The Hunt for Red October (1990)
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A CIA analyst must determine the true intentions of a rogue Soviet submarine captain before a deadly confrontation erupts.
The story
Set during the late Cold War, the film follows the story of a rogue Soviet naval captain who intends to defect to the United States with his officers and the Soviet Navy's most advanced ballistic missile submarine. A CIA analyst correctly deduces his motive and must prove his theory to the military leadership. He must act quickly to convince the U.S. Navy that the captain's intentions are not a nuclear strike, but a defection, in order to prevent a violent confrontation between the two superpowers from spiraling out of control.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
In 1984, Soviet captain Marko Ramius takes command of the Red October, a high-tech submarine. He secretly plans to defect to the U.S. CIA analyst Jack Ryan identifies this plan and is given three days to confirm it before the U.S. Navy is ordered to sink the vessel. Ryan joins the USS Dallas and eventually boards the Red October. Amidst tensions, a Soviet saboteur, Loginov, attempts to destroy the ship. During a confrontation with another Soviet submarine, the Konovalov, the truth of the defection is revealed. Ryan and Ramius successfully navigate the Red October to the coast of Maine. The film concludes with Ryan and Ramius's successful defection.
- Original title
- Красный октябрь
- First release year
- 1990
- Runtime (minutes)
- 135
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- John McTiernan
- Writers
- Larry Ferguson · screenplay; Donald E. Stewart · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Sean Connery · Captain 1st rank Marko Ramius; Alec Baldwin · Jack Ryan; Scott Glenn · Commander Bart Mancuso; James Earl Jones · Vice Admiral James Greer; Sam Neill · Captain 2nd rank Vasily Borodin; Tim Curry · Dr. Yevgeni Petrov; Peter Firth · 1st Lieutenant Ivan Putin; Richard Jordan · Jeffrey Pelt
- Genres
- spy thriller; action
- Themes
- Cold War tension; Defection; Nuclear threat
- Tone and mood
- suspenseful; tense
- Premise and plot tags
- submarine; espionage; military
- Source material / true-story basis
- Tom Clancy's 1984 novel
- Franchise connections
- Ryanverse
- Reception
- The film received mostly positive reviews from critics and was a commercial success, becoming the sixth-highest-grossing domestic film of the year.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 88% · scale: percentage · review count: 76; Metacritic · score: 58 · scale: 100 · review count: 17; CinemaScore · score: A · scale: A+ to F
- Awards and nominations
- Academy Award · Best Sound Editing · won; Academy Award · Best Sound Mixing · nominated; Academy Award · Best Film Editing · nominated
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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