History Main / InvasionUSA

* ''Film/InvasionUSA1952'', a film depicting a Soviet Union invasion of USA, which featured in [[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S06E02InvasionUSA an episode]] of ''Series/MystetyScienceTheater3000''.

* ''Film/InvasionUSA1952'', a film depicting a Soviet Union invasion of USA, which featured in [[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S06E02InvasionUSA an episode]] of ''Series/MystertyScienceTheater3000''.

* ''Film/InvasionUSA1952, a film depicting a Soviet Union invasion of USA, which featured in [[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S06E02InvasionUSA an episode]] of ''Series/MystertyScienceTheater3000''.
* ''Film/InvasionUSA1985, an action film starring ChuckNorris.

->'''Mr. Ohman:''' The manufacturer wants more war orders, and lower taxes. Labor wants more consumable products, and a 30-hour week. The college boy wants a stronger army, and a deferment for himself. The businessman wants a stronger Air Force, and a new Cadillac. The housewife wants security, and a new dishwasher. Everyone wants a stronger America, and we all want the same man to pay for it. George. Let George do it.
->'''Tractor Manufacturer:''' I disagree with you -- I don't want to let George do it!
->'''Mr. Ohman:''' Then you must be the exception?
->'''Tractor Manufacturer:''' No -- I'm George! (Everyone laughs)
-->-- The movie gets {{Anvilicious}} about the Aesop at the beginning.

'''Invasion: USA''' is a 1950s [[{{Glurge}} Glurgefest]] that purports to show the American audience how quickly the Cold War could heat up and the importance of the military-industrial complex.

One day in a bar, with news of Cold War tensions on the TV, a reporter comes in to ask the patrons -- a motley bunch from all walks of life -- if they support allowing the U.S. government to take over companies in the name of the cold war effort. Most of the patrons are skeptical except for a strange man nursing a wine glass at the end of the bar -- one Mr. Ohman (Dan O'Herlihy), who delivers a [[WhatTheHellHero What The Hell, Citizen]] speech to everyone accusing them of just wanting to wish their problems dead instead of doing what needed to be done. After mesmerizing his audience with his speech before leaving, the patrons quickly discover that the U.S. is now in the middle of {{World War III}}, as the [[strike:Soviet Union]] "[[CommieLand Enemy]]" conducts an audacious plan to invade the North American mainland, with both nukes and paratroopers flying freely. The main characters try to do what they can, but somehow every request of the military-industrial complex that they'd been complaining about or ignoring comes back to bite the U.S. at the worst possible time, and the cast starts dropping like flies before the Red onslaught.

In the end, through the germanic man's hypnotizing the entire bar into seeing visions of what might be, the naysayers are shown the evils of their ways and pledge to be more patriotic afterwards. And the reporter hero manages to win the affections of the heroine from the tractor manufacturer who brought her to the bar.

[[SimilarlyNamedWorks Not to be confused with]] the 1985 film starring ChuckNorris fighting a much smaller-scale Soviet invasion.

For tropes and episode details related to the ''MST3K'' version, please check out the [[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S06E02InvasionUSA episode recap page]].

----
!!InvasionUSA contains the following tropes:

