Reacting to THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER (1990) | Movie Reaction

[@lawrencewestby9229]

A couple of years ago I took a train that went all the way across Montana. While traversing across I said to myself, "At least I've seen Montana."

[@Tampahop]

Former submariner here... boat: a boat goes underwater (sub), a ship travels on the surface. Boomer/ missile boat: ballistic missile submarine. First strike: nuclear weapons are generally categorized as first or second strike weapons depending on whether they were meant to start or end a war. Submariners are generally defined as second strike weapons because they can remain hidden when a war starts. 105%: indicates power level of the reactor. US reactor are designed to operate at 110% power safely, while Russian reactors have no safety margin. 1 knot = 1.85 kph = 1.15 mph. Crazy Ivan: subs are blind to the rear. To check if someone is following them, they will abruptly turn to check if anything is behind them.

[@heinleinreader]

Subs are also part of the nuclear triad. This is what it is called and is made up of land based missiles, sub-based missiles, and air to air missiles. This is something that Donnie Dimwit, our former president, still doesn't understand. Supposedly, his uncle was involved in "nuclear," our great nuclear, better than any other nuclear in the world. This is actually how he talks about it. Makes me almost embarrassed to have served on subs myself. Not embarrassed to have served or of my shipmates, but that this fraud was ever allowed near any military secrets at all. I am proud to have served on board all three that I served aboard and qualified on. I applaud your service as I do all my brothers and sisters in arms, whether submarine or skimmer, or even land and air. They are all my brothers and sisters in arms. "For he that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother." That's Shakespeare. I wasn't doing this as a lesson to you, as you surely knew all I said already. That was meant as an addendum to your lesson by way of expansion. Hope it helped.

[@mikewhite6138]

I've never considered how difficult it would be to understand this movie if you don't know what the word 'defect' means.

[@TesseRact7228]

It was "M" (Judi Dench in one of the "Bond" movies) who said : "God, I miss the cold war".

[@Mr.Ekshin]

She talked over a lot of the dialogue too, which only added to her confusion. She spent the first half of the film thinking the worm drive was a jet engine that made the sub really fast... because she talked over most of the part where they were talking about the importance of silence.

[@rextside]

😂🤣😂

[@maceomaceo11]

I find it sadly ironic an Irish person doesn't seem to understand the concept whatsoever

[@colinwilson4609]

To be fair, the noun and the verb mean completely different things.

[@erictaylor5462]

When Scott Glenn was preparing for his roll as the Commander of of the sub he was invited to shadow an actual sub commander. The captain of that sub told him the crew would be treating him as commander, so when someone would give a report to the commander, they would then turn to Scott and give him the same report. That commander was so calm and cool that Glenn decided to base his character on that commander. The commander went to see the movie with his wife and the wife leaned over and said, "My god, he's playing you."

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

"Here's our buckaroo."

[@themidsouthcyclist8880]

Ex-U.S. Submariner here.... The book and movie are amazingly accurate when it comes to the technical stuff. I was stationed in Groton, CT (at the time, the world's largest submarine base) when this movie was released, and we all got to see the Navy-sponsored sneak preview the same day the submariners in San Diego did. We all yelled "Bullsh*t" at the few (basically three) bits of technical inaccuracy, but other than that, this is pretty solid. I was on a boomer, and know what it is to be hunted 24/7 like the Red October was during the Cold War.... Ramius was the kind of captain every officer and sailor of every world's navies hoped to have.

[@gamehengeful]

They actually filmed some scenes on a submarine. According to the director, while filming, the sub got a real alert, and they had to usher the film crew and actors into another compartment under guard while classified stuff was going on.

[@mohammedashian8094]

And the funny thing is, for a long time people thought that Tom Clancy either had insider information or was a part of it. But he was really just an insurance salesman who is a DAMN good writer.

[@TheRealRedAce]

Back when this was first released, my grandfather was a movie buff and really wanted to see it, but was incapable of going to cinemas any more. I was able to lend him my VCR and the video so he could watch it. I was really pleased that he got to enjoy it before he passed away, so it has a very special meaning to me.

[@clutchpedalreturnsprg7710]

A good plan, well executed.

[@RealTechZen]

“I think I know him.” Yes! From “Rocky Horror ” to “Red October”, it's Tim Curry! He really is an astonishingly versatile actor.

[@hunglikeahorse---fly]

Don't forget Clue!!!

[@HemlockRidge]

Oh come on! He was the original Pennywise the Clown, from the original "IT".

[@chefskiss6179]

He's a Legend!

[@markerractrillion7267]

@@chefskiss6179I hope you mean the movie LEGEND

[@crewchief5144]

@@markerractrillion7267 Darkness...opposite Tom Cruise (also named Jack)

[@BugahaJim]

I was a Sonar Supervisor on a fast attack sub when the book came out, basically the real life Jonsey. Everyone on the sub read it and spent hours discussing it. The book and the movie will always have that special connection for me. Hail to all Brothers of the 'Phin!

[@davewhitmore1958]

Respect bubblehead!

[@michaelsteven5558]

Yep, I still have my "Hi Skimmer, Bye Skimmer" t-shirt I got while in training (Groton, CT). I was a fire control tech on an LA class, and enjoyed most of Tom Clancy's books especially Red Storm Rising.

[@andrewj9831]

Agree... My neighbor about 1986-1990 was a Chief Sonar tech the served on SSN's, before going on recruiting duty. He told me basically how accurate the book is. Even when he had his navy friends visit...same thing. I actually have a signed first edition of the hardback.

[@blakewalker84120]

Maybe this will help clear up the confusion you felt in the whole movie: The Russian bosses did not tell Ramius to start a war. They were just testing their new Red October to make sure everything is working. A simple mission to evaluate the ship and the crew then come back home. Ramius stole the Red October and sent a letter to the Russian government saying that he stole it and will defect to the U.S. His plan is to take the submarine and himself and a few other officers to the U.S., become a U.S. citizen forever, and the U.S. will be happy to agree because they get to keep the Red October and learn all those Russian secrets. Russia went berserk trying to stop that, even to sink the Red October so that it doesn't end up in American hands. But Ramius knows he can't just defect. The russians would want him, his crew, and especially the Red October back. If the U.S. tried to not give it all back, THAT could start a war. So the U.S. would probably have to give in and send Ramius and the sub back to Russia. So if Ramius just cruised on in to Washington and said "Here I am, I'm defecting." then he would most likely be back in Russia in about a week, and dead the next day. Therefore Ramius thought up a genius plan to save his whole crew AND make Russia think that he and the Red October were all destroyed so they won't ask to get any of it back. Jack Ryan figured it all out. Jack got the captain of the Dallas to tell Ramius to go to the Laurentian Abyss, one of the deepest places in the ocean. Why? Well, if a ship (or sub) sinks there, say, the Red October, no submarine on earth can go deep enough to find the wreckage. It's lost forever. Which also means if it does NOT sink there, no submarine on earth can go deep enough to find that there is no wreckage. Pretty clever on both sides. Then all we need is a fake accident to make all the crew go outside because they think the accident is real and they cannot survive inside. This is necessary because they aren't part of the plan and most of them would want to go home to their wives and kids - if that happened then Russia would figure out all the rest. Then stage a fake battle with an American submarine that pretends to sink the Red October and Russia will never, ever find the wreckage, or actually, that there is no wreckage. Of course, then a Russian submarine showed up and almost ruined the whole plan, and having a KGB saboteur on board was also a problem - but that made the movie that much more exciting.

