HUNT FOR LAST OCTOBER

HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER (1990)
dir: John McTiernan

HUNT FOR LAST OCTOBER
MAD #297, September 1990
w: Stan Hart
a: Angelo Torres

The movie had a disclaimer about how "none of this really happened", it was a time when we weren't sure what our relationship was with the Russians.

Typical of many of the late 80s and early 90s MAD movie parodies, it opens with the audience. In the crowd are the Spy vs. Spy spies, Russian premier Mikhail Gorbachev, MAD publisher William M. Gaines, and Tom Clancy, who wrote the Jack Ryan novels on which this movie is based.

Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin) at his CIA job is meeting with his boss Admiral Greer (James Earl Jones) and they have signs of a submarine they've discovered. It is a Russian sub commanded by Capt. Ramius (Sean Connery) who has ordered the ship change directions.

Panel 3: James Earl Jones also did the voice of Darth Vader. Panel 5: Yakov Smirnoff, Russian comedian whose schtick was Russia vs. America and known for his catchphrase "What a country!"

At a meeting with higher-ups in intelligence the CIA plans to blow up the Red October (the Russian submarine) which they believe is invading the US, but Ryan has a hunch, from having net Ramius, that Ramius is not traveling to the US to invade but to defect. He is given a chance to act on his theory. Naval officers are trying to track the Red October, whose sonar is undetected.

Panel 2: General Halftrack from Beetle Bailey. Panel 5: In the later years of the Reagan years, it was revealed policy was driven by predictions from their astrologer. Panel 6:Kathie Lee Gifford was the spokesperson for Carnival Cruises and married to football player Frank Gifford.

Borodin (Sam Neill) is in on Ramius' plan to defect.

Panel 1: A pun on Groucho and Karl Marx is a common old joke. Panel 2: It was revealed then that government contractors were charging outrageous prices for ordinary objects. Panel 6: Three-Mile Island was a nuclear plant that was one of the first places to have a nuclear meltdown.

Ryan and his men make completed their mission of destroying the Red October, but not before bringing its crew to safety and helping them defect.

"A thousand points of light" was George H.W. Bush's campaign slogan.

From Reel vs. Real by Russ Cooper and Sam Viviano, in #307, December 1991

The German edition used the movie for their cover

THE HUNT FOR RAD CRACKEDOBER
Cracked #256, September 1990
w: Tony Frank (Lou Silverstone)
a: Walter Brogan

Connery's character was also known as "The Schoolmarm" in his country. The kilt is because Sean Connery is Scottish. The name is a pun on Joseph Hazelwood, captain of the Exxon Valdez.

Seamen Jones (Courtney Vance) was US Naval operator.

Panel 3: 'License to kill' was James Bond's thing. Panel 4: George H. W. Bush hated broccoli. The submarine is the Yellow Submarine sub.

Donald Trump had the same traits 32 years ago. Some things never change.