* AGlassOfChianti: Ohman's nursing a glass as the film begins -- and hypnotizes most of the bar with it.
* AllJustADream: Just as the last of the main characters dies, the characters awaken from a trance, still in the bar at the start of the film, discovering Ohman hypnotized them and the entire events of the film concerning the Soviet invasion were a cautionary tale.
* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: The United States; but more importantly, the bar.
* ArcWords: "If I had my life to live over again."
* BrokenAesop: To defeat Communism, we have to let the government take central control of all industry - which is a Soviet Communist ideal.
* ChekhovsSkill: Ohman is described as a hypnotist by the barkeep during the cast introduction. You don't say...
* DeadlineNews: A reporter covering one battle against the Enemy's forces has his signal cut off while his position is being overrun. Also, the reporter hero's final broadcast near the end of the film.
* DirtyCommunists: One even menaces a good, clean American woman.
** Her assailant also overlaps with HuskyRusskie.
* EmpathyDollShot: After the Hoover Dam flood, one is shown floating in the aftermath.
* ExtraExtraReadAllAboutIt: One of the most bizarre and badly staged in film history. As the Vincent and Carla stare lovingly into each other's eyes, a newsboy walks in, yelling, "Extra! Paper! Read all about it!", '''''stares directly at the two characters''''' (who continue to stare into each other's eyes like zombies), then turns around and walks off '''''from the same way he entered'''''.
* FollowTheLeader: This was the basic script for American invasion paranoia films like ''Film/RedDawn1984'' and ''{{Homefront}}''. John Milius probably saw this film and when he did, it was like Traffaut seeing ''Film/CitizenKane'' for the first time.
* HammerAndSickleRemovedForYourProtection: A prime example. "The Enemy" is never directly named, but near the end the movie just gives up and goes with the full-on Russian accents for the bad guys.
* HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday: There's a lot of accusations of being a sissy in the film. The MartyStu TV reporter, of course, is a man's man.
* HeyItsThatGuy: Dan "[[TheLastStarfighter Grig]]" O'Herlihy as Ohman.
** Also, Phyllis Coates and Noel Niell, who [[TheOtherDarrin both played]] Lois Lane in the ''Adventures of Superman'' TV series from TheFifties.
* HollywoodTactics: Ranges from the "Enemy"'s liberal use of nuclear weapons to paratroopers being dropped while under machine gun fire.
* ItsAWonderfulLife
* InvisiblePresident: Though only because the movie refuses to show the president looking at the camera.
* ItsRainingMen: The way the "Enemy" invades america.
* KilledMidSentence: The traffic controller at Peace Harbor, Alaska -- the "Enemy"'s beachhead for the invasion.
* MeaningfulName: Mr. Ohman, who hypnotizes everyone into seeing an ''Omen'' of things to come.
* OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness: The "Enemy"'s war room, with a huge wall map of the United States and "the most feared Geography teacher of Central High".
* RapeAsDrama: See Dirty Communists.
* SimilarlyNamedWorks: As Mike puts it reading the cast page of the credits -- "Starring these people, and ChuckNorris!"
* SpotTheImposter: Used when the "Enemy" sends its troops disguised as Americans to infiltrate Washington, DC, and one infiltraitor claims to be from a Chicago unit.
-->'''Guard:''' Ever see the Cubs play?
-->'''Infiltrator:''' (confused) Cubs? A cub is a small animal, a bear... (BlastOut ensues)
* StockFootage: Used in long montages to show the progress of the war. Rather noticeably, one of the pieces supposedly showing the destruction of New York in fact used footage from the London Blitz. At the end of one of these...
* YouKeepUsingThatWord: Apparently, the writers seem to be under the impression that the "Atom Bomb" is merely some kind of High Yield Explosive, that has nothing to do with leaving a thousand mile wake of irradiated fallout. Hence, [[DirtyCommunists "The Enemy"]] throw nuclear weapons like peanuts, blowing up [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill airfields, dams, battleships, small out of the way towns, and cities (repeatedly)]], technically negating the very concept of an "invasion", since there'd be nothing actually left to occupy for about fifty years.
** [[ScienceMarchesOn The effects of nuclear weapons were not yet widely known at the time]].
* TelevisionGeography: Enemy paratroopers are shown landing on a beach supposedly outside Washington, D.C., which is 30+ miles from the Atlantic Ocean.
** Called out in the MST3K version:
-->'''Crow:''' Ah, the sandy beaches of Dupont Circle.
* YouNoTakeCandle: "The Enemy" all speak in heavily accented, broken English. [[FridgeLogic Even to each other.]]
** To be fair, they were instructed only to speak English, as practice.
----

* TheMountainsOfIllinois: Enemy paratroopers are shown landing on a beach supposedly outside Washington, D.C., which is 30+ miles from the Atlantic Ocean.
** Called out in the MST3K version:
-->'''Crow:''' Ah, the sandy beaches of Dupont Circle.

