The Hunt for Red October **** (1990, Sean Connery, Alec Baldwin, Scott Glenn) – Classic Movie Review 728

From brilliant action director John McTiernan, the maker of Predator and Die Hard, this 1990 cheeky and exciting action thriller blockbuster is one of the best of its kind. A commanding Sean Connery is on impressive form, totally in his element as Marco Ramius, a Soviet submarine captain who hijacks his own submarine Red October (‘We shail into hishtory!’) and defects to the US.

His mission is to prevent the Russians from using their new nuclear submarine to wage a nuclear missile war against the Americans. The beauty of the new sub is that it runs silent due to a revolutionary propulsion system.

As the plot twists and turns, Connery’s Ramius plays a deadly game of cat and mouse with both the American Navy and his own Russian Navy too. He looks as though he’s about to launch an attack on America’s Eastern seaboard, when Alec Baldwin’s hotshot young CIA analyst Jack Ryan is called in to try to save the day.

This is an extremely satisfyingly, edge-of-seat old-fashioned adventure, based on Tom Clancy’s novel written in the Cold War period, but with the story re-set before Glasnost. The Hunt for Red October is brilliantly crafted by director McTiernan, with an expert eye to pace, atmosphere and, especially, nail-biting tension. McTiernan keeps a long epic movie (136 minutes) suspenseful and convincing, with the help of Jan DeBont’s eye-catching cinematography, Basil Poledouris’s pounding score, and impressive visual effects and underwater sequences.

Baldwin’s excellent as a scene-stealing young Ryan, making a big splash, so a series featuring him was expected. Scott Glenn, Sam Neill, James Earl Jones, Joss Ackland, Richard Jordan, Peter Firth, Tim Curry, Courtney B Vance, Stellan Skargard and Jeffrey Jones also star and make strong impressions too. But, even so, ultimately the movie is Connery’s triumph, stealing every scene and making some outrageous lines seem credible. He even makes you believe he’s the only Scotsman in the Russian navy.

The sound effects won an Oscar.

In the event, Harrison Ford took over the Jack Ryan role in the sequels Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and Present Danger (1994)…

…Then Ben Affleck took over for The Sum of All Fears in 2002…

…And in 2014 Chris Pine starred in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. But none of these films has the high impact of The Hunt for Red October.

McTiernan reunited with Connery for Medicine Man in 1992, but his disastrous remake of Rollerball in 2002 damaged his career. In 2015, he hadn’t made a movie since Basic in 2003, with John Travolta.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 728

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