DILLON ON FILM

The Hunt for Red October: 35 Years On

Sean Connery dominates John McTiernan’s adaptation of Tom Clancy’s bestseller, but these days, the film feels more alarming

Credit: Paramount

Warning: Contains spoilers

In the world of onscreen spies, Jack Ryan can be considered a bit beige. Not as glamorous as James Bond, not as dangerous as Jason Bourne, not as death-defying as Ethan Hunt, and not as plausible as George Smiley. Not even a star presence like Harrison Ford breathes much life into his CIA analyst character (as seen in Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger, in 1992 and 1994, respectively). Quite honestly, all other iterations of the secret agent tend to go in one ear and out the other, whilst being perfectly agreeable to watch at the time.

Yet it isn’t Alec Baldwin’s turn as Ryan in 1990’s The Hunt for Red October that makes the film memorable, but Sean Connery, as rogue Soviet submarine captain Marko Ramius. Yes, Baldwin was the first screen incarnation of Tom Clancy’s bestselling hero but Connery dominates the film, and he is what I most remembered from the time I first saw it at the cinema with my father. By then, as I approached the middle of my teenage years, my father made a point of taking an interest in my cinematic obsessions, which I…