In November 1984, the Soviet Union's best submarine Captain in their newest sub violates orders and heads for the U.S. Is he trying to defect or to start a war?
In November 1984, at the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union creates a new nuclear submarine that runs silent due to a revolutionary propulsion system. The Russian submarine Captain, Marko Ramius (Sir Sean Connery), defects. His goal is taking it to the U.S. to prevent the Russians from using it to start nuclear war against the U.S.
Mel Gibson, Michael Keaton, Kurt Russell, Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, John Travolta, Val Kilmer, Bill Paxton, Patrick Swayze, Stephen Lang, Jeff Bridges, Ron Perlman, Richard Gere, Michael Nouri, and Christopher Lambert were considered to play Jack Ryan. See more »
Goofs
When sailing up the river at the end of the film, Ramius is surprised to find that the U.S. Navy plans to hide the ship on a river in plain view. Ryan tells him that the nearest Naval base is over 100 miles away, and that this is the last spot a Soviet satellite would think to look. The U.S. Naval Air Station at Brunswick Maine is only about 85 miles away by car and even less if traveling in a straight line like a spy satellite would. This base was used throughout the cold war to house Fleet Air Wing 3, comprised of P2V and PV-3 Orion anti submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft, whose primary mission was to track Soviet submarine and surface ship activity in the North Atlantic on a 24 hour basis. If the Soviet Union were desperate to find a missing Typhoon class submarine that had gone missing in that general area, chances are they would be monitoring any unusual naval activity within several hundred miles of a base like that. See more »
Quotes
Captain Davenport:
What's he going to do, sail into New York, pop the hatch, and say "Here I am"?
Jack Ryan:
It might be just that simple, yes.
See more »
Crazy Credits
The words "Red October" are first spelled in Russian, with the Cyrillic alphabet, before being replaced with the English words. See more »
Alternate Versions
SPOILER: In its original theatrical run, Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin) says "A fucking cook!" upon discovering the saboteur. However, on subsequent home video releases, the word "fucking" is replaced by "Goddamn." "Goddamn" is heard in at least some 35mm prints. See more »
It's almost 10 years now but I am still awed by the caliber of the film. McTiernan has made a moderately good book by Clancy into an outstanding political thriller.
The complexity of the film is particularly challenging. Clancy plots are notorious for beginning with several different threads that interweave somewhere in the book. Screenwriter Larry Ferguson takes apart those threads and models a film based on dual protagonists, Connery and Baldwin. The myriad of supporting actors (including current TN Sen. Fred Thompson) that appear on screen subsequently all have distinct but nonetheless crucial roles to the plot.
Baldwin, in what is and will probably be his career best role ever, shines as the intelligent and patriotic Jack Ryan, a thinking man's hero. Connery lends incredible presence, as usual, to his interpretation of Ramius.
A pure masterpiece.
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It's almost 10 years now but I am still awed by the caliber of the film. McTiernan has made a moderately good book by Clancy into an outstanding political thriller.
The complexity of the film is particularly challenging. Clancy plots are notorious for beginning with several different threads that interweave somewhere in the book. Screenwriter Larry Ferguson takes apart those threads and models a film based on dual protagonists, Connery and Baldwin. The myriad of supporting actors (including current TN Sen. Fred Thompson) that appear on screen subsequently all have distinct but nonetheless crucial roles to the plot.
Baldwin, in what is and will probably be his career best role ever, shines as the intelligent and patriotic Jack Ryan, a thinking man's hero. Connery lends incredible presence, as usual, to his interpretation of Ramius.
A pure masterpiece.