Everything about The Hunt For Red October Film totally explained
The Hunt for Red October is a
1990 film based on the best-selling
novel of the same name by
Tom Clancy. It was directed by
John McTiernan and starred
Sean Connery as Captain Marko Ramius and
Alec Baldwin as
Jack Ryan. Despite the book's best seller status, no Hollywood studio was interested in making it into a film because of its content. After one and half years, a high-level executive at
Paramount Pictures read Clancy’s novel and agreed to develop it into a movie. The
United States Navy was initially reluctant to lend their support because of the fear that top secret information or technology might be revealed but many of the admirals were fans of the book and reasoned that the film could do for
submariners what
Top Gun (also from Paramount) did for the Navy’s jet fighter pilots.
The Hunt for Red October received negative critical reviews from many major publications upon its theatrical release but was one of the top grossing movies of the year, grossing $122 million in
North America and $200 million worldwide. The film won the
Academy Award for Sound Editing in 1991.
Synopsis
Marko Ramius, a
Lithuanian, is captain of the
Soviet Union's newest ballistic missile
submarine, the
Red October, equipped with a revolutionary silent propulsion system known as a
caterpillar drive. At the start of the movie, he's shown taking the boat out to sea, ostensibly for its first exercise with other units of the Russian Fleet. The captain, however, has another plan—to navigate the submarine to the coast of America in order to
defect.
To achieve this, he must murder his
political officer, who alone amongst his officers wasn't hand-picked in support of this action. After this is done, he reads substitute orders to his crew to support the mission, and begins his long journey. He is at first discovered and tracked by the
USS Dallas, an American attack submarine, but upon activation of the caterpillar drive he's able to break away.
Meanwhile, Soviet authorities read a letter posted by Ramius prior to his departure, announcing his intention to defect. The
Soviet Navy immediately puts to sea to locate and sink the
Red October. This causes a stir in
Washington D.C. when the activity triggers a reciprocal deployment of U.S. assets, as Russian intentions are unclear.
At this point,
CIA analyst Jack Ryan, who had been researching the submarine as a project, puts forth the proposition that Ramius may be defecting with the
Red October. The President's
National Security Advisor, Jeffrey Pelt (
Richard Jordan), suggests that Ryan go to the
North Atlantic Fleet and somehow make contact with the submarine before the U.S. is forced to sink it as a rogue threat. At various points throughout the film, Pelt is conversing with the Soviet ambassador (
Joss Ackland), who first requests American assistance to locate the
Red October, and in a subsequent meeting, is instructed to ask the President to help them find the sub and destroy it, falsely claiming that Ramius' letter declared his intention to attack the United States on his own authority. Meanwhile,
Red October is moving through an underwater canyon when its silent drive suddenly fails; Ramius realizes that there's a saboteur onboard and must move up his original plans.
Ryan, who has arrived on the
aircraft carrier USS Enterprise in the North Atlantic, is greeted with less than enthusiasm by the ship's captain (
Daniel Davis), at least partly because, despite being a civilian, he's wearing a naval officer's uniform (at the request of the CIA director). The naval task force commander, Rear Admiral Painter (
Fred Thompson), overrides the captain's objections, remarking that Ryan had been a
Marine officer and a
Naval Academy graduate before service-related injuries forced his medical retirement. Acceding to Ryan's request to be delivered to the attack submarine USS Dallas, which has been tracking the submarine, they put him on a helicopter which takes him to its location.
After surviving an attack from
Soviet Naval Aviation, the
Red October finishes its journey through the underwater canyon, where the USS Dallas, through the efforts of a diligent SONAR operator, Ronald "Jonesey" Jones (Courtney B. Vance), locates it again. The arrival of Ryan forces them to break contact with the sub, whose officers have meanwhile deduced that the Dallas had indeed found the characteristic signature of the Red October's drive, and was able to locate her.
Ryan convinces the
Captain of the
Dallas, Bart Mancuso (Glenn), to make contact with the
Red October to facilitate the defection.
The plan goes as follows: Ramius and his Chief Engineer stage a false reactor overload to force the vessel to surface (which Ryan already predicted he'd do) and as Red October surfaces it's confronted by a
Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate, and sent a morse-code message via signal lamp not to submerge, or be fired upon. Ramius keeps only the officers loyal to him on Red October, and orders the rest of the crew off, claiming that he and the officers are going to scuttle the ship, rather than let it fall into the hands of the US. Consistent with the charade, an
SH-60 Seahawk helicopter launched from the frigate fires a torpedo towards the
Red October, but Admiral Greer, on board the frigate, detonates the torpedo before it hits the submarine.
Ryan, Mancuso and Jonesey travel to the
Red October via a
DSRV and offer any support they can provide. Once Ramius realizes that he can trust them, he formally requests
asylum to the United States of America, which Mancuso grants.
All goes well until Soviet torpedoes are heard in the water, from the Soviet attack submarine
V.K. Konovalov that has also found the
Red October. After the first torpedo is fired upon the
Red October, Ramius orders Ryan to steer the ship directly into the torpedo's path. Everyone else insists that Ryan not do so, but Ryan reluctantly complies. When the torpedo hits the hull, it breaks apart without detonating, and it's finally realized on both sides that the maneuver was a tactic to close the gap before the torpedo had a chance to arm. Ryan believes it's over; however, Ramius knows that the captain of the
Konovalov will soon fire another torpedo, this time with all safety mechanisms deactivated.
