876 Films & TV Shows Set In North America During The 1980s
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The Wild Life
California The 1980sIt brings all your fantasies to life. — Eighties teen romp involving Bill and his new apartment, Jim and his rebellious antics, Tom and his crazy self, and Anita with her older man David.
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Meatballs Part II
🇺🇸 United States of America The 1980sThe insanity continues... — The second in-name-only sequel to the first Meatballs summer camp movie sets us at Camp Sasquash where the owner Giddy tries to keep his camp open after it's threatened with foreclosure after Hershey, the militant owner of Camp Patton located just across the lake, wants to buy the entire lake area to expand Camp Patton. Giddy suggests settling the issue with the traditional end-of-the-summer boxing match over rights to the lake. Meanwhile, a tough, inner city punk, nicknamed Flash, is at Camp Sasquash for community service as a counselor-in-training where he sets his sights on the naive and intellectual Cheryl, while Flash's young charges befriend an alien, whom they name Meathead, also staying at the camp for the summer.
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Another State of Mind
California Oregon District of Columbia Washington The 1980sUnder the makeup. Over the edge. An incredible journey through the underground. — Another State of Mind is a documentary film made in the summer of 1982 chronicling the adventure (and misadventure) of two punk bands – Social Distortion and Youth Brigade – as they embark on their first international tour. Along the way they meet up with another progressive punk band, Minor Threat, whom they hang out with at the Dischord house for about a week near the end of their ill-fated tour.
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Streetwise
Washington The 1980sSeattle, 1983 — Taking their camera to the streets of what was supposedly America’s most livable city, filmmaker Martin Bell, photographer Mary Ellen Mark, and journalist Cheryl McCall set out to tell the stories of those society had left behind: homeless and runaway teenagers living on the city’s margins. Born from a Life magazine exposé by Mark and McCall, Streetwise follows an unforgettable group of at-risk children—including iron-willed fourteen-year-old Tiny, who would become the project’s most haunting and enduring figure, along with the pugnacious yet resourceful Rat and the affable drifter Dewayne—who, driven from their broken homes, survive by hustling, panhandling, and dumpster diving. Granted remarkable access to their world, the filmmakers craft a devastatingly frank, empathetic portrait of lost youth growing up far too soon in a world that has failed them.
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Irreconcilable Differences
Indiana California The 1970s The 1980sThey've Got Everything... including a 10 year old daughter who's suing them for divorce. — Alternating between the past and the present, a precocious little girl sues her selfish, career-driven parents for emancipation, surprising them both.
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Cloak & Dagger
Texas The 1980sYou can cry 'wolf' once too often! — 11-year-old Davey's mother is dead and his father doesn't spend nearly enough time with him. So the boy loses himself in video games--and even has an imaginary friend, a super-resourceful secret agent. When he accidentally comes into possession of a spy group's secret plans, and winds up on the run from them, he must learn to rely on himself and his imaginary pal to save his skin. But, in the end, Dad proves to be his real hero.
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Flight 90: Disaster on the Potomac
District of Columbia The 1980sThe True Story — Flight 90: Disaster on the Potomac is a true story based on the crash of Air Florida flight 90 on January 13, 1982 in Washington D.C. This movie follows the main players throughout the day, with a lot of care taken to re-create what actually went wrong, who died, and who survived. There is a lot of actual footage from the day, as well as accurate representations of aircraft type and airline.
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Making the Grade
Tennessee The 1980sHis major was attitude. — Lazy preppie Palmer Woodrow hires street-smart Eddie Keaton to go to school for him while he lives it up in Europe. Eddie falls in love with preppie gal Tracey, upsetting Biff, the Hoover Academy bully. When his bookie from the old neighborhood, Dice, comes to collect on Eddie's gambling debts and Palmer returns early from Europe, the the scheme slowly starts to unravel. Soon, Eddie can't even tell whose side he's really on.
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Cinderella '80
New York 🇮🇹 Italy The 1980sIn this contemporary retelling of the Cinderella story, a feisty 18-year-old Italian-American New Yorker named Cindy is sent off to Rome with her irascible stepmother and vain stepsisters. On the way, she meets, and falls in love with, globetrotting bagpacker Mizio, who eventually turns out to be of Italian nobility. There's a fairy stand-in in the form of a spaced-out astrologer, a dance, and she even loses a shoe at one point. Care to venture a guess how it all turns out?
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In Heaven There Is No Beer?
Connecticut Illinois Minnesota Pennsylvania The 1960s The 1980sA joyous romp through the dance, food, music, friendship, and even religion of the Polka. The explosive energy and high spirits of the polka subculture are rendered with warmth and dedication to scholarship in this journey through Polish-American celebrations. Polka stars like Jimmy Sturr, Eddie Blazonzyck and Walt Solek are featured.
