Atmospheric and tense submarine movie where sir Sean Connery steals the show as the Red October's captain. It's based on a Tom Clancy novel from the Jack Ryan saga. It also featured Alec Baldwin as the mentioned Jack Ryan, a role which later would be adopted by Harrison Ford in Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger.

The soundtrack is from Basil Poledouris, who also did Conan the Barbarian, and cinematography from Jan de Bont, whose previous work includes Die Hard and then would go on to make Speed.