The Hunt for Red October

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The Hunt for Red October Goofs/Mistakes

Movie Goof (revealing mistake): When Ryan and Admiral Painter are watching the plane crash-land into the aircraft carrier on the screen, there is very little sound and vibration on the actual ship.
Movie Goof (factual errors): The Medals on Captain Ramius and others are US decorations, not Soviet. It is highly unlikely that a Russian sailor was awarded a National Defense Service Medal among others he is wearing.
Movie Goof (continuity error): The crewman on the Enterprise aircraft carrier who talks to the damaged aircraft on its approach, and eventual crash is the same crewman who appears on the Reuben James frigate when the torpedo is launched from the helicopter. It is unlikely that an air traffic controller on one ship would also be a weapons specialist on another.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): Envelope with the letter from Ramius to Padorin is international type of envelope, while in 1984 in Russia were used envelopes of 160mm by 115 mm size.
Movie Goof (incorrectly regarded as a mistake): A Soviet crewman is shown doing a Roman Catholic rather than a Russian Orthodox cross. This is entirely possible: some parts of the USSR, such as Ramius' home republic of Lithuania, were heavily Roman Catholic.
Movie Goof (errors made by characters, possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When informing Jack Ryan about the caterpillar drive, Skip Tyler comments that when he was a kid he helped his father build a bomb shelter due to the Cuban Missile Crisis. However, The Hunt For Red October is set a mere 22 years after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Assuming that Skip is the same age as the actor who plays him he would have been in his twenties at the time of the crisis. Hardly a "kid" even if he came home and helped his father build the shelter.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): During the aerial shot for when the Russian Alfa explodes, you can see the pyrotechnics floating in the water for a brief second before they are set off to the right side of the screen.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): In the situation room briefing there are pictures that are show Capitan Ramius standing with high ranking Russian officials at a celebration. When shown close up it you see the text Typhoon Class (referring to the submarine) in English. If this was in Russia it would have been in Russian.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): When Jack Ryan is dragged into the Dallas after almost drowning, one of the crewman bends a valve when laying Jack on the floor.
Movie Goof (errors made by characters, possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When we see Ryan in a plane for the first time, he declares being highly bothered by turbulence. The stewardess replies 'pardon?' and Ryan explains what 'turbulence' means. No one who has ever flown, let alone flying personnel, ignores what 'turbulence' is.
Movie Goof (factual errors): Sonarman Jones is identified in the film's credits as "Seaman Jones". Jones's insignia indicates he is a second-class petty officer (E-5). As such, he should be addressed and identified as "Petty Officer" Jones. Sailors who rank below third-class petty officer (E-4) are addressed as "Seaman". These include seaman recruit (E-1), seaman apprentice (E-2), and seaman (E-3). Petty officers include third-class petty officer, second-class petty officer, and first-class petty officer (E-6).
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): At the end of the film, when Ryan and Ramius are talking as the Red October goes up the river, the moon is behind each of them, that is, over both sides of the river.
Movie Goof (continuity error): The photos of the Red October in dry dock, obtained by British intelligence, shows round doors (or rather oval, due to the shape of the hull) on the bow and stern of the submarine, but "underwater" shots of the caterpillar drive exhaust ports show them to be semi-rectangular.
Movie Goof (crew or equipment visible): Part of the studio set, a stage light, and a crew member walking on pavement are all reflected in the visor of the helicopter crew member.
Movie Goof (continuity error): In one part of the seamount range run, one of Borodin's rank stripes is falling off his cuff. In the next shot, it is back to normal.
Movie Goof (factual errors): When Ryan is aboard the aircraft carrier, he is shown in the shower with water running continually. On a ship at sea fresh water is at a premium and "water hours" are often observed. Sailors are taught to "wet down, soap down and rinse down." As a graduate of the Naval Academy who had been on deployments, Ryan would have known this and would never have left the water running for that length of time.
Movie Goof (factual errors): FFG 51 (USS Gary) homeported in Yokosuka, identifies herself as "Reuben James" (FFG 57), which is homeported in Pearl Harbor. Further, Reuben James was not commissioned until two years after the incident took place. (This is because both ships were used in filming.)
