45. The Hunt for Red October – Battle Stations

“Be careful what you shoot at. Most things in here don’t react too well to bullets.”

Director John McTiernan’s 1990 fond look back at the Cold War culminates in the sub battle to end all sub battles. Screenwriter Larry Ferguson preserves the tension created by Tom Clancy’s conceit of having our beloved typhoon class attacked simultaneously from within and without.

Another unusual aspect to this sequence is the idea of having three heroes. Russian Captain Ramius (Sean Fucking Connery), American Captain Mancuso (Scott Glenn) and perennial Clancy protagonist Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin, never looking more like Daniel) all get their little moments to shine, though none come off better, obviously, than Ramius.

Here’s a small demonstration of Ramius’ bad-assery from the sequence. He’s so already moved on to the next thing in his mind while heading into a torpedo that he can take a moment to talk shit about a book Ryan wrote.

Another key element to making this chess match work is the coordination of cinematographer Jan de Bont (not the last time we’ll see him and McTiernan together on this list) and production designer Terence Marsh on giving each of the three subs (another distinction from your typical sub scene) a unique look so that audiences wouldn’t be confused as they cut from sub to sub.

Admittedly, the fx aren’t superb, but they get the point across. And I still get a chill every time that Russian COB says to a young Stellan Skarsgård, “You arrogant ass! You’ve killed us!”

By the way, that’s actual Navy sub the USS Houston doing that emergency surfacing “blow” in the film. Apparently, they did about 40 during filming.

See also: The rest of Hunt, Jack Sparrow vs. Davey Jones while the Black Pearl vs. the Flying Dutchman in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, pretty much all of Das Boot, Crimson Tide and U-571.

Next: A pants-free action sequence.