The Hunt for Red October (film)
Encyclopedia
The Hunt for Red October is a 1990 thriller film based on the novel of the same name
by Tom Clancy
. It was directed by John McTiernan
and stars Sean Connery
as Captain Marko Ramius and Alec Baldwin
as Jack Ryan. The film received highly positive reviews from critics and was one of the top grossing films of the year, grossing $122 million in North America
and $200 million worldwide. The film won the Academy Award for Best Sound Editing in 1991.
) is the commanding officer of Red October, a new Soviet submarine
whose caterpillar drive
renders it undetectable to sonar. Ramius leaves port to conduct exercises with the submarine V.K. Konovalov, commanded by his former student Captain Tupolev (Stellan Skarsgård
). Once at sea, Ramius murders political officer
Ivan Putin (Peter Firth
), the only man aboard besides himself who knows the sub's true orders. Ramius then burns the orders and commands the crew to head toward America's east coast to conduct missile drills. The Dallas
, an American submarine on patrol nearby, briefly detects Red October but loses contact once Ramius engages the silent drive.
The next morning, CIA
analyst Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin
) briefs U.S. government officials on the departure of Red October and the threat it poses. Officials in the briefing, learning that the Soviet Navy
has been deployed to sink Red October, fear Ramius may plan an unauthorized strike against the U.S. Ryan believes Ramius plans to defect and leaves for the North Atlantic to prove his theory before the U.S. Navy is ordered to sink Red October.
Red Octobers caterpillar drive fails at sea and sabotage is suspected. No longer silent, the sub comes under attack by Soviet forces and begins risky maneuvers through undersea canyons. Petty Officer Jones (Courtney B. Vance
), a sonar technician aboard Dallas, plots an interception course. Ryan arranges a hazardous mid-ocean rendezvous to get aboard Dallas, where he attempts to persuade its captain, Commander Bart Mancuso (Scott Glenn
), to contact Ramius and determine his intentions.
The Soviet Ambassador, who earlier claimed that Red October was lost at sea and requested US assistance in a rescue mission, at this point informs the US that the sub is a renegade and asks for US help to sink it. An order to do this is communicated to the US Fleet, including Dallas. Bart Mancuso is conflicted about whether he should sink Red October as ordered, but Ryan convinces him to make contact, offering to assist Ramius in his defection.
Ramius, stunned that the Americans correctly guessed his plan to defect, accepts their cooperation. He then stages a nuclear reactor emergency and orders the bulk of his crew to abandon ship, telling Red Octobers doctor Petrov (Tim Curry
) that he and the other officers will scuttle
the sub rather than let it be captured. Ramius submerges and Ryan, Mancuso and Jones come aboard via a rescue sub, at which point Ramius requests asylum in the United States
for himself and his officers.
Thinking their mission is complete, Red Octobers skeleton crew are surprised by a torpedo attack from Konovalov, which has followed them across the Atlantic. As the two Soviet subs maneuver, Red Octobers cook (an undercover GRU agent) opens fire, fatally wounding Ramius's first officer, Vasily Borodin (Sam Neill
) before retreating into the missile launch area. Ryan follows and guns down the saboteur just before he can detonate a missile and destroy the sub.
Meanwhile, with help from Dallas, Red October makes evasive maneuvers, causing Konovalov to be destroyed by one of its own torpedoes. The evacuated crew of Red October on board a U.S. Navy rescue ship witness this explosion and, not knowing that there is a second Soviet sub, assume it was Red October. Their subterfuge complete, Ryan and Ramius sail Red October to the Penobscot River
in Maine.
Scott Glenn
as Commander Bart Mancuso, Commanding Officer of the USS Dallas
Sam Neill
as Captain 2nd Rank Vasily Borodin, Executive Officer of the Red October
James Earl Jones
as Vice Admiral James Greer, CIA Deputy Director of Intelligence (DDI)
Joss Ackland
as Ambassador Andrei Lysenko, Soviet Ambassador to the United States
Richard Jordan
as Dr. Jeffrey Pelt, National Security Advisor
Peter Firth
as Senior Lieutenant Ivan Putin, Political Officer of the Red October
Tim Curry
as Senior Lieutenant/Dr. Yevgeniy Petrov, Chief Medical Officer of the Red October
Ronald Guttman
as Senior Lieutenant Melekhin, Chief Engineer of the Red October
Michael Welden as Captain-Lieutenant Gregoriy Kamarov, Navigator of the Red October
Boris Lee Krutonog as Senior Lieutenant Victor Slavin, Chief Helmsman of the Red October
Courtney Vance as Sonar Technician 2nd Class Ronald "Jonesy" Jones, Sonar Technician of the USS Dallas
Stellan Skarsgård
as Captain 2nd Rank Viktor Tupolev, Commanding Officer of the V.K. Konovalov
Jeffrey Jones
as Dr. Skip Tyler - U.S. Naval Academy Instructor/Naval Sea Systems Command
consultant
Timothy Carhart
as Lieutenant Bill Steiner, commander of the DSRV
Mystic
Anthony Peck as Lieutenant Commander "Tommy" Thompson, Executive Officer of the USS Dallas
Larry Ferguson as Master Chief Petty Officer Watson, Chief of the Boat (COB) of the USS Dallas
Fred Dalton Thompson
as Rear Admiral (Lower Half) Joshua Painter, Commander of the Enterprise Carrier Battle Group
Daniel Davis
as Captain Charlie Davenport, Commanding Officer of the USS Enterprise
Sven-Ole Thorsen
as Chief of the Boat of the Red October
Gates McFadden
as Dr. Caroline Ryan, Jack Ryan's wife and an ocular surgeon
Tomas Arana
as Cook's Assistant Igor Loginov, the Red Octobers cook, also a GRU
agent. Ned Vaughn
as Seaman Beaumont, Sonar Technician (Jones' apprentice), USS Dallas
Peter Zinner
as Admiral Yuri Ilyich Padorin, Chief Political Officer of the Soviet Navy
Ray Reinhardt as Judge Arthur Moore, Director of Central Intelligence
(DCI)
Louise Borras as Sally Ryan, daughter of Jack and Caroline Ryan
Peter Jason
as Commander of USS Reuben James (uncredited)
Mark Rodney as Assistant Joint Chief of Staff (uncredited)
optioned Tom Clancy's novel after reading 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 film.
