In 1984, Soviet nuclear submarine Captain First Rank Marko Ramius (Sean Connery) murders his political adviser, burns his orders, and steers his vessel, the Red October, toward American waters. The CIA, aware that the Red October was about to embark on a mission to demonstrate its ability to evade detection and fire its nuclear missiles on US targets, learns that Russia has sent its own ships to sink the submarine. US officials fear Ramius is planning an unauthorized strike against the United States. Only CIA analyst Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin) suspects that Ramius's objective is not as sinister as it appears—and it is Ryan who is tasked with infiltrating the Red October to prove his theory. Based on the Tom Clancy novel of the same name, this spy thriller was the first in a series of Hollywood-produced post-Cold War adventure films.