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Sam's Son
New Jersey The 1980s The 1950sAt 17, you think you can conquer the world. At 18, you know you can. His wildest dream is about to come true. — Michael Landon's semi-autobiographical sketch of his earlier life. It's the story of Gene Orowitz, a high school student struggling with his identity, who finds success as a javelin thrower on the track team.
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The Manhunt
Arizona The 1980sA young man buys two horses at an Arizona race track but fails to get a receipt. Later, when riding across the land of a rancher named Robeson, he's accused of stealing the two horses. Unable to prove ownership, the young man is then sentenced to prison where he's forced to do chain-gang type work. He escapes, is recaptured, and escapes again as he tries to locate the man who sold him the horses.
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Covergirl
Quebec The 1980sYoung girl enters the modeling industry wanting to becoming "the face of the '80s."
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V: The Final Battle: Miniseries
California The 1980sFour months have passed since the Visitors first arrived on Earth. They manipulate world opinion in their favor and are determined to eradicate the resistance
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Scarface
🇧🇴 Bolivia Florida New York The 1980sThe world is yours... — After getting a green card in exchange for assassinating a Cuban government official, Tony Montana stakes a claim on the drug trade in Miami. Viciously murdering anyone who stands in his way, Tony eventually becomes the biggest drug lord in the state, controlling nearly all the cocaine that comes through Miami. But increased pressure from the police, wars with Colombian drug cartels and his own drug-fueled paranoia serve to fuel the flames of his eventual downfall.
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WarGames
Colorado Oregon Washington The 1980sIs it a game, or is it real? — High School student David Lightman has a talent for hacking. But while trying to hack into a computer system to play unreleased video games, he unwittingly taps into the Defense Department's war computer and initiates a confrontation of global proportions. Together with his girlfriend and a wizardly computer genius, David must race against time to outwit his opponent and prevent a nuclear Armageddon.
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Blue Thunder
California The 1980sHe's out there… — Los Angeles, California. Officer Murphy, a veteran Metropolitan Police helicopter pilot suffering from severe trauma due to his harsh experiences during the Vietnam War, and Lymangood, his resourceful new partner, are tasked with testing an advanced and heavily armed experimental chopper known as Blue Thunder.
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The Day After
Kansas Missouri The 1980sThey told us it would be impossible to make this movie. They told us it would be impossible for you to watch it. We hope nothing is impossible. — In the mid-1980s, the U.S. is poised on the brink of nuclear war. This shadow looms over the residents of a small town in Kansas as they continue their daily lives. Dr. Russell Oakes maintains his busy schedule at the hospital, Denise Dahlberg prepares for her upcoming wedding, and Stephen Klein is deep in his graduate studies. When the unthinkable happens and the bombs come down, the town's residents are thrust into the horrors of nuclear winter.
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Superman III
Kansas West Virginia Arizona 🇨🇴 Colombia The 1980sIf the world's most powerful computer can control even Superman...no one on earth is safe. — Aiming to defeat the Man of Steel, wealthy executive Ross Webster hires bumbling but brilliant Gus Gorman to develop synthetic kryptonite, which yields some unexpected psychological effects in the third installment of the 1980s Superman franchise. Between rekindling romance with his high school sweetheart and saving himself, Superman must contend with a powerful supercomputer.
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Sudden Impact
Nevada California The 1970s The 1980sDirty Harry is at it again — When a young rape victim takes justice into her own hands and becomes a serial killer, it's up to Dirty Harry Callahan, on suspension from the SFPD, to bring her to justice.
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Terms of Endearment
New York Iowa Nebraska Texas The 1970s The 1980s The 1960sCome to laugh, come to cry, come to care, come to terms. — Aurora, a finicky woman, is in search of true love while her daughter faces marital issues. Together, they help each other deal with problems and find reasons to live a joyful life.
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National Lampoon's Vacation
Arizona California Colorado Illinois Kansas Missouri The 1980sEvery summer Chevy Chase takes his family on a little trip. This year he went too far. — Clark Griswold is on a quest to take his family on a quest to Walley World theme park for a vacation, but things don't go exactly as planned.
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The Hunger
New York The 1980sNothing human loves forever — Miriam promises her lovers the gift of eternal life, but John, her companion for centuries, suddenly discovers that he is getting old minute by minute, so he looks for Dr. Sarah Roberts, a researcher on the mechanisms of aging, and asks her for help.
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Strange Brew
Ontario The 1980sSomething funny is brewing at Elsinore Castle... — Something is rotten at the Elsinore Brewery. Bob and Doug McKenzie (as seen on SCTV) help the orphan Pam regain the brewery founded by her recently-deceased father. But to do so, they must confront the suspicious Brewmeister Smith and two teams of vicious hockey players.
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Sleepaway Camp
New York The 1970s The 1980s…you won't be coming home! — Slightly disturbed and painfully shy Angela Baker is sent away to summer camp with her cousin. Not long after Angela's arrival, things start to go horribly wrong for anyone with sinister or less than honorable intentions.
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