Screenwriters Larry Ferguson and Donald Stewart worked on the screenplay
while Neufeld approached the United States Navy
for approval. They feared top secret information or technology might be revealed. However, several admirals liked Clancy's book and reasoned that the film could do for submariners what Top Gun
did for the Navy's jet fighter pilots. Captain Michael Sherman, director of the Navy's western regional information office in Los Angeles, suggested changes to the script that would present the Navy in a positive light.
The Navy gave the filmmakers access to submarines, allowing them to photograph
unclassified sections of Chicago
and Portsmouth
to use in set and prop design. Key cast and crew members rode in subs, including Alec Baldwin and Scott Glenn doing an overnight trip in USS Salt Lake City
. Glenn, who played the commander of Dallas
, trained by assuming the identity of a submarine captain on board the Houston
(which portrayed Dallas in most scenes). The sub's crew all took "orders" from Glenn, who was being prompted by the actual commanding officer.
Glenn had been a U.S. Marine
. Baldwin also learned to steer a Los Angeles-class
submarine. Some extras portraying the Dallas crew were submariners, including the pilot of the DSRV
, Lt Cmdr George Billy, commander of the DSRV. Submariners from San Diego were cast as extras because it was easier to hire them than training actors. Crew from USS La Jolla
, including Lt Mark Draxton, took leave to participate in filming. According to an article in Sea Classics, at least two sailors from the Atlantic Fleet-based Dallas took leave and participated in the Pacific Fleet-supported filming. The crew of Houston called their month-long filming schedule the "Hunt for Red Ops." Houston made over 40 emergency surfacing "blows" for rehearsal and for the cameras.
Baldwin was approached in December 1988 but he was not told for what role. Klaus Maria Brandauer
was cast as Soviet sub commander Marko Ramius but two weeks into filming he quit due to a prior commitment. The producers faxed the script to Sean Connery who, at first, declined because it didn't make sense. He was indeed missing the first page. He arrived in Los Angeles on a Friday and was supposed to start filming on Monday but he requested a day to rehearse. Principal photography began on April 3, 1989 with a $30 million budget. The Navy lent the film crew the Houston, the Enterprise
, helicopters, two frigates, and a dry-dock crew.
Filmmaker John Milius
revised some of the film's script, writing a few speeches for Sean Connery and all of his Russian dialogue. Rather than choosing between the realism of actual Russian dialog (with subtitles), or the audience-friendly use of English (with or without Russian accents), the filmmakers compromised. The film begins with the actors speaking actual Russian (with English subtitles), but in an early scene, the camera zooms in on an actor's mouth as he casually switches in mid-sentence to speaking in English (on the word "Armageddon", which is the same in both languages), after which the Soviets' dialogue is in English. Only towards the end of the film, once the Russian and American submariners are interacting together, do some of the actors speak in Russian.
Filming in submarines was impractical and five soundstages on the Paramount backlot were used. Two 50-foot square platforms housing mock-ups of Red October and Dallas were built, standing on hydraulic gimbals that simulated the sub's movements. Connery recalled, "It was very claustrophobic. There were 62 people in a very confined space, 45 feet above the stage floor. It got very hot on the sets, and I'm also prone to sea sickness. The set would tilt to 45 degrees. Very disturbing." The veteran actor shot for four weeks and the rest of the production shot for additional months on location in Port Angeles, Washington
to the waters off Los Angeles.
Being made before sophisticated CGI
in order to achieve the film's opening, impressive, long pull-out reveal and show the immense (and accurate) size of a real-life Soviet Typhoon-class sub
(the type that Red October was meant to be) a nearly full scale above-the-water-line mockup consisting of two floating barges welded together was constructed.
Each country's submarine had its own background color: Soviet submarines, such as Red October and Konovalov, had interiors in black with silver trim. American ships, such as Dallas and Enterprise, had gray interiors. However, during one scene when Dallas goes to a higher alert status it was flooded with red light.
