Simply Red: Cuba!

In the 1980s, the United States has become increasingly isolated after NATO is dissolved and Western Europe's nuclear weapons are removed. The Soviet Union is devastated by a failed wheat harvest and is forced to use military intervention in Poland to suppress food and labor riots. Soviet allies Cuba and Nicaragua build up their military strength, while expanding their influence across El Salvador and Honduras. Along with this, a Soviet-allied government is established in Mexico following a coup d'état. High school students in Calumet, Colorado, witness a surprise Soviet-led invasion of their town. Brothers Jed and Matt Eckert escape the chaos of a Soviet paratroop attack. When Soviet, Cuban, and Nicaraguan soldiers occupy Calumet, Jed, Matt, and their friends Robert, Danny, Daryl, and Arturo flee into the countryside with camping supplies, food, and weapons taken from Robert's father's store. They evade a Soviet roadblock assisted by a U.S. helicopter gunship, and narrowly escape into the mountains where they go into hiding. Weeks later upon learning that Mr. Eckert is being held at a re-education camp at Calumet's drive-in, they surreptitiously visit him and learn that Mrs. Eckert is dead. He asks his sons to avenge him. Visiting the Mason family in occupied territory, they learn that Robert's father has been executed. The Masons ask Jed and Matt to care for their granddaughters, Toni and Erica, as the group retreats back to their camp. The group is eventually discovered in their forest hideout by a small group of Soviets, whom they kill in self-defense. The group begins launching guerilla attacks on the occupation forces, calling themselves the "Wolverines" after their high school mascot. The occupiers respond with brutal crackdowns, such as executing large groups of civilians by firing squad which include Mr. Eckert and Arturo's father. The Wolverines encounter crashed USAF pilot Andrew Tanner who informs them of the current state of the war: several American cities, including Washington, D.C., Omaha, Nebraska and Kansas City, Missouri were destroyed by nuclear strikes, Strategic Air Command was crippled by Cuban saboteurs, and paratroopers seized key positions in preparation for full-scale invasion via Mexico and Alaska. Most of the southwestern United States and northwestern Canada are occupied, but American counterattacks halted their advance between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River. Western Europe has chosen to remain neutral, and America's only remaining foreign allies, China and the United Kingdom, actively resist the Soviets but are militarily crippled. Tanner joins the Wolverines, leading to further reprisals by occupation forces against civilians. Tanner and Arturo are killed in the crossfire of a tank battle while visiting the front line. Soviet Spetsnaz commander Colonel Strelnikov arrives to track down the Wolverines. The spoiled Daryl defies Jed's orders and warnings, venturing into town to rescue his father on his own and is arrested by the KGB when his brainwashed father betrays him. Daryl is forced to swallow a tracking device and released to rejoin the Wolverines. Soviet troops track the group but are ambushed by the Wolverines, who capture one of the Soviets alive. After questioning the Soviet leads nowhere, Matt gets the tracker to work, which points to Daryl. The group assembles to execute Daryl and the Soviet, arguing about whether what they are about to do is right, but Jed shoots the Soviet. Daryl pleads for mercy, but is killed by a furious Robert. The remaining Wolverines are ambushed by Soviet helicopter gunships, which kill Toni and Robert. Jed and Matt attack the occupation forces in Calumet as a distraction to help Danny and Erica escape. Strelnikov mortally wounds Jed and Matt before Jed kills him with his grandfather's pistol. Although the brothers are discovered and held at gunpoint by Cuban Colonel Ernesto Bella, he lets them escape in a moment of disillusionment about the war. The dying brothers sit together in a playground during their final moments. Danny and Erica trek through the mountains and reach American-held territory. The film closes with a shot of a plaque on a mountainside, fenced off, with a U.S. flag flying nearby. The plaque identifies the location as Partisan Rock, and reads the following: 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 shall not perish from the earth.