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Watched on Wednesday April 2, 2025.

Watched on Sunday March 23, 2025.

Watched on Saturday March 22, 2025.

Watched on Saturday February 15, 2025.

Watched on Sunday February 16, 2025.

Watched on Saturday February 15, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday February 12, 2025.

Watched on Thursday February 6, 2025.

8 years later, and still just a visually stunning, achingly slow, beautifully moody film that spends nearly three hours brooding about whether replicants can have kids, only to conclude: “Eh, who cares? Look at this cool neon rain.” Jared Leto shows up to do a TED Talk about God, his henchwoman is one sadistic monologue away from twirling a mustache, and the whole thing feels like it’s convinced it’s delivering deep existential truths, when really, it’s just vibing in a cyberpunk screensaver.

Still, gotta respect a movie that spends $150 million just to tell Ryan Gosling he’s not special.

Watched on Sunday February 2, 2025.

Watched on Sunday February 2, 2025.

Watched on Monday February 3, 2025.

Watched on Monday February 3, 2025.

RED OCTOBER AND THE DARK EXISTENTIAL VOID

That scene in the middle of The Hunt for Red October, where Captain Ramius speaks with his first officer, Borodin, during a hushed “Crazy Ivan” maneuver? That scene felt tonight—again—as if director John McTiernan had crafted some kind of ultimate cinematic experience for me. I’ve seen it at least 15 times before. I saw the film in a cinema on its opening day. I’ve watched it on 35mm, DVD, Blu-ray, and a few years ago in a digitally restored 4K version on a massive screen. And yet, the chills still ripple through me when I watch that scene. The cross-cutting, the acting, the music—it all comes together in a way that just works for me. But perhaps I’ve never fully grasped its meaning, nor its impact on me, as I did tonight. Because tonight, for the first time, I put into words what it is that Ramius is staring at…

The Hunt for Red October tells Tom Clancy’s rumor-fueled tale of the charismatic Soviet captain Ramius, who, commanding a groundbreaking silent submarine, cunningly plans to defect to the West. His actions spark a nerve-wracking chase, with both the Soviet and American navies on high alert while the astute Jack Ryan slowly uncovers the hidden truth behind Ramius’ seemingly treasonous behavior. This complex narrative weaves together political intrigue, personal dilemmas, and the moral boundaries of courage and betrayal, all set against the high-stakes tensions of the Cold War. But let’s return to that scene in the middle of the film.

The nuclear submarine Red October is being silently pursued by the American USS Dallas when it executes a so-called “Crazy Ivan”—a maneuver where the sub suddenly turns to check if it’s being followed. A submarine’s sonar cannot “see” directly behind it due to the noise from its own propellers, so the maneuver is a necessary but dangerous gamble. The moment USS Dallas detects that Red October is beginning a “Crazy Ivan,” it shuts down its engines to avoid detection. The situation could go disastrously wrong. The Americans cannot brake—it would make noise and give them away. Instead, they have to “take their foot off the gas” and pray they don’t drift into Red October. We’re talking about submarines the size of aircraft carriers, and one of them is essentially a silent, floating nuclear bomb. The tension is already baked into the scene, but it’s heightened by the fact that everyone is trying to be as silent as possible. It’s as if everyone is holding their breath, as if even the sound of an exhale could trigger World War III. The image of these colossal, heavy war machines trying to avoid provoking or damaging each other, while the small, flesh-and-blood humans inside them attempt to control them, is a perfect metaphor for the Cold War. But let’s set that aside, because while this silent, high-stakes naval confrontation unfolds, something far more unsettling is happening inside Ramius’ cabin.

Borodin enters. He delivers a status report to Ramius, who is lying on his bed—staring blankly ahead but speaking with absolute clarity about the tactics for the coming days. Borodin turns to leave, but then he stops, hesitates, and asks, “Do you think they’ll let me live in Montana?” For the first time in the scene, Ramius looks at him. Cut to sonar operator Jones aboard USS Dallas, listening in complete silence through his headphones, as if he can hear what they are saying. Cut back to Ramius. “I would think they’d let you live wherever you’d like.”