Early filming was aboard USS Reuben James
in the area of the Juan de Fuca Strait and Puget Sound
in March 1989. The ship operated out of U.S. Coast Guard Station Port Angeles. The H-3 detachment from the Battlecats of HSL-43 operated out of NAS Whidbey Island, after being displaced by the filmcrew. Most underwater scenes were filmed using smoke with a model sub connected to 12 cables, giving precise, smooth control for turns. Computer effects, in their infancy, created bubbles and other effects such as particulates in the water.
By February 1990, just before the film's theatrical release, the Soviet government announced that the Communist Party
was no longer completely in charge, effectively ending the Cold War. Set during this period, there were concerns that with its end, the film would be irrelevant but Neufeld felt that it "never really represented a major problem". To compensate for the change in Russia's political climate, an on-screen crawl appears at the beginning of the film stating that it takes place in 1984 during the Cold War.
Tony Seiniger designed the film's poster and drew inspiration from Soviet poster art, utilizing bold red, white and black graphics. According to him, the whole ad campaign was designed to have a "techno-suspense quality to it". The idea was to play up the thriller aspects and downplay the political elements.
. The soundtrack is missing some of the musical moments present in the film, including the scene where the crew of Red October sings the Soviet national hymn. The soundtrack is limited due to the fact that was originally compiled to fit the Compact Cassette
. Later it was remastered for the CD
.
The songs have a truly Cold War theme, and bear similarity to Russian Army band songs. The soundtrack is however, originally composed for the film.
with a worldwide total of $200 million.
. Roger Ebert
called it "a skillful, efficient film that involves us in the clever and deceptive game being played," while Gene Siskel
commented on the film's technical skill and Baldwin's convincing turn as Jack Ryan. 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."
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."
and Best Sound (Richard Bryce Goodman
, Richard Overton
, Kevin F. Cleary
and Don J. Bassman).
anomalies". This essentially revealed the use of gravimetry
as a method of silent navigation in US submarines. Thought to be a billion dollar black project
, the development of a full-tensor gravity gradiometer
by Bell Aerospace was a classified technology at the time. It was thought to be deployed on only a few s after it was first developed in 1973. Bell Aerospace later sold the technology to Bell Geospace, which uses it for oil exploration purposes.
The Hunt for Red October
The Hunt for Red October is a 1984 novel by Tom Clancy. The story follows the intertwined adventures of Soviet submarine captain Marko Aleksandrovich Ramius and CIA analyst Jack Ryan.The novel was originally published by the U.S...
by Tom Clancy
Tom Clancy
Thomas Leo "Tom" Clancy, Jr. is an American author, best known for his technically detailed espionage, military science, and techno thriller storylines set during and in the aftermath of the Cold War, along with video games on which he did not work, but which bear his name for licensing and...
. It was directed by John McTiernan
John McTiernan
John Campbell McTiernan, Jr. is an American film director and producer, best known for his action films and most identifiable with the three films he directed back-to-back: Predator, Die Hard, and The Hunt for Red October, along with later movies such as Last Action Hero, Die Hard with a...
and stars Sean Connery
Sean Connery
Sir Thomas Sean Connery , better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy...
as Captain Marko Ramius and Alec Baldwin
Alec Baldwin
Alexander Rae "Alec" Baldwin III is an American actor who has appeared on film, stage, and television.Baldwin first gained recognition through television for his work in the soap opera Knots Landing in the role of Joshua Rush. He was a cast member for two seasons before his character was killed off...
as Jack Ryan. The film received highly positive reviews from critics and was one of the top grossing films of the year, grossing $122 million in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and $200 million worldwide. The film won the Academy Award for Best Sound Editing in 1991.
Plot
The year is 1984. Captain First Rank Marko Ramius (Sean ConnerySean Connery
Sir Thomas Sean Connery , better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy...
) is the commanding officer of Red October, a new Soviet submarine
Ballistic missile submarine
A ballistic missile submarine is a submarine equipped to launch ballistic missiles .-Description:Ballistic missile submarines are larger than any other type of submarine, in order to accommodate SLBMs such as the Russian R-29 or the American Trident...
whose caterpillar drive
Magnetohydrodynamic drive
A magnetohydrodynamic drive or MHD propulsor is a method for propelling seagoing vessels using only electric and magnetic fields with no moving parts, using magnetohydrodynamics. The working principle involves electrification of the propellant which can then be directed by a magnetic field,...
renders it undetectable to sonar. Ramius leaves port to conduct exercises with the submarine V.K. Konovalov, commanded by his former student Captain Tupolev (Stellan Skarsgård
Stellan Skarsgård
Stellan John Skarsgård is a Swedish actor, known internationally for his film roles in Angels & Demons, Breaking the Waves, The Hunt for Red October, Ronin, Good Will Hunting, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist,...
). Once at sea, Ramius murders political officer
Political commissar
The political commissar is the supervisory political officer responsible for the political education and organisation, and loyalty to the government of the military...
