MovieChat Forums > Spies Like Us (1985) Discussion > Oddly dated but very funny...

Oddly dated but very funny...

posted 20 years ago by big_blunder
15 replies | jump to latest

I find it odd how different the world is now from this movie yet the same...

It shows the sci-fi ridiculousness of "Star Wars-style" missle defense system that the Bush administration STILL wants to have...

It shows the mujahadeen in a light we all can say was a little short-sighted ("Hey, is that Osama Bin Laden as Bob Hope's caddy?")

It shows how different we view geography. In the movie, they cross the mountains from Afganistan into "Soviet" territory and BOOM! they are in Siberia. Back then, I guess there wasnt much knowledge in the diversity of the USSR. Now, we know you gotta go thru Tajikistan, then Kyrgystan, then Kazakhstan, through the Altay Mountains, and another 1000 miles to Siberia.

And finally, the peace talks at the end...we all know the board game of international diplomacy is not played with "Risk", but rather "Monopoly"

Still, one of my all time favorites when I was a kid...

[–] Dead_Cartoon_Fish 20 years ago

I think this film difines the Reagan era perhaps more then any other film could.

[–] skeevo666 20 years ago

Whilst nowhere near being in the same ballpark cinematically, in a cultural sense "Spies Like Us" is to the 80's as "Dr. Strangelove" was to the 60's

"It's a trap!"
- Admiral Ackbar

[–] Redisca 19 years ago

In the movie, they cross the mountains from Afganistan into "Soviet" territory and BOOM! they are in Siberia.

Does the movie really say that they are in Siberia? The way I understood it, they were in the mountainous portion of Tajikistan, which is geographically correct.

[–] bikebryan 19 years ago

No, they were never told to go into Siberia. They climbed up into the Pamir moutains, which snuggle right up against the Afghani border.

[–] ford_id42 19 years ago

Yes, and they do state in the movie that they were on the road to Dushanbe, which is the capital of Tajikstan. Plus they encountered the Tajik Highway patrol.

[–] bikebryan 19 years ago

They weren't playing Risk. They just had a world map. They were actually playing Trivial Pursuit to decide who won/lost and what missile emplacements they had to give up.

[–] orlando_man 17 years ago

They went from Pakistan across the border into Tajikistan which was part of the Soviet Union and is where Dushanbe is. Plus it is very high in the mountains and looks exactly like in the movie.

[–] piceras 17 years ago

I bet you are a ton of fun at parties.

[–] romulus 17 years ago

It's not Siberia at all. It's in the Pamir Mountains in Tajikistan. They even get picked up by the "Tajik Highway Patrol." Although it does seem like awfully flat terrain when we see the scenes with the mobile launcher, but the other scenes, like the walk getting up, are more mountainous. Anyway, Tajikistan was a soviet SSR at the time.

They're never in Afghanistan, either, they're in Pakistan; and those aren't mujahideen, but something else (Kushani? Aykroyd names them, I forget what), but granted, probably similar.

And the game at the end is some sort of Trivial Pursuit slash Risk with missiles -- that's not a Risk board, though.

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] sonofbeach-sheet 17 years ago

I've spent the past 11 months in Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan and it amazes me that to this day, most Americans are still very ignorant about this part of the world. Who ever knew there were Asian-looking people that spoke Russian?
I've met several Tajiks since I've been here and they speak the same language as Afghans, only the Russian alphabet is used.

This movie could not have been filmed here, probably more like western Canada or Arizona for the central Asia sequences

[–] pmdawn 16 years ago

It was filmed on location in Norway according to the credits

[–] Lawdog1527 15 years ago

Because filming in that region circa the 80's would have been a smart choice... (or today for that matter)

[–] savagesteve13 11 years ago

Because using a real missile in the movie....would be bad.

[–] KillerBee256 11 years ago

Afghans, Iranians and Tajiks all speak dialects of Persian/Farsi.