Jump to content

The Hunt for Red October (novel): Difference between revisions

no edit summary
No edit summary
Line 45:
* [[Hot Sub-On-Sub Action]]
* [[If I Wanted You Dead...]]: The Americans, being understandably nervous about the Soviet fleet off their shores, give them several such moments, with the [[Moment of Awesome (Sugar Wiki)|Crowning Moment of Awesome]] being {{spoiler|having four A-10 Warthogs zoom in under the radar horizon and box the ''Kirov'' with flares}}.
* [[It's Personal]]: In the book Ramius' main motive was to punish the state for the fact that his wife had died in a botched operation directed by a surgeon who had got the job from [[Upper Class Twit|Party Patronage]] ''and'' had been [[Drinking On Duty]]. The movie emphasized his desire to prevent nuclear war; perhaps it was quite reasonably felt that the audience would prefer a more grand motive for treason than revenge even if it was treason against an enemy.
** Not only was his wife's routine operation botched, but the "antibiotics" given to correct the botch were Soviet-manufactured "bonus" drugs. (In Clancy's version of the USSR at least, the workers are given a bonus for exceeding quota, and those products produced just to make quota were often poor or fraudulent, bypassing quality control completely). Further, what he considers the greatest crime is the State's suppression of religion that robbed him of a "hope, even if it was a lie" of seeing his wife again.
** This plot device has come in for some criticism from Russian readers after the end of the Cold War, as commanding a nuclear missile submarine was a post of considerable responsibility and prestige; a surgeon who killed such an individual's wife through medical negligence would need a relative on the Central Committee to keep him out of the Gulag, and even then he'd probably just end up [[Reassigned to Antarctica|working in one as a prison doctor instead of an inmate]]. In Clancy's defence, however, there were limits to how much research he could do from the other side of the Iron Curtain.
* [[The Medic]]: Doctor Petrov, naive but caring about his men, as well as a good officer who keeps order when the ''Red October'' is being evacuated. A quite [[Worthy Opponent]] -- in the movie, anyway, where he's played by [[Tim Curry]]. In the book he's described as being a doctor of dubious competence.
* [[Mnogo Nukes]]
Anonymous user
Cookies help us deliver our services. By using our services, you agree to our use of cookies.