Ivan Putin (Peter Firth
Peter Firth
Peter Firth is an English actor. He is best known for his role as Sir Harry Pearce in the BBC show Spooks, of which he is the only actor to have starred in every episode of the show's 10 series lifespan...
), the only man aboard besides himself who knows the sub's true orders. Ramius then burns the orders and commands the crew to head toward America's east coast to conduct missile drills. The Dallas
USS Dallas (SSN-700)
USS Dallas is a Los Angeles-class nuclear-powered attack submarine of the United States Navy. It is the Navy's second ship of that name, and the first to be named for the city of Dallas, Texas, although another two ships were scheduled but never completed.-Career:The contract to build Dallas was...
, an American submarine on patrol nearby, briefly detects Red October but loses contact once Ramius engages the silent drive.
The next morning, CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
analyst Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin
Alec Baldwin
Alexander Rae "Alec" Baldwin III is an American actor who has appeared on film, stage, and television.Baldwin first gained recognition through television for his work in the soap opera Knots Landing in the role of Joshua Rush. He was a cast member for two seasons before his character was killed off...
) briefs U.S. government officials on the departure of Red October and the threat it poses. Officials in the briefing, learning that the Soviet Navy
Soviet Navy
The Soviet Navy was the naval arm of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy would have played an instrumental role in a Warsaw Pact war with NATO, where it would have attempted to prevent naval convoys from bringing reinforcements across the Atlantic Ocean...
has been deployed to sink Red October, fear Ramius may plan an unauthorized strike against the U.S. Ryan believes Ramius plans to defect and leaves for the North Atlantic to prove his theory before the U.S. Navy is ordered to sink Red October.
Red Octobers caterpillar drive fails at sea and sabotage is suspected. No longer silent, the sub comes under attack by Soviet forces and begins risky maneuvers through undersea canyons. Petty Officer Jones (Courtney B. Vance
Courtney B. Vance
Courtney Bernard Vance is an American actor. He was formerly a regular on the NBC/USA television series Law & Order: Criminal Intent as Assistant District Attorney Ron Carver. He was also a series regular on the ABC series FlashForward. As of 2011, he appears on the TNT series The Closer as Chief...
), a sonar technician aboard Dallas, plots an interception course. Ryan arranges a hazardous mid-ocean rendezvous to get aboard Dallas, where he attempts to persuade its captain, Commander Bart Mancuso (Scott Glenn
Scott Glenn
Theodore Scott Glenn is an American actor. His roles have included Wes Hightower in Urban Cowboy , astronaut Alan Shepard in The Right Stuff ,Emmett in Silverado , Commander Bart Mancuso in The Hunt for Red October , Jack Crawford in The Silence of the Lambs and The Wise Man in Sucker Punch -Early...
), to contact Ramius and determine his intentions.
The Soviet Ambassador, who earlier claimed that Red October was lost at sea and requested US assistance in a rescue mission, at this point informs the US that the sub is a renegade and asks for US help to sink it. An order to do this is communicated to the US Fleet, including Dallas. Bart Mancuso is conflicted about whether he should sink Red October as ordered, but Ryan convinces him to make contact, offering to assist Ramius in his defection.
Ramius, stunned that the Americans correctly guessed his plan to defect, accepts their cooperation. He then stages a nuclear reactor emergency and orders the bulk of his crew to abandon ship, telling Red Octobers doctor Petrov (Tim Curry
Tim Curry
Timothy James "Tim" Curry is a British actor, singer, composer and voice actor, known for his work in a diverse range of theatre, film and television productions. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California....
) that he and the other officers will scuttle
Scuttling
Scuttling is the act of deliberately sinking a ship by allowing water to flow into the hull.This can be achieved in several ways—valves or hatches can be opened to the sea, or holes may be ripped into the hull with brute force or with explosives...
the sub rather than let it be captured. Ramius submerges and Ryan, Mancuso and Jones come aboard via a rescue sub, at which point Ramius requests asylum in the United States
Asylum in the United States
The United States honors the right of asylum of individuals as specified by international and federal law. A specified number of legally defined refugees, who apply for asylum either overseas or after arriving in the U.S., are admitted annually. Refugees compose about one-tenth of the total...
for himself and his officers.
Thinking their mission is complete, Red Octobers skeleton crew are surprised by a torpedo attack from Konovalov, which has followed them across the Atlantic. As the two Soviet subs maneuver, Red Octobers cook (an undercover GRU agent) opens fire, fatally wounding Ramius's first officer, Vasily Borodin (Sam Neill
Sam Neill
Nigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill, DCNZM, OBE is a New Zealand actor. He is well known for his starring role as paleontologist Dr Alan Grant in Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III....
) before retreating into the missile launch area. Ryan follows and guns down the saboteur just before he can detonate a missile and destroy the sub.
Meanwhile, with help from Dallas, Red October makes evasive maneuvers, causing Konovalov to be destroyed by one of its own torpedoes. The evacuated crew of Red October on board a U.S. Navy rescue ship witness this explosion and, not knowing that there is a second Soviet sub, assume it was Red October. Their subterfuge complete, Ryan and Ramius sail Red October to the Penobscot River
Penobscot River
The Penobscot River is a river in the U.S. state of Maine. Including the river's West Branch and South Branch increases the Penobscot's length to , making it the second longest river system in Maine and the longest entirely in the state. Its drainage basin contains .It arises from four branches...
in Maine.