Movie Goof (errors in geography): In the beginning of the movie, Jack Ryan leaves London at night and arrives Washington, D.C. during the day. Assuming he would fly non-stop, this is impossible.
Movie Goof (factual errors): Admiral Painter tells Jack that if he needs him or Captain Davenport, they'll be in the CIC (Combat Information Center). However, on aircraft carriers this area is called the CDC (Combat Direction Center).
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): On the Penobscot River, while Ryan and Ramius are talking on the bridge of the Red October, just before Ryan states, "Welcome to the new world, sir," the tree line behind him can be seen through his hair, revealing that the scene was shot on a bluescreen. Also, the background seems to move along with the camera, not changing when the camera zooms in on Ryan and Ramius.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): The Range Rover that drops Jack Ryan at the Airport is seen to have a UK "C" registration plate - this translates to a car registered between August 1985 and July 1986, at least a year after the time frame of the film.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): The story takes place in 1984, yet on a table in Ryan's apartment in London is a 1987 issue of "Proceedings".
Movie Goof (factual errors): When Mr. Thompson orders battle stations on the Dallas, the ship's lights turn blue, instead of red like they should. Blue lights would indicate a power failure.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): At the time that the movie takes place (1984) only 2 Typhoon classes besides the fictional Red October were in service. The Dallas computer states that there are six. The other four would all be commissioned on or after December 27, 1984.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): When the Red October puts to sea, and the crew members are singing the Russian National Anthem, it's clear that Sean Connery hasn't learned the song. He fakes it very well, but if you look closely, you can see he doesn't know it.
Movie Goof (continuity error): When the Russian turbo prop drops its torpedo during Red October's range run, the ocean surface varies from being glassy flat to rough between the opening of the bay doors and wide shots of the torpedo falling.
Movie Goof (incorrectly regarded as a mistake): While the "brother" for Stanley the teddy bear gets more screen time, Stanley is seen briefly before Ryan leaves home. Therefore, it's correct for Stanley to be credited as himself, but the second bear is uncredited.
Movie Goof (continuity error): When Jack is aboard the aircraft carrier he witnesses a plane crashing onto the deck. An F-14 is shown on approach to the aircraft carrier, but the footage of the aircraft crashing is clearly not an F-14 and is obviously archival footage of a much older fighter (actually from an accident that occurred on the USS Princeton (CVA 37) during the Korean War - the plane (a Grumman F9F Panther) was attempting to land but the pilot was blinded by the setting sun, made a bad approach and crashed as shown and was killed). Following the footage of the F9F crashing into the fantail ramp, an F-14 is shown intact and upright in the barricade.
Movie Goof (crew or equipment visible): When Tupolew's submarine arrives, there's an exterior shot of the evacuated crew with sky overcast. Studio lights are reflected in an elder crew member's glasses.
Movie Goof (factual errors): When underway in such clandestine situations, submarines never go active on sonar, as it compromises their stealth and allows for easy detection from great distances. When Red October and Dallas are communicating at periscope depth, Red October twice signals confirmation to Dallas with "one ping". Considering that, both the U.S. and Soviet fleet were closing in and ready to kill Red October, the acoustic enormity of those two sonar pings would have clearly meant the coup-de-grace for Red October.
Movie Goof (continuity error): When Ramius gets the mission orders the instructions are to return to base by the 16th of this month. When Ryan is briefing the generals it is the 23rd of the month (the anniversary of Ramius's wife's death).
Movie Goof (continuity error): Captain Borodin unbuttons his top button twice after Ramius informs the officers of his plans to defect.
Movie Goof (factual errors): One well-known scene from the book involves a gun battle inside the submarine in the missile room where two characters take potshots at each other peeking from behind ballistic missile tubes. Typhoon class submarines are not designed this way; the missile silos are between the two pressure hulls and are inaccessible to personnel. It is, however, the way US Polaris class SSBN is designed, and Clancy likely assumed at the time (1984) that the Russian submarine was designed in the same manner. (This being still a time of the Soviet Union's existence, there was no way for him to have obtained the information.)
