Red Dawn 2020?

Promotionally entitled, "McDonald's Drive Through," this movie lobby card produced for the 1984 release of the Patrick Swayze film, held an iconic image.

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. Red Dawn was released on August 10, 1984.

The vanishing of the actors in Red Dawn has been rather whole scale. Patrick Swayze, 57, died September 14, 2009. CBS and Warner Bros. terminated the then-46-year-old Charlie Sheen's contract on March 7, 2011. Ben Johnson, 77, died on April 8, 1996. Harry Dean Stanton, 91, died on September 15, 2017. Ron O'Neal, 66, died on January 14, 2004. Powers Boothe, 68, died May 14, 2017.

On November 16, 2012, Enki King wrote in the comments here that "[he] looked at the stars of the Dawn films and their symbolic alchemical significance. Kristen Stewart was albedo-resonating Snow White and Bella Swan; and Chris Hemsworth, who stars in the 2012 Red Dawn, co-starred with Stewart in Snow White and the Huntsman. Hemsworth also starred in Thor, and toward the beginning of that film, when Thor falls from the sky (Skyfall), scientist Erik Selvig exclaims, 'I thought you said it was a subtle aurora!'"

On November 21, 2012, the wide release of Red Dawn (directed by Dan Bradley and starring Chris Hemsworth and Jeffrey Dean Morgan) occurred.

Within the world of the Twilight Language, another "Red Dawn" appeared in 2012. "Colorado Aurora," literally translated as "red dawn." I have mentioned before the meanings of Colorado (= red) and Aurora (= dawn). See the many links here.

On July 20, 2012, Aurora was the site of the third largest mass shooting in terms of number of casualties in United States history at the time, now the eighteenth largest, and the second-deadliest shooting in Colorado after the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. The shooting occurred just after midnight, when James Eagan Holmes opened fire during the midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises in a Century movie theater, killing 12 people and injuring 70 others.

What are we to make of the Soviets at a McDonald's in 1984 through the lense of 2020? It appears to seem troubling and prophetic, all at the same time. This appears especially true when in 2019, both Hillary Rodham Clinton and Donald Trump are still talking about the Russians.

Will 2020 usher in another "red dawn" event? Perchance, not at a McDonald's, but at a Waffle House?

Red Dawn at Waffle House.

“A red sun rises. Blood has been spilled this night.” 

...

"It is a red dawn. Strange things await us by the eaves of the forest. 

Good or evil, I do not know; but we are called. Awake!" 

~ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers, 1954

"Let this be the hour when we draw swords together. 

Fell deeds awake. 

Now for wrath, now for ruin, and the red dawn. 

Forth, Eorlingas!" 

~ The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, 2002

Selina Kyle: There's a storm coming. 

Bruce Wayne: You sound like you're looking forward to it. 

Selina Kyle: I'm adaptable. 

~ The Dark Knight Rises, 2012

"The Aurora, Colorado shooting appears to be a 'red dawn,' a milestone awakening event of which we can only guess what it might really mean in the near and distant future."

Loren Coleman, Twilight Language, July 22, 2012

"'Red dawn event,' a milestone manifestation of unfathomable future dimensions."

Loren Coleman, Twilight Language, July 24, 2012