The Hunt for Red October (film) 100 Years...100 Thrills. The Hunt for Red October (film) The Hunt for Red October is a 1990 American espionage submarine film produced by Mace Neufeld, directed by John McTiernan, that stars Sean Connery, Alec Baldwin, Scott Glenn, James Earl Jones, and Sam Neill. The film is based on Tom Clancy's 1984 bestselling novel of the same name. The story is set during the late Cold War era and involves a rogue Soviet naval captain who wishes to defect to the United States with his officers and the Soviet Navy's newest and most advanced nuclear missile submarine. An American CIA analyst
The Hunt for Red October Writers. "No one encapsulated the mindset and mentality of the Reagan era more, as the Cold War was heating up for the last time and we were entering a new age of modern warfare. Clancy's books tapped into our fears and helped define our psyches, even as he reinvigorated the thriller genre by bringing millions of new readers into the fold.” The book was instrumental in restoring confidence in the American military and government, which had endured a bitter defeat in Vietnam War and foreign policy failures during the late 1970s. The book also led to a shift in book