 | Produced and released as the cold war between the free West and the communist East was drawing to a close, The Hunt for Red October is both an intelligent thriller and a drama that depicts--in just a few inspired scenes--the human yearning for liberty that led to communism's demise.
Soviet Captain Marko Ramius (Sean Connery) commands the Red October, a stealthy nuclear submarine, on its maiden voyage at sea. American intelligence agents are at first concerned, as U.S. spies have returned photos of the ship's "caterpillar drive," which renders it all but undetectable. They then become terrified when a Soviet diplomat informs a U.S. ambassador that Cpt. Ramius has gone renegade and sent word to Moscow of his intention to fire his missiles on the United States.
Plans are made to hunt and sink the Red October until Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin), a young CIA agent and expert on Cpt. Ramius's naval history and tactics, says he believes Ramius might be trying to defect. Jack is shipped out to the Atlantic Ocean to try to reach Ramius before the Russian fleet can catch and sink him.
The movie's best scene comes when Cpt. Ramius tells his second-in-command of the freedoms of life in America: marry a round woman, live wherever you like (Ramius's mate is smitten with Montana), and buy a recreational vehicle and drive it from state to state, with no papers.
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