The Hunt for Red October meltdown. Ramius and his officers stay behind, claiming they are about to scuttle the submarine to prevent it getting into the hands of the Americans. A decommissioned U.S. ballistic missile submarine, , is blown up underwater as a deception. A depth gauge taken from the main instrument panel of "Red October" (with the appropriate serial number) is made to appear as if it had been salvaged from the wreckage. Meanwhile, Ryan, Captain Mancuso, some of his crew, and Owen Williams (a Russian-speaking British officer from "Invincible") board "Red October" and meet Ramius face-to-face. The deception efforts succeed in convincing Soviet
The Hunt for Red October sales qualifying the bestseller lists from mass market paperback back to hardcover, a trend that other “brand-name” authors such as Stephen King, Clive Cussler, Michael Crichton, and Danielle Steel would later follow. On April 20, 2018, "The Hunt for Red October" was included in the list of 100 most-loved books in the U.S., compiled by PBS as part of their new series and multi-platform initiative "The Great American Read". The book appeared in a fake commercial ad serving as a teaser trailer for the third season of the Netflix web television series "Stranger Things", which was released on July 16,