The Hunt for Red October (film)
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| The Hunt for Red October | |
|---|---|
 The Hunt for Red October movie poster |
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| Directed by | John McTiernan |
| Produced by | Mace Neufeld |
| Written by | Tom Clancy (novel The Hunt for Red October) Larry Ferguson Donald Stewart |
| Starring | Sean Connery Alec Baldwin Scott Glenn Sam Neill James Earl Jones |
| Music by | Basil Poledouris |
| Cinematography | Jan de Bont |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | March 2, 1990 (U.S. release) |
| Running time | 134 min |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $30,000,000 (estimated) |
| IMDb profile | |
The Hunt for Red October was a 1990 film based on the best-selling novel of the same name. It starred Sean Connery as Captain Marko Ramius and Alec Baldwin as Jack Ryan, and featured James Earl Jones, Scott Glenn, Sam Neill, Richard Jordan, Joss Ackland, Peter Firth, Jeffrey Jones, Fred Dalton Thompson, Courtney B. Vance, Tim Curry, and Stellan Skarsgård.
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
Marko Ramius is captain of the Soviet Union's newest ballistic missile submarine, the Red October, equipped with a revolutionary silent propulsion system known as the Caterpillar drive. At the start of the movie, he is 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, was not 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 is 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 when the activity triggers a reciprocal deployment of U.S. assets as Russian intentions are unclear.
At this point a CIA analyst named 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, 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, who first requests American assistance to locate the Red October, and then to sink Red October, falsely claiming that Ramius' letter declared his intention to attack the United States on his own authority.
After surviving both an attack from Soviet Naval Aviation and an onboard saboteur, the Red October passes through an underwater route, where the USS Dallas, through the efforts of a diligent SONAR operator, Ronald "Jonesey" Jones, 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, to make contact with the Red October to facilitate the defection.
The plan goes as follows: Ramius stages a false reactor overload to force the vessel to surface(which Ryan already predicted he would do) and the Dallas uses this opportunity to send Ramius a message warning him that he will be fired upon if he attempts to submerge. Now with only the officers who are loyal to him, they go below deck in what appears to be an act of defiance and self-sacrifice to prevent the submarine from falling into the hands of the Americans. Consistent with the charade, an SH-60 Seahawk helicopter launched from an Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate fires a torpedo towards the Red October, but Admiral Greer detonates the torpedo before it hits the submarine.
Ryan and several Dallas crew members, including Captain Mancuso and Jonesey, travel to the Red October via a mini-submarine 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. Konavalov 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 is finally realized on both sides that the maneuver was a tactic to close the gap before the torpedo had a chance to arm. A second Russian torpedo is fired, this time with all safety mechanisms deactivated so that the torpedo is armed right at launch.
Concurrently, the saboteur planted by the KGB, an enlisted member of the crew, ostensibly a cook, reveals himself by shooting at the captain, wounding him and killing the executive officer, Vasily Borodin. Ryan and Ramius go after the cook, while Mancuso takes command of the Red October to deal with the external threat. Ryan kills the cook, and the Konovalov is destroyed by its own torpedo after a series of maneuvers by Mancuso and the Dallas, still in the area. Ultimately the submarine finds haven in an American river, and Ryan flies home with a big present for his daughter.
[edit] Critical reaction
The film received mostly positive critical reviews when released and was one of the top grossing movies of the year. Rotten Tomatoes [1] gives the film a 95-percent positive rating. Nicholas Schager, for a 2003 Slant Magazine review, notes, "The Hunt for Red October is a thrilling edge-of-your-seat trifle that has admirably withstood the test of time." [2]
The success of the film likely played a part in the development of several later submarine-oriented movies such as Crimson Tide, U-571, and K-19: The Widowmaker.
[edit] Featured cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Sean Connery | Capt. Marko Ramius - Red October |
| Alec Baldwin | Dr. Jack Ryan |
| Scott Glenn | Commander Bart Mancuso - USS Dallas |
| Sam Neill | Captain 2nd Rank Vasily Borodin - Red October |
| James Earl Jones | Vice-Admiral James Greer |
| Joss Ackland | Ambassador Andrei Lysenko |
| Richard Jordan | Dr. Jeffrey Pelt, National Security Advisor |
| Peter Firth | Political Officer Ivan Putin - Red October |
| Tim Curry | Dr. Yevgeniy Petrov - Red October |
| Courtney B. Vance | Sonar Technician 2nd Class Ronald Jones - USS Dallas |
| Stellan Skarsgård | Capt. Viktor Tupolev - V.K. Konovalov |
| Jeffrey Jones | Skip Tyler |
| Timothy Carhart | Lt. Bill Steiner |
| Anthony Peck | Exec/Lt.Cmdr. "Tommy" Thompson - USS Dallas |
| Larry Ferguson | Chief of the Boat, Watson - USS Dallas |
| Fred Dalton Thompson | R-Adm. Joshua Painter - USS Enterprise |
| Daniel Davis | Capt. Charlie Davenport - USS Enterprise |
| Sven-Ole Thorsen | Russian Chief of the Boat - Red October |
[edit] Quotes
- Mr. Pelt (talking to Ryan after the others leave the N.S. briefing)- I'm a politician, which means I'm a cheat and a liar, and when I'm not kissing babies, I'm stealing their lollipops.
