Goofs for
The Hunt for Red October (1990) More at IMDbPro »

• Continuity: Captain Borodin unbuttons his top button twice after Ramius informs the officers of his plans to defect.
  
  
• Continuity: When Ryan is being put on the Dallas by the helicopter, it is raining outside. But when you look through the windscreen of the helicopter from the inside, the windshield wipers are not moving.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: Part of the studio set, a stage light, and a crew member walking on pavement are all reflected in the visor of the helicopter crew member.
  
  

• Revealing mistakes: When Jack Ryan is dragged into the Dallas after almost drowning, one of the crewman bends a valve when laying Jack on the floor.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: A Soviet crewman is shown doing a Roman Catholic rather than a Russian Orthodox cross. This is entirely possible: some parts of the USSR, such as Ramius' home republic of Lithuania, were heavily Roman Catholic.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When Jack Ryan boards the Red October for the first time, Ramius asks him (in Russian), "So you speak Russian?" Ryan answers "nemnoga" (Russian for "a little"), but this sounds like "Mnogo" (a lot).
  
  
• Factual errors: The admiral says that it will be dawn in a couple of hours, but the portholes in his stateroom are not covered. Darkened ship procedures mandate that all portholes be closed between sunset and sunrise. Additional rules apply for doors with outside access.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The story takes place in 1984, yet on a table in Ryan's apartment in London is a 1987 issue of "Proceedings".
  
  
• Factual errors: FFG 51 (USS Gary) homeported in Yokosuka, identifies herself as "Reuben James" (FFG 57), which is homeported in Pearl Harbor. Further, Reuben James was not commissioned until two years after the incident took place. (This is because both ships were used in filming.)
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: While the "brother" for Stanley the teddy bear gets more screen time, Stanley is seen briefly before Ryan leaves home. Therefore, it's correct for Stanley to be credited as himself, but the second bear is uncredited.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Envelope with the letter from Ramius to Padorin is international type of envelope, while in 1984 in Russia were used envelopes of 160mm by 115 mm size.
  
  
• Continuity: In one part of the seamount range run, one of Borodin's rank stripes is falling off his cuff. In the next shot, it is back to normal.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: Two cameramen (one in wet jeans and Soviet naval shirt/hat) and equipment (camera covered by plastic) visible during the Red October evacuation.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When Capt. Ramius is looking through the periscope, a person wearing a bright red jacket is visible briefly in the reflection. No one on the bridge was wearing red.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The Range Rover that drops Jack Ryan at the Airport is seen to have a UK "C" registration plate - this translates to a car registered between August 1985 and July 1986, at least a year after the time frame of the film.
  
  
• Continuity: When Ryan is lowered by helicopter onto the USS Dallas, the submarine actually stops moving in a couple of shots, while it is moving fast in others.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Admiral Painter is looking out onto the flight deck and says "This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it", his head and jaw movements are not consistent with the words.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: Larry Ferguson ("Chief of the Boat" Watson) is wearing a name tag that has the actor's last name on it instead of Watson.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Captain Ramius says to Jack Ryan, in Russian, "You speak Russian," he actually says the line in English, but the Russian words are dubbed on.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the aerial shot for when the Russian Alfa explodes, you can see the pyrotechnics floating in the water for a brief second before they are set off to the right side of the screen.
  
  
• Continuity: When Jack is aboard the aircraft carrier he witnesses a plane crashing onto the deck. An F-14 is shown on approach to the aircraft carrier, but the footage of the aircraft crashing is clearly not an F-14 and is obviously archival footage of a much older fighter (actually from an accident that occurred on the USS Princeton (CVA 37) during the Korean War - the plane (a Grumman F9F Panther) was attempting to land but the pilot was blinded by the setting sun, made a bad approach and crashed as shown and was killed). Following the footage of the F9F crashing into the fantail ramp, an F-14 is shown intact and upright in the barricade.
  
  
• Continuity: When Ramius gets the mission orders the instructions are to return to base by the 16th of this month. When Ryan is briefing the generals it is the 23rd of the month (the anniversary of Ramius's wife's death).
  
  
• Continuity: The crewman on the Enterprise aircraft carrier who talks to the damaged aircraft on its approach, and eventual crash is the same crewman who appears on the Reuben James frigate when the torpedo is launched from the helicopter. It is unlikely that an air traffic controller on one ship would also be a weapons specialist on another.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the helicopter scene when Ryan and the pilot are arguing about the use of the Fuel Reserve, the handwriting on the Pilot's helmet is backwards indication a flipped film.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: On the Penobscot River, while Ryan and Ramius are talking on the bridge of the Red October, just before Ryan states, "Welcome to the new world, sir," the tree line behind him can be seen through his hair, revealing that the scene was shot on a bluescreen. Also, the background seems to move along with the camera, not changing when the camera zooms in on Ryan and Ramius.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the last scene when the Red October is cruising in the river, the background never changes in relation to the camera, showing that it is in fact a bluescreen matte.
  
