The Soviet Union's most powerful submarine, the Red October, is on its way across the Atlantic.
As the western alliance scrambles to work out what its mission is, a young CIA analyst, Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin), comes to a sudden, seemingly unbelievable realisation:
The submarine's captain, Ramius (Sean Connery), is not spearheading an attack. He's making an escape...
This is a great movie of a kind that will never be made again - on a couple of different levels. Firstly, it is an example of a genre (the techno-thriller) that have migrated from cinema screens. The movie is also a time capsule, not just for a specific aesthetic or in terms of production values, but of a point in time.
Made between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the USSR in 1991, The Hunt For Red October is a movie about smart people trying to avoid conflict that cannot help but feel completely idealistic. Technically, the movie takes place in 1984, which makes the portrayal of the Americans' actions feel somewhat naive.
Acknowledging that, that focus on brains over guns is what makes The Hunt for Red October so great. The Jack Ryan movies were big business back in the early nineties, and surprisingly consistent considering the personal changes that took place behind the scenes, specifically the change of leading man. In retrospect they feel like the ultimate reaction to the steroidal action movies of the 80s.
The first film made from the best-selling novels of Tom Clancy, Red October was directed by John McTiernan, on the heels of his success with Predator and Die Hard. The Director of Photography was Jan De Bont, who also shot Die Hard and later became a director with 1994’s Speed.
The connection with Die Hard is important, since Die Hard is another movie where the machismo is offset by brains.
Making 200 million on a 30 million dollar budget, Red October is a great example of the middle tier of Hollywood product, a popcorn movie made for adults.
Part of the success of the movie is casting - the studio originally wanted Kevin Costner but he was doing Dances with Wolves, so the role went to Alec Baldwin.
Baldwin's relative youth works well with the older cast, but he has the authority to sell Ryan as a super-intelligent analyst who can stand toe-to-toe with Connery
The fine actor Klaus Maria Brandeuar was originally cast as Ramius, but he ended up leaving after a few weeks. While a fine actor in his own right, it is impossible to see anyone in this role other than Connery.
John McTiernan described the relationship between Ryan and Ramius as similar to that between Long John Silver and young Jim Hawkins in Treasure Island. While it is unclear if the actor was aware of this influence, he does evoke a similar mixture of attraction and danger.
It is also fitting that the movie ends up as a passing of the torch, from an icon of an earlier, Cold War-based form of espionage-based escapism, to a new, younger generation of the genre.
Preceding the Jason Bourne films as a reaction to typical action and spy fare, the Jack Ryan films put more focus on process, technology and brains. While the later films have their strengths, Red October represents the best example of the series, turning into a hi-tech chess match without losing sight of its lead characters who spend most of the movie miles away from each other.
This movie lays out exposition so well - it cuts efficiently between Ramius and Jack Ryan without ever losing a sense of moment.
McTiernan’s direction is key - his use of extended takes and spatial relations within shots to establish geography and power relations conveys so much information without a word being spoken. I love the moment when TIm Curry is talking in the mess and the camera moves behind him to show Connery and Sam Neil looking at each other - we immediately understand his character, setting up his gullibility.
While not technically an action movie, Red October has its sense of momentum: Ryan is constantly on the move, going from delivering a report to the guts of a nuclear submarine by the end of the movie.
Everything has a sense of scale and danger: even Ryan’s attempt to board the Dallas, which could have just been treated as a spectacular entrance, is an exercise in tension and the sheer effort it takes to carry this dangerous manoeuvre off (the focus on the officer who is trying to catch him).
The escalation of stakes in this movie is fantastic - there is no underlying sense of sabre-rattling. Everyone is on edge about what could happen.
What is great about the third act is how it is premised on de-escalation:
A great movie.
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