- The plot of The Hunt for Red October hinges upon a logic puzzle not unlike those found in IQ tests or the GRE. The basic question is: How can the captain of a super-silent Soviet submarine successfully defect to America? Keep in mind that he must prevent the Russians, including most of his crew members, from discovering what has really transpired. Of course, he must also succeed before being killed by either side. An added bonus is that this same captain has somewhat recklessly left a note that will eventually alert the Soviet government to his intentions. Also, there's a saboteur aboard his boat. That's the problem--good luck figuring it out!
- I'd estimate that Captain Ramius (Sean Connery), the skipper of the Russian sub, comes up with approximately half of a complete solution. He has a decent plan for getting his men off the boat and plenty of ideas on how to evade attacks from both sides. What he lacks, however, is a good strategy for communicating with the Americans. One imagines that things would have gone more smoothly if he had sent his note to an agent of the U.S. government, but I suppose an easy defection would have made for a less interesting film. Fortunately, CIA analyst Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin) intuits what Ramius is doing and starts helping out from the American side of things. Mostly, Ryan spends his time jetting around the globe, taking short breaks to brief or to get briefed by people like Admiral James Greer (James Earl Jones), submarine analyst Skip Tyler (Jeffrey Jones), NSA Advisor Jeffrey Pelt (Richard Jordan), and others too numerous to list. While the meetings themselves aren't always the pinnacle of excitement, the methods by which the aerophobic Ryan travels are often fairly entertaining.
- Most of the other interesting parts of the film take place on the subs, of course. Captain Ramius and his second-in-command, Borodin (Sam Neill), lead the Red October through waters that would be treacherous even if they weren't being chased. Their most adroit American pursuers are aboard the U.S.S. Dallas, helmed by Captain Mancuso (Scott Glenn) and guided by the preternaturally gifted sonar expert Jones (Courtney Vance). The Russians, on the other hand, have sent one of Ramius' pupils, the ambitious Captain Tupolev (Stellan Skarsgard), to kill his former instructor. While I'm no expert on the real differences between the Soviet and American navies, my impression is that the same can be said of the film's writers. Most of the Russian sailors seem like fairly coarse caricatures while the American submariners are portrayed with quite a bit more realism.
- While The Hunt for Red October is far from perfect, it still manages to be entertaining and fairly well-constructed. Most of the film's successes stem from the simple fact that the minor emergencies are automatically more exciting in a submarine. In fact, few other environments can create suspense from a bunch of people sitting around listening. It would have been preferable if the movie hadn't bothered to awkwardly introduce the chef-turned-saboteur, but this isn't much of a problem for the overall plot, which is simultaneously intricate and interesting. Still, The Hunt for Red October doesn't really feel like John McTiernan's earlier films. Some characters are cartoonish, but few of the most important characters are as enjoyably absurd as his usual creations. Instead, the film falls halfway between being a subtle thriller and an action-fest and suffers as a result. Fortunately, the thrills and action are both enjoyable enough that the result still manages to impress.
- The Russian national anthem is sung.
- I missed some of the cast, including Tim Curry, Fred D. Thompson, and Gates McFadden (who crosses the screen briefly as the only woman in the film).
- Which is worse: Sean Connery as a Russian or Alan Rickman as a German?
- Okay, I laughed when they said "magnetohydrodynamic" the second time.
