Character mistake: Characters refer to the Dallas and the Red October as "ships," but anyone stationed aboard a submarine would know to call it a "boat."
The Hunt for Red October (1990)
Directed by: John McTiernan
Starring: Alec Baldwin, Sean Connery, Sam Neill, Tim Curry, James Earl Jones, Scott Glenn, Jeffrey Jones, Courtney B. Vance, Richard Jordan, Joss Ackland, Peter Firth
Factual error: When the USS Dallas submerges to attack the Red October, they rig for battle stations as well as rig for red. On a submarine, rig for red is only for periscope depth operations at night, to allow control room watchstanders eyes to adjust to the darkness topside. No other area on the boat rigs for red. Throughout the movie the lights darken along with battle stations. No naval ship would reduce visibility on purpose in a heightened state. (01:31:00)
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)
Trivia: The bear that Jack Ryan brings home to his daughter is the exact same bear Bruce Willis brings to his son in Die Hard (both films were directed by John McTiernan). (02:06:00)
Trivia: The Alfa-class submarine Konovalov commanded by Captain Tupolev is named after Soviet Rear Admiral Vladimir Konovalov. In March 1945, he sunk the German luxury liner Goya in the Baltic Sea on its way to Kiel, killing 6220 East Prussian refugees out of 6385.
Jeffrey Pelt: Mr. Ryan, I'm a politician. Which means I'm a cheat and a liar and when I'm not kissing babies I'm stealing their lollipops.
Vasily Borodin: I would like to have seen Montana.
Admiral Josh Painter: This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it.
Question: When talking to Ramius via Morse code, why does Jack tell Ramius to turn south to the Laurentian Abyssal?
Answer: The trench is too deep to recover anything from the bottom of the trench. They were going to fake destroying the Red October, so they need some way to explain the lack of evidence of its destruction (because the remains were on the bottom of this deep trench).
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?
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.
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.
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Chosen answer: They use it to wipe the grease pencil markings off the screens.
We called it "the Duty Roll."