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Author Tom Clancy’s renowned CIA analyst returns this August when the new series “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan” debuts on Amazon. In anticipation, fans can catch up on all of the celebrated character’s cinematic exploits with this new 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Collection.
I always felt like Jack Ryan was America’s answer to James Bond. And while each of his cinematic outings offered something new in their overall narrative, the basic premise was always the same: CIA analyst is thrown knee-deep into a situation he is totally unprepared for but somehow manages to save the day. Sounds a little trite but they always managed to work. I think the main reason for the series not staying consistent in general, is because the character was constantly being replaced by a new actor with almost every offering. Save for Harrison Ford in “Patriot Games” and “Clear and Present Danger,” in every other movie he was played by a different actor; Alec Baldwin, Ben Affleck, and Chris Pine. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but at least with Bond, for the most part, one actor would play him in at least several films, allowing us to connect with him, before moving on.
This is the movie that started it all. Based on the book by author Tom Clancy, the story centers around Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin), an analyst who works for the CIA who is thrust into a complex and hugely volatile situation when a highly decorated Russian submarine commander, Marko Ramius (Sean Connery), steals their newest submarine which can run silently because of a revolutionary propulsