Factual error: Aboard the aircraft carrier, there is a closed-circuit TV that shows the operations on the flight deck. At one point, a gull-gray F-14 Tomcat, in obvious distress, comes in for a landing. The camera cuts away from the TV to Ryan's face, and the cuts back to the TV. All of a sudden, the plane crashing is no longer an F-14, but an old Korean War-era fighter, colored the dark blue the Navy stopped using in the 1950s. The director probably chose to insert a piece of stock footage rather than build a model F-14 to crash for an otherwise unimportant scene.

Factual error: In the opening scene of the movie, the Red October is being escorted out of the Russian harbour by a United States Coast Guard Cutter and U.S. Navy sea tugs.

Visible crew/equipment: When the Red October sub has surfaced to let the crew get off because of the supposed nuclear leak, there is a brief shot where you can clearly see the camera and its filming crew in their tennis shoes on the deck. Use of slow motion is suggested. (As per the rules of this site: Use of slo motion IS acceptable when camera or crew are visible.)

Revealing: In the scene where Jack Ryan is brought aboard the U.S.S. Dallas after releasing himself from the helicopter, two crewmen drag him inside. The crewman on the left side of the passage backs into a metal valve, but the valve moves down and left, then snaps back in place as if mounted to a rubber pipe.

Factual error: The Hunt for Red October takes place sometime in late 1984. The Oliver Hazard Perry Class Frigate Reuben James (FFG-57) on which Adm. Greer and Skip Tyler were on board in the latter half of the film, was not commissioned until March 22, 1986

Factual error: In the scene after the silent drive was first engaged and Red October changes course to south-west, a seaman is shown plotting the new course. The map shows the track of the submarine as if it had left from Nordkapp, which is in Norway, a NATO country. The Red October had left from the harbor of Polyarnyi, which is located next to Murmansk, some 300-400 kilometres to the east.

Factual error: In the scene where the U.S. submarine Dallas is chasing the Red October in an underwater canyon, if you listen carefully you can hear an officer on the bridge yell out gravity anomaly values in milligals. This was an incredible breach of U.S. security at the time the movie was made, because it was a highly classified secret that gravity measurements were used to navigate by the U.S. navy. (The technology can "see" terrain passively and silently, without sending out a signal.) This technology was later declassified after the movie came out. However the mistake was that only large Trident submarines had this capability, not smaller hunter-killer subs.

Visible crew/equipment: In the scene where Ryan is being flown out to the Dallas, the door crew member looks out and says, "Yo, got a sub about 2 miles out." If you look closely in his goggles, you can see the reflection of the crew.

Revealing: Near the end of the movie when the Russian attack sub gets hit with the errant torpedo, the shot from the "Ruben James" shows the explosion from the surface. In the middle of the large wave generated is the puff of black smoke and a pyrotechnic flash which triggered the explosion.

Other: In the scene where the US is going to drop a torpedo on the Red October, when the helicopter lifts off from the deck, the torpedo is mounted on the starboard side. After the drop order, it drops from the port side of the chopper.

Visible crew/equipment: When Jones the Sonar operator detects the Red October for the final time via his headphones, he is talking to someone next to him. The whole time he is doing this, a microphone boom is constantly bobbing into view from above his head.

Continuity: When Ramius is shot, he drops to the floor holding his wound with his left hand. He is still using his left hand when Ryan asks "What happens if he makes it to that ignition circuitry". The angle then changes, and Ramius is holding his wound with his right hand as he answers "He can incinerate the ship". New angle change, and Ramius is once again using his left hand on the wound.

Factual error: Roughly 25 minutes into the movie, Jonesy identifies the sub contact as a typhoon-class ballistic missile submarine. They dub it the Typhoon-7 as they have six other typhoon submarines recorded in the computer. In reality, six typhoons were indeed built, with a 7th canceled under construction. However, in November 1984, which is when this is supposed to happen, only two had been commissioned and the third was near completion. Thus, the Dallas couldn't have had six typhoons in its computer at the time, only two.

Continuity: During the final battle, Borodin announces "20 seconds to impact". Ramius and Ryan discuss a book Ryan has written for the full 20 seconds, then Borodin updates, saying "10 seconds to impact" despite the torpedo and the sub both remaining on their same courses at the same speeds.

Continuity: The opening shots of Red October sub show water slapping against it. At the water line, the flat/vertical sides of the fake sub are visible - a very different look than the underwater model's tapered sides.

Revealing: When Ryan is being lowered from the helicopter to the Dallas, it is a raging rain storm, yet the helicopter does not have its windshield wipers on.

Factual error: In some stateroom scenes in the October the bulkheads have numerous little lockers installed because storage space on a submarine is at a premium. The latches on the lockers are of a unique design created only by USA Navy ship and submarine construction shipyards.

Continuity: As the helicopter nears the Dallas sub, Ryan is in the right-side doorway at the rear of the opening. A spotter is on the same side of the craft, at the front of the opening. The spotter looks straight out the right side of the chopper and shouts for the pilots to turn left, as he has spotted the Dallas at three o'clock (which is where he is looking). But turning left moves away from the Dallas, not towards it.

Revealing: None of the exterior storm scenes where rain is present have any visible impact on the actors. No water or mist on face, binoculars, hat brims, etc. The special effect that creates the rain does not correlate to the either actor appearance or background reality - sun reflections, clouds, etc.

Revealing: In the scene where Ryan is chasing the undercover KGB agent through the missile compartment one of the valves on the missile tubes is very wobbly as it is bumped. Although given the state of the Soviet Submarine Force maybe this is accurate....