The Hunt for Red October (1990)

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?

Director:

John McTiernan

Writers:

Tom Clancy (novel), Larry Ferguson (screenplay)

Stars:

Sean Connery, Alec Baldwin, Scott Glenn

Won 1 Oscar. Another 2 wins & 8 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sean Connery	...	Marko Ramius
Alec Baldwin	...	Jack Ryan
Scott Glenn	...	Bart Mancuso
Sam Neill	...	Captain Borodin
James Earl Jones	...	Admiral Greer
Joss Ackland	...	Andrei Lysenko
Richard Jordan	...	Jeffrey Pelt
Peter Firth	...	Ivan Putin
Tim Curry	...	Dr. Petrov
Courtney B. Vance	...	Seaman Jones
Stellan Skarsgård	...	Captain Tupolev
Jeffrey Jones	...	Skip Tyler
Timothy Carhart	...	Bill Steiner
Larry Ferguson	...	Chief of the Boat
Fred Thompson	...	Admiral Painter (as Fred Dalton Thompson)

Storyline

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.

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Plot Keywords:

soviet submarine | cold war era | submarine | defection | navy | 

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Taglines:

The hunt is on.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Thriller

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Certificate:

PG

Did You Know?

Trivia

The name of the frigate that rescues the Red October's crew, the Reuben James, is from another of Tom Clancy's novels, "Red Storm Rising".

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Goofs

While the "brother" for Stanley the teddy bear gets more screen time, Stanley is seen briefly before Ryan leaves home. Therefore, it's correct for Stanley to be credited as himself, but the second bear is uncredited.

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Quotes

[after Jack has just arrived at the Central Intelligence Agency]
Admiral James Greer: Jesus! You look like hell!

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Crazy Credits

The words "Red October" are first spelled in Russian, with the Cyrillic alphabet, before being replaced with the English words.

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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.

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Connections

Referenced in The Battle of the Bonds (1998)

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Soundtracks

The Anthem of the Soviet Union
Music by Aleksandr Aleksandrov (as A.V. Aleksandrov)
Lyrics by Gabriel Ureklyan (as G.A. El-Reghistan) and Sergey Mikhalkov (as S.V. Mikhalkov)

User Reviews

A surprisingly action filled submarine movie.

Yes, it sounds like a weird combination. A submarine movie with exciting action. Still "The Hunt for Red October" is a movie filled with some superb underwater action sequence's that were brilliantly directed by action movie veteran John McTiernan. The underwater finale is really 'edge-of-your-seat' stuff!

With this movie McTiernan shows once more that he is the best action movie director alive, along with James Cameron. Still the movie has more to offer than just action. The story is also what makes this an excellent political thriller, making this movie perfectly watchable for both the action movie lovers and those of political thrillers. Of all the Tom Clancy novel movies this is my personal favorite and best so far.

The cast consists out of some big names. Connery is great as Russian submarine captain who talks Russian with a Scotish accent. Alec Baldwin is a wonderful Jack Ryan. Other actors that stood out to me were; Sam Neill, Tim Curry, Stellan Skarsgård, Jeffrey Jones and Scott Glenn. Only too bad about the Beaumont character, that was just annoying and unnecessary.

The phenomenal cinematography was done by Jan de Bont. The likewise phenomenal music was composed by Basil Poledouris who's name I can't still spell right without having to look it up. Poledouris truly is a criminally underrated composer and with this movie he once again delivers a true masterpiece.

It's the combination of all these great things that make "The Hunt for Red October" a brilliant and tad underrated movie, that is perfectly watchable for a wide range of people.

9/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Russian

Release Date:

2 March 1990 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Hunt for Red October

Filming Locations:

USA

Box Office

Budget:

$30,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$17,161,835, 4 March 1990

Gross USA:

$122,012,643

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$200,512,643

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures, Mace Neufeld Productions, Nina Saxon Film Design

Technical Specs

Runtime:

135 min

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) Dolby (35 mm prints)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1