Australian "Red Dawn"

[Johnestauffer]

This weekend I saw an interesting movie that was set in and filmed in Australia called "Tomorrow the war begins"
It revolved around a ground of teenagers who were caught up in an invasion of Australia by the "Coalition"
It appears the "Coalition" was a group of Asian nations who invaded Australia to obtain it's nature resources and gain space for their crowded populations.
It was like the American "Red Dawn" but it seemed more plausible.
The invaders used commerical transport aircraft and container ships to move their troops. It seemed they focused on taking smaller coastal cities.

Since the movie focused on the group of kids there wasn't any discussion of what was going on elsewhere.

I wonder what would happen in the real world if a "Coalition" tried to invade Australia. What was the US do?

 

[MarshalBraginsky]

For instance, the US would still be able to send some troops into Australia. The invaders on the other hand, if they were a coalition of Russian and Chinese forces, then it would be a different matter altogether. Still, I kinda like the idea of the Russian flag flying over the Sydney Opera House.

 

[Sovereign12]

This is based on a series of books for teens/young adults. I remember reading the first one in the early 90s and thinking "This is Red Dawn with name changes". I didn't know there was more than the first book until looking it up just now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrow_series

 

[rvbomally]

I doubt the Russians are going to be involved. They have plenty of natural resources and their population is low enough for the government to mandate breeding holidays. They have no stake in invading Australia.

 

[Wanderlust]

I saw this last year when it was released in Britain. I loved it! Much more so than Red Dawn. But it was sadly and I suppose understandably light on military detail. Good news is, it looks like the sequels are being filmed too.

As to what the US would do... Well, the US has been focussing strategically on Australia recently and is planning to base US Marines there - probably as an alternative to Japan. Whether the invasion happens before or after then men and materiél is shipped, the US' intentions can be in no doubt.

 

[Ming777]

Of course, there is a really big problem for any invasion force coming to Australia, everything there is trying to kill you. The animals, jellyfish, the trees, the Aborigines, the Australian military, even the ground tries to kill you.

 

[Stonewall]

I think I read the first book a long while back, and it's certainly much more plausible than Red Dawn - a Chinese-Indonesian coalition has at least more capability of invading Australia . Then again, if the movie itself's good it doesnt matter if it's plausible or not!

 

[jacobus]

I think the Asian Coalition's biggest problem would be protecting their supply lines against the Australian, American and New Zealand navies.

 

[Wanderlust]

I think I read the first book a long while back, and it's certainly much more plausible than Red Dawn - a Chinese-Indonesian coalition has at least more capability of invading Australia . Then again, if the movie itself's good it doesnt matter if it's plausible or not!

It starts off like an episode of Home and Away as the characters assemble (I think most of them actually are soap actors and actresses). I felt weighted with dread as the pretty but level-headed one met the rebel, the BFF, the blonde rich thicko, the jock, the token ethnic minority and so on. They all go out for a nice end of school trip and...Woah. Shit just got real.

Their transformation from harmless kids to merciless killers is as chilling as it is realistic. Hope the character development continues to develop this well in the sequels.

 

[Greg Grant]

The movie was terrible. Bad pacing. Inept action sequences. Turgid acting. Forget the plausibility issues, the movie fails on its own merits as a movie.

As for US response to an invasion by an Asian coalition, it would very much depend on whether the said coalition has nuclear weapons. If no, then US would squawk a lot about intervening with ground troops and take years upon years of negotiations, while covertly funding "insurgents" that are really US special forces in civilian clothes faking Queensland accents: "How ya gaaarn?"

If the Coalition has nuclear weapons, then US will sternly point and lecture, while diplomats in UN resolve that it is a terrible tragedy and try to resolution, only to be blocked by China and Russia, while the rest of the world shrugs and talks about the latest bank bailout.

But, I for one, would theorize the resulting Crocodile Dundee/Rambo mashup that would inevitably follow would melt our minds with its awesome action sequences.

 

[Atomicwalrus]

Potential spoilers if my memory is correct



I think the US response in the book series was something like nope fuck that and pulled out of the ANZUS alliance leaving Australia and New Zealand to fight the Asian coalition.

I haven't read the full series but i think the peace agreement in the end ceded a lot of Australian land to the coalition.

 

[Riain]

A coalition invasion will have to happen pretty soon because the USMC are going to be based in the NT pretty soon, so the US will be committed like it or not.

But if they weren`t Australia is no pushover, we have small but world class military forces, the capacity for rapid expasion and tens of billions of dollars available to purchase armaments and sustain a war. If there was much of a warning a stack of procurement projects could be rushed to competion and stocks of munitions and spares laid in within weeks. What`s more Australia has been leading forces overseas for 13 years now and all arms within the forces have fired their weapons in anger, including fighters and warships, in hot wars. We would take some beating.

 

[Darth_Kiryan]

This is based on a series of books for teens/young adults. I remember reading the first one in the early 90s and thinking "This is Red Dawn with name changes". I didn't know there was more than the first book until looking it up just now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrow_series

That was actually the intention of the author. Red Dawn, but in Australia.

And as far as i was aware, the whole invading asian country was left unnamed so as to not offend anyone, even though we practically know who it was meant to be....

 

[Sam R.]

That was actually the intention of the author. Red Dawn, but in Australia.

And as far as i was aware, the whole invading asian country was left unnamed so as to not offend anyone, even though we practically know who it was meant to be....

The dreaded Orangelanders that the Army faces off against in major exercises?

 

[tkioz]

That was actually the intention of the author. Red Dawn, but in Australia.

And as far as i was aware, the whole invading asian country was left unnamed so as to not offend anyone, even though we practically know who it was meant to be....

While it was left nameless and they didn't mention any ethnicity in the books, they had to pick an ethnicity in the movies, which led to a lot of bitching by the Australian liberal media about "yellow peril"... but honestly Asian nations are the only remotely realistic antagonists.

The books are okay, I read them shortly after I left high-school, but they are very much young adult books, the movie is okay as well, much better then the usual art-house drek that comes out of the Australia film industry nowadays.

IIRC there are suppose to be squeals in the works, based on the later books in the first series (I haven't read the second series), I hope they get made. Better a mediocre action movie then another Rabbit Proof Fence.

One thing I disliked about the movie and the books was there was zero mention of the logistics the invaders had, I could forgive the military inaccuracies, but invading a nation like Australia would be a massive logistical nightmare, given we've got pretty much the only submarine fleet worth mentioning in the region, any invader would need to "live off the land" and that is no easy feat here, even if you know the land.

 

[Petike]

I'm surprised they've made an adaptation now. The height of popularity for the book series was in the 90s and early 2000s.

The dreaded Orangelanders that the Army faces off against in major exercises?

No, you silly Billy. The Boat People Caliphate, of course. See the "Chinese or Indonesian Invasion of Australia" section.

 

[Vexacus]

That was actually the intention of the author. Red Dawn, but in Australia.

And as far as i was aware, the whole invading asian country was left unnamed so as to not offend anyone, even though we practically know who it was meant to be....

China, right?

 

[Kome]

I think the Asian Coalition's biggest problem would be protecting their supply lines against the Australian, American and New Zealand navies.

I presume thats where 'it will fall like a house of cards' and 'shock and awe' and 'they will welcome us as liberators' come in.

In theory at least.