- Mr. Pelt - "Mr. Ambassador, you have over a hundred naval vessels operating in the north Atlantic right now! Your aircraft have dropped enough sonar buoys so that a man could walk from Greenland to Iceland to Scotland without getting his feet wet... now, shall we dispense with the bull?"
- Soviet Ambassador - "You make your point as delicately as ever, Mr. Pelt."
- Skip Tyler - "When I was twelve, I helped my daddy build a bomb shelter in our basement because some fool parked a dozen warheads ninety miles off the coast of Florida. This thing could park a couple hundred warheads off Washington or New York and no one would know anything about it 'till it was all over."
- Ramius - "And the sea brings new hope to men just as sleep brings dreams of home."
- Captain Mancuso - "Lemme get this straight Jonesy. A forty million dollar computer tells you you're chasing an earthquake, but you don't believe it, and you come up with all this on your own, including all the navigation..."
- Jonesy (an incoherent stammering response)
- Mancuso - "Relax, Jonesy— you sold me."
- Tupolev - "Go to 105% on the reactor."
- Konovalov first officer - "Captain... what is it? Where are we going?"
- Tupolev - "We are going to kill a friend, Yevgeni... we are going to kill Ramius."
- Admiral Painter (referring to Jack Ryan) - "You think he's crazy?"
- Capt. Davenport - "Certifiable. And no matter what his credentials I don't care for him wearing the uniform."
- Admiral - "You see that ring on his finger? The Academy, Class of '72, a Marine."
- Captain - "You're kidding! How did you...?"
- Admiral - "Greer told me. Summer of his third year he went down in a chopper accident in the Med. Bad... pilot and crew killed. That kid spent ten months in traction, and another year learning to walk again. Did his fourth year from the hospital. Now it's up to you Charlie but you might consider cutting the kid a little slack."
- Admiral Greer "Now understand, Commander. That torpedo did not self-destruct. You heard it hit the hull. And I was never here."
- Vasily Borodin (dying words) "I would have liked to have seen Montana."
- Marko Ramius "Ryan, be careful what you shoot at. Most things here don't react well to bullets."
- Jack Ryan (imitating Ramius) "Some things down here don't respond well to bullets, Ryan." (normal voice) "Yeah, like me! I don't respond well to bullets!"
[edit] Trivia
- This is not the only submarine film in which Joss Ackland portrays a Russian authoritarian. He also played Marshal Zelentsov in K-19: The Widowmaker.
- Larry Ferguson, who wrote the screenplay, also played the Chief of the Boat.
- The take where USS Dallas and Red October are rising to periscope depth alongside each other has been used in the pilot episode of the TV series SeaQuest DSV.
- Submarine footage from the film has been used in JAG.
- Many of the actors playing American sailors took a cruise on a real submarine to get a feel for their roles. Scott 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 Salt Lake City (the sub's crew all took 'orders' from Glenn, who was being prompted by the actual commanding officer). (Glenn does have military experience in real life, as a U.S. Marine.) Alec Baldwin also learned how to steer a Los Angeles-class submarine. In return, some of the extras portraying the Dallas crew were real-life U.S. Navy submariners.
- The film's USS Dallas is a real Los Angeles-class attack submarine, and her crew adopted the film's tagline "The Hunt Is On" as an unofficial ship's motto. Dallas did not appear in the film however; the submarine was portrayed by the USS Houston, which was available since she was about to go into dry-dock for an overhaul. The USS Louisville was also used.
- The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry website, and other sites, claim that the USS Blueback, a Barbel-class submarine appeared in the film, playing the USS Dallas performing an emergency surfacing. This is disputed by some sources, including the Wikipedia entry on the Blueback (as of August 2006). The entry states that another Los Angeles-class sub, the USS Houston played the role of the Dallas. This is verified by the former commander of the Houston, CDR George A. Wallace, retired.
