Narrator Jack Webb explains that there are several places behind the Iron Curtain used for training Soviet espionage and sabotage forces prior to infiltrating America.

The Donovans are a typical American family consisting of father Jerry, mother Helen and daughter Linda, whose boyfriend Bill has been invited to dinner.

When he is strapped into the execution chair, Jerry makes a speech about the Soviet people awakening one day to overthrow communism before he is shot in the head by the commissar (offscreen).

A stock shot of the union picnic scene from Warner Bros.' The Pajama Game is included in the closing sequence of the film as Webb speaks about "freedom to enjoy the simple things of life."

Webb described the nightmare part of the film as the dramatization of a variety of stories told by refugees from Eastern Europe who fled the Soviet expansion following World War II.

While some sources state that Red Nightmare itself was broadcast on GE True,[4] no contemporary reporting or television listings indicated such a crossover.