Cast
- Alec BaldwinAlec BaldwinAlexander Rae "Alec" Baldwin III is an American actor who has appeared on film, stage, and television.Baldwin first gained recognition through television for his work in the soap opera Knots Landing in the role of Joshua Rush. He was a cast member for two seasons before his character was killed off...
as Dr. Jack Ryan, CIA intelligence analyst, author, Professor of Naval History at the United States Naval AcademyUnited States Naval AcademyThe United States Naval Academy is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located in Annapolis, Maryland, United States...
and the film's main protagonist - Sean ConnerySean ConnerySir Thomas Sean Connery , better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy...
as Captain 1st Rank Marko Aleksandrovich Ramius, Commanding Officer of the
Scott Glenn
Theodore Scott Glenn is an American actor. His roles have included Wes Hightower in Urban Cowboy , astronaut Alan Shepard in The Right Stuff ,Emmett in Silverado , Commander Bart Mancuso in The Hunt for Red October , Jack Crawford in The Silence of the Lambs and The Wise Man in Sucker Punch -Early...
as Commander Bart Mancuso, Commanding Officer of the USS
Sam Neill
Nigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill, DCNZM, OBE is a New Zealand actor. He is well known for his starring role as paleontologist Dr Alan Grant in Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III....
as Captain 2nd Rank Vasily Borodin, Executive Officer of the
James Earl Jones
James Earl Jones is an American actor. He is well-known for his distinctive bass voice and for his portrayal of characters of substance, gravitas and leadership...
as Vice Admiral James Greer, CIA Deputy Director of Intelligence (DDI)
Joss Ackland
Sidney Edmond Jocelyn Ackland CBE , known as Joss Ackland, is an English actor who has appeared in more than 130 films and numerous television roles.-Early life:...
as Ambassador Andrei Lysenko, Soviet Ambassador to the United States
Richard Jordan
Richard Jordan was an American stage, screen and film actor. A long-time member of the New York Shakespeare Festival, he performed in many Off Broadway and Broadway plays...
as Dr. Jeffrey Pelt, National Security Advisor
National Security Advisor (United States)
The Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, commonly referred to as the National Security Advisor , serves as the chief advisor to the President of the United States on national security issues...
Peter Firth
Peter Firth is an English actor. He is best known for his role as Sir Harry Pearce in the BBC show Spooks, of which he is the only actor to have starred in every episode of the show's 10 series lifespan...
as Senior Lieutenant Ivan Putin, Political Officer of the
Tim Curry
Timothy James "Tim" Curry is a British actor, singer, composer and voice actor, known for his work in a diverse range of theatre, film and television productions. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California....
as Senior Lieutenant/Dr. Yevgeniy Petrov, Chief Medical Officer of the
Ronald Guttman
Ronald Guttman is a Belgian actor, theatrical producer and film producer.Guttman was born in Uccle. He has appeared in TV shows such as Lost, Lipstick Jungle, Heroes, The West Wing, and Sex and the City. He had a recurring role as Alexander Cambias, Sr...
as Senior Lieutenant Melekhin, Chief Engineer of the
Stellan Skarsgård
Stellan John Skarsgård is a Swedish actor, known internationally for his film roles in Angels & Demons, Breaking the Waves, The Hunt for Red October, Ronin, Good Will Hunting, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist,...
as Captain 2nd Rank Viktor Tupolev, Commanding Officer of the
Jeffrey Jones
Jeffrey Duncan Jones is an American actor. He has appeared in many films and television series, but may be best known for his roles as Emperor Joseph II in Miloš Forman’s Amadeus, Charles Deetz in Beetlejuice, and Dean of Students Edward R...
as Dr. Skip Tyler - U.S. Naval Academy Instructor/Naval Sea Systems Command
Naval Sea Systems Command
The Naval Sea Systems Command is the largest of the U.S. Navy's five "systems commands," or materiel organizations...
consultant
Timothy Carhart
Timothy Carhart is an American actor. Carhart was born in Washington, DC. and travelled to Izmir and Ankara in Turkey and Verdun in France before returning to the US and studying theater, where he has been acting since at least the late 1970s...
as Lieutenant Bill Steiner, commander of the DSRV
Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle
A Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle is a type of Deep Submergence Vehicle used for rescue of downed submarines and clandestine missions. While DSRV is the term most often used by the United States Navy other nations have different designations for their vehicles.- Chinese models :The People's...
