The Hunt for Red October

Continuity mistake: 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. (00:03:00 - 00:29:30)

johnrosa

The Hunt for Red October mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Sally is saying that Stanley is keeping her awake, her grip on the bear's ear is changing between constant shots. (00:04:40)

Ssiscool

Continuity mistake: When Jack is getting off the plane in the beginning of the movie, his jacket collar is up. When he meets the 2 men who are there to pick him up, the collar is now down. (00:06:10)

MCKD

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: His collar is only raised at the back directly behind his neck. When he meets with the two agents we only see him from the front and can't see behind his neck.

Ssiscool

Continuity mistake: Towards the beginning of the film, when Captain Marko Ramius kills Political Officer Putin, Ramius initially grabs Putin's face and forehead from behind, pulling the political officer off balance and into the edge of the table at which they were just sitting and discussing their orders. In the cut just before Putin slumps to the floor and falls backwards, Ramius' hand is now high on his victim's chest, near the collarbone.giving an extra push. Putin also moves some distance towards the door as he falls backwards onto the deck and dies. (00:18:30 - 00:19:00)

Continuity mistake: 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. (01:23:30)

johnrosa

Continuity mistake: 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. (01:56:35)

Twotall

Continuity mistake: During the final battle, Borodin announces "Torpedo impact, 20 seconds". Ramius and Ryan discuss a book Ryan has written for the full 20 seconds, then Borodin updates, saying "10 seconds.." It's then a further 15 seconds before the torpedo actually hits. (01:58:10)

johnrosa

Continuity mistake: When Jack Ryan is being flown, via chopper, to meet up with the USS Dallas, the pilot expresses concern for the fuel situation. First we see this pilot in the right-side seat from a good distance behind his left side as he is talking. When he looks back at Ryan in close-up, the shot is backwards so that he seems to now be in the left seat, looking over his right shoulder (notice his name on the helmet is backwards). Then, after the sub is spotted, he speaks again, and is seen back on the right side, looking over his left shoulder at the left-side co-pilot.

Continuity mistake: When Ryan is helo'ed to the Dallas it does not have a DSRV attached, but they use one later in the movie to board Red October.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: In the film more than 24 hours pass between the time Ryan gets on Dallas and when they show the DSRV attached to her. If you remember earlier in the movie it was stated that they could have the DSRV anywhere in the world in 24 hours. Therefore, one may assume that this time was used to get the DSRV to the Dallas.

Dallas was in the middle of tracking Red October and would have to have broken off the tracking (as it did anyway to pick up Ryan) in order for a sub tender to meet Dallas, place the DSRV on her, and then Dallas would have to hightail it back to find Red October. Plus getting the DSRV out to Dallas seems like a critical part of the story. While some scenes end up on the cutting room floor in every movie one has to wonder why there wasn't even a mention about having to surface for the DSRV.

Dallas didn't need to track the Red October anymore because the extraction point was already arranged, so it was very plausible the Dallas could get access to the DSRV.

Continuity mistake: When the aircraft crashes on the carrier, the Admiral, Captain and Ryan are in the island (the superstructure on the starboard side). In the next shot, they are looking at the crash from the port side. You can see the island, where they were moments before, in the background.

Continuity mistake: At the end of the movie in the scenes with Connery and Baldwin on the tower of the sub, the light of the moon is obviously shining on their faces but the reflection of the moon stretches out across the water behind them.

Continuity mistake: When chasing the KGB agent, Ryan climbs up a ladder empty handed, but when he rolls over on the walkway he has a gun in his hand.

Factual error: When Jack Ryan is chasing the Cook's Assistant Igor Loginov through the missile compartment, the compartment shown does not exist. Russian Typhoon submarines (of which the Red October is a variant, just with a new propulsion system) have a pair of cylindrical pressure hulls - each containing a missile compartment - on either side of the missile tubes. The location where the fight takes place in the movie would be inside a free-flood area in a real Typhoon. (02:01:20 - 02:05:00)

More mistakes in The Hunt for Red October

Vasily Borodin: I would like to have seen Montana.

More quotes from The Hunt for Red October

Trivia: Paramount Studios essentially rented a US submarine to be in the movie. The USS Houston (SSN 713) played the USS Dallas and the surface scenes were filmed off of Long Beach, CA and Port Angelas, WA. Two crewmembers off the Houston were actually given very small speaking parts in the movie.

More trivia for The Hunt for Red October

Question: During the ending sequence (with the Alpha) the Red October is running on the screws instead of the caterpillar. Now, we know the "reactor leak" was fake...and we know that the caterpillar was working normally (right after Ramius says "let us turn South" you see the Red October dive over a canyon wall with the screws not moving hence the caterpillar running). Wouldn't it have been wiser to run on the caterpillar during the ending?

Michael Westpy

Answer: The caterpillar drive was inoperable. The reactor leak was staged by the defecting officers, but the sabotage to the caterpillar (by the undercover KGB agent posing as the cook) was real.

Chosen answer: No, (mentioned in the book, not the film), the caterpillar can only drive Red October at a little over 1/2 her top speed. Speed is far more important than silence at this point.

Grumpy Scot

Answer: The caterpillar was repaired but later after the crew exited screws were on and caterpillar was operation. The Russian fleet was still on there tail you still should be on silent drive. Movie shows them running on normal propulsion. Possible movie boo boo. Makes no sense.

The Caterpillar is not silent, it just does not sound like a sub. This is how the Dallas was able to track Red October even when it was running on the caterpillar. The Dallas just need to know what it sounded like. Presumably The Alpha knows what to listen for so speed would be important.

More questions & answers from The Hunt for Red October

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.