When the F-14 crashes on the deck, archive footage of an F-9F crash is shown.
When Ryan is in the helicopter approaching USS Dallas the dialogue refers to the bad weather conditions making the transfer dangerous. Shots from the helicopter, however, show a completely flat sea - about as calm as it gets.
Captain Borodin unbuttons his top button twice after Ramius informs the officers of his plans to defect.
Just after the Red October's caterpillar drive is engaged, as the crewmen are singing, Ramius orders a turn to 250 degrees, right full rudder. However, shown on the navigator's chart when he draws the new course, the boat is making a left turn from 310 degrees (much sharper than a 60 degree turn as well), and the subsequent exterior shot shows a left full rudder application.
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).
The crew of the Konovalov is shown to include petty officers and seamen, but a real Alfa class submarine is crewed entirely by officers. (This may not have been known in the West at the time of filming.)
Many Soviet officers are show wearing beards. Moustaches and beards were not permitted in the Soviet army and fleet.
After the Red October is called a rogue sub, the question is asked when it will be able to fire its missiles on the U.S. (we're told in three days when it's off the coast of the U.S.). Given that Typhoon class SSBNs carry the R-39 Rif-M intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of over 8000 kilometers, the answer given is off by a factor of 10 (Typhoons could launch from dock in the former USSR).
Although it is true that sailors would receive on-the-job training, They must first attend schooling in their specific fields. In the case of sonar-man Beaumont, he would not be so clueless as to not know how to handle his station when on an actual deployment. It would be dangerous for the Navy to operate that way.
The helicopter lifting off the Reuben James is shown carrying an orange torpedo. A torpedo's color indicated the torpedo's purpose. An orange torpedo indicates that is a dummy torpedo, and as such, has no explosive warhead. Thus this torpedo could not explode as shown when the admiral pressed the self-destruct button.
While loudly singing the national anthem in "Silence" mode may be a violation of procedure, it is clear within the context of the movie that this was a spontaneous outburst of patriotic sentiment following the revelation of their (ostensible) orders. Borodin plainly points out that the singing is a serious issue; Captain Ramius' response confirms that while it is unorthodox, he nevertheless explicitly permits the singing to continue. Captain Ramius even joins in himself.
When the second torpedo is fired at the Red October by the Russian Alpha sub, Capt. Ramius (Sean Connery) orders the Red October to change course to heading 315. Several characters are astonished by this order. They indicate that this will turn Red October into the oncoming torpedo. This is often regarded incorrect, as it is understood that the torpedo is traveling on the same course as the new heading (i.e. 315). However, the sonar officer did report the torpedo as being on _bearing_ 315, not course, which indicates that Captain's choice of course, is, in fact correct, as to reach an item on bearing 315 you need to take a course of 315 (by the definition).
As the torpedo is making (roughly) a beeline to the target sub, it can be easily calculated that it is traveling on course of 135 (i.e. the opposite of 315), and both the sub and the torpedo are going to be on a collision course.
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.
Ramius's safe has two dials on it, presumably so no one person could open it: two people would each know only one of the combinations, not unlike the keys to the missiles. Ramius, however, is able to open it having only operated one dial. The political officer was already present in his quarters however, and may simply have dialed his combination before the captain entered.
The captain's name is Marko Ramius which suggests he is from one of the Baltic republics, Estonia, Lithuania or Latvia. A person with such name wouldn't be allowed on-board a Soviet submarine let alone command it - "Balts" were considered unreliable and disloyal by the Soviet leadership.
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.
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.
In the opening text the Russian version of text "The Hunt for Red October" is misspelled. There is a Latin "i" in the word "Oktyabr", replacing the Cyrillic I (similar than inverted letter N in Latin alphabet).
In Russian, there is no "i" in "Oktyabr'" - the vowel "ya" looks like th an uppercase "R", flipped along the vertical axis. Also, the word "Oktyabr" is missing the soft sign (a character roughly like a lowercase "b" in appearance indicating the previous consonant is to be made forward in the mouth) on the end after the "r".
When Jack Ryan is dragged into the Dallas after almost drowning, one of the crewman bends a valve when laying Jack on the floor.
When the DSRV is leaving the Dallas, the mini-sub pilot gives the order to "flood the skirt" to which the copilot replies that there is a soft seal, meaning the DSRV can easily detach from the Dallas since the pressure in the docking collar has been equalized with the surrounding water pressure. Yet when they get to the Red October, the copilot says they have a soft seal and can now open the hatch. This would mean that there would still be water between the two vessels' hulls and the mini-sub would risk flooding the compartment if the hatch were open without a hard seal.
Larry Ferguson ("Chief of the Boat" Watson) is wearing a name tag that has the actor's last name on it instead of Watson.
While flying in the C-2 Greyhound to the aircraft carrier, the co-pilot tells Ryan about puking while flying over the Sea of Japan five months prior. East coast Navy squadrons deploy on carriers that patrol the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Indian Oceans and nearby bodies of water. West coast Navy squadrons deploy on carriers to the Pacific Ocean and adjoining waters. The same squadron would not deploy to both Fleet areas of operations.
Chief Cobb refers to Jonesie as "Seaman Jones", but the insignia on Jonesie's sleeve is for a Petty Officer Second Class. You would call him "Petty Officer Jones" or "ST2 Jones", which means Sonar Technician 2nd Class Jones.
After ordering a warning shot to be fired across the Red October's bow, the commander of the Reuben James tells the pilot to "come right", but the ship is then shown to turn left.
When Ryan is getting on the helo to fly out to the Dallas, the blades of the top rotor are still locked backwards and are not rotating even though you can hear them and the actors are shouting over the noise. You can see this if you look at the top left corner of the screen during the scene.