* TheMountainsOfIllinois: Soviet paratroopers are shown landing on a beach supposedly outside Washington, D.C., which is 30+ miles from the Atlantic Ocean.

->--The movie gets {{Anvilicious}} about the Aesop at the beginning.

* FollowTheLeader: This was the basic script for American invasion paranoia films like ''Film/RedDawn'' and ''{{Homefront}}''. John Milius probably saw this film and when he did, it was like Traffaut seeing ''Film/CitizenKane'' for the first time.

* FollowTheLeader: This was the basic script for American invasion paranoia films like ''RedDawn'' and ''{{Homefront}}''. John Milius probably saw this film and when he did, it was like Traffaut seeing ''Film/CitizenKane'' for the first time.

* HollywoodTactics: ranges from the enemies liberal use of nuclear weapons to paratrooper being dropped while under machinegun fire.

* ItsRainingMen: The way the enemy invade america

* DidNotDoTheResearch: the film makes many mistakes on the nature of conventional and nuclear war. No regarding the mass dropping of paratroopers on a contested landing zone, city destorying nuclear weapons (described as being the same strength as Little Boy, Hiroshima) are used against airfields and the use of a nuclear torpedo is dipicted as being hit by a conventional torpedo.

* ExtraExtraReadAllAboutIt: One of the most bizarre and badly staged in film history. As the Vincent and Carla stare lovingly into each other's eyes, a newsboy walks in, yelling, "Extra! Paper! Read all about it!", '''''stares directly at the two characters''''' (who continue to stare into each other's eyes like zombies), then walks off '''''from the same way he entered'''''.

* BrokenAesop: To defeat Communism, we have to let the government take central control of all industry, presumably according to some kind of [[strike:five-year]] plan...

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: At the end of a big scene between the reporter and the heroine...
-->'''Paperboy:''' ''(From off-screen)'' [[ExtraExtraReadAllAboutIt Ex-tra, Pa-per, America invaded, read all about it!]] ''(Comes onscreen from behind the couple, stares openly at the couple, turns around, walks off-screen while repeating previous line.)''
-->'''Mike:''' Now ''that's'' a walk-on!
** Appropriately chosen as TheStinger when it aired on Mystery Science Theater 3000.

* DevelopingDoomedCharacters:
-->'''Servo:''' Will ''somebody'' please invade ''something!?''

--->'''Mike:''' Boy, when that doll wets...

** Also, Phyllis Coates and Noel Niell, who [[TheOtherDarrin both played]] Lois Lane in the ''Adventures of Superman'' TV series from TheFifties -- as Crow is all too eager to talk about in one host segment.

-->'''Servo:''' (as infiltrator) Yeah, they won... Oh, ''damn''! No!

-->'''InvisiblePresident:''' I call upon our people...
-->'''Crow:''' ...to ''reject'' stock footage!

-->'''Crow:''' (As Ohman) I like you, I'll kill you last...

->{{World War III}} separates the serious drinkers from the amateurs!\\
--'''Tom Servo'''

The film was featured on an episode of ''MysteryScienceTheater3000'' along with the memorable short ''ADateWithYourFamily'', an educational film about dinner manners served with a heaping side of UnfortunateImplications.

!!The ''MysteryScienceTheater3000'' presentation contains these tropes:

