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Marko Ramius (Sean Connery), a
Lithuanian, is captain of the Soviet Navy's newest Typhoon-class
ballistic missile submarine, the Red October,
equipped with a revolutionary silent propulsion system known as a
caterpillar drive. A naval veteran with nearly 40 years of experience,
he was considered the best officer in the Soviet Navy. He has taken out
the lead boat for each new submarine class, trained most of the officer
corps, and has good political connections via his late wife. At the
start of the movie, he is shown taking the boat out to sea, ostensibly
for its first exercise with other units of the Soviet Fleet. The
captain, however, has another plan—to navigate the submarine
to the coast of America in order to defect, as he considers the Red
October to be a first-strike weapon that cannot be left in the hands of
the Soviets.
To achieve this, he must murder Ivan
Putin (Peter
Firth), his political officer, who alone amongst his officers was not
hand-picked in support of this action. With the ship's doctor, Yevgeniy
Petrov (Tim Curry), and cook, Igor Loginov (Tomas Arana), as witnesses,
Ramius takes the late political officer's missile key, granting himself
sole control over the ship's missile systems. After this is done,
Ramius reads forged orders to his crew to support the mission (stating
they will conduct missile drills off the coast of New York City and
then sail to Havana for shore leave), and begins his long journey. He
is at first discovered and tracked by the USS Dallas,
an American attack submarine, but upon activation of the caterpillar
drive he is able to break away. Meanwhile, Soviet authorities read a
letter posted by Ramius prior to his departure, announcing his
intention to defect. The Soviet Navy immediately puts to sea to locate
and sink the Red October. One of the ships that
joins in the hunt is the Alfa-class attack
submarine V.K. Konovalov, commanded by Captain
Tupolev (Stellan Skarsgård), a former student of Ramius. This
causes a stir in Washington, D.C. and the activity triggers a
reciprocal deployment of U.S. assets, as Russian intentions are unclear
and some suppose that Ramius has gone insane and plans a nuclear attack.
At this point, Central Intelligence
Agency analyst Jack Ryan, who had been researching the submarine as a
project, puts forth the proposition that Ramius may be defecting with
the Red October. The President's National Security
Advisor, Jeffrey Pelt (Richard Jordan), suggests that Ryan go to the North Atlantic Fleet (to
prevent the risk of the Soviets overhearing their radio transmissions)
and somehow make contact with the submarine before the U.S. is forced
to sink it as a rogue threat. At various points throughout the film,
Pelt is conversing with the Soviet ambassador (Joss Ackland), who first
requests American assistance to locate the Red October,
and in a subsequent meeting, is instructed to ask the President to help
them find the sub and destroy it, falsely claiming that Ramius' letter
declared his intention to attack the United States on his own
authority. Meanwhile, Red October is moving through
the Reykjanes Ridge when its silent drive suddenly fails; Ramius
realizes that there is a saboteur aboard and must carry out his
original plans quicker, while not alerting the saboteur.
Ryan, who has arrived on the aircraft
carrier USS Enterprise in the North Atlantic, is
greeted with less than enthusiasm by the ship's captain (Daniel Davis),
at least partly because, despite being a civilian, he is wearing a
naval officer's uniform at the request of the CIA director, Vice
Admiral James Greer (James Earl Jones). The naval task force commander,
Rear Admiral Painter (Fred Thompson), criticizes the captain's
objections, remarking that Ryan had been a Marine officer and a Naval
Academy graduate before service-related injuries forced his medical
retirement. Acceding to Ryan's request to be delivered to the attack
submarine USS Dallas, which has been tracking the
submarine, they put him on a helicopter which takes him to its location.
After surviving an attack from Soviet
Naval Aviation's Tu-142,
the Red October finishes its journey through the
underwater canyon, where the USS Dallas, through
the efforts of a diligent SONAR
operator, Ronald "Jonesey" Jones (Courtney B. Vance), locates it again.
The arrival of Ryan forces them to break contact with the sub, whose
officers have meanwhile deduced that the Dallas had
indeed found the characteristic signature of the Red October's
drive, and was able to locate her.
Shortly after Ryan's arrival, the Dallas
receives orders from the National Command Authority (based on the
information from the Russians) to sink the Red October.
As the boat prepares to fire, Ryan convinces the captain of the Dallas,
Bart Mancuso (Scott Glenn), to make contact with the Red
October to facilitate the defection. Through use of Morse
code and sonar pings, the Red October and Dallas
agree to head south towards the Grand
Banks.
The plan goes as follows: Ramius and
his Chief Engineer stage a false reactor overload to force the vessel
to surface (which Ryan already predicted he would do) and as Red
October surfaces it is confronted by a Oliver
Hazard Perry-class frigate, and sent a Morse-code message via
signal lamp not to submerge, or be fired upon. Ramius keeps only the
officers loyal to him on Red October, and orders
the rest of the crew off, claiming that he and the officers are going
to scuttle the ship, rather than let it fall into the hands of the U.S.
Consistent with the charade, an SH-60 Seahawk helicopter launched from
the frigate fires a torpedo towards the Red October,
but Admiral Greer, on board the frigate, detonates the torpedo before
it hits the submarine.
Ryan, Mancuso and Jonesey travel to
the Red October via DSRV Mystic and offer any
support they can provide. Once Ramius realizes that he can trust them,
he formally requests asylum
for himself and his officers in the United States of America, which
Mancuso grants. All goes well until Soviet torpedoes are heard in the
water, from the Konovalov that has also found the Red
October. After the first torpedo is fired upon the Red
October (it does not acquire its target because it had the
incorrect ranges), Ramius orders Ryan to steer the ship directly into
the second torpedo's path. Everyone else insists that Ryan not do so,
but Ryan reluctantly complies. When the torpedo hits the hull, it
breaks apart without detonating, and it is finally realized on both
sides that the maneuver was a tactic to close the gap before the
torpedo had a chance to arm.
Concurrently, the saboteur, revealed
to be Loginov, shoots at the captain, missing and instead fatally
wounding the executive officer, Vasily Borodin (Sam Neill), along with
damaging the fire control panel (leaving Red October
unable to return fire). An alarm reveals that Loginov has headed into
the missile launch area, and Ramius realizes that Loginov intends to
ignite a missile launch mechanism, which would destroy the Red
October. Ryan and Ramius go after Loginov, while Mancuso
takes command of the Red October to deal with the
external threat. As Ramius predicted, the Konovalov
fires another torpedo which arms at launch. While chasing Loginov,
Ramius is shot and injured, leaving Ryan to search for him in the
submarine's missile bay. As Loginov attempts to (and nearly does)
detonate the launch mechanism of one of the missiles, he is gunned down
by Ryan. Meanwhile, USS Dallas and Red
October make a series of evasive maneuvers, causing the
torpedo to target the Konovalov instead and destroy
it. The crew of the Red October who had evacuated
and were on board a U.S. Navy rescue ship witnessed the explosion and
believed it to be the Red October that had been
destroyed. Ultimately the submarine finds haven in the Penobscot River
in Maine, and Ryan flies home—too exhausted to consider his
fear of flying as he had not had a decent night's sleep since before
the film begins—with a teddy bear that he had promised for
his daughter.
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