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 novel as "the most satisfactory novel of a sea chase since C.S. Forester perfected the form". Due to an extensive marketing campaign by the Naval Institute Press for their first published work of fiction, which was initially aimed on the military, the book sold 45,000 copies by March 1985. Clancy said in a 1991 interview: “I thought we’d sell maybe five thousand or ten thousand hardcovers and that would be the end of it. I never really thought about making money.” After Reagan's endorsement, "The Hunt for Red October" topped the national bestseller lists, particularly "The New York Times". It