Review of The Hunt for Red October (1990) by Danny R — 24 Aug 2015

John McTiernan's masterful, intelligent cold war techno-thriller which is based upon his best-selling novel of the same name. It takes place in the year 1984 and concerns Captain Marko Ramius, a legendary Russian sub commander, played to perfection by screen legend Sir Sean Connery, in one of his finest performances.

Ramius is planning to defect to the Untied States during the maiden voyage of the Red October, a new supersecret technologically superior Soviet nuclear submarine, which has a unique revolutionary propulsion system, a mageto-hydrodynamic drive or caterpillar, that enable the Red October to run virtually silent, making it undetectable to sonar which allows the sub to approach by stealth and shower its targets with multiple independent warheads with little or no warning before impact.

The Russian's have sent their entire naval and air commands to find the Red October and destroy her before it can reach America, they even have told the American government that Captain Ramius has gone insane and is planning to attack the United States with his nuclear missiles, but a lone CIA analyst named Jack Ryan, played by a young Alec Baldwin, in a terrific performance of understated elegance.

Ryan believes that Ramius is really trying to defect, it now has become a race against time for Ryan for he has been aloud only three days by his superiors to prove his theory, he must go out to the Atlantic and make contact was Ramius and find out what his true intensions really are, before the United States is force to join the hunt for Red October with the Russians and sunk her.

An extraordinary supporting cast all deliver superb performances they include Scott Glenn, James Earl Jones, Sam Neill, Joss Ackland, Richard Jordan, Peter Firth, Courney B. Vance, Stellan Skarsgard, Tim Curry, and Fred Dalton Thompson.

But it's Connery's commanding performance that totally dominates this fine thriller. The dialogue from a brilliant screenplay by Larry Ferguson & Donald Stewart makes the events of the story seem plausible, the cinematography by Jan de Bont is truly stunning, there is a striking musical score by Basil Poledoruris, and the production design by Terence Marsh is phenomenal, "The Hunt for Red October" is an engrossing 90s classic that is simply one of the best submarine thrillers ever filmed.

Highly Recommended.