The Hunt for Red October 4K UHD (1990)

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by Deathbymonkeys

CAPD is my favorite but I think Hunt for Red October is an example of a perfect movie. Top 10 of all time imo.

Absolutely. Between Baldwin, Jones, Connery, and Neil it's a bonafide classic. The blonde sonar officer also hams up it up quite nicely:

"High speed screw. Torpedo in the water. Bearing 315."

Let's also not forget Skarsgard:

"These orders are 7 bloody hours old! Sitting on the bottom like an addled schoolboy."

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Zechs Merquise

I prefer Clear and Present Danger, actually.

If only Harrison Ford had done Red October. It would've been perfect

It would still have been a great film, but it would've been a different film. Ford as the wet behind the ears Ryan wasn't gonna happen, Arec Baldwin on the other hand is just right IMO.

[IndyMLVC]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

It would still have been a great film, but it would've been a different film. Ford as the wet behind the ears Ryan wasn't gonna happen, Arec Baldwin on the other hand is just right IMO.

Agreed. Never thought about that. Harrison is 15 years older than Alec and never really gave the impression that he was wet behind the ears in any of his performances. Aside from Regarding Henry, he is the personification of strength.

[Zechs Merquise]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

Absolutely. Between Baldwin, Jones, Connery, and Neil it's a bonafide classic. The blonde sonar officer also hams up it up quite nicely:

"High speed screw. Torpedo in the water. Bearing 315."

Let's also not forget Skarsgard:

"These orders are 7 bloody hours old! Sitting on the bottom like an addled schoolboy."

Not just them but Scott Glenn, Courtney B Vance, Tim Curry, Joss Ackland. So many great actors in that film.

The only reason I say Harrison Ford should have done it is, again, he did the other two and the producers wanted him in the first place. Also I think it would've been interesting to see him work alongside Sean Connery again. But Baldwin was a great Jack Ryan and I suppose, alternately, Baldwin should've done the other two

[punisher]

Ford would have made an Indiana Jones /action type movie as he did with Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger. The books weren't written that way. That's why Baldwin's performance is so much better. He wanted more money from what I understand and priced himself out of the sequels. Too bad.

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by punisher

Ford would have made an Indiana Jones /action type movie as he did with Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger. The books weren't written that way. That's why Baldwin's performance is so much better. He wanted more money from what I understand and priced himself out of the sequels. Too bad.

That's not surprising. Baldwin has always had an ego issue.

[IndyMLVC]

Originally Posted by punisher

Ford would have made an Indiana Jones /action type movie as he did with Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger. The books weren't written that way. That's why Baldwin's performance is so much better. He wanted more money from what I understand and priced himself out of the sequels. Too bad.

Incorrect.

According to Alec: "The truth is the studio cut my throat... John McTiernan, who directed The Hunt For Red October... told me that he had been negotiating to do a film with a very famous movie star who had dropped out of his film days before so that he could go star in the sequels to The Hunt For Red October. John further told me that Paramount owed the actor a large sum of money for a greenlit film that fell apart prior to this, and pushing me aside would help to alleviate that debt and put someone with much greater strength at the box office than mine in the role. I had to decide if I would agree to an open-ended clause relating to dates for the first sequel and thus completely give up the chance to do one of the greatest dramas in the American theatre [A Streetcar Named Desire], or he would rescind my offer. They had the other guy all lined up, and they were looking for a way to gut me."

The movie Harrison was supposed to do was Night Ride Down.

According to Paramount:

Fundamentally, the reason that Alec Baldwin and I ended our relationship over the character of the Jack Ryan franchise was an issue of trust. We did not trust one another to continue in the enterprise. The negotiations to continue as Jack Ryan had drawn out for almost a year and he was nervous over controls... Alec Baldwin withdrew from the project, Patriot Games, over an issue of script approval: I wanted him to approve a script and he refused. We amicably parted ways.

[Zechs Merquise]

Originally Posted by punisher

Ford would have made an Indiana Jones /action type movie as he did with Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger. The books weren't written that way. That's why Baldwin's performance is so much better. He wanted more money from what I understand and priced himself out of the sequels. Too bad.

That's the way I always heard it. The studio wanted Ford for Red October but they couldn't afford him, so they got Baldwin. When the sequel rolled around Baldwin developed the massive ego he is now (in)famous for and demanded an exorbitant amount of money to star in the sequel. The studio said 'For that amount of money we could just get Harrison Ford'. So that's what they did.

Originally Posted by IndyMLVC

Incorrect.

Eh, Baldwin himself isn't exactly the most trustworthy

[CreasyBear]

Baldwin remains the best Jack Ryan, despite Ford's great turn. Hell, I even liked Affleck.

[DrWally]

Originally Posted by punisher

Ford would have made an Indiana Jones /action type movie as he did with Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger. The books weren't written that way. That's why Baldwin's performance is so much better. He wanted more money from what I understand and priced himself out of the sequels. Too bad.

Baldwin was absolutely perfect for Hunt For Red October, yes, but it's impossible to imagine him in Patriot Games as it was ultimately made. The more simplistic good vs. evil dynamics of the story required a very different kind of Jack Ryan. You simply can't ROOT for Alec Baldwin like you can for Harrison Ford.

Patriot Games needed a Movie Star and got one.

