The Hunt for Red October vessel. It is equipped with a cutting-edge silent propulsion system, known as the caterpillar drive, that makes audio detection by passive sonar extremely difficult and enables the submarine to sneak its way into American offshore waters and launch nuclear missiles with little or no warning. As the ship leaves the shipyard at Polyarny, Ramius kills Ivan Putin, his political officer, to ensure that he will not interfere with the defection. Initially, Ramius was instructed to conduct military exercises with Soviet attack submarine "V. K. Konovalov", commanded by his former student Viktor Tupolev, for the purpose of testing the effectiveness of
The Hunt for Red October (film) unreleased end titles. "The Hunt for Red October" opened in 1,225 theaters on March 2, 1990, grossing $17 million on its opening weekend, more than half its budget. The film opened at number one at the U.S. box office and remained there for three weeks. Its opening was the 20th biggest weekend of all time and the biggest non-summer, non-Thanksgiving weekend to date. The film went on to gross $122,012,643 in North America with a worldwide total of $200,512,643. , the film held an 88% rating at the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 69 critics. At Metacritic, which