Powerful presence: Sean Connery as a maverick Lithuanian submariner Photo: AJ Pics/Alamy Stock Photo
In 2009, a former employee CIA Intelligence Officer Bill Hadley described how The Hunt for Red October, released in 1990, made a splash in the intelligence and underwater world. A Cold War techno thriller in which Soviet naval captain Sean Connery takes a ride in an advanced nuclear submarine apparently confirms the existence of secret naval technology.
Tom Clancy's original novel, with its knowledge of military technology, strategy and technical ideas, evoked a similar response in parts of Washington when it was published in 1984. The bestseller was approved by the commander-in-chief himself, President Ronald. Reagan, who called The Hunt for Red October “my genre of yarn” and “irresistible”. But Clancy remembered a meeting with Secretary of the Navy John Lehman, who asked, “Who the hell cleared this?”
The novel describes how the Soviet supersubmarine Krasny Oktyabr uses gravitational gradiometry, a covert navigation technique that measures changes in gravitational pull. At the time, actual Soviet submarines were not equipped with this technology, although the US Navy developed gravity gradiometers in the 1970s. According to some reports, this technology was used on Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines. Bill Hadley, writing in the CIA Quarterly, described how the film's script used technical jargon to support the use of gravity gradiometers aboard U.S. submarines. The technology, Hadley explained, was once a “billion dollar black project” but was declassified just months after the film's release.
However, watch the film backwards and the offensive jargon is a reference to the “million anomalies” aboard an American submarine – similar to the “Red October” itself: it is impossible to detect.
“The Hunt for Red October” was the first story—both on the page and in the film—to feature Tom Clancy's CIA analyst Jack Ryan. The character was played by Alec Baldwin in The Hunt for Red October and by Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck and Chris Pine in subsequent films (of varying quality). John Krasinski is back for the fourth episode of the aptly titled “Jack Ryan” Amazon Prime series.Shaping: Alec Baldwin, the original Jack Ryan, in The Hunt for Red October. Credit & Copyright: PARAMOUNT PICTURES/Album
Baldwin's original version laid the foundation for a popular hero type: the agile Boy Scout who saves the day with American savvy, using good old hunch and thinking three steps ahead.
However, it is Sean Connery who commands the film, playing maverick Lithuanian submariner Captain Marko Ramius, the most weathered old battleship in the Soviet navy. Ramius is one of Connery's characters who doesn't even bother with an accent, standing next to his Egyptian-born and Scottish-Spanish voice in “Highlander” – irrefutable proof that star power trumps realism.
In the story, Ramius and his closest confidants (including the suspicious Sam Neill) plan to escape to the United States on the Red October, a Typhoon-class ballistic missile submarine. Ramius, grieving for his wife and disillusioned with the Cold War, recognizes the glorious Red October for what it really is: a first-strike weapon that could kick-start World War III. The improved “Red October” is equipped with a “caterpillar drive” that allows it to move silently, imperceptibly to sonar.
Threatened with losing the submarine to the Americans, the Soviets send a fleet to find and sink the Red October without warning the Americans (who already know). The Americans, however, want this technology, so they will try to take Red October for themselves without the Russians knowing they stole it.
There is some debate about the inspiration for the story. Tom Clancy, who died in 2013, said he was inspired by an article about a mutiny on the Soviet frigate Storozhevoy in 1975. “This rebellion has been in my head for years,” Clancy told Time magazine. He also named the author of the article, Gregory Young, as a source. But the 2021 docudrama The Real Hunt for Red October claimed that the book was based on the disappearance of the Soviet submarine K-129 in 1968. Kenneth Sewell, author of the K-129 book, Red Star. Rogue believes that the Hunt for Red October was a “cover” for America's involvement in K-129.
According to Sewell, a former nuclear engineer aboard the USS Parche, the film adaptation appealed to the underwater world. “It was the first film that had a lot of realism in terms of the capabilities of the hardware,” says Sewell. In 2013, Sewell's book was made into a film, Ghost, starring Ed Harris.
Directed by John McTiernan, The Hunt for Red October is solid, gripping material. McTiernan – who has an unparalleled string of machos since Predator and Die Hard – handles it like a thunderous action movie. Although it's mostly a bunch of men standing around looking at charts and info talking about how they're going to quickly kick each other a bunch of guys who are also standing around looking at charts and info.
Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin in The Hunt for Red October. Photo: United Archives GmbH/Alamy Stock Photo
The original book was the first work of fiction published by Naval Institute Press. Tom Clancy had no military experience. In fact, he was an insurance agent. There were questions about his insider knowledge of high-tech naval warfare. Claims that he had intelligence ties were “complete nonsense,” Clancy said. Clancy explained that he studied technical manuals and books—light readings such as Missile Systems of the World and Guide to the Soviet Navy. He also interviewed submariners and learned from the naval strategy game Harpoon, which was used to train cadets in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. After all, he was a fan of the Navy.
Ronald Reagan received The Hunt for Red October as a Christmas present. The President apparently told his friends that he was losing sleep over this because he couldn't stop reading the novel. Although, according to Time as far back as 1985, Reagan did wonder, “Where in the world [Clancy] does all this knowledge come from?” Clancy credited Reagan with helping to sell over four million copies. Reagan wasn't just a fan of The Hunt for Red October. He was reported to have recommended a sequel to Clancy's Red Storm Rising to Margaret Thatcher over the phone after a summit with Mikhail Gorbachev in Reykjavik. Reagan also liked the film version of The Hunt for Red October. “It was great,” the former president said. “Just great.”