[@LordNelsonkm]

Also, the reason why Ramius wanted to leave in the first place, according to the book, is that a Russian doctor messed up and his wife died because of this. He blamed the State and then the defection and loss of the sub was his revenge/payback. I feel this could have lent a lot more weight of the 'why' to the movie and would not have been that much more for Jack to disclose this extra detail. Jack mentions that Ramius' wife died, but not how.

[@kennymonty8206]

Yup, that's it.

[@przemekkozlowski7835]

@@LordNelsonkm The big thing for Remius was that the doctor was drunk when he operated on the wife and essentially murdered her. However, the doctor was the son of a high ranking party member and thus received no punishment for this.

[@jeffburnham6611]

Ramius never stole Red October. As a senior captain in the Soviet Northern Banner fleet, he had a great reputation which insured he took out the lead submarine of each class to test its capabilities. Ramius was assigned to the Red October because his late wife had an uncle in very high Soviet circles.

[@menachemsalomon]

@@jeffburnham6611 In attempting to gift it to the US, he was, in fact, stealing it.

[@mhlevy]

The man who wrote the book, Tom Clancy, was an insurance salesman who was very interested in the military and espionage, and his first novel was "The Hunt for Red October." The CIA was extremely concerned by some of the details in the book, believing that Clancy may have gotten military secrets illegally, but Clancy kept records of all the information he collected, and it was all from public sources. He wrote many more books featuring Jack Ryan, several of which became movies and an Amazon series. He also became a noted lecturer on the military and spying. He was an exceptionally successful writer.

[@bluecollarcanuck]

I liked his earlier works, but it just got sort of bring and predictable by the time "The Bear And The Dragon" came out.

[@jimpemberton]

Sean Connery was that kind of actor who could use his same voice for every character he ever played and got away with it, because... he's Sean Connery!

[@kevdoe3360]

Just the same with his mate, Michael Caine? "My name is .......Michael Caine!"

[@jimpemberton]

@@kevdoe3360 Exactly. There's that small set of actors that are like that.

[@ge0fthomas906]

Sympathy for Kevin Costner trying all kinds of accents in "Robin Hood", but had the great Morgan Freeman to share the dialogue.

[@krashd]

He played Irishmen in both The Longest Day (1962) and The Untouchables (1987), after hearing his Irish accent you can understand why the director of Highlander never asked him to do a Spanish accent. Incidentally the two worst Scottish accents I have ever heard as a Scot both happened in Sean Connery movies. Christopher Lambert in Highlander and Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the The Last Crusade (the Scottish Laird scene).

[@ThreadBomb]

@@krashd The worst Scottish accent I ever heard was by a female actor in the old Sherlock Holmes film Terror By Night (1946). It's in the opening scene, so you can't miss it. It was only after multiple viewings that I realised what the accent was supposed to be!

[@leftcoaster67]

80's, Toilet paper was used to keep your Cathode Ray Tube monitors clean. Before microfibre cloths.

[@heinleinreader]

I was a sonar tech. I remember the TP rollers on our consoles and the grease markers. I also remember qualifications. I had to qual on my own watch stations, and helmsman and planesman. I also did quals on other stations. ECM, fire control, aft watch, below decks, topside, it seemed that on top of qualifying on the boat as a whole, we were always qualifying on something. That was true for all three subs I served on. Even after I got out after 8 years, whenever I found myself a rider on one of two subs I rode, I would qualify then, too. It helped pass the time underwater, and it was a huge advantage to have additional watchstanders available at need. My service was from 1976-1984, so roughly the same era.

[@carriemilito2851]

People living in the Soviet Union were not allowed to travel outside Soviet controlled territory. Defectors were people who managed to escape the harsh life in communist countries. The cold war years after WW2 were a very tense period between USA and USSR. The threat of nuclear war was always hovering. I found an old booklet at my grandmothers house that explained what to do in case of an atomic attack. Scary days.

[@thomaskelly8580]

31:13 _"Hey, I think someone just shot a torpedo at us!"_ Outstanding American accent, *Dawn!* 🤭😄

[@johnrob3215]

GenZ…”That guy from Jurassic Park”. Meaning 32 times nominated, 12 wins including 2 prime time Emmy’s, actor,director, producer SAM NEILL.

[@elzar760]

He sent the letter announcing his intentions because he knew that eventually a point would come where his fellow officers who were intending to defect, would get scared and want to turn back. The only way to ensure that they all went through with it was to send the letter ensuring they could never go back (Burning the ships so to speak, so they were well motivated to continue with the plan to defect).

[@storkravingmadthermian6689]

But he didn't actually have to send the letter. He just had to tell the officers he did. They wouldn't find out until they reached the US. But then the movie would be much less exciting I guess.

[@pistonburner6448]

You're right, even though he didn't really have to send the letter, all he had to do is *_tell_* his fellow defectors that he sent the letter.

[@pistonburner6448]

@@storkravingmadthermian6689 Ooh, I looked at this other reply to elzar only after I wrote my comment! I'll just keep my comment up to show my agreement with what you said!

[@larrybremer4930]

Ramius also sent the letter to give the US plausible deniability that Red October was captured. He knew that Russia would tell the US that he was going to attack to prevent Red October from reaching the US so in this way Ramius knew either they would all die trying or the US would figure it out and help to stage the sinking so the US could say they sunk it instead of capturing it.

[@elzar760]

@@storkravingmadthermian6689 that wasn’t his style or personality though. Because his officers knew he wouldn’t lie about it, they never doubted it for a moment.

[@mikerhodes8454]

Tom Clancy, who wrote the book originally, was investigated by the U.S. government because they thought he knew too much that was in his book. He knew a lot, but guessed at others.

[@stevedavis5704]

He was also accused of using a leak in the military to obtain information about the boats and was threatened with jail time if he didn’t cooperate. They were really embarrassed when he showed them how to find the “top secret” information in the library of congress which is the official library for the USA.

