<P> 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 . </P> <P> The United States has gradually become strategically isolated after several European nations (except the United Kingdom) withdraw from NATO . At the same time, the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact partners aggressively expand their sphere of influence . In addition, the Ukrainian wheat harvest fails while a Communist coup d'etat occurs in Mexico . </P> <P> On a September morning, in the small town of Calumet, Colorado, a local high school teacher pauses when he sees Soviet paratroopers landing in a nearby field . The paratroopers open fire when the teacher confronts them . Pandemonium follows as students flee amid heavy gunfire . In downtown Calumet, Cuban and Soviet troops are trying to impose order after a hasty occupation . Cuban Colonel Bella instructs the KGB to go to a local sporting goods store and obtain the records of the store's gun sales on the ATF's Form 4473, which lists citizens who have purchased firearms . </P> <P> Brothers Jed and Matt Eckert, along with their friends Robert, Danny, Daryl, and Aardvark, flee into the wilderness after hastily equipping themselves at a sporting goods store owned by Robert's father . While on the way to the mountains, they run into a Soviet roadblock, but are saved by an attacking U.S. Army UH - 1 helicopter gunship . After several weeks in the forest, they sneak back into town; Jed and Matt learn that their father is being held in a re-education camp . They visit the site and speak to him through the fence; Mr. Eckert orders his sons to avenge his inevitable death . </P>

Where does the movie red dawn take place