The letters at the beginning of the movie, Krasnij Oktjabr (Red October) are neither Latin nor Cyrillic. They are a very strange mixture.
The story takes place in 1984, yet on a table in Ryan's apartment in London is a 1987 issue of "Proceedings".
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.
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.
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.
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.
When Jonesy plays the recording 'at 10x speed', the volume knob on the tape player is in the off position.
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.
Two cameramen (one in wet jeans and Soviet naval shirt/hat) and equipment (camera covered by plastic) visible during the Red October evacuation.
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.
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.
While Ramius is turning the periscope to make visual contact with the American sub, a reflection of the camera operator is clearly seen on the periscope wearing a white t-shirt and peering into the viewfinder, this occurs a few seconds after the reflection of a crew member wearing a red shirt is also seen.
During the crew evacuation scene, Ramius tells the doctor the officers will submerge and scuttle the ship. Just after that there is a shot from the upper part of the sail down toward the deck with the ladder rungs in the foreground and the open rafts below. As crewmen climb down the ladder rungs in the foreground, a man holding a camera is seen in the second raft from the bottom on the left. He is kneeling in the raft facing out with the camera plainly visible. This is just before the shot with the camera men in jeans on deck.
There is a scene in which a Russian official mentions the "Barents Sea" and points to the proper place on a map (the Barents sea is north of Finland and Russia). However the closed caption incorrectly reads "Bering Sea." The Bering sea is between Russia and Alaska. None of the ships in the movie are anywhere near the Bering sea.
When Dr. Ryan is being dropped off at Heathrow airport by his wife, there is a mistake in how the cars are supposed to be driving. They're driving the wrong way. In the UK, the curb would be on the left (UK passenger) side of the vehicle (and consequently on the right side of the screen). it's shown that the land rover pulls up to the curb with it on the UK driver's side.
On at least two occasions, maps are shown of the Barent's Sea indicating the Red October's route of departure from port. On both occasions, the boat is shown to have left from a Norwegian fjord - not Polyarny.
Near the end as the Red October sails up the wide, deep Penobscot River in Maine, Marko claims that there is a river very much like it near Vilnius in Lithuania. There is no river of that size anywhere near Vilnius.
When Jack is dropped off at Heathrow, a map of the Underground is in the left foreground. But this is not the London Underground, it looks more like a map of Chicago.
Near the end of the film, a header comes up showing that the submarine is sailing on the Penobscot river north of Searsport Maine. This was done in an attempt to hide the submarine from the prying eyes of any Soviet spy satellites that may be looking for the Red October. However, unlike the wilderness that is shown as the ship moves up the river, there are in fact, several fishing towns and homes located along the length of this river, not to mention bridges that cross at various points. It is unlikely that a Soviet missile submarine that is 574 feet in length, 75 feet wide and drafting almost 40 feet of water could make it's way up this river without attracting considerable attention at some point. Not to mention that a ship the size of a Typhoon class sub would have an extremely difficult time trying to navigate a waterway as narrow and shallow as the Penobscot is in spots.
After killing the political officer, the captain burns the original order document before replacing it with his own forged order. While the paper is still burning, he calls for help. Help would arrive within seconds, finding the cabin filled with smoke and the ashtray with glowing remnants of not-still-burning paper. This would have raised serious suspicion as to what had happened. In reality, the captain would clearly have waited some minutes while the smoke was clearing before calling for assistance.
Also, why is there no smoke detector/alarm going off? These highly advanced u-boats should have these in every room.
Using a magnetohydrodynamic or "caterpillar" drive to evade detection would not work. As far back as WW2, airborne Magnetic Anomaly Detectors (MAD) were used to detect submarines based on the effect of their construction steel on the earth's magnetic field. Actively generating a (strong) magnetic field for propulsion would make this much easier.
An exterior ship-to-ship hatch on a submarine is impossible to detect by sonar and must be recognized visually when submerged. Thus, there is no possible way that the rescue sub that went from the Dallas to the Red October could have found its docking collar in such a short time, if at all, since the Red October has no visible ship-to-ship hatches along its axis, only missile hatches, and the rescue sub has no windows.
As Ramius, Borodin, and the Doctor stand together on the deck of Red October, Borodin reads out the American warship's signal warning not to submerge. Borodin's decoding of the message hails Red October by name, but the Doctor does not seem to wonder how the Americans would know the name of their boat.
When Ramius asks Ryan (in Russian) "You speak Russian?", the Russian line that Sean Connery actually says is "Govaryu po russki?" This means, "I speak Russian?", and is also grammatically incorrect as a question. The correct line should have been like "Vy govarite po russki?"
The Dallas and Red October are occasionally referred to as ships, but anyone stationed aboard a submarine would know to call it a boat.
When Petty Officer Jones first hears the Red October he says ..."We hit a boomer coming out of the barn" and then says "probably a missile boat out of Polijarny." In U.S. submarine slang 'boomer' means a missile boat and 'the barn' was slang for the Polijarny inlet in Russia. Petty Officer Jones repeated himself, obviously for the understanding of the audience but not something that would be done on a U.S. missile sub.
When the Red October opens the caterpillar doors, sonar man Jones would have heard them opening (since they were close enough for him to hear the crew singing). As such, not knowing what kind of doors they were, he would most likely have assumed they were torpedo tube doors, and sounded an alarm.
When Captain Ramius first addresses the crew, he asks Kamarov, the navigator, if there were any sonar contacts. Monitoring the sonar is not the responsibility of the navigator. Also, throughout the movie the Dive Officer and the Sonar Officer seem to be switching places.