The Hunt for Red October

"Invisible. Silent. Stolen."

1990 2h 15m EN

👍

7.4

SOLID

★7.4TMDB · 3,791

ActionThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A new technologically-superior Soviet nuclear sub, the Red October, is heading for the U.S. coast under the command of Captain Marko Ramius. The American government thinks Ramius is planning to attack. Lone CIA analyst Jack Ryan has a different idea: he thinks Ramius is planning to defect, but he has only a few hours to find him and prove it - because the entire Russian naval and air commands are trying to find Ramius, too. The hunt is on!

“Invisible. Silent. Stolen.”

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Cast

Alec Baldwin
Dr. Jack Ryan
Sean Connery
Capt. 1st Marko Ramius
Scott Glenn
CDR Bart Mancuso (USS Dallas)
Sam Neill
Capt. 2nd Vasily Borodin
James Earl Jones
Vice ADM James Greer
Joss Ackland
Ambassador Andrei Lysenko
Richard Jordan
Dr. Jeffrey Pelt, National Security Advisor
Peter Firth
Capt. 2nd Ivan Putin (Political Officer, Red October)

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: John McTiernan
Writers: Larry Ferguson, Donald E. Stewart
Languages: English, Russian
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 6.7× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

36 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Russian.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "The Jack Ryan Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

CAST

Did you know

246+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by John McTiernan, shot by Jan de Bont. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Basil Poledouris. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Dennis Virkler shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

John McTiernan directs. Jan de Bont behind the camera. Basil Poledouris scores. Dennis Virkler cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English, Russian.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Made its money back 6.7× over at the box office.
236 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Russian.
4Part of the "The Jack Ryan Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
5246+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
6Directed by John McTiernan, shot by Jan de Bont. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
7Original score by Basil Poledouris. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
8Editor Dennis Virkler shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
9Alec Baldwin and Sean Connery and Scott Glenn carry the top of the cast.
10Marketing tagline: "Invisible. Silent. Stolen.".
11IMDB entry: tt0099810 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
12Classified under 18 themes, including "based on novel or book", "submarine", "cold war", "intelligence".

The technical file

Cinematography: Jan de Bont
Original score: Basil Poledouris
Editing: Dennis Virkler
Production design: Terence Marsh
Makeup / hair: Wes Dawn
VFX supervisor: Scott Squires
Sound: Kevin F. Cleary
Stunt coordinator: Chuck Picerni Jr.
Runtime: 135 min · 2h 15m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $30,000,000
Box office: $200,512,643
Return: 668% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: The Hunt for Red October (1990)

Awards

Academy Award for Best Sound Editing

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Part of

The Jack Ryan Collection

John Patrick "Jack" Ryan, Sr. is a fictional character created by Tom Clancy who appears in many of his novels and their respective film adaptations.

Also by

John McTiernan

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Wuchak2023-05-30
★ 7/10
Submarine strategies with Sean Connery, Alec Baldwin and Scott Glenn Just before Gorbachev’s rise to power in the USSR, a notable naval commander (Connery) takes a technologically advanced submarine on its maiden voyage to conduct missile drills off of America's east coast. Something happens to draw the ire of the Soviet brass while a CIA analyst (Baldwin) believes the captain might be defecting. James Earl Jones, Sam Neill and Courtney B Vance are on hand. Based on the 1984 Tom Clancy novel, “The Hunt for Red October” (1990) is a well-done Cold War thriller and the first of currently five movies involving the character of Jack Ryan. The next two are “Patriot Games” (1992) and “Clear and Present Danger” (1994) featuring Harrison Ford in the role. Then Ben Affleck would take over for one installment, “The Sum of All Fears” (2002), before Chris Pine’s “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit” (2014). To appreciate this movie, you have to be in the mood for military-oriented drama/suspense rooted in global politics and an all-male cast (except for a cameo by Gates McFadden). Like “Ice Station Zebra” (1968), the scenes mostly consist of men dialoguing & strategizing in the cramped quarters of submarines or vessels; as well as political rooms/offices. A saboteur is no doubt lurking nearby. The movie runs 2 hours, 15 minutes, and was shot in America, e.g. Port Valdez, Alaska (opening sequence); Lake James, North Carolina (closing scene); the state of Washington (Port Angeles & Keyport); naval bases in Los Angeles and Connecticut; USS Blueback; San Diego; as well as Liverpool, England (standing-in for Moscow). GRADE: B
CinemaSerf2024-06-24
★ 7/10
When British intelligence sends some photographs to CIA analyst "Jack Ryan" (Alec Baldwin) he immediately races to his boss (James Earl Jones) with what seems like a fantastic tale about a submarine that uses a hydro-dynamic drive. That renders it almost silent to traditional sonar and therefore a threat to NATO. Next thing we know, the Soviet's have mobilised their Atlantic fleet and it occurs to "Ryan" that they could have a defection on their hands. He now has to convince his sceptical superiors that this isn't just a wild goose chase, and that "Ramius" (Sean Connery) has a plan to bring his state of the art warship to the USA. Meantime, onboard the "Red October" we discover a complex plan that will test the mettle of the crew - officers and men alike, as they ostensibly conduct routine sea trials and missile drills - but with an ulterior motive that the audience knows all about, but the crew - well they're very much in the dark as the peril grows. This is a solidly entertaining story of political intrigue and deception and the claustrophobic settings of the submarines work well to give both Connery (who makes no attempt at all to disguise his thick Scots accent) and the much better than usual Baldwin room to manoeuvre. The supporting cast isn't the best - Scott Glenn, Sam Neill and Courtney B. Vance could have been cheerfully fired from a torpedo tubes early on, but they feature only sparingly as the adventure builds to an excitingly paced denouement. Could it really have happened?
kevin20192025-05-09
★ 8/10
"The Hunt for Red October" is an extremely well paced film throughout and it never leaves us in any doubt that Jack Ryan's assumptions about captain Marko Ramius are unfailingly correct and if anything could have sapped the interest and made this nothing more than an overlong and water logged exercise in boredom then this is it, so it is amazing this never actually happens and indeed the opposite just happens to be true. The film also features a wonderfully tense game of cat and mouse through the briny depths as the submarines Konovalov and Red October track each other and it provides a very satisfying conclusion to captain Viktor Tupolev's pursuit of Ramius in which Ramius outsmarts the other captain with fatal results for his opponent.