10 Insane Movies You Didn't Know Were Based On True Stories
9. The Hunt For Red October
Director John McTiernan's 1990 submarine thriller is probably best remembered for giving us the first big screen take on Tom Clancy's CIA hero Jack Ryan, portrayed here by Alec Baldwin. However, it's another movie based at least in part on real events.
Clancy made his debut with the original 1984 novel, and he loosed based his narrative around a mutiny which took place on a Soviet anti-submarine frigate in 1975. The character of Marko Ramius, played in the film by Sean Connery, was modelled on a a political officer named Valery Sablin, who led the mutiny.
However, while the methods Ramius employs in the book and the film may resemble those of Sablin, their end goals couldn't be much more different. Where the fictional character wants to defect to the US, Sablin intended to lead a second Russian revolution, overthrowing the Communist leadership of the time.
Needless to say this did not work out, and Sablin wound up being executed for treason. Not quite the happy ending we get in the movie.