The Hunt for Red October (1990)

Ben Hartigan: Admiral (Briefing)

Quotes 

• Judge Moore (Briefing) : Before sailing, Captain Ramius sent a letter to Admiral Yuri Padorin, chairman of the Red Fleet, northern political directorate.

  Jack Ryan : [quietly to Greer]  That's her uncle.

  Admiral James Greer : Whose uncle?

  Jack Ryan : Ramius' wife. Padorin's her uncle.

  Judge Moore (Briefing) : Now, the contents of the letter are unknown, but Admiral Padorin immediately demanded a meeting with Premier Cherenenko, and within minutes of that meeting, the Soviet fleet sailed with orders to find Red October... and sink her.

  Jeffrey Pelt : Sink her?

  Admiral (Briefing) : Oh, my god, they've got a madman on their hands.

• Jack Ryan : The last 24 hours have seen some extraordinary Soviet naval activity. The first to sail was this ship, we believe called the Red October, in reference to the October Revolution of 1917. A variant of the Typhoon class, she's some 650 feet long and 32,000 tons submerged displacement; roughly the same size as a World War II aircraft carrier. We believe that these doors, here on the bow and again on the stern, enclose a unique propulsion system - a magneto-hydrodynamic drive, or caterpillar, that would enable the sub to run virtually silent. It is possible that this new drive system allowed the captain, a man named Ramius, their senior and perhaps most respected commander...

  [to an aide] 

  Jack Ryan : Do we have his picture available?

  [turning back to Pelt and the others] 

  Jack Ryan : ...allowed Ramius to elude one of our attack boats, the Dallas, which trailed Red October from harbor this morning. It is also possible that this drive system, if operable, could render the Red October undetectable to our SOSUS warning nets in the Atlantic.

  Jeffrey Pelt : Mr. Ryan, would you characterize this as a first-strike weapon?

  Jack Ryan : Uh, that is a possibility, sir. Uh, it is designed to approach by stealth and to shower its target with multiple independent warheads with little or no warning before impact.

  Admiral (Briefing) : God damn thing's made to start a war.

  Jeffrey Pelt : Proceed, Mr. Ryan.

  Jack Ryan : About the same time the Dallas lost contact, there were additional sailings from Polijarny and from Leningrad on the Baltic and from the Mediterranean. There are now some 58 nuclear submarines headed at high speed into the Atlantic. This afternoon, a satellite pass over Polijarny found heat blooms in the engineering plants at the Kirov, the Minsk, and more than 20 other cruisers and destroyers, indicating they were preparing to sail. This constitutes the bulk of the Soviet surface fleet.

  Jeffrey Pelt : Admiral Greer, your conclusions?

  Admiral James Greer : Well, sir, the data support no conclusions as yet. The absence of activity in the Pacific suggests this could be just an exercise. It may have nothing to do...

  General (Briefing) : Suppose it's not an exercise? Suppose this is the beginning of a move against NATO?