Fred Dalton Thompson
Fred Dalton Thompson , is an American politician, actor, attorney, lobbyist, columnist, and radio host. He served as a Republican U.S...
as Rear Admiral (Lower Half) Joshua Painter, Commander of the
Daniel Davis
Daniel Davis is an American stage, screen, and television actor best known for portraying Niles the butler on the popular sitcom The Nanny and his guest appearances as Professor Moriarty on Star Trek: The Next Generation, affecting an upper class English accent for both roles.-Biography:Davis was...
as Captain Charlie Davenport, Commanding Officer of the USS
Sven-Ole Thorsen
Sven-Ole Thorsen is a Danish actor, stuntman, bodybuilder and strongman competitor. Sven won Denmark's Strongest Man in 1983....
as Chief of the Boat of the
Gates McFadden
Cheryl Gates McFadden usually credited as Gates McFadden, is an American actress and choreographer. She is best known for portraying the character of Dr...
as Dr. Caroline Ryan, Jack Ryan's wife and an ocular surgeon
Tomas Arana
-Life and career:Arana was born in Auburn, California. He grew up in San Francisco and studied classical theatre at the prestigious American Conservatory Theater and at the City College of San Francisco. Afterwards he relocated to New York and acted in off-Broadway productions...
as Cook's Assistant Igor Loginov, the
GRU
GRU or Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye is the foreign military intelligence directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation...
agent.
Ned Vaughn
Ned Vaughn is an American actor known for his television work. He attended Lee High School in Huntsville, AL and Birmingham-Southern College.-Filmography:*The Rescue, 1988 - Shawn Howard...
as Seaman Beaumont, Sonar Technician (Jones' apprentice), USS Dallas
Peter Zinner
Peter Zinner was an Austrian-born American filmmaker who worked as a film editor, sound editor, and producer...
as Admiral Yuri Ilyich Padorin, Chief Political Officer of the Soviet Navy
Director of Central Intelligence
The Office of United States Director of Central Intelligence was the head of the United States Central Intelligence Agency, the principal intelligence advisor to the President and the National Security Council, and the coordinator of intelligence activities among and between the various United...
(DCI)
Peter Jason
Peter Jason is an American actor who performs in many plays, movies, and TV commercials, including Desperate Housewives and Deadwood. In his free time he makes his own furniture out of wood. He has appeared in 12 Walter Hill films, 7 John Carpenter films, has acted in over 100 commercials and...
as Commander of USS Reuben James (uncredited)
Production
Producer Mace NeufeldMace Neufeld
Mace Alvin Neufeld is an American film and television producer.-Life and career:Neufeld was born in New York City, New York, the son of Margaret Ruth and Philip M. Neufeld, a stockbroker. He married on 28 February 1954...
optioned Tom Clancy's novel after reading 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
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
to read Clancy's novel and agree to develop it into a film.
Screenwriters Larry Ferguson and Donald Stewart worked on the screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
while Neufeld approached the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
for approval. They feared top secret information or technology might be revealed. However, several admirals liked Clancy's book and reasoned that the film could do for submariners what Top Gun
Top Gun
Top Gun may refer to:* Top Gun is a 1986 film starring Tom Cruise.**Top Gun , soundtrack to the movie**Top Gun , a number of games based on the movie...
did for the Navy's jet fighter pilots. Captain Michael Sherman, director of the Navy's western regional information office in Los Angeles, suggested changes to the script that would present the Navy in a positive light.
The Navy gave the filmmakers access to submarines, allowing them to photograph
Photograph
A photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...
unclassified sections of Chicago
USS Chicago (SSN-721)
USS Chicago is a Los Angeles-class submarine, the fourth ship of the United States Navy to be named for the city of Chicago, Illinois. The contract to build her was awarded to Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in Newport News, Virginia on 13 August 1981 and her keel was laid down on 5...
and Portsmouth
USS Portsmouth (SSN-707)
USS Portsmouth , a Los Angeles-class submarine, was the fourth ship of the United States Navy to be named for Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Portsmouth, Virginia. The contract to build her was awarded to the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation in Groton, Connecticut on 10...
to use in set and prop design. Key cast and crew members rode in subs, including Alec Baldwin and Scott Glenn doing an overnight trip in USS Salt Lake City
USS Salt Lake City (SSN-716)
USS Salt Lake City , a Los Angeles-class submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Salt Lake City, Utah. The contract to build her was awarded to Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in Newport News, Virginia on 15 September 1977 and her keel was laid down...
. Glenn, who played the commander of Dallas
USS Dallas (SSN-700)
USS Dallas is a Los Angeles-class nuclear-powered attack submarine of the United States Navy. It is the Navy's second ship of that name, and the first to be named for the city of Dallas, Texas, although another two ships were scheduled but never completed.-Career:The contract to build Dallas was...
, trained by assuming the identity of a submarine captain on board the Houston
USS Houston (SSN-713)
USS Houston , a Los Angeles-class attack submarine, was the fourth ship of the United States Navy to be named for Houston, Texas. The contract to build her was awarded to Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in Newport News, Virginia on 1 August 1975 and her keel was laid down on 29...
(which portrayed Dallas in most scenes). The sub's crew all took "orders" from Glenn, who was being prompted by the actual commanding officer.
