Real to Reel: The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy

Welcome back to Real to Reel. Here I compare books to their live action adaptations. Last time, I compared The Count of Monte Cristo with the 2002 affront to gods and man adaptation. This time, I’m going to compare The Hunt for Red October with the 1990 film. In a way, this is the opposite of the last article. Whereas the 2002 Count of Monte Cristo was terrible, the 1990 Hunt for Red October is a great movie. Arguably better than the book.

Many years ago, I started reading the book, but didn’t get very far. I got distracted with life or school or something. I can’t remember. I think I got half way through the first chapter. Recently, I decided to finally finish it. I was surprised by how different the book and the movie are from each other. If you haven’t read the book or seen the movie, go watch the movie. It’s amazing. Anyway. It takes place during the Cold War. The basic premise is that the Russians have built a new submarine with some new technology. But does the Captain have a different plan?

An analyst working for the CIA, Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin), is tasked with bringing photos of the submarine to his handler, Gen. Greer (played by James Earl Jones). The sub has these weird ports on the side, and no one knows what they do. He brings the photos to a submarine engineer, Skip (played by Jeffrey Jones of Farris Bueller fame). More on Skip later. He posits that it could be a nearly silent propulsion system that would enable the sub to sneak past the NATO defense grid and park right off the East Coast. It is a first strike weapon. Armed with this information, Ryan briefs the president and super duper powerful people in charge of the military. During this briefing, Ryan has an outlandish idea. What if the Russian captain, Marko Ramius (played by Sean Connery), were trying to defect? Ryan’s logic? It was the one year anniversary of Ramius’ wife’s death. It’s crazy. But one of the politicians decides to give Ryan a chance to prove it.

Meanwhile, a US sub captained by Scott Glenn, has an amazing sonar officer, Jonesy, played by Courtney B. Vance.

Side note: Can we please talk about how delightful Vance is in this? He steals every scene he’s in. I don’t know what he’s like in real life, but I imagine he’s just a really down to earth, cool guy.

Anyway. Jonesy is really, really, really good at what he does. While training a new sonar tech, he notices a new Russian sub. He starts recording the drive signatures… and then it disappears.

Ryan is sent out to sea to try to make contact with Ramius, find out his intentions, and if he is trying to defect, get him (and especially the boat) to the US. There’s an underlying “I’m an analyst not an agent” throughout this. The Russians have now sent their fleet after Ramius. The US can’t tell if Ramius is the first wave in an attack, so everyone is on high alert. The Soviets claim that the sub has gone missing and they are worried he might have sunk. Then the US spies find out that the Russian fleet has orders to sink the Red October. That complicates things. Is he trying to defect? Is he trying to start the next world war?

Through a bit of ingenuity, Ryan confirms that Marko wants to defect. They stage a reactor leak on the Red October, get the Russian crew to safety, then pretend to sink the sub. Meanwhile, Ryan and a few officers from the US sub, use a mini sub that Skip is working on, to get onto the Red October, and guide it in to the US. But not before they are attacked by one of Marko’s former pupils on his own submarine. He almost sinks the Red October, but Marko is just too clever, and they survive.

Pretty cool story, right? But the book is vastly different. Like, the basic plot is the same. The characters are the same. But it’s still very different. Let’s talk about Skip. In the movie, Skip gives this great monologue about how dangerous this silent ship could be. In the book he’s like “oh yeah. That’s a caterpillar drive. We tried it in the 60s. It didn’t work. If you give me a week and access to a super computer I can calculate how fast and quiet it can be.” But later, while the CIA is being super secretive, he figures out not only what is going on, but also picks up on the idea that Ramius is trying to defect. Arguably, he’s more important to this story than Jack Ryan. Skip is the one who comes up with the plan to get the Red October, not Ryan.

This may be an unpopular opinion, but Jack Ryan is useless in this book. Like, if you were just going off of the book, at no point would you think “yeah, we can make a franchise around this character”. He’s a glorified messenger. After he briefs the generals, he is sent out to sea to deliver the message in person, to a select few commanders. Then he just waits there and isn’t mentioned for half the book. Then he volunteers to go to the Red October out of necessity, because the team they were going to send died in an accident. Once he gets there, he steers the sub simply because everyone else has other tasks. He’s not that big of a character in the book. Plus, he’s an analyst, but isn’t an expert. So he’s constantly asking people for explanations. Now, if they made a franchise about Skip, I’d totally get it.

Let’s talk about the defection plot. In the movie, it’s this crazy idea. All the brass mocks Ryan for even suggesting it. In the book, everyone pretty much agrees right away that he’s trying to defect. Plus, while Marko is doing it because he blames communism for letting his wife die (the details aren’t in the movie), only book Ramius knows this. Ryan knows very little about Ramius. He hasn’t met him. He doesn’t “understand how he (Marko) thinks”, as he does in the movie.

That’s why I think the movie is so much better. The characters make more sense. The plot is tightened up quite a bit. Excess fat is cut. In the book, there’s an officer on the mainland who is listening for the sub, but that ends up not playing a role in the story because Jonesy serves basically the same function, but more charmingly. The timeline is rearranged to make a more cohesive story. Like, in the book, by the time Ryan and the other Americans get on the Red October, the book has 100 more pages to go. The attack by the Russian Alfa happens while they’re already well into US waters. Even that attack is different. In the book, there are two US subs escorting Red October into the port, and they all know the other Russian sub is there. Finally, Red October rams the other sub and it sinks. In the movie, the Russian sub is able to sneak up on them and send a torpedo without anyone noticing. Then Marko tricks the second torpedo into destroying the Russian sub. There’s a moment kind of like in Star Trek: The Final Frontier, when the torpedo comes back and hits the Bird of Prey and it zooms in on General Chang’s face as he realizes he’s fucked. Same thing happens in this movie. It’s not in the book.

The dialogue is also so much better in the movie. Especially Marko Ramius. I’m assuming they had to fluff it up to get Sean Connery on board, but the conversations actually feel realistic. In the book, Ramius rarely says much. In fact, I’d argue that 60% of the book is explanations of how the US military works.  There are lots of abbreviations, and perhaps if I had served in the military I’d appreciate it more, but it didn’t really serve the plot that much. And all the navy people sound the same. Not necessarily hillbilly, but kind of a relaxed southern voice.

There are so many scenes in the movie that aren’t in the book. Ryan speaking Russian? Not in the book. The bonding scene between Ramius and his first officer? Nope. The whole thing about “buckaroos”? No. Greer sending a torpedo and then detonating it? Nope. The entire scene at the White House is completely different. In the movie, Ryan doesn’t realize he’s giving the speech until he’s half way through the door. In the book, he’s been rehearsing it for a few hours. His little outburst isn’t in the book because by this time everyone agrees it’s a defection. I really could go on and on.

In the end, The Hunt for Red October is a classic movie, and I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who didn’t like it. The book, however, might be neat for military nerds, but is largely unnecessary reading. It’s not a book you’ll reference. It doesn’t have memorable quotes. You won’t spend much time thinking about it afterwards.