From a screenwriter's standpoint, you're in a tough spot: you've got a bunch of teenagers fighting off the Russians, when the American Military can't do the same. There's no good way to resolve that. The smart move would be to say "we're breaking for the frontlines" from the get-go but then you don't get to harry the evil occupiers of Calumet. Like I said, there were about 27 months that that movie could reasonably have existed in in the entire history of the United States. That movie doesn't get made in 1983, it doesn't get made in 1987. And that's what I love about it - it's not a brilliant work of fiction, it's a cultural anomaly that outlines the insanity of the Reagan era better than most. http://www.amazon.com/Clothes-Have-No-Emperor-Chronicle/dp/0...