Glenn had been a U.S. Marine
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
. Baldwin also learned to steer a Los Angeles-class
Los Angeles class submarine
The Los Angeles class, sometimes called the LA class or the 688 class, is a class of nuclear-powered fast attack submarines that forms the backbone of the United States submarine fleet. With 43 submarines on active duty and 19 retired, the Los Angeles class is the most numerous nuclear powered...
submarine. Some extras portraying the Dallas crew were submariners, including the pilot of the DSRV
Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle
A Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle is a type of Deep Submergence Vehicle used for rescue of downed submarines and clandestine missions. While DSRV is the term most often used by the United States Navy other nations have different designations for their vehicles.- Chinese models :The People's...
, Lt Cmdr George Billy, commander of the DSRV. Submariners from San Diego were cast as extras because it was easier to hire them than training actors. Crew from USS La Jolla
USS La Jolla (SSN-701)
USS La Jolla , a Los Angeles-class submarine, is named for La Jolla, California. The contract to build her was awarded to the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation in Groton, Connecticut on 10 December 1973 and her keel was laid down on 16 October 1976. She was launched on 11...
, including Lt Mark Draxton, took leave to participate in filming. According to an article in Sea Classics, at least two sailors from the Atlantic Fleet-based Dallas took leave and participated in the Pacific Fleet-supported filming. The crew of Houston called their month-long filming schedule the "Hunt for Red Ops." Houston made over 40 emergency surfacing "blows" for rehearsal and for the cameras.
Baldwin was approached in December 1988 but he was not told for what role. Klaus Maria Brandauer
Klaus Maria Brandauer
Klaus Maria Brandauer is an Austrian actor, film director, and professor at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna.-Personal life:...
was cast as Soviet sub commander Marko Ramius but two weeks into filming he quit due to a prior commitment. The producers faxed the script to Sean Connery who, at first, declined because it didn't make sense. He was indeed missing the first page. He arrived in Los Angeles on a Friday and was supposed to start filming on Monday but he requested a day to rehearse. Principal photography began on April 3, 1989 with a $30 million budget. The Navy lent the film crew the Houston, the Enterprise
USS Enterprise (CVN-65)
USS Enterprise , formerly CVA-65, is the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and the eighth US naval vessel to bear the name. Like her predecessor of World War II fame, she is nicknamed the "Big E". At , she is the longest naval vessel in the world...
, helicopters, two frigates, and a dry-dock crew.
Filmmaker John Milius
John Milius
John Frederick Milius is an American screenwriter, director, and producer of motion pictures.-Early life:Milius was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Elizabeth and William Styx Milius, who was a shoe manufacturer. Milius attempted to join the Marine Corps in the late 1960s, but was rejected...
revised some of the film's script, writing a few speeches for Sean Connery and all of his Russian dialogue. Rather than choosing between the realism of actual Russian dialog (with subtitles), or the audience-friendly use of English (with or without Russian accents), the filmmakers compromised. The film begins with the actors speaking actual Russian (with English subtitles), but in an early scene, the camera zooms in on an actor's mouth as he casually switches in mid-sentence to speaking in English (on the word "Armageddon", which is the same in both languages), after which the Soviets' dialogue is in English. Only towards the end of the film, once the Russian and American submariners are interacting together, do some of the actors speak in Russian.
Filming in submarines was impractical and five soundstages on the Paramount backlot were used. Two 50-foot square platforms housing mock-ups of Red October and Dallas were built, standing on hydraulic gimbals that simulated the sub's movements. Connery recalled, "It was very claustrophobic. There were 62 people in a very confined space, 45 feet above the stage floor. It got very hot on the sets, and I'm also prone to sea sickness. The set would tilt to 45 degrees. Very disturbing." The veteran actor shot for four weeks and the rest of the production shot for additional months on location in Port Angeles, Washington
Port Angeles, Washington
Port Angeles is a city in and the county seat of Clallam County, Washington, United States. The population was 19,038 at the 2010 census. The area's harbor was dubbed Puerto de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles by Spanish explorer Francisco de Eliza in 1791, but by the mid-19th century the name had...
to the waters off Los Angeles.
Being made before sophisticated CGI
Computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
in order to achieve the film's opening, impressive, long pull-out reveal and show the immense (and accurate) size of a real-life Soviet Typhoon-class sub
Typhoon class submarine
The Project 941 or Akula, Russian "Акула" class submarine is a type of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine deployed by the Soviet Navy in the 1980s...
(the type that Red October was meant to be) a nearly full scale above-the-water-line mockup consisting of two floating barges welded together was constructed.
Each country's submarine had its own background color: Soviet submarines, such as Red October and Konovalov, had interiors in black with silver trim. American ships, such as Dallas and Enterprise, had gray interiors. However, during one scene when Dallas goes to a higher alert status it was flooded with red light.
Early filming was aboard USS Reuben James
USS Reuben James (FFG-57)
USS Reuben James , an Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided missile frigate, is the third ship of the U.S. Navy named for Reuben James, a boatswain's mate who distinguished himself fighting the Barbary pirates...
in the area of the Juan de Fuca Strait and Puget Sound
Puget Sound
Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...
in March 1989. The ship operated out of U.S. Coast Guard Station Port Angeles. The H-3 detachment from the Battlecats of HSL-43 operated out of NAS Whidbey Island, after being displaced by the filmcrew. Most underwater scenes were filmed using smoke with a model sub connected to 12 cables, giving precise, smooth control for turns. Computer effects, in their infancy, created bubbles and other effects such as particulates in the water.