- Much of the filming at sea was done during summer off the coast of San Diego, California. The scene with Jack Ryan being lowered to the USS Dallas by helicopter was filmed at dawn to make the sky look overcast. Alec Baldwin performed his own stunt when he disconnected the cable and dropped into the water. This was the one scene shot using the USS Louisville.
- The large submarine in the graving dock scene was a real Los Angeles-class attack submarine in drydock. The propeller and parts of the hull were covered during filming to hide classified items.
- The USS Reuben James was portrayed by the Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate USS Wadsworth. There are conflicting reports that the Reuben James portrayed herself in the film.
- Klaus Maria Brandauer was originally cast as Marko Ramius. Coincidentally, Brandauer played opposite Sean Connery in the James Bond film Never Say Never Again. The two were again cast together in the 1990 film adaptation of John LeCarre's Cold War drama, The Russia House. Brandauer was replaced by Connery after he backed out of the film adaptation of Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Connery's role in that film was then taken by Richard Dreyfuss.
- The Officer-in-Charge of the rescue submarine Mystic was a real-life DSRV commander, George Billy. He is credited twice: as George H. Billy under the acting credits and as Lieutenant Commander George Billy under the acknowledgements.
- Alec Baldwin is a surprisingly good mimic. It was Baldwin's suggestion that Jack Ryan should mimic the voices of Admiral Painter (Fred Dalton Thompson) and Captain Ramius (Sean Connery).
- Videotapes of the movie were specially made; the parts of the videocassette that are normally black were molded in red plastic. This was apparently an anti-pirating measure.
- The climax of the book and the movie present one significant difference. In the book, the Red October is hit and damaged by the torpedo, then rams the broadside of the pursuing Soviet submarine, damaging its prow but destroying the enemy; in the film, the Red October (with the assistance of the USS Dallas) draws a torpedo fired by the enemy submarine to hit that enemy vessel, and escapes undamaged.
- British reviewers noted that the actors playing the Russians all retained their natural accents (making for a particularly marked contrast in the case of Connery's Scottish accent). Nevertheless when supposedly speaking Russian, they did not actually speak Russian, or any other real language, instead speaking gibberish peppered with Russian and Slavonic words.
- An inspiration for the book was submarine captain Jonas Pleškys, Lithuanian by birth. In 1961, after his vessel set out from Klaipėda to Tallinn he ordered it and its entire crew to sail to Sweden. The Soviet authorities sentenced him in his absence to death by firing squad, but the CIA hid him, first in Guatemala and later in America.
- When the Red October engaged their silent propulsion system, the crew of the American sub tracking them were exasperated at how the sub simply disappeared. However, to the sonar operator, this would have simply sounded like the Red October shut down its engines, not some mysterious disappearance. This scene was not in the book.
- A continuity mistake: Near the beginning of the film, the political officer reads the instruction that they "are to return to Polijarny on or about the sixteenth of this month." Later during the NSC briefing, Ryan asks: "Today is the 23rd, isn't it?" The two events happened on the same day, however.
- In the scenes aboard the Enterprise, Rear Admiral Painter's senior uniform decoration can be clearly seen (a ribon representing the Meritorious Service Medal). It is higly unlikely that an officer of his rank would have this award as his highest decoration. Although a relatively high award for officers of rank O-4 to O-6, it is comparatively junior award for a flag officer.
- This is the only Jack Ryan film to be rated PG. Patriot Games (1992) was rated R, while Clear and Present Danger (1994) and The Sum of All Fears (2002) were rated PG-13.
[edit] References in popular culture
- The altered opening credits sequence for the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "In a Mirror, Darkly" shows a scene from The Hunt for Red October of the Konovalov firing a torpedo. Both productions are owned by Paramount Pictures.
- In The Simpsons' episode 3F19 "When You Dish Upon A Star", Comic Book Guy shouts to Alec Baldwin, referring to the film: "Alec! Alec! Regarding that so-called "silent propulsion system" in The Hunt for Red October. I printed out a list of technical errors which I think you'd enjoy discussing!"
- In promotions for the The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, one trailer used the scene from the movie in which Jonesy hears singing.
- The television show Class of 3000 has an episode called "The Hunt for the Red Bloboboter"
[edit] See also
- K-19: The Widowmaker (2002)
- U-571 (2000)
- The Silent Service (1995) (imdb entry)
- Crimson Tide (1995)
- The Fifth Missile (1986)
- Das Boot (1981)
- The Bedford Incident (1965)
- Run Silent, Run Deep (1958)
- The Caine Mutiny (1954)
- The Battleship Potemkin (1925)
