Hunt for Red October, The

Novel by Tom Clancy, 1984 Film directed by John McTiernan, 1990

The Hunt for Red October (1990) is a film based on a 1984 Tom Clancy novel of the same name. John McTiernan directed the tale of Jack Ryan, a young Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyst played by Alec Baldwin. The movie [Page 354]uses Hollywood's conventions for war movies (crusty old commanders, hesitant bureaucrats, eager young warriors) and combines them with the ambiguities and mystery befitting a tale where a CIA analyst plays one of the good guys. Hollywood war movies go beyond politicians’ speeches, academic books, or journalism to provide the public with a compelling emotional sense of what war and spying entails, generally reinforcing the idea that our side not only has the big guns but is always right as well.

When the film opens, the British have taken photos of the latest Soviet nuclear submarine, Red October. Ryan is puzzling over the unusual “doors” on the vehicle with his tough mentor, Adm. James Greer (James Earl Jones). They ascertain that the doors are part of a new kind of stealth drive that would allow the ship to slip past American radar and possibly launch a first strike on the United States. Indeed, when the Red October engages its drive, it essentially disappears from view of the U.S. submarine that has been tracking it.

Capt. Marko Ramius (Sean Connery), commander of Red October is a brilliant seaman whose political loyalties are somewhat suspect. With his wife's death died many of Ramius's illusions about the glories of socialism. His men love him and Ramius loves to taunt the stiff-necked political officer charged with safekeeping the political loyalties of men who command a ship that could cause Armageddon. The character of Ramius echoes the characterization of German soldiers in Hollywood movies made well after World War II but about that war—honorable enemies who loved their country but were anti-Nazi themselves. This theme was first developed in another submarine movie, The Enemy Below (1957), about Captain Von Stolberg (Curt Jurgens). The Enemy Below and films like it have been seen by historians as an effort to undo the dehumanization of Germans in World War II propaganda, especially important since by 1957 Germans were allies in the Cold War. Red October takes this notion of humanizing the enemy soldier a step further, as Ramius actually kills the political officer shortly after beginning the voyage. The film does not humanize the Soviet Union, whose agents and advocates are depicted as both brutal and inept, but suggests that at this advanced date, the United States felt it was winning the battle for the “hearts and minds” of many in the U.S.S.R. (For example, some Russian characters in the film dream of owning a RV and traveling the open roads of America.)

Just what is Ramius up to? Burning his bridges, he has left a message for his Soviet masters that leaves no doubt that he intends to defect to the West. Ramius does this to ensure that his crew will not develop second thoughts now that the Soviet Navy is trying to kill them. For its part, the United States is skeptical of Ryan's claims to understand Ramius's intentions, believing that Ramius has gone over the edge because of his wife's death and intends to take the world with him.

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