[@myrdozer]

Operation Petticoat (1959) and Down Periscope (1996) are a couple of funny Submarine movies worth checking out.

[@fordp69]

Yeah, I'm sure she'd enjoy Down Periscope. I know I'd enjoy watching her laugh!

[@clutchpedalreturnsprg7710]

Yay Operation Petticoat (1959) !

[@pistonburner6448]

Das Boot (1981). The film so many submariners who were actual submariners at the time say was fantastic and realistic (often too realistic for them!).

[@krashd]

Grey Lady Down (1978) is also a great submarine disaster movie about trying to save 150 submariners from a downed US nuclear sub. The late 1970's had a disaster movie for everything it seems.

[@clutchpedalreturnsprg7710]

@@krashd Good call.

[@mayorjimmy]

"I'm a politician which means I'm a cheat and a liar, and when I'm not kissing babies I'm stealing their lollipops." best line in the movie and one of the best movie quotes.

[@johncooper8537]

That's my favorite line also

[@jamielandis4308]

RIP , Richard Jordan. His performance in “Gettysburg “ is heartbreaking.

[@Hinchmin]

He has all the best lines in this film!! My favourite is his other one - "Your aircraft have dropped enough Sonar Buoys, so that a man could walk from Greenland to Iceland to Scotland without getting his feet wet!! Now shall we dispense with the bull?" absolutely love it!!!

[@alexflores7652]

Yeah its a great line also Richard Jordan was the original Duncan Idaho in the 1984 movie "Dune" he was also in the great scifi classic Logan's Run as Frances 6 i think.

[@HammershotSGD]

“You’ve lost another submarine?” perfect sarcastic delivery

[@brianjones8432]

Terms like "defect" (seeking asylum in another country) were far more common in the 80's and prior during the cold war, no shame in not being familiar with them. Those of us that were alive and saw this in theaters were far more familiar with the terminology as we grew up during the cold war. Also, the original orders were for a training exercise. Ramius (Sean Connery) changed the plan to have an excuse to take the boat into international waters where they could hand it over to the Americans. As for the letter he sent to his friend in the Kremlin, that was to assure his crew had no way of turning back and that they were committed to the plan of defection.

[@radicaladz]

Basically all of this. The plot isn't super complicated, but a lot of it is buried under military jargon. Fun fact: the device of using the close up on the lips to switch between Russian to English is very clever, but it hinges on the fact that the word being spoken, "Armageddon", is the same in both languages - this is also why it switches later in the film, when Ramius calls Captain Mancuso a "buckaroo" after planting that word earlier. Communication is a recurring theme of the film, so them finding a clever and cinematic way of bridging the language barrier between the two sides is very cool.

[@marivera77]

People living under the Communist Soviet Union were essentially prisoners in their own country. They couldn’t travel the world freely. And when they did travel, they were chaperoned or watched by the Russian Secret Police, the KGB. So when Soviet citizens became disillusioned with how the government was run, or wanted a better life, they looked for ways to “escape,” to defect.

[@IvanToshkov]

I think it is a bit more complicated than that. The Russians would not be happy if their state-of-the-art sub falls into American hands. They might demand it returned and threaten with escalation. Ramius sends the letter to make the Russians go after him, so he can trick them that they sunk him.

[@TesseRact7228]

2nd reason for the letter : Ramius knew they would send the fleet after him, the activity would alert the Americans that "something is afoot'.

[@MoMoMyPup10]

I don't think it's necessary to be alive in the 80's to know the definition of 'defect'.

[@jonathancarlson6127]

A submarine works with propellers, they’re noisy. Everything underwater is. Caterpillar drive has no moving parts, so it can run virtually silent and undetectable. The physics work, too. Run a comb through your hair and put it next to a running faucet, see the water curve away from the comb. Same principle, just a lot larger.

[@MatthewPettyST1300]

There are KZbin videos showing concept models operating with the " Magnetohydrodynamic Drive " . It's not a made up plot device. Just at this time it's not too efficient and has other problems.

[@sparky6086]

"The Hunt for Red October" is one of those movies, that is very re-watchable. It never gets old. Boomers & X-Gens are more familiar with the military jargon from all the war movies, that used to play on television, when they were growing up, plus since they grew up during The Cold War, they understood the general situation of the World at that time, and what the word "defect" in the context of this movie means; escaping the Communist East in order to settle in the West.

[@kathyastrom1315]

We Gen-Xers definitely were familiar with defection. Defection stories were a sub-genre of true-life adventure stories in the ‘60s and ‘70s, readily available in magazines like Readers Digest.

[@Imagicka]

It is easily one movie that I can re-watch, right after watching it.

[@raezor82]

Or being a baseball fan in the late 90s, early 2000s, with players defecting from Cuba.

[@jonathancarlson6127]

Typhoon-class submarines are huge. The Red October was described as about the size of a WW2 aircraft carrier.

[@chrisserfass8635]

The Typhoon class submarines also have a small swimming pool in the submarine.

[@pistonburner6448]

I just realised what I must call my "member" from now on: Typhoon class, or Akula as the name Russians use. Actually Akula is what I hear them called much more nowadays, even by Westerners.

[@krashd]

Russian submariners called them water-carriers because almost half of their 40,000 ton displacement is water carried between the outer hull and the many smaller pressure hulls. Also the scene at 33:18 is impossible (though the film makers didn't know at the time) because the missile tubes are situated in the water-filled void between the port and starboard main pressure hulls.

[@ctmdarkonestm]

@@pistonburner6448 it gets more confusing because NATO assigned the word Akula to another class of Russian attack submarines

[@pistonburner6448]

@@ctmdarkonestm Ah, ok, I mistook the Akulas I've read about or heard mentioned with these Russian-named "Akulas". That makes more sense, as I was thinking the Akulas I've heard mentioned don't seem to be the same class as this. Thanks for the info!

[@blakewalker84120]

Sean Connery only speaks one accent no matter who or what he's playing. We love him anyway.

[@TheMule71]

It's aggravating only in the end. I mean Marko probably speaks Russian with an accent, too. The other actors correctly speak w/o an accent for most of the movie (as they are speaking Russian as native speakers - we hear English only thanks to movie magic) and put on an accent only at the end, when the characters are actually Russians speaking English. Connery didn't bother to speak English with a Lithuanian accent at the end, which is what he should have done. OTOH, I don't know how the Lithuanian accent sounds like, maybe it sounds like Scottish (but I doubt it) :) Overall I'm quite annoyed by artificial accents. Actors should put on an accent only when characters are supposed to have one, and that is when they are supposedly not speaking their native language.