Movie Goof (continuity error): When Ryan is lowered by helicopter onto the USS Dallas, the submarine actually stops moving in a couple of shots, while it is moving fast in others.
Movie Goof (continuity error): When Ryan is flow to the carrier, the interior shot is a C-2 COD, carrier-onboard-delivery aircraft. The exterior shot of the aircraft landing on the deck is the more common E-2 Hawkeye.
Movie Goof (continuity error): Two torpedoes are dropped from American aircraft at different times in the vicinity of the Red October. The same footage is used for each different torpedo. As they enter the water, the splash is identical for each.
Movie Goof (miscellaneous): Larry Ferguson ("Chief of the Boat" Watson) is wearing a name tag that has the actor's last name on it instead of Watson.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): As Ryan is packing at the beginning of the movie, he is shown closing a clamshell-style laptop displaying rotating Typhoon images. There were no laptops available in 1984 with this type of high resolution back-lit LCD display.
Movie Goof (errors made by characters, possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): During the briefing with Geoffrey Pelt, Mr. Pelt alternates between calling Jack Ryan "Mr. Ryan" and "Dr. Ryan".
Movie Goof (crew or equipment visible): When Capt. Ramius is looking through the periscope, a person wearing a bright red jacket is visible briefly in the reflection. No one on the bridge was wearing red.
Movie Goof (factual errors): During the briefing for the Joint Chiefs Admiral Greer is wearing an ID badge displaying a security clearance of 'Q'. This designation, however, is a DOE clearance level issued only to non-military personnel.
Movie Goof (audio/visual unsynchronized): When Admiral Painter is looking out onto the flight deck and says "This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it", his head and jaw movements are not consistent with the words.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): In the opening text the Russian version of text "The Hunt for Red October" is misspelled. There is a latin I in word "Oktyabr" replacing the cyrillic I (similar than inverted letter N in latin alphabet).
Movie Goof (factual errors): During the NSA briefing, Ryan states that it will take Red October four days to get within missile firing range. In fact, its RSM-52 SLBMs had a range of 8,250 km, meaning they could basically be fired while the sub was still 'moored at its pier' in Poliyaniji, although that fact might not have been publicly known in the west at the time of filming (and any missile sub commander would prefer getting closer to his potential target.)
Movie Goof (factual errors): When Capt Tupolov receives orders to hunt down Ramius, he orders his submarine V. K. Konovalov to a depth of 900m. Alfa Class submarines have a normal operating depth of 360m and a test depth of 800m. While speculation about an actual crush depth of 1300m exists, it would be highly unlikely for the submarine to operate at this depth, especially considering that he increases reactor output to 105%. This would make the submarines speed around 46+ knots and noisy, negating the need to operate such a depth for stealth.
Movie Goof (continuity error): When the cook's assistant leaves the bridge, the Russian crewman says that he has doubled forward and is tampering with missile number 20 on the port side. But when Ryan looks into the missile bay (from the only entrance at the rear), the even-numbered missiles are starboard.
Movie Goof (factual errors): The admiral says that it will be dawn in a couple of hours, but the portholes in his stateroom are not covered. Darkened ship procedures mandate that all portholes be closed between sunset and sunrise. Additional rules apply for doors with outside access.
Movie Goof (continuity error): In the scene where Ramius orders a delay in turning the Red October in the underwater canyon during their run in "Red Route One" after the chasing Alpha fired it's torpedo at it, the navigator protests that they must turn immediately or they'll hit the wall of the canyon. Ramius orders him to be relieved but you never see another crew member takeover at his post and he, in fact, remains at his post.
Movie Goof (crew or equipment visible): A boom mic is visible for several seconds in the middle of the screen when the camera focuses on Courtney B. Vance a second time after the scene where Sam Neil states that he wants to live in Montana.
Movie Goof (audio/visual unsynchronized): When Captain Ramius says to Jack Ryan, in Russian, "You speak Russian," he actually says the line in English, but the Russian words are dubbed on.