Here, Borodin reveals his dreams of a future in America—a life filled with rabbits, a wife, a pickup truck, an RV, and the freedom to cross borders without showing papers. Ramius seems slightly surprised by this sudden, intimate conversation from his otherwise highly professional and reserved first officer, but he is also warmed by his young friend’s hope for a better future. Borodin continues, saying he would live in Arizona in the winter, even joking that he might need two wives. Meanwhile, Red October begins its “Crazy Ivan,” Jones detects it, and the captain of USS Dallas immediately cuts the engine. Back in the cabin, Borodin dares to ask his commanding officer, “What about you? What do you look forward to?”

The smile vanishes from Ramius’ face. Cut to the massive submarines drifting silently past each other. Ramius returns to his vacant stare. “I have no such desires…” The cross-cutting between Red October and USS Dallas now intensifies. Borodin presses on, and Ramius, reluctant but somewhat amused, finally its: “I miss the peace of fishing… like when I was a boy.” His smile fades again, and he falls back into that empty stare at nothing.

Until this moment, the cross-cut sequence has kept the two scenes separate, but now Ramius’ words bleed over into the images of American and Russian sailors alike, sitting in silence, waiting for the maneuver’s resolution:

“Forty years at sea… A war at sea… A war without battles… Without monuments… Only casualties…”

His eyes are cold, cynical, staring deep into the void. And then comes the line:

“I widowed the day I married her.”

In that sentence, in that stare, in that silence, the film unveils the infinite, dark, existential abyss that lurks beneath the entire story.

“My wife died while I was at sea…”

Ramius is lost in his gaze into nothingness. Borodin rises. He is about to leave his broken leader when Ramius suddenly returns to the present and orders him to post guards at the ship’s weak points. The scene moves on. The plot continues to the next chapter. The tempo increases. Action, explosions, gunfights, BOOM! Almost enough spectacle to make you forget the all-consuming void that the film constantly teeters on the edge of.

There are so many layers to this scene: The dual portrayal of a Russian commander instilling growing fear as he drifts further and further off course, only to correct himself and return; the whispered message of war’s futility, delivered to silent soldiers on both sides of the conflict; and the contrast between the young man who dares to hope for and live for a better future, and the older man whose disillusioned despair frightens his young friend—for what is he staring at?

Nothingness. Meaninglessness. The regrets of a wasted life.

SPOILER! And who does the film choose to let live or die? The broken captain survives, while his hopeful, life-loving first officer perishes. That is true tragedy. And an utterly bleak message to think about.

It’s rarely in overtly philosophical or intellectually challenging films that I am struck by my own existential fears. It’s always in the films that lure me into a state of full-bodied comfort—films of excitement, tension, and familiar American mainstream storytelling. Those are the ones that can pull the rug out from under me if they wish to, if they can.

Few films dare to do it. Even fewer succeed.

But The Hunt for Red October is one of them.

Now, it returns to the shelf, waiting for me to pull it down again in a few years—so I can once again shiver as I look past all the noise and stare into its bottomless void.

Masterpiece.

Watched on Friday January 24, 2025.

Watched on Friday January 24, 2025.

Watched on Tuesday January 21, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday January 15, 2025.

Watched on Friday January 10, 2025.

Watched on Thursday January 9, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday January 8, 2025.

Watched on Thursday January 9, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday January 8, 2025.

Watched on Sunday January 5, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday January 1, 2025.

Watched on Tuesday January 7, 2025.

Watched on Saturday January 4, 2025.

Watched on Thursday January 2, 2025.

Watched on Thursday January 2, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday January 1, 2025.

Watched on Tuesday May 7, 2024.

Watched on Monday November 11, 2024.

Watched on Tuesday May 21, 2024.

Watched on Monday June 17, 2024.

Watched on Tuesday August 13, 2024.

Watched on Wednesday August 21, 2024.

Watched on Monday August 19, 2024.

Watched on Thursday August 22, 2024.

Watched on Thursday September 5, 2024.

Watched on Thursday September 12, 2024.

Watched on Thursday September 5, 2024.

Watched on Tuesday October 15, 2024.

Watched on Tuesday October 8, 2024.

Watched on Monday September 30, 2024.

Watched on Wednesday October 2, 2024.

Watched on Wednesday October 16, 2024.

Watched on Monday October 28, 2024.

Watched on Monday November 4, 2024.

Watched on Tuesday September 24, 2024.

Watched on Friday November 1, 2024.

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