[@vaikkajoku]

yesh

[@LordNelsonkm]

Even when he's an immortal Spanish rogue.

[@TheMule71]

@@LordNelsonkm Not Spanish, Egyptian (with definitely a Spanish sounding name, let's be real). Objectively, we don't know how many centuries he spent in Scotland scouting for Conner. He's 2000 years old. For all we know, he could had lived in the Highlands for 500 years when he finally found Conner. You're bound to learn the language / pick up the accent in 500 years. Immortals aren't immune to linguistic influences. Lambert's accent is the problem in that movie. Not in modern times (clearly he lived a lot in Europe/France), but I'm not sure about his Scottish accent at the beginning (when he is supposedly native).

[@LordNelsonkm]

@@TheMule71 Crap, that's right. But why have a name like Juan Sanchez Villalobos Ramirez then? And dress like a Spanish peacock? Not sure why the movie doesn't just go with Spanish. The katana he explains at least. Certainly he's a man of the world.

[@t0dd000]

"is that the actor from Jurassic Park?" (Yes. He's famous. He's Australian. That's a large country in the Pacific.) "I don't know what defect means." "I don't know what knot means." Girl.

[@kennethboyer2338]

The back story on the letter opener is that it was the mans service knife during WWII. He broke it when he stabbed a german soldier and broke it off. He then had the blade reshaped and turned into a letter opener.

[@billbabcock1833]

"He's very calm for being a madman." Dawn you always put a smile on my face.

[@technofilejr3401]

23:04, I love this character moment. Up until now Jack has been for the most part a quiet unassuming guy. But remember as the Admiral explained Jack went to the Naval Academy to become a Marine Corps officer. In this moment that take charge no nonsense Marine came out to bark.

[@brycedyck8450]

Speaking of Submarines, does anybody remember the TV show Operation Petticoat, or the movie it was based on? Entertainment from a different era😂

[@AbolitionistPrivateer]

Didn't know there was a TV show, but I definitely have watched the movie a few times.

[@scottjohnston3144]

The television version (which featured a pre-Halloween Jamie Lee Curtis as one of the nurses) was based on the 1959 theatrical film that stared Cary Grant and Jamie Lee's father - Tony Curtis. The movie was one of Grant's most commercially successful movies. The TV show had trouble finding an audience. Despite that, it was renewed for a second season, but with most of the Season One cast members (including JLC) being replaced for Season Two. It was cancelled after the second season.

[@jamesstrickland517]

Love the movie, Cary Grant and Tony Curtis

[@wendellbunn6195]

Submarines are always called boats by traditions.

[@tonikaihola5408]

Not knowing what “defect” means adds a whole new level to this movie 😅

[@sheert]

As well as watching with subtitles off. Hard core!

[@tonikaihola5408]

@@sheert Oh indeed!

[@lazyperfectionist1]

8:57 "Does it make them go really _fast,_ or just make them go _silently?"_ Silently, Dawn. If you're a submarine commander, you don't want your sub to go much beyond 25 nautical miles per hour or else it causes cavitation which is _extraordinarily_ loud. No, you want your sub to _elude_ detection by being as quiet as possible.

[@danieldietsche2954]

Dawn Marie, you probably didn't know that for thirty years of the Cold War, the US Navy had a squadron of Ballistic Missile Submarines stationed in Holy Loch Scotland. These submarines were similar to the type that Sean Connery's character captained. These subs were each capable of carrying 16 ICBM... 160 nuclear warheads. The US Navy left that location in 1992, after the end of the Cold War. I happened to serve on one of those subs from 1984-1988... the SSBN654G. Still miss the pubs with great fish & chips, beautiful highlands, and lovely ladies of Scotland!! Love your fun attitude, keep up the great work! Dan

[@mikewhite6138]

Ramius' orders weren't to start a war, he was gonna conduct a training exercise to test the caterpillar drive.

[@CaesiusX]

I understand asking why *Ramius* sent the letter telling Russia that he was defecting. Other reactors have missed this too. *Ramius* explained to his command staff why he sent the letter. He compared it to a story about when Cortez came to the new world and he set fire to his ships. Cortez thereby motivated his men to succeed in the new world, because there's no way home. So by telling Russia that they were defecting, he motivated his men to succeed in this mission to defect, because the alternative would be death. *Bottom line:* _The senior staff is now committed. There's no going back to Russia._ *Ramius* was never ordered to start a war. He just knew that the only purpose of this new submarine was to do that. Thanks for the reaction. I know it can be difficult sometimes. Especially given the geogrphic and generational differences. You're always a joy to watch nonetheless. Be well! 🙋🏼‍♂️ *EDIT:* _Defect_ • verb (LEAVE) _To leave a country or a group you belong to, esp. in order to join an opposing one._

[@moyesboy1]

"Das Boot" Directors Cut, with subtitels . Greetings from Germany,love your reactions

[@pfeilspitze]

I love the cut at 14:25 ! Ramius says "buckaroo" and we immediately cut to Ryan on the helicopter in turbulence -- you might say it's "bucking" even !

[@3dbadboy1]

If you freaked out over this movie, you'd go out of your mind with the movie The Abyss.

[@runrunrun_runaway2607]

EXCELLENT FILM RECOMMENDATION

[@Yevgeniy-UA]

Chernobyl miniseries

[@jeffburnham6611]

The Abyss was a horror flick, this movie takes place during a very real Cold War in the 1980's where NATO and Soviet submarines carried nuclear missiles and frequently played cat and mouse with each other. Tensions were high where the possibility of WW3 was ever present.

[@jerrypeacock2234]

Hell yeah bad boy most excellent suggestion

[@zmarko]

I hope hope hope she reacts to The Abyss. One of my favorite movies.

[@gkiferonhs]

Like all military movies, they make use of the military's penchant for abbreviations and acronyms. So when you hear a word that doesn't mean anything (like SOSUS) it's probably an abbreviation.

[@shainewhite2781]

One of my favorite submarine action adventure film! RIP, Sean Connery, 1930-2022.

[@bobblebardsley]

*2020 (October 31st, at the age of 90, peacefully in his sleep)

[@moonblink]

I understood everything that was said when I first watched it. I knew a lot about politics and navy stuff, but this movie made a really amazing film out of all of that. The writer Tom Clancy's books were filled with tons of military jargon, very fascinating (17 Best Sellers).

[@Deegee_1969]

If you're thinking of watching another submarine film, I can recommend "Das Boot" from 1981. It's about a WW2 German sub crew who are sent out on patrol during the Battle of the Atlantic, and it shows how the crew react with each other, as well as how they handle the tedium of doing nothing, as well as how they cope when things get hectic, and it's very gritty and realistic. There's two versions available, one in German (with English subtitles), and one with English dubbing. If you do decide to watch this one, avoid the English dubbed version as the German version is much better, and the subtitles actually compliment the film as opposed to getting in the way.