  
• Continuity: When Ryan is flow to the carrier, the interior shot is a C-2 COD, carrier-onboard-delivery aircraft. The exterior shot of the aircraft landing on the deck is the more common E-2 Hawkeye.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: A boom mic is visible for several seconds in the middle of the screen when the camera focuses on Courtney B. Vance a second time after the scene where Sam Neil states that he wants to live in Montana.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Ryan and Admiral Painter are watching the plane crash-land into the aircraft carrier on the screen, there is very little sound and vibration on the actual ship.
  
  
• Factual errors: Many Soviet officers are shown wearing a submarine qualification pin. Only the Commanding Officer would have one on a Soviet submarine.
  
  
• Continuity: After Ramius is shot he's holding his wound with his left hand. The camera then switches angles and he is holding his wound with his right hand. It then switches angles again and he's holding it with his left hand again.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): The scene establishing the Russian Alfa sub names its commander "Captain Tupolov" in the on-screen text. The DVD closed captions and the credits both spell his name "Tupolev".
  
  
• Factual errors: Admiral tells Ryan that he could be flown out to Dallas on a "chopper". However, in the USN we called them HELO (heelow) as did everyone else.
  
  
• Factual errors: In several scenes inside the Red October, the fire extinguishers are made by Amerex - a high quality extinguisher made in Trussville, Alabama (USA).
  
  
• Factual errors: The propeller of the submarine "Konovalov" (DVD-time 43'35" ca) is revolving in the wrong direction as if going backwards.
  
  
• Factual errors: Sonarman Jones is identified in the film's credits as "Seaman Jones". Jones's insignia indicates he is a second-class petty officer (E-5). As such, he should be addressed and identified as "Petty Officer" Jones. Sailors who rank below third-class petty officer (E-4) are addressed as "Seaman". These include seaman recruit (E-1), seaman apprentice (E-2), and seaman (E-3). Petty officers include third-class petty officer, second-class petty officer, and first-class petty officer (E-6).
  
  
• Factual errors: The SH-60 lifting off the Ruben James is shown carrying an orange torpedo. A torpedo's color indicated the torpedo's purpose. An orange torpedo indicates that is an exercise torpedo, and as such, has no explosive warhead. Thus this torpedo could not explode as shown when the admiral pressed the self-destruct button.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): During the briefing with Geoffrey Pelt, Mr. Pelt alternates between calling Jack Ryan "Mr. Ryan" and "Dr. Ryan".
  
  
• Factual errors: During the second Crazy Ivan scene, Capt. Mancuso calls for full safeties on his torpedoes due to the range. However, when the range is given once Red October is moving again, it is 300 yards. This would mean Red October would have had to have been closer than that originally because at that time Red October was moving and the Dallas wasn't. Full safeties would mean the torpedo would circle way too long allowing ample time for Red October to use countermeasures and defeat the torpedo. Also, with the range that close and the course of the Red October stated, there is no way the bearing (195) would stay constant, Jones would have reported it as variable, passing through whatever bearing at the time.
  
  
• Continuity: When Ryan is in the helicopter approaching USS Dallas the dialogue refers to the bad weather conditions making the transfer dangerous. Shots from the helicopter, however, show a completely flat sea - about as calm as it gets.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Adm. Painter is giving the Captain Ryan's biography, he says that Ryan attended the Naval Academy and was in a helicopter crash "the summer after his third year." In actuality, the Jack Ryan character attended Boston College, was commissioned into the Marine Corps via NROTC and the helicopter crash occurred while on active duty with the Atlantic Fleet Marine Force.
  
  
• Continuity: The photos of the Red October in dry dock, obtained by British intelligence, shows round doors (or rather oval, due to the shape of the hull) on the bow and stern of the submarine, but "underwater" shots of the caterpillar drive exhaust ports show them to be semi-rectangular.
  
  
• Factual errors: Admiral Painter tells Jack that if he needs him or Captain Davenport, they'll be in the CIC (Combat Information Center). However, on aircraft carriers this area is called the CDC (Combat Direction Center).
  
  
• Factual errors: When Capt Tupolov receives orders to hunt down Ramius, he orders his submarine V. K. Konovalov to a depth of 900m. Alfa Class submarines have a normal operating depth of 360m and a test depth of 800m. While speculation about an actual crush depth of 1300m exists, it would be highly unlikely for the submarine to operate at this depth, especially considering that he increases reactor output to 105%. This would make the submarines speed around 46+ knots and noisy, negating the need to operate such a depth for stealth.
  
  
• Continuity: When the Russian turbo prop drops its torpedo during Red October's range run, the ocean surface varies from being glassy flat to rough between the opening of the bay doors and wide shots of the torpedo falling.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Ramius asks Ryan (in Russian) "You speak Russian?", the Russian line Sean Connery says is "Govaryu po russki?" This means, "I speak Russian?", and is also grammatically incorrect as a question. The correct line should have been "Govariti po russki?"
  
