The Hunt for Red October (film) be destroyed by its own fired torpedo. The crew of "Red October", now rescued, watch the explosion from the deck of the U.S. frigate; unaware of the second Soviet submarine, they believe that Ramius has sacrificed himself and scuttled "Red October" to avoid being boarded. Ryan and Ramius, their subterfuge complete, navigate "Red October" to the Penobscot River in Maine. Ramius admits that the reason he defected was that after he was handed the plans for "Red October", a nuclear war first strike weapon, he concluded that he could never support such an action. From atop the submarine's sail deck,
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,