[@mikecheaure9646]

Ramius was just supposed to meet the other Russian Alpha sub and play cat and mouse games with caterpillar drive if they could find them (original orders he burned). Ramius always wanted to defect (come to America). His officers knew about this, but not the crew. The cook was in the scene where Ramius took the missile key. Baffles are the sub's propeller wash can't hear boat behind. Plane crashed because it hit a Russian plane that got too close - tensions high. Scuttle ship means to blow it up. Ramius told Doctor so he thought the Alpha sub explosion was Ramius and Red October. The crew also thought Red October was fighting the Americans underwater becuase they didn't know Alpha sub was there. So when they went back to Russia they could all say Red October blew up fighting Americans and Ramius was a "hero to not let American's get the sub." At the end the Russian Ambassador asked about alpha sub because he was told Red October "blew up." Caterpillar only made sub quiet, not fast. "Counter measures" were heat bubbles to distract the torpedo guidance . Planes have same (Chaff) for missiles using hot burning metal flares. Boomer means missile submarine vs Fast Attack submarines (no missiles - Alpha). Barn meant base. My dad was a sub captain ;)

[@Thewingkongexchange]

You should definitely persevere with the series. 'Patriot Games' and particularly 'Clear and Present Danger' are fantastic.

[@raezor82]

Red October was objectively the best, but Clear and Present Danger was my favorite. It definitely needs some more reactions.

[@YManCyberDude]

35:22 . . . I did see one floating up the river outside my office window some years ago . . . Pity you didn't look up "Defect" / "Defection" when it came up. That was the main plot point of the movie.

[@chetstevensq]

Tom Clancy novels ruled the 80s and many were made into popular movies. This is the only one with Alec Baldwin (thank goodness) with Harrison Ford taking over the role of Jack Ryan.

[@rubensalvador9422]

I think change of actors worked as Red October is set near the mid-80s and Harrison 2 films are present (90s) for their time (almost a 15 year gap) explaining the character aging. I like this "trilogy" (I don't count anything after Clear and Present Danger as part of this continuity).

[@hkpew]

I always wanted to see a movie based on my favorite Tom Clancy novel, Red Storm Rising. It's maybe his only book that wasn't set in the same Jack Ryan world and told the story of a Soviet attack on NATO. It was also maybe his longest book, with lots of characters who didn't ever interact as they were part of separate stories (though all of the stories were part of the same war) so I don't know that it really could have been made into a movie anyway. Whatever small chance there was that it could ever have been filmed, once the Soviet Union broke up it was pretty much gone.

[@HemlockRidge]

"Defect" means - to change sides, to turn your coat, to behave like Benedict Arnold.

[@faisalmemon285]

Yeah. She’ll really understand that.

[@jamielandis4308]

Submariners refer to their subs as boats, not ships. As mentioned already, you’re gonna LOVE “The Abyss.” The doctor is played by Tim Curry: he is great in”IT (1990).” The actor playing Jeffrey Pelt (Richard Jordan) is excellent in the movie “Gettysburg.” The toilet tissue is used to wipe the sonar screens. Your comment about being like a shark is apt; the Soviet designation for the Typhoon class sub is Akula: Russian for Shark. Another fun sub movie is “Crimson Tide.” The letter was sent to discourage any of the officers from backing out of the plan. Boomer is the nickname for nuclear missile subs. First strike is just that: attack first. Everything in underwater warfare depends on sound; you can’t see anything. Submarines have rubberized coatings to lessen noise. Soviet and Russian subs tend to be larger than western subs because their equipment isn’t as compact. The saboteur was going to start the missile motor. The warhead would not have detonated, but the rocket exhaust would have melted and destroyed the Red October. The Red October was named in honor of the October Revolution of 1917 which began the USSR. I think, upon rewatch, you will find this to be the best movie ever!

[@RustyDust101]

While I agree, it is a great movie for all the suspense, it isn't a great sub-movie. The subs were just faaaar to spacious. Even in modern days, subs are cramped, narrow steel cans with barely any space to pass each other. The missiles aren't kept in open storage but in individual launch tubes sealed off from the rest of the sub. So great, yeah, for suspense, action, story-telling, but far from realistic. You want a realistic sub-movie with at LEAST as much suspense? Watch 'Das Boot'. You'll never have rooted so hard for a German manned submarine during WWII. THAT'S the ultimate sub-movie. Nothing comes even close to claim the title of best submarine movie.

[@mikeman2862]

Tim Curry is even more amazing in Legend

[@Mr.Ekshin]

@@RustyDust101 - A lot of the modern subs ARE huge. If you think a WWII sub is somehow the size they are today, that's just wrong. They've grown exponentially in size and crew amenities. Especially the 'boomers' which are meant to stay submerged for extended periods of time.

[@mikejankowski6321]

@@Mr.Ekshin Typhoons actually have a small swimming pool in them, right?

[@Mr.Ekshin]

@@mikejankowski6321 - I doubt they have tennis courts or swimming pools, but they do have small theater rooms, game rooms, gyms, and other recreation areas. It's not that surprising once you look at the true size of them. A modern boomer like the Ohio class is almost 2 football fields in length, and about half the width of a football field. And even the little attack subs (ie: Los Angeles class) are longer than a football field and about 1/3 as wide. Oddly enough, the subs portrayed in this film seemed a bit small compared to the real thing.

[@joshridderhoff2050]

FYI, the DSRV (mini-sub) ‘Mystic’ was a real submersible used by the US Navy. It was only retired about 15 years ago.

[@qbasicmichael]

And the guy commanding it in the movie was the guy who commanded it in real life, if i'm not mistaken. One of a number of real submariners in the movie.

[@andrewj9831]

@@qbasicmichael They used a lot of crew as extras or in there real roles

[@qbasicmichael]

@andrewj9831 yes. But on further thought, i think i was wrong on the detail. The one commanding it n the movie is an actor, but i think the real commander is the one driving it in the movie, if i remember right.

[@handfuloftrains4781]

This is one of my favorite films. I enjoy watching YT reactors feel the rising tension and slowly catch on to what's happening. Good job, Dawn.

[@pistonburner6448]

I shall now name her: Red Dawn.

[@davewhitmore1958]

@@pistonburner6448 Wolverines!!!

[@johng482]

This is a pretty good movie but the book was much better. It also gives much more information about the story and the technical aspects of everything.