* AIIsACrapshoot / CrushKillDestroy: Mike's attempt to build his own RobotBuddy (following the lead of [[ContinuityNod his predecessor Joel]]) results in this.
* AllJustADream: Referred to in the final host segment.
* CampStraight: The Arizona rancher character's cowboy outfit stampedes into this trope thanks to HaveAGayOldTime.
-->'''Crow:''' I really am a cowboy! I'm not gay!
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience / FridgeBrilliance: The RobotBuddy Mike attempts to build is blue, which makes sense since Crow is yellow and Tom is red - blue is the logical next step, since it's the third primary color.
* DeadBabyComedy: Or more accurately, Nuclear Holocaust Comedy.
-->'''Crow:''' (As airline pilot) We got a ''real'' pretty view of the dust cloud out the right window. It's currently seven thousand degrees in San Francisco...
* HoYay: Some between the rancher and George the tractor manufacturer when they buddy up to fly to San Francisco. Parodied when everyone wakes up at the bar:
-->'''Rancher:''' (Walking up to George) Hey... didn't we fly up to the west coast together...
-->'''Servo:''' (As George) No! Shh -- we didn't... '''No, we didn't -- WE DIDN'T!'''
* RootingForTheEmpire: Mike & the 'Bots are strangely sympathetic to the Enemy's propaganda broadcast after taking over the hero's radio station. Tom even starts humming the Soviet national anthem in an outbreak of PatrioticFervor (after humming "The Star-Spangled Banner" during the hero's DeadlineNews moment.)
** Hell, Mike and Crow start ''dancing'' to the Soviet anthem, such is their fervor.
* SophisticatedAsHell:
-->'''Crow:''' (As Ohman) You know, you only ''rent'' cognac...
* ThrowItIn: Trace (as Crow) flubs one of his riffs during the movie, but they simply ignore it and keep going.
-->'''Crow:''' You know, this for.. fi.. fuh.. cuh.. aufhem.
-->''[Servo chuckles]''

* DidNotDoTheResearch: the film makes many mistakes on the nature of conventional and nuclear war. No regarding the mass dropping of paratroopers on a contested landing zone, city destorying nuclear weapons (described as being the same strength as lttle boy, Hiroshima) are used against airfields and the use of a nuclear torpedo is dipicted as being hit by a conventional torpedo.

* TwentyMinutesWithJerks:
-->'''Servo:''' Will ''somebody'' please invade ''something!?''

* FollowTheLeader: This was the basic script for American invasion paranoia films like ''RedDawn'' and ''{{Homefront}}''. John Milius probably saw this film and when he did, it was like Traffaut seeing ''CitizenKane'' for the first time.

* DidNotDoTheResearch: the film makes many mistakes on the nature of conventional and nuclear war. No regarding the mass dropping of paratroopers on a contested landing zone, city destorying nuclear weapons are used against airfields and the use of a nuclear torpedo is dipicted as being hit by a conventional torpedo.

* DidNotDoTheResearcher: the film makes many mistakes on the nature of conventional and nuclear war. No regarding the mass dropping of paratroopers on a contested landing zone, city destorying nuclear weapons are used against airfields and the use of a nuclear torpedo is dipicted as being hit by a conventional torpedo.

** Also, Phyllis Coates and Noel Niell, who [[TheOtherDarrin both played]] Lois Lane in the ''Adventures of Superman'' TV series from TheFifties -- as Crow is all too eager to talk about in one host segment.

* YouKeepUsingThatWord: Apparently, the writers seem to be under the impression that the "Atom Bomb" is merely some kind of High Yield Explosive, that has nothing to do with leaving a thousand mile wake of irradiated fallout. Hence, [[DirtyCommunists "The Enemy"]] throw nuclear weapons like peanuts, blowing up [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill dams, battleships, small out of the way towns, and cities (repeatedly)]], technically negating the very concept of an "invasion", since there'd be nothing actually left to occupy for about fifty years.

* TwentyMinutesWithJerks

* YouKeepUsingThatWord: Apparently, the writers seem to be under the impression that the "Atom Bomb" is merely some kind of High Yield Explosive, that has nothing to do with leaving a thousand mile wake of irradiated fallout. Hence, [[DirtyCommunists "The Enemy"]] throw nuclear weapons like peanuts, blowing up dams, battleships, small out of the way towns, and cities (repeatedly), technically negating the very concept of an "invasion", since there'd be nothing actually left to occupy for about fifty years.

* AIIsACrapshoot / CrushKillDestroy: Mike's attempt to build his own RobotBuddy results in this.