[IndyMLVC]

Originally Posted by Zechs Merquise

Eh, Baldwin himself isn't exactly the most trustworthy

OK. Well, Paramount doesn't say anything about it being over $$ either.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by DrWally

Baldwin was absolutely perfect for Hunt For Red October, yes, but it's impossible to imagine him in Patriot Games as it was ultimately made. The more simplistic good vs. evil dynamics of the story required a very different kind of Jack Ryan. You simply can't ROOT for Alec Baldwin like you can for Harrison Ford.

Patriot Games needed a Movie Star and got one.

I disagree. For one thing, it would have been scripted & shot differently had he been involved.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by Zechs Merquise

That's the way I always heard it. The studio wanted Ford for Red October but they couldn't afford him, so they got Baldwin. When the sequel rolled around Baldwin developed the massive ego he is now (in)famous for and demanded an exorbitant amount of money to star in the sequel. The studio said 'For that amount of money we could just get Harrison Ford'. So that's what they did.

I'm pretty sure I read in an interview with someone associated with the films (I can't remember who) that another difficulty with Ford on the first film was that he felt the role of Ramius was really the star role, that it totally overshadowed Jack Ryan. (He was right about that.) I believe the person even said Ford wanted to play Ramius instead of Ryan, and that was part of why he chose to later play a Soviet submarine captain in K19.

[JohnCarpenterLives]

Originally Posted by IndyMLVC

Patriot Games is the best Ryan film - hands down. Adore the score. It's got a quintessential Harrison Ford finger-wagging. I love it so much.

I don't recall a ton about Patriot Games, but isn't the main motivation

[Show spoiler]for Sean Bean to go after Ford the fact that Ford or his wife saw Bean's face?
Bean the terrorist?

[IndyMLVC]

Originally Posted by JohnCarpenterLives

I don't recall a ton about Patriot Games, but isn't the main motivation

[Show spoiler]for Sean Bean to go after Ford the fact that Ford or his wife saw Bean's face?
Bean the terrorist?

Nope. Everyone knows he did it. He's arrested on the scene. It's in the trailer.

Originally Posted by James Luckard

I'm pretty sure I read in an interview with someone associated with the films (I can't remember who) that another difficulty with Ford on the first film was that he felt the role of Ramius was really the star role, that it totally overshadowed Jack Ryan. (He was right about that.) I believe the person even said Ford wanted to play Ramius instead of Ryan, and that was part of why he chose to later play a Soviet submarine captain in K19.

Correct. Harrison said as much in many interviews. If he were going to play anyone, it would have been Ramius, which he wasn't old enough for. And considering how Clancy treated him, he's better off doing the 2 he did and getting out.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by JohnCarpenterLives

I don't recall a ton about Patriot Games, but isn't the main motivation

[Show spoiler]for Sean Bean to go after Ford the fact that Ford or his wife saw Bean's face?
Bean the terrorist?

[Show spoiler]No. It was revenge for Ford killing his younger brother during the assassination attempt.

[punisher]

Originally Posted by DrWally

Baldwin was absolutely perfect for Hunt For Red October, yes, but it's impossible to imagine him in Patriot Games as it was ultimately made. The more simplistic good vs. evil dynamics of the story required a very different kind of Jack Ryan. You simply can't ROOT for Alec Baldwin like you can for Harrison Ford.

Patriot Games needed a Movie Star and got one.

yeah and a ridiculous boat chase scene ending befitting Harrison Ford but not Jack Ryan, and not in the book. ..but yeah the franchise got a box office star and the bookworm became an action figure....

[IndyMLVC]

Originally Posted by punisher

yeah and a ridiculous boat chase scene ending befitting Harrison Ford but not Jack Ryan, and not in the book. ..but yeah the franchise got a box office star and the bookworm became an action figure....

Those books are all drastically different from their films. So was Jaws. How often do they directly follow the book?

You can't single out Patriot Games and as if it's the sole example of some egregious thing.

[DrWally]

Originally Posted by punisher

yeah and a ridiculous boat chase scene ending befitting Harrison Ford but not Jack Ryan, and not in the book. ..but yeah the franchise got a box office star and the bookworm became an action figure....

Well yeah, both the Ford movies were very much reconfigured as Ford vehicles (Jack Ryan doesn't even appear in the novel of Clear And Present Danger for over 200 pages of I'm not mistaken and isn't really the lead), but that's not necessarily a problem with the movies themselves.

However I can absolutely imagine an early-90's Baldwin in The Sum Of All Fears as a Jack Ryan who still has to fight to prove himself, and kind of lament that the movie was ultimately made too late and with the wrong star.

[david_blu]

Originally Posted by DrWally

Well yeah, both the Ford movies were very much reconfigured as Ford vehicles (Jack Ryan doesn't even appear in the novel of Clear And Present Danger for over 200 pages of I'm not mistaken and isn't really the lead), but that's not necessarily a problem with the movies themselves.

However I can absolutely imagine an early-90's Baldwin in The Sum Of All Fears as a Jack Ryan who still has to fight to prove himself, and kind of lament that the movie was ultimately made too late and with the wrong star.

I mean you kind of have to suspend your disbelief a bit on technology changes and watch them in this order then it works:

Shadow Recruit
Sum of all Fears
The Hunt For Red October
Patriot Games
Clear and Present Danger

In that order it just about works, though you can skip Shadow Recruit and not really miss much.
You kind of need a Shadow Recruit/Sum of all Fears edit that combines the best bits of Shadow and then morphs into All Fears with some sort of time jump.