Welcome to “Friday Favorites” which highlight some of my favorite movie-related things.

The death of Tom Clancy this week at age 66 has brought to mind many of his works over the years, which were immensely popular.  He wrote many books, but he was more than just a writer, he was a brand.  His name was attached not only to his own novels and their four film adaptations (with another reboot of his most famous character, Jack Ryan, coming out later this year), but to several other book series he produced and seemingly countless videogames.  For many years he was the most popular name in military/espionage stories, and while I may not have personally enjoyed his writing (I read half of The Hunt for Red October before I quit from boredom.  My father once said that he thought Clancy must have been paid by the word for some of his later books.), I will be forever grateful to him for the existence of the film version of The Hunt for Red October, which I consider a masterpiece.

The film may feature some things that people like to laugh about, including Sean Connery’s hair and not-Russian accent, but for me it’s brilliantly crafted and has one of the tensest conclusions of any film that I’ve seen.  The story concerns the Soviet nuclear missile submarine Red October, captained by Connery’s Marko Ramius, which has the ability to run (almost) completely silently.  Ramius defies his orders and sails to the US, intending to defect but telling his crew that they are following orders to conduct drills off the coast of America, all while being chased by the Soviets, who want to stop him at all costs in order to keep this new technology out of American hands.  The US government is told by the Soviets that Ramius intends to attack the US, hoping that the American Navy will help the Soviets sink the sub before Ramius can reveal his true intentions, however a young CIA agent named Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin) suspects that Ramius wants to defect and sets out to find him before the Red October is sunk.  He enlists the help of the USS Dallas, captained by Bart Mancuso (Scott Glenn), and eventually makes contact with Ramius.  But all the while, a Soviet submarine, the Konovalov, captained Ramius’s old protégé (Stellan Skarsgard), is fast on their heels, and there may also be a KGB spy aboard the Red October.

It’s a twisty setup, for sure.  Ramius and his officers want to defect, not caring much about the technology but simply about escaping the USSR.  Jack Ryan wants to help them defect, but his CIA bosses are more concerned about the boat than the men.  Mancuso doesn’t want to stick his neck out or risk his ship, but is following Ryan’s instructions because the orders come from higher up.  Ramius’s crew think that they’re following orders, not knowing their captain’s true goals.  And the Konovalov, the spy and the Soviet government want to stop the ship from falling into American hands no matter what the cost.  Ryan and the Dallas make contact with Ramius and the Red October, and Ryan reveals that he has guessed Ramius’s plan.  The captain fakes a reactor leak in order to get his men off the ship, and the evacuate while the officers stay behind claiming that they plan to destroy the ship in order to keep it out of the hands of the Americans.  After submerging, the Dallas sends over a party, including Ryan and Mancuso, who offer Ramius asylum and take possession of the Red October, when suddenly a torpedo whizzes by.  It’s the Konovalov.

They’re in a sticky situation, because the Dallas can’t fire back at the Konovalov, because they haven’t technically attacked any official US ships.  The Konovalov fires another torpedo, and Ramius orders the boat to be turned straight at it.  Mancuso objects, but they stick to his plan, and when they collide with the torpedo it bounces harmlessly off the hull, the Red October having closed the gap faster than the torpedo could arm itself.  Another torpedo is fired, and this one arms immediately.  The Red October, flees as fast as it can, with the torpedo chasing them down.  Suddenly gunshots ring out, killing Ramius’s first officer (Sam Neill).  It’s the spy, who heads toward the missile room, where he intends to set off a missile and destroy the ship, chased by Ramius and Ryan.  The torpedo is closing in when the Dallas, a much smaller and faster ship than the Red October, maneuvers in between the two, and the torpedo switches targets, going after the Dallas.  The Dallas then releases countermeasures and performs an emergency blow right before the torpedo strikes, sending the submarine rocketing to the surface and out of the water, as the torpedo sets about finding a new target.

Ramius is shot by the spy, but Ryan chases him down and kills him just before he can detonate a missile.  The sound of the gunfire attracts the torpedo, which begins chasing them again.  Mancuso orders the sub to head straight for the Konovalov, and just before the two subs collide, he changes course and the torpedo destroys the Konovalov.  Ramius’s crew, who witnessed the Dallas flying out of the water and the explosion of the Konovalov believe that Ramius was fighting the Americans in the Red October, but was ultimately destroyed, either by them or by his own hand (they never even knew about the Konovalov), and therefore can believably tell the Soviet government that the Americans don’t have control of the sub.  The CIA denies any knowledge of the affair, and covers up any evidence of the defection.  The only loose string is that the Konovalov is now missing.  It’s a complex and well written finale to a spiderweb of a film, and the movie owes a lot to Clancy.

However, the intricacy of the story is not what makes me love the ending of the film as much as I do, it’s the level of suspense and the execution.  Director John McTiernan and the screenwriters do a great job throughout the movie of setting the stakes and making us familiar with the terminology and capabilities of the submarines, so when that torpedo whizzes by the focus can be entirely on the drama of events without the need for excessive explanation.  It’s something that a mere description of events could never capture, and unfortunately I can’t find a clip that I particularly like from the film in order to show you, so you’ll just have to go find a copy of the movie for yourself.  It’s one of the most suspenseful sequences on film, using every trick in the book to heighten the intensity.  Some things, like the different lighting schemes for each submarine, are clever ways to keep the audience in the moment and aware of what’s going on.  The performances really help sell the fear and emotion of the moment, whether it’s Scott Glenn sweating but confident in maneuvering the ship while knowing it may all go horribly wrong, or Courtney Vance as Sonar Technician Jonesy triumphantly shouting “Way to go, Dallas!” as his boat saves them by redirecting the torpedo.  The effects still hold up after 23 years, combining some impressive model work with real life submarine footage.  And that shot of the Dallas bursting from the water after their emergency blow is still a thing of beauty.

Below are two short clips from the end of the film, the first taking place as Ramius turns the Red October into the path of an oncoming torpedo, and the second starting with that shot of the Dallas and ending with the destruction of the Konovalov.  It’s hard to get a real sense of how fantastically paced and filmed the sequence is from these short clips, but it was the best I can find.  The Hunt for Red October ends with a white-knuckle thrill ride of action and drama, and even if I wasn’t particularly a fan of his, I still have Tom Clancy to thank for that.

What do you think?  Are you a Tom Clancy fan?  Is The Hunt for Red October the best submarine movie ever?  (What about Das Boot?)  What’s your favorite Tom Clancy-related work?  Let me know in the comments!