By February 1990, just before the film's theatrical release, the Soviet government announced that the Communist Party
Communist party
A political party described as a Communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government...
was no longer completely in charge, effectively ending the Cold War. Set during this period, there were concerns that with its end, the film would be irrelevant but Neufeld felt that it "never really represented a major problem". To compensate for the change in Russia's political climate, an on-screen crawl appears at the beginning of the film stating that it takes place in 1984 during the Cold War.
Tony Seiniger designed the film's poster and drew inspiration from Soviet poster art, utilizing bold red, white and black graphics. According to him, the whole ad campaign was designed to have a "techno-suspense quality to it". The idea was to play up the thriller aspects and downplay the political elements.
Soundtrack
The original soundtrack for The Hunt for Red October comprises 10 melodies written by Basil PoledourisBasil Poledouris
Vassilis Konstantinos "Basil" Poledouris was a Greek-American music composer who concentrated on the scores for films and television shows...
. The soundtrack is missing some of the musical moments present in the film, including the scene where the crew of Red October sings the Soviet national hymn. The soundtrack is limited due to the fact that was originally compiled to fit the Compact Cassette
Compact Cassette
The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...
. Later it was remastered for the CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
.
The songs have a truly Cold War theme, and bear similarity to Russian Army band songs. The soundtrack is however, originally composed for the film.
- "Hymn To Red October"
- The by-far most famous of the soundtrack songs. It is often mistaken for an original Red army band song, and sometimes referred to as the "Hymn of the Russian Navy"
- "Nuclear Scam"
- "Putin's Demise"
- "Course Two-Five-Zero"
- "Ancestral Aid"
- "Chopper"
- "Two Wives"
- "Red Route I"
- "Plane Crash"
- "Kaboom!!!"
Reaction
The Hunt for Red October opened in 1,225 theaters on 2 March 1990, grossing $17 million on its opening weekend, more than half its budget. The film went on to gross $122 million in North AmericaNorth America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
with a worldwide total of $200 million.
Critical reception
The film received positive reviews from critics; it holds a 95% rating on Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
. Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
called it "a skillful, efficient film that involves us in the clever and deceptive game being played," while Gene Siskel
Gene Siskel
Eugene Kal "Gene" Siskel was an American film critic and journalist for the Chicago Tribune. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted the popular review show Siskel & Ebert At the Movies from 1975 until his death....
commented on the film's technical skill and Baldwin's convincing turn as Jack Ryan. 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."
Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
s David Ansen
David Ansen
David Ansen is a reviewer and senior editor for Newsweek, where he has been reviewing movies since 1977. He came to Newsweek after several years as the chief film critic at Boston's The Real Paper...
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."
Awards
The film won the Academy Award for Sound Effects Editing and was nominated for Film EditingAcademy Award for Film Editing
The Academy Award for Film Editing is one of the annual awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Nominations for this award are closely correlated with the Academy Award for Best Picture. Since 1981, every film selected as Best Picture has also been nominated for the Film Editing...
and Best Sound (Richard Bryce Goodman
Richard Bryce Goodman
Richard Bryce Goodman is an American sound engineer. He was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Sound for the film The Hunt for Red October. He has worked on over 70 films since 1974.-External links:...
, Richard Overton
Richard Overton (sound engineer)
Richard Overton is an American sound engineer. He was nominated for three Academy Awards in the category Best Sound.-Selected filmography:* Die Hard * The Abyss * The Hunt for Red October -External links:...
, Kevin F. Cleary
Kevin F. Cleary
Kevin F. Cleary is an American sound engineer. He was nominated for three Academy Awards in the category Best Sound.-Selected filmography:* Die Hard * The Abyss * The Hunt for Red October -External links:...
and Don J. Bassman).
Cold War implications
The film caused a minor sensation in the black projects / submarine warfare technology community. In one scene, where the USS Dallas is chasing the Red October through the submarine canyon, the crew can be heard calling out that they have various "milligalGal (unit)
The gal, sometimes called galileo, is a unit of acceleration used extensively in the science of gravimetry. The gal is defined as 1 centimeter per second squared ....
anomalies". This essentially revealed the use of gravimetry
Gravimetry
Gravimetry is the measurement of the strength of a gravitational field. Gravimetry may be used when either the magnitude of gravitational field or the properties of matter responsible for its creation are of interest...
as a method of silent navigation in US submarines. Thought to be a billion dollar black project
Black project
In the United States and United Kingdom, a black project is in the vernacular a classified military/defense project, unacknowledged publicly by the government, military personnel, and defense contractors. Examples of U.S...
, the development of a full-tensor gravity gradiometer
Gravity Gradiometry
Gravity gradiometry is the study and measurement of variations in theacceleration due to gravity. The gravity gradient is the spatial rate of change of gravitational acceleration....
by Bell Aerospace was a classified technology at the time. It was thought to be deployed on only a few s after it was first developed in 1973. Bell Aerospace later sold the technology to Bell Geospace, which uses it for oil exploration purposes.