but after a while the Socs retreat, the Greasers whooping with delight at their victory. Just before the first punch is thrown, Dallas arrives, having left the hospital. When the fight ends, Dallas grabs Pony and they drive to the hospital to see Johnny, who is weaker than ever. On the way, Dallas tells Pony to stay tough and nothing will ever faze him. When they arrive, Dallas tells Johnny that the Socs have been driven out of their territory for good. Johnny seems not to care and tells Pony to "stay gold". Johnny dies and Dallas becomes incredibly upset, dry-firing a pistol at a doctor and babbling madly before he runs off. Pony heads home to find Darrell and the rest of the gang nursing their wounds. He tells them that Johnny died and Dallas tore off in a fury. While Pony worries that Dallas will do something crazy, Dallas holds up a convenience store and is shot and wounded. He calls Pony's house, asking for a place to hide from the police. The cops chase him and shoot him when he waves the unloaded gun at them. The police open fire and his friends arrive just as he dies; his last word is "Pony". Pony faints from exhaustion. At the trial Cherry gives her testimony and Ponyboy is declared not guilty. Back at school Ponyboy is now neatly dressed and coiffed; Cherry ignores him and a teacher gives him an extension to finish his writing assignment. At home Darrel rides Ponyboy as Sodapop runs off into the night. The three brothers reunite and Sodapop tells Darrel to stop being so hard on Ponyboy, the three only have each other and they all need to get along. They have a group hug and return home. At home at his desk, Ponyboy opens the paperback copy of Gone With the Wind that they'd bought for Johnny and finds a note from his friend. Johnny tells him he thinks the Robert Frost poem Pony had recited while they watched the sunrise was telling them both to enjoy their youth. Pony opens his composition class notebook and begins to write his story, starting with the moment he left the movie theater: "When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I only had two things on my mind: Paul Newman, and a ride home", the first line from Hinton's novel.

Director Steven Spielberg`s Academy Award winning movie about the unforgettable journey of a lost alien and the children who befriend him.