The script had several permutations written by Larry Ferguson and Donald E. Stewart, as well as by Jack Ryan himself. Before Alec Baldwin was cast, the producers needed Kevin Costner, a top-notch actor of the time. But Costner was too preoccupied with what producer Mace Neufeld called “that buffalo movie,” the multi-Oscar-winning Dances with Wolves. Neufeld went on to produce further adaptations of Clancy with various Jack Ryans: Patriot Games and Danger Clear and Present (Harrison Ford), The Sum of All Fears (Ben Affleck) and Jack Ryan: The Phantom Recruit (Chris Pine).
Naval Warfare Enthusiast: The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy. Photo: Sipa US/Alamy Stock Photo
It's funny, but Sean Connery almost passed The Hunt for Red October. When the Cold War came to an end, this story lost all meaning for him. The script was faxed to him and the first page was missing, explaining that the story actually took place in 1984. Neufeld hurriedly faxed him the opening page, and Connery signed on. Last year, John McTiernan appeared on the Empire podcast and admitted that he was intimidated by Connery.
“He did not tolerate fools, but you tried not to be a fool, and then you succeeded,” McTiernan said. “Yes, at first he scared me with his reputation or something, but about the second day I worked with him, at the end of the day he said: “Good night, boy.” And, you know, from my family it was kindness, tenderness, actually. And I knew that I was all right. Sean was an amazing professional.” McTiernan added: “He was a tough old dog.”
Connery certainly makes a strong impression: a Soviet staunch man with a perfectly styled haircut – with a hint of melancholy, but quite capable of breaking a man's neck. Not only is Ramius defecting, he's also on the trail of a saboteur aboard the Red October, an additional detective amid mounting tensions.
Director John McTiernan on the set of The Hunt for Red October with Sam Neill and Sean Connery. Photo: AJ Pics/Alamy Stock Photo
The US Navy gave the film significant support. Captain James H. Patton was enlisted as a technical advisor. He wrote about the production for the Naval Institute magazine. “From the very beginning,” Patton wrote, “I received some good advice from Admiral Bruce DeMars, then Assistant Chief of Naval Operations for Submarine Warfare: First, and most importantly, I was not there to confirm the “real or authentic” because the real and the authentic did not concern [filmmakers].”
According to Patton, who has served on several nuclear and ballistic missile submarines, the US Navy learned a thing or two from Top Gun: The entertainment was good publicity for a potential draft. Bill Hadley observed something similar: the submariners hoped that The Hunt for Red October would do for them what Top Gun had done for naval fighter pilots. the most sophisticated equipment in the world,” says Kenneth Sewell. “Our submarine was more complex than the Apollo ship that went to the moon.”
The US Navy approved the use of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, helicopters, frigates, a crew in dry dock, and the submarine USS Houston, which was also used as USS Dallas, the actual Los Angeles-class submarine depicted in the film. (Ryan from Baldwin boards the Dallas, which is stalking the Red October.) For the film, the USS Houston made 40 emergency ascents. The cast also spent time aboard another Los Angeles-class submarine, the USS Salt Lake City, which took them down 600 feet.
Scott Glenn as Commander Mancuso in The Hunt for Red October. Photo: AJ Pics/Alamy Stock Photo
Scott Glenn, who plays Mancuso, the captain of the USS Dallas, was following Thomas B. Fargo, the captain of the Salt Lake City ship. Fargo told his team to treat Glenn as an equal, and he kept Glenn informed (within reason) as he made decisions. Glenn later said that Fargo owed his performance as Mancuso – cool and level-headed in the face of nuclear war. According to James H. Patton, the crew of the USS Dallas in the film consisted of 50 to 50 actors and real sailors, including the crew of the real USS Dallas. Patton had them perform basic procedures such as changing course, reaching periscope depth, and manning combat posts. “It will be difficult for divers to identify real crew members,” Patton wrote.
Real submarines were too small for film crews, so interiors were built for Krasny Oktyabr, the aircraft carrier Dallas, and Konovalov (captain of the Soviet Alpha-class submarine Stellan Skarsgård). The interiors were built on 50-foot platforms that were hydraulically articulated – enough to make Seasick Sean Connery.
The interiors were accurate to working size. A 500-foot fiberglass mock-up of the Red October was also built (the upper part of the submarine, above the waterline), capable of floating and sinking. For underwater scenes, they used miniature submarines with thick smoke to mimic the effect of water.
As James H. Patton said, authenticity was not the main goal. “The idea of a Russian submarine defecting was part of a wild fantasy,” says Sewall. “I know a lot of Russian submariners – they would desert no more than us.”
Sewell also disagrees with the idea of the superiority of Russian submarines, presented by “Red October”. “I think it gave Soviet boats a lot more merit at the time, both technically and operationally,” he says. “And they were damn noisy – they sounded like washing machines.”
Although Clancy said that The Hunt for Red October was based on the Watchtower, Sewall says it is “bullshit”. Sewell's book Red Star Rogue claims that the Soviets planned to start a nuclear war between the US and China, resulting in the disappearance of the K-129, and details a covert American operation to find the missing submarine. Sewell argues that Clancy's book was a cover-up for the truth about K-129 – an attempt to spin the story before the truth leaks out. He says that Clancy was “an asset” and was getting information from the CIA. The hunt for Red October, Sewell argues, was what the CIA called a “corporate book” – an exercise in leaking information about US military capabilities and alerting the Soviets.
It sounds like a colorful conspiracy theory, although the former minister Navy John Lehman is the same man who once asked, “Who the hell cleared this?” – It was confirmed that such a thing actually took place. Lehman, speaking about the docudrama The Real Hunt for Red October, said they used Hollywood and popular culture to promote the power of the US Navy and demoralize their enemies. Geophysicist John Milsom, who wrote about the gravity gradiometer leak (which he didn't think was very plausible), wondered if Clancy's novel was deliberate misinformation directed against the Russians.
Whatever was behind The Hunt for Red October, Tom Clancy definitely knew his stuff.
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