[@brucechmiel7964]

The novel had a had a problem that couldn’t be translated to film. The novel didn’t have a real protagonist or singular characters that the story follows. Jack Ryan is only in the book for what couple of chapters and disappears. It makes sense to make him the principal lead at the film.

[@SweetLou0523]

The book is better but as far as adaptations go, Id say this film did as good a job as LOTR did in capturing the essentials on film with nothing critical left out and nothing superfluous added. HFRO is the greatest individual movie ever made and I have seen it in excess of 2500 times. Its as good now as it was the first time through.

[@bmriverrat11]

Where the film lacks compared to the book is the back story of Rameis and his reasons to defect it makes they never really explain why his wife died like they did in the book

[@trekkiexb5]

@@bmriverrat11 THey could have explained that better, I'd agree, because how she died was the main driver to defect. However I'd agree, One of my favourite movies, outside the forementioned LOTR movies. Sometimes the spirit of the book is better in a visual medium.

[@MrVvulf]

It made me feel so old that Dawn didn't know what "defect" meant (to seek political asylum, especially when leaving a communist country). I lived in West Berlin, East Germany when the Berlin Wall was was up, and of course everyone born before the 80s knows about the Cold War and people from the Communist Bloc and associated communist countries defecting to western European countries and/or the US.

[@MartinBeerbom]

The narrowest part of the north Atlantic that Russian submarines had to pass through is the stretch between Iceland and Scotland. So the Americans/NATO put a chain of underwater mics (part of the mentioned SOSUS network, fixed sonar at strategic points) there. However, there's the underwater mountains where it was deemed unlikely that submarines can go through (they had to go OVER it, which makes them easier to detect). So there's a gap, and the Russians could exploit it because they had better maps of the underwater mountains.

[@Anon54387]

Singing is noise so yes it can be picked up by sonar. Some of the sound proofing stuff they do in modern submarines is pretty interesting. A good submarine movie is Das Boot, it gives some idea the hopelessness the Germans faced in their submarines as the Allies got very good at hunting them.

[@Adam_Le-Roi_Davis.]

Dawn, 'to defect' when used in this context means to go over to the other side so, as a Russian it would mean to go over to an opposing power such as America or the United Kingdom, in this case America.

[@uncoolmartin460]

Don't worry about missing things the first time round, it makes the second time easier to understand but still stuff to figure out. "Boomers" is military slang for a nuclear weapon launch sub. The Dallas was an attack sub designed to track Boomers like the typhoon class (think "Kursk" submarine) I enjoyed the reaction very much, Hope your elbow is ok.

[@guitarman8462]

Robin Williams also had a movie he came to the states and Defected . " Moscow On The Hudson " from 1984.

[@3dbadboy1]

Defect means to leave your country to join up and pledge allegiance to another.

[@MartinBeerbom]

There were quite a few collisions where NATO (mostly US) subs ran into Soviet subs from behind. It was much more likely than vice versa, because 1) US subs didn't need to do "crazy yankees" (sudden turns), and 2) it was FAR more likely that a US sub would follow a Soviet than the other way round since everything (sonar, training of men, quietness of the submarines, even just the sheer number of submarines) of the Soviets was worse.

[@RustyX2010]

"Das Boot" is a really good WW2 submarine movie to watch and "Crimson Tide" is also another good modern day Submarine movie.

[@Demigord]

torpedoes are basically underwater drones with very large explosive payloads because the drive and steering on each is so expensive. 1 will wreck the day of any sub. Surface ships have survived a couple hits

[@byronlee8745]

This is one of my favorite submarine movies! ❤

[@evatesche]

This one and "Down Periscope" 😁

[@erichwoods8336]

Marco Ramius Sent the letters so the men on the Red October had skin in the game as he stated in the movie 'Explorers who came to the new world would burn their boats to motivate their people to make the best of their situation'.

[@theendistheend123]

Dawn, I absolutely love your sense of humor. The funny jokes that i really like, that most people miss, you always laugh at. Makes your channel great.

[@DopeSauceBenevolence]

This movie was never intended for anyone who didn’t know the word “defect.”

[@lw3918]

Seriously who doesn't love Dawn? She's a treasure.

[@HemlockRidge]

Seriously! Why doesn't she have more subscribers?

[@biggary9602]

I'm not sure how she functions in her daily life. Her ignorance knows no bounds.

[@lw3918]

@@biggary9602 Who cares? She's pretty.

[@tekcomputers]

EMBT blow (Emergency Blow) is a wild ride. It's an emergency maneuver to get the boat to the surface rapidly. The boat has a high pressure air system. In an emergency blow the high pressure air system is vented directly into the main ballast tanks blowing the water out of them. For a Los Angeles class sub like the one features which displaces about 6900 tons submerged neutrally buoyant, it gives the submarine about 400 tons of positive buoyancy. Baffles are basically a sonar blind spot. Because of the ship's own propulsion noise, the vessels own sonar cannot hear directly behind it (unless it has a towed array out). knots are a nautical term for speed for nautical miles per hour. The term knots is used because in the old sailing days one of the ways of gauging speed was a rope was let out with knots tied into it at fixed intervals and how many knots would pass when in a time would define the vessels speed. A knot is equal to about 1.15 miles per hour or 1.85 km/h. Nautical miles are used because its relationship is based upon the arclength of one arcminute (1/60th of a degree) of latitude. Boomer or missile boat is the term used for submarines which are designed to carry and launch nuclear ballistic missiles. Nuclear submarines tend to fall under one of two types. Boomers/Missile Boats or Fast Attacks/Hunter-Killers. Boomers tend to be larger and quieter as their primary job is to simply remain hidden until they need to launch their missiles, whereas Fast Attacks are relatively smaller, faster and more agile as their job is to patrol and attack.

[@heinleinreader]

The caterpillar drive, according to the script, makes the submarine travel virtually silent. For the record, that was Alec Baldwin, who came to see the admiral about the Russian submarine. He was in Beetlejuice as the ghost guy. That was Tim Currry who played the doctor on the Russian submarine. He's famous for Rocky Horror Picture Show and Clue, among other things. That's the guy that played dad in Beetlejuice playing the specialist that Alec Baldwin goes to see to identify the "doors." That was Daniel Davis, or Niles the butler from the Nanny on the carrier. That was Sam Neill from Jurassic Parks 1 and playing 3 playing the second captain on the Russian submarine. Just a few of the people that are of note in the cast.

[@ColdWarShot]

By far one of my favorite movies!!! Glad you like it

[@santiago451]

Girl, you have no idea how old you made some of us feel by not knowing who Gorbachev was at the very beginning.