Concurrently, the saboteur planted by the
KGB or
GRU, an enlisted member of the crew, ostensibly a cook, reveals himself by shooting at the captain, missing and instead fatally wounding the executive officer, Vasily Borodin (
Sam Neill). Ryan and Ramius go after the cook, while Mancuso takes command of the
Red October to deal with the external threat. As Ramius predicted, the
Konovalov fires another torpedo which arms at launch. While chasing the cook, Ramius is shot and injured leaving Ryan to search for him in the submarine's missile bay. As the cook attempts to (and nearly does) detonate one of the missiles, he's gunned down by Ryan. Meanwhile, USS
Dallas and
Red October make a series of evasive maneuvers, causing the torpedo (with safeties disabled) to target the
Konovalov instead and destroy it. The crew of the Red October who had evacuated and were on board a US Navy rescue ship witnessed the explosion and believed it to be the Red October that had been destroyed. Ultimately the
submarine finds haven in the
Penobscot River in
Maine, and Ryan flies home with a
teddy bear that he'd promised for his daughter.
Differences between the book and film
While the film plot is largely the same as that of the novel, there are several differences worth noting.
In the film, the order of many events has been changed from that of the book. Certain events found in the book have been removed completely. Most notable of these deletions is the involvement of the
Royal Navy, which is heavily involved in the search fo
Red October. Also gone is the demise of the
Politovsky, a Russian
Alfa class submarine, which sinks after a reactor accident while looking for
Red October.
Ramius' motivation for defecting in the film has much less significance than in the novel. The book tells of Ramius' desire for justice over the death of his wife, who died after suffering from appendicitis, having received inadequate treatment from the state-run health care system and from a doctor within it who had been drinking. The doctor, through personal connections to high party officials, was able to escape punishment, thus leading to Ramius' determination to punish the Socialist system as a whole. The film contains little or no mention of this background, and in the final scene, when asked why he defected, Ramius' reply suggests that his reason was simply the fact that a first strike vessel such as
Red October was constructed is what prompted him to defect.
The creative thinking of the character Jack Ryan is significantly increased in the film version. While in both the book and the film Ryan does devise the theory of Ramius' intent to defect with the submarine, in the book it's Skip Tyler, a former sub driver, who comes up with the idea of faking a reactor accident on
Red October in order to get the crew off.
Cast
Memorable Quotes
Putin is reading from a copy of the Holy Bible that belonged to Ramius' deceased wife; Putin reads aloud from the book of Revelation Chapter 16, verses 15 through 17 and also reads a quote by
Robert Oppenheimer of an ancient hindu text, apparently notated in the book by Ramius himself. As Putin quickly dies on the floor from his broken neck, Ramius quietly quotes part of John 13:36 saying
"where I'm going, you can't follow".
"Jack, next time you get a bright idea, just put it in a memo!" (Ryan to himself as he's about to arrive at the USS Enterprise)
"Be careful what you shoot at---most things in here don't react too well with bullets." (Ramius to Ryan, as Ryan is about to enter the missile room of
Red October )
Production
Producer
Mace Neufeld optioned Tom Clancy’s novel after reading the galley proofs in
February 1985. Despite the book becoming a best seller, no Hollywood studio was interested because of its content. Neufeld said, “I read some of the reports from the other studios, and the story was too complicated to understand.” After one and half years, he finally got a high-level executive at
Paramount Pictures to read Clancy’s novel and agree to develop it into a movie.
Screenwriters Larry Ferguson and Donald Stewart worked on the
screenplay while Neufeld approached the
United States Navy in order to get their approval. They were initially reluctant because of the fear that
top secret information or technology might be revealed. However, several admirals were fans of Clancy’s book and reasoned that the film could do for submariners what
Top Gun did for the Navy’s jet fighter pilots.
The Navy gave the filmmakers unprecedented access to their submarines, allowing them to
photograph unclassified sections of
USS Chicago and
USS Portsmouth to use in set and prop design. Key cast and crew members took rides in subs including Alec Baldwin and Scott Glenn taking an overnight trip on the
USS Salt Lake City. Glenn, who played the commander of the
USS Dallas, trained for his role by temporarily assuming the identity of a submarine captain on board the
USS Houston (which portrayed the USS Dallas in most scenes). The film went on to gross $122 million in
North America with a worldwide total of $200 million.
Vincent Canby in his review for the
New York Times wrote, “Mr. McTiernan isn't a subtle director. Punches are pulled constantly. The audience is told by word and soundtrack music when it should fear the worst, though the action on the screen gives the lie to such warnings.”
Newsweek’s
David Ansen wrote, “But it’s at the gut level that
Red October disappoints. This smoother, impressively mounted machine is curiously ungripping. Like an overfilled kettle, it takes far too long to come to a boil.”
Roger Ebert, however, called it "a skillful, efficient film that involves us in the clever and deceptive game being played." Nick Schager, for
Slant magazine's review, notes, "
The Hunt for Red October is a thrilling edge-of-your-seat trifle that has admirably withstood the test of time." Currently, the film has a 95% rating on
Rotten Tomatoes.
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