When a renegade Russian submarine captain (Sean Connery) disappears into the North Atlantic with Russia's latest technical marvel, it is at first assumed that he intends to start a war. That is, after all, what the Red Octoberwas designed to do. But at least one person, Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin), believes differently.
He has studied Marko Ramius, and he has even met him once before, and he doesn't think that he would do something like that. In fact, Jack thinks that he's trying to defect. There are just two problems with that. First, anyone with a multi-billion dollar war machine may do just about anything that they want. And second, this machine just happens to have a super-secret caterpillar drive that means they can't be tracked in any traditional way, so finding him is another thing entirely.
When Jack reports to his superiors about the photos of the drive, it's just a standard report - but when Mother Russia mentions that the submarine is suddenly missing and they think that the commander may have hostile intentions, Jack is called in to brief the Joint Chiefs on what they may be facing. When he tells them that he thinks Ramius might be trying to defect, he has three days to find him and prove his theory. Or else they'll have to blow him out of the water. Just in case.
I forgot to mention that Jack doesn't like flying. Not even on commercial airliners. And to get close to where they think the Red October is located, he has to land on an aircraft carrier. Once there, he gets to see first-hand what happens if something goes wrong in spectacular fashion. But that's just half of it. Once he hears about a US submarine that thinks it has found the Red October, he wants to get on board - but it means a hair-raising ride on board a rescue helicopter in rough seas. Since that's the only way to find Ramius, he takes the ride.
Once there, he has to convince the commander of his theory, and somehow manages to do so. When he does, they then have to communicate with Ramius, which they do via Morse Code on the periscope lights. Very creative, actually. The next problem is getting the crew off of the Red October without them suspecting that the Americans have the boat (or Ramius and his trusted staff).
They move to a deep part of the ocean, where the US shoots a torpedo at the boat, and explode it prior to impact. But before wrapping things up, another Russain sub shows up to sink the Red October, so an underwater fight ensues. It's all quite exciting, and makes for a nice wrap-up to the story. The only bad part to the whole thing is the horrible job of imposing the images of the actors during the final few minutes of the movie.
Rated PG for intense action and mild language.
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