[@oobrocks]

Top 3 sub movies: Das Boot, this one & Crimson Tide ❤❤❤. Dear Dawn: if u had live events, we could answer your questions instantly

[@PsiCorps85]

Knots is like a mile basically, etymologically carried over from when ships used to measure their speed by putting a rope with a flat plank of wood in the water to slow down to the speed of the water around them, and the rope had knots in it. After a timer ran out (like an hourglass with sand in it, flipped over), they'd count how many knots had passed a given point basically. Otherwise, they had to use geometry and octants to figure their latitude/longitude and change from last sightings, to see what speed they're travelling, which can be useful if in a current.

[@TheDreamtimezzz]

Watching a movie with you makes the movies so much more entertaining ❤

[@Joliie]

Defect means, he wants to change sides, doing the Cold War people (mostly behind the iron curtain) would want to change sides, for different reasons, but likely because they did not agree with what their government was doing.

[@tommarks3726]

Great movie. The story keeps you on your toes. Great reaction Dawn

[@cypher515]

Firstly: now in the book, the maximum speed of the Caterpillar was about 13 or 14 knots (nautical miles per hour) whereas the propellers could get them to over 20 knots, but the idea was that stealth was the most important thing. Ironically Tom Clancy was a total noob at the time (I THINK he admitted as such later on) and didn't realize that the main cause of noise on any submarine is the reactor. Ten years later he came up with an excuse plot for Japan to go to war with the US (long story, and the book itself never had a movie adaptation) and noted that their submarines were so much of a threat... because they were diesel-electric. (They're detectable when they surface to recharge their batteries, but quieter than most American subs when operating on batteries.) Secondly: In the novel Ramius said that he would defect because "So they would know. So they would know. We did not think anyone could even find us. There, your sonarmen surprised us". He was making a statement against the corruption of the Soviet Union (in the novel his wife died of appendicitis because a drunken surgeon screwed up the operation and yet was son of a Party official, so he wasn't punished). So he wanted them to KNOW that he stole their ship. The novel also had the CIA plant a theory that the letter was forged and the sub _really_ went down in an accident but there would have been too many moving parts. Including introducing a character that in a later _movie_ becomes an antagonist. Thirdly: It's actually kind of scary how Clancy wrote the CIA and military intelligence in his first book. Multiple people kept thinking that they could convince the President (unnamed, a former prosecutor, in that book -- but later established to be real-life President the former actor and union president Ronald Reagan in another one, which got confusing) that they should keep the boat and murder anyone who didn't want to go home -- or secretly imprison them somewhere, at best. It was Jeffery Jones's character Skip Tyler that came up with the plan to destroy a soon-to-be-retired US missile submarine in the location of where they evacuated the submarine to give the impression the submarine was lost with all the officers on board. They condensed this and the movie seems to give the impression that the actual intent was to explode some torpedoes to create the effect -- but the Konovalov exploded instead, which worked a lot better. Fourth: I see why everyone was reiterating what 'defect' means below; if you don't know what that means you don't realize he's saying he's bringing the sub over to the US and saying here, keep it, I don't want to be a Soviet citizen anymore, please take me into your country. The term that's survived into this century is 'seeking asylum', I guess. And finally, there was only supposed to be an exercise in the first mission planned by the Soviets, but the idea here was that they could choose to strike against the US at any time if they so chose. In the book they called it a 'decapitation strike': park the sub off of the coast of the US, send a bunch of warheads to annihilate Washington, DC so that Reagan and Bush I would be dead too quickly to authorize nuclear strikes, then do whatever they wanted while contacting whomever was still in charge in the US to say "We're gonna do whatever we were planning on doing now, you should take care of yourselves now". In a later book he contrives a way of destroying pretty much all of the American government except for a handful of Congresspeople and Senators, two cabinet members in the line of succession for the Presidency, and the Vice-President. But all he does is level the Capitol building during a joint session of Congress with the President and all of the Supreme Court also inside; most of the survivors were still in Washington, DC. And they still hadn't reconstituted the House of Representatives two months later (members of the Senate can be appointed to fill out terms by governors or legislatures of each state, but it's hard-wired in the Constitution that elections MUST be held for House members, and those tend to take some time to set up). If they could nuke everyone within 6 minutes? It'd be pure chance who's not in town. There was a speculative fiction work about that based on the kind of terrifying notion that a false alarm that genuinely happened in 1983 could have been taken as genuine, and the officer who saw said false alarm apparently violated orders to not report it up the line. It's called 1983: Doomsday.

[@rohansfernandes2067]

One of the greatest movies .... Great cast of actors.. really. Up there with the best ( Shawshank redemption as an example)

[@ChrisReise]

This is the first in a series of movies featuring the character Jack Ryan. The full franchise is listed below with the actor's name who portrayed Jack's character: 1. The Hunt for Red October (1990) - Alec Baldwin 2. Patriot Games (1992) - Harrison Ford 3. Clear and Present Danger (1994) - Harrison Ford 4. The Sum of All Fears (2002) - Ben Affleck 5. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014) - Chris Pine

[@mblackwl]

There's also the Amazon series with John Krasinski. Oh, and David Bradley plays Jack Ryan in the Cyborg Cop movies. Which, to be fair, may be just a different character with the same name. But that one does fight robots, not Soviets.

[@timwong5908]

I love this movie and highly reommend reading the novel. 6:24 Bond...i mean... Ramius, Marko Ramius. Captain, licensed to kill.

[@HemlockRidge]

ALL submarines are referred to as "Boats".

[@randallshuck2976]

The doctor is Tim Curry and he is cast in an odd character for him although he pulls it off. If you want to see him again, he is in "IT", "Clue" and a bunch of others like "Rocky Horror Picture Show" and "Home Alone".

[@AbbyNormL]

The submarine in the movie was changed from the book. The book used the USS Bremerton (SSN-698) which was changed to the USS Dallas (SSN-700) in the movie. I served as a nuclear trained EM1(SS) on the USS Bremerton (SSN-698) for four years. This movie is the most realistic Cold War submarine movie I have seen. The distances between the boats when fighting is way too close. We really did sit outside Soviet submarine bases, pick on coming out and follow them for weeks at a time and they had no clue we were there. And my major gripe is the super-secret hi-tech drive system that could make it undetectable was identified and a plan ready to follow it, before Ryan could even get to them.

[@erictaylor5462]

A single torpedo would have no trouble sinking a typhoon class sub. Remember, submarines are already neutrally buoyant. Add just a little bit of water, and they will sink.

