The Hunt for Red October

The Hunt for Red October is a 1990 American submarine spy thriller film directed by John McTiernan, produced by Mace Neufeld, and starring Sean Connery, Alec Baldwin, Scott Glenn, James Earl Jones, and Sam Neill. The film is an adaptation of Tom Clancy's 1984 bestselling novel of the same name. It is the first installment of the film series with the protagonist Jack Ryan. The story is set during the late Cold War era and involves a rogue Soviet naval captain who wishes to defect to the United States with his officers and the Soviet Navy's newest and most advanced ballistic missile submarine, a fictional improvement on the Soviet Typhoon-class submarine. A CIA analyst correctly deduces his motive and must prove his theory before a violent confrontation between the Soviet and the American navies spirals out of control. The film was a co-production between the motion picture studios Paramount Pictures, Mace Neufeld Productions, and Nina Saxon Film Design. Theatrically, it was commercially distributed by Paramount Pictures and by the Paramount Home Entertainment division for home media markets. Following its wide theatrical release, the film was nominated for and won a number of accolades. At the 63rd Academy Awards, the film was honored with the Academy Award for Best Sound Editing, along with nominations for Best Sound Mixing and Best Film Editing. On June 12, 1990, the original soundtrack, composed and conducted by Basil Poledouris, was released by MCA Records. The Hunt for Red October received mostly positive reviews from critics and was the sixth-highest-grossing domestic film of the year, generating $122 million in North America and more than $200 million worldwide in box office business. Plot In November 1984, Soviet submarine captain Marko Ramius is given command of , a new Typhoon-class ballistic missile submarine with a "caterpillar drive", rendering it undetectable to passive sonar. Ramius leaves port in northern Russia to conduct exercises along with Alfa-class attack submarine V. K. Konovalov, commanded by his former student Captain Tupolev. At sea, Ramius secretly kills political officer Ivan Putin and relays false orders to his crew that they are to conduct missile drills off America's east coast. American attack submarine USS Dallas, which had been shadowing Red October, loses contact once the sub's caterpillar drive is engaged.