Line #14 YMMV/Stripes


1	* BigLippedAlligatorMoment:
2	** If you watch the Extended Cut of the film, John and Russell try to desert during Basic, and somehow end up parachuting into somewhere in South America, before running into a group of rebels, accidentally dumping a bunch of LSD into their stew, almost getting killed, and sneaking off before getting put back on the plane and sent back to Basic.
3	** The EM-50 urban assault vehicle climax seemingly comes out of nowhere. A cut scene suggests that Ziskey's been wanting a Winnebago for a while.
4	* HarsherInHindsight:
5	** Stella posing for Penthouse. Decades later, a female Air Force [[DrillSergeantNasty Military Training Instructor]] was drummed out of the service for posing for Magazine/{{Playboy}}.
6	** Dewey "Ox" Oxberger explains that he joined the Army as a way of losing weight and avoiding having heart attacks. Creator/JohnCandy, who played Ox, would die of a heart attack, and at the time of his death, actually was making an effort to lose weight.
7	* MemeticMutation:
8	** "That's the fact, Jack!", although it [[BeamMeUpScotty tends to be quoted]] as, "That's '''a''' fact, Jack!"
9	** "Lighten up, Francis." In 2013, after the new Pope dubbed himself Pope Francis, this prompted a new play on the quote as "'Lighten up.' - Francis".
10	** "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" has since become a longtime favorite [[SoundOff marching song]] for American military personnel.
11	** [[DontCallMeSir "You don't say 'sir' to me, I'm a sergeant, I work for a living"]] has since become a very common saying among [=NCOs=].
12	* RetroactiveRecognition:
13	** This was several years before Creator/JohnLarroquette would make it big on ''Series/NightCourt''.
14	** One of Creator/JudgeReinhold's first movies before becoming a star in ''Film/FastTimesAtRidgemontHigh'' and ''Film/BeverlyHillsCop''.
15	** Likewise, the late Creator/BillPaxton also makes a appearance in the film.
16	** Creator/TimothyBusfield plays the soldier Stillman orders to fire the mortar that ends up injuring Sgt. Hulka.
17	** Creator/JohnDiehl played Cruiser a few years before landing the role of Det. Larry Zito on ''Series/MiamiVice''.
18	* UnintentionalPeriodPiece:
19	** Besides the UsefulNotes/ColdWar setting, during the scene at the Army recruiting center, John and Russell are specifically asked whether either one is homosexual, which points itself to pre-1994, before "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" first allowed LGBT people into the military.
20	** The film's irreverent look at the military is a product of being set during the Cold War, when conventional warfare was considered a bit beside the point when nuclear weapons are the most likely result of a major war. Once UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror began, audiences would never believe that two losers would join the military expecting to slack off.
21	** The use of OG-107 uniforms pinpoints the film to the early '80s at the latest. The Woodland pattern BDU was introduced in 1982 and replaced the OG-107 (which had been in use since the Korean War) in active/deploying units, fully replacing it in all elements by 1988.
22	** The EM-50 is made of a GMC motorhome, produced between 1973 and 1978. In a film made in 1981 it was still new enough to not raise eyebrows, but as time marches on it would either need to be made on a newer motorhome frame for ProductPlacement or figure out a good enough {{Handwave}}.
23	** The climax happens in Czechoslovakia, placing it at any point before its division in 1993.
24	* ValuesDissonance:
25	** The rape jokes in the Extended Cut are pretty cringeworthy nowadays.
26	--->'''Russell:''' There are two things I promised myself I'd never do: Kill and die.
27	--->'''John:''' What if the Russians were raping your sister?
28	--->'''Russell:''' Come on, you know my sister. You practically raped her one night. The Russians would just have to buy her dinner.
29	** Winger's casual comment about having sex with a high school girl.

Context YMMV / Stripes