[@MGower4465]

The Red October sub is supposed to be named after a tractor factory near Moscow. The factory, in turn is named for the Russian revolution that deposed the Tsars starting October 25, 1917, thus the October part, with red coming from the color of the rebellious forces' flags. The man Ramius kills in the beginning is the boat's politic as l officer, or Zampolit. He was technically a Captain himself, but of lower grade (usually) than the ship's actual Csptain, but could over-ride the Captain if he, the Zampolit, felt the Captain's orders were not in accordance with the will of the Party. This did actually happen once, in 1972, aboard a Soviet frigate with a name I can't spell. The irony is the Zampolit instigated a full blown mutiny as a protest *against* the Soviet Premier at the time, so effectively against the Party.

[@l.piloto7964]

Tom Clancey the author of the book this movie is based on was take to F.B.I. for interrogation because of how accurately detailed his knowledge of U.S. submarine tactics were in his book. They wanted to make sure he didn't have access to classified military documents. The interrogation was long and detailed but upon completion Mr. Clancey was proven to be cleared of any and all suspicion and no charges were ever filed. I have it on trustworthy source that the pentagon asked the F.B.I. to interrogate him due to his research for the novel being so spot on that they believed the info was leaked to him.

[@chefskiss6179]

"I forgot... what year did this come out? Let me see..." The fact that we can just look down at something no bigger than the deck of cue cards with notes some of us used to carry around and just get some info instantly...! I mean, COME on. 😂😂😂 McTiernan was a master at juggling so many elements and made it look effortless. ANYhoo, lovin' this watchalong with ya!

[@tvdroid22]

The Doctor is Tim Curry, best known for his performance in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but also Home Alone. The course is charted straight because the underwater canyon is basically straight. A knot is equal to 1.15 miles per hour. So 26 knots is 29.9 mph. Defection usually is associated with escaping an oppressive government. And itd only take 1 torpedo. Once the structure is compromised, the sub collapses under the forces of the water. And did you recognize Darth Vader? He was in the movie. The Capt gave the example of the burned ships motivating the crew. Thats why he sent the letter.

[@waynet1022]

I don't think anybody would object if there is a word you don't know if you stop for a moment to look it up.

[@arjaylee]

Sam Neil (from Jurassic Park) used to scare me sh**less after he played adult Damian in the 3rd Omen movie. Those eyes! >Shiver< Finally after Jurassic Park his eyes didn't scare me anymore.

[@jenniferjones2863]

Have you seen him in ‘Event Horizon?”

[@thomasreddy416]

3:06 - Dawn " I didn't realize they where so big. " .... That's what she said .

[@EricPalmerBlog]

She says "That's mad!" at exactly the right time. That aircraft and others that hunt submarines have MAD (Magnetic Anomaly Detector), when the aircraft flies over a magnetic source that isn't a known shipwreck or properly mapped as normal, it may be a submarine.

[@Usmcar15682]

First strike means they can fire first and we won’t be able to detect them until we detect the missles

[@crossbones13]

"I don't get it. If his plan was to defe...defect? Is that...I don't know what 'defect' means. But if that was his plan, then why did he send the letter warning the ambassador guy? Why did he not just do it without anyone knowing? Cuz now everyone knows." He explained exactly WHY he did that immediately before the scene you were just watching...

[@coffee-xg6my]

"Defect" basically just means to go over to the other side, (To the enemy's side). I'm sure you've heard about North Korean soldiers defecting to South Korea in recent years. Sean Connery wanted to defect from Russia to America. That's what the other Russian guy was talking about when he said he wanted to go to Montana and marry a "round American Woman" and raise rabbits, (having a lot of children) Hence, the saying "Multiply like rabbits". Rabbits have lots of babies, lol.

[@little-wytch]

The fact that the Captain called it the "silent drive" should have told you all you need to know about the caterpillar drive. That one guy said it's like a jet engine for the water, but most people don't know how a jet engine works, so it would be easier to understand by comparing it to a jet ski instead. The thing is, propellers push a lot of water, which makes them very loud to sonar, just like fans push a lot of air, that's the only reason we can hear anything from a fan, we are hearing it chop up and move the air, but the fan blade itself is moved by an electric motor which is nearly silent. Have you ever talked into a fan and heard how it distorts your voice? Propellers make a lot of relative noise. The caterpillar drive doesn't use propellers, so almost no noise, which means it's almost impossible to track with passive sonar. Passive sonar is like when Jones hears them singing. Active sonar is when Sean Connery answered with "One ping only." Those pings are active sonar. He explained why he sent the letter about Defecting (which basically means leaving your country to join an enemy) it was to make sure those that were defecting with him didn't get cold feet and try to back out of the plan. "Knots" is a nautical unit of speed, it's Nautical Miles Per Hour. A nautical mile is 6076 feet whereas a regular mile is 5280 feet. I don't know why there's a difference. That's not what it originally meant though as Knots were used in the early days of wooden sailboats. I don't remember exactly what it meant, just that it had to do with a rope that had knots tied in it at specific intervals and they somehow used that to measure speed. 26 knots is roughly 48 km/h or 30 MPH. Don't worry, this movie and book are supposed to be confusing, it's Tom Clancy lol. Where did you watch this that didn't have subtitles for the Russian-speaking bits? Even when it's on TV it has the Russian speech in subtitles. You missed some funny bits by not having the subtitles, like when the American sub shot up to the surface, one of the rescued Russian crew members shouted "The Captain scared them out of the water!" lol. If you are watching movies in a computer video player like Windows Media Player Classic or VLC, you should be able to right-click anywhere in the video frame and turn on subtitles if the video file has them included. If it doesn't have them included, you can download subtitle files, they are usually in dot srt format. Just google search "Hunt for Red October English Subtitles" and you'll find it pretty fast lol. Sorry for the long comment, I love Ocean stuff, it's my dream to live on a sailboat someday if I can ever afford to lol. Also, don't worry about the real missing sub. It wasn't like it got taken by a sea monster or something. That tragedy was like the Titanic itself, it was directly the result of billionaire stupidity, thinking his company knew best and that he didn't need to bother with pesky little things like standards or safety testing, etc. The Titan sub was not inspected by any official regulatory entity like the Coast Guard or such.

[@dalewight6623]

The cook was a KGB agent associated with the Political Officer. The wires were connected to the firing sequence of a nuclear warhead. Most torpedoes in that time didn't move in a straight line, they swept side to side as they moved through the water. Defect means going over and surrendering the other side.

[@jsnsk101]

dawn could be confused looking at a stick figure drawing, lol

[@mattdias3412]

If i understood what he was saying, the crazy propulsion system meant the sub had unlimited range without having to stop for fuel. The ocean water was the fuel.

[@Not-Impressed..1821]

First time I see someone enjoying a movie without understanding a single thing.

[@handfuloftrains4781]

Robin Williams (in Moscow on the Hudson) - "I defected." American security guard - "You can't do that here. I told you where the men's room was."