  
• Factual errors: During scenes on the American and Soviet ships, the crews read out distances in yards and meters respectively, which is correct. When Captain Mancuso takes command of the Red October to evade the Alfa's torpedoes, the American and Russian crews call off distances in yards, not meters. The Soviet crew certainly would not have done that and the Red October's instruments would have not been calibrated to give distances in yards in any case.
  
  
• Continuity: When the cook's assistant leaves the bridge, the Russian crewman says that he has doubled forward and is tampering with missile number 20 on the port side. But when Ryan looks into the missile bay (from the only entrance at the rear), the even-numbered missiles are starboard.
  
  
• Anachronisms: At the time that the movie takes place (1984) only 2 Typhoon classes besides the fictional Red October were in service. The Dallas computer states that there are six. The other four would all be commissioned on or after December 27, 1984.
  
  
• Continuity: During the briefing, Ryan asks for a photo of Ramius to be put up on the projector. The photo appears and zooms in. In the very next shot the zoom happens again.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When seamen Jones first hears the Red October he says ..."We hit a boomer coming out of the barn" and then says "probably a missile boat out of Polijarny." In U.S. submarine slang 'boomer' means a missile boat and 'the barn' was slang for the Polijarny inlet in Russia. Seaman Jones repeated himself, obviously for the understanding of the audience but not something that would be done on a U.S. missile sub.
  
  
• Factual errors: During the briefing for the Joint Chiefs Admiral Greer is wearing an ID badge displaying a security clearance of 'Q'. This designation, however, is a DOE clearance level issued only to non-military personnel.
  
  
• Anachronisms: As Ryan is packing at the beginning of the movie, he is shown closing a clamshell-style laptop displaying rotating Typhoon images. There were no laptops available in 1984 with this type of high resolution back-lit LCD display.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When the second torpedo is fired at the Red October by the Russian Alpha sub, Capt. Ramius (Sean Connery) orders the Red October to change course to heading 315. Several characters are astonished by this order. They indicate that this will turn Red October into the oncoming torpedo. This is often regarded incorrect, as it is understood that the torpedo is traveling on the same course as the new heading (i.e. 315). However, the sonar officer did report the torpedo as being on _bearing_ 315, not course, which indicates that Captain's choice of course, is, in fact correct, as to reach an item on bearing 315 you need to take a course of 315 (by the definition). As the torpedo is making (roughly) a beeline to the target sub, it can be easily calculated that it is traveling on course of 135 (i.e. the opposite of 315), and both the sub and the torpedo are going to be on a collision course.
  
  
• Factual errors: The "caterpillar" drive is described as being silent or near silent, so stopping the propellers and engaging it would have the same effect as simply stopping the propellers. This should have indicated to the Dallas crew that the Red October had stopped and not vanished as if the drive emitted a cloud of silence.
  
  
• Factual errors: One well-known scene from the book involves a gun battle inside the submarine in the missile room where two characters take potshots at each other peeking from behind ballistic missile tubes. Typhoon class submarines are not designed this way; the missile silos are between the two pressure hulls and are inaccessible to personnel. It is, however, the way US Polaris class SSBN is designed, and Clancy likely assumed at the time (1984) that the Russian submarine was designed in the same manner. (This being still a time of the Soviet Union's existence, there was no way for him to have obtained the information.)
  
  
• Continuity: In the scene where Ramius orders a delay in turning the Red October in the underwater canyon during their run in "Red Route One" after the chasing Alpha fired it's torpedo at it, the navigator protests that they must turn immediately or they'll hit the wall of the canyon. Ramius orders him to be relieved but you never see another crew member takeover at his post and he, in fact, remains at his post.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): During the briefing in the sub-level 4 of the White House, Dr. Ryan makes it patently clear towards the end of his lecture that Ramius is Lithuanian, "raised by his paternal grandparents" and not Russian. Yet, after Mr. Pelt dismisses everyone but Ryan, Mr. Pelt says, "assuming you're right and this Russian intends to defect...", when he specifically heard Ryan say that Ramius is Lithuanian.
  
  
• Plot holes: The caterpillar is described as a near silent drive which will be a potential war winner for the Russians since it cannot be detected by enemy sonar. But the very first American submarine to run into the Red October easily figures out a way to track it, rendering the drive's use pointless.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the situation room briefing there are pictures that are show Capitan Ramius standing with high ranking Russian officials at a celebration. When shown close up it you see the text Typhoon Class (referring to the submarine) in English. If this was in Russia it would have been in Russian.
  
  

• Revealing mistakes: SPOILER: When the Konavolov explosion is seen on the surface, an obvious orange flame is visible at the center. But at the depth the subs were maneuvering, no flame could have broken the surface.
  
  
• Plot holes: SPOILER: When the caterpillar drive is first sabotaged it is remarked that whoever did it "knew how to cripple a caterpillar in a way not easy to find." However, when the saboteur is revealed it is shown to be a cook. In the book it is explained that the cook is really an undercover KGB agent, which presumably explains his special knowledge of the caterpillar drive, but this information is missing from the movie, leaving viewers to wonder how a mere cook was able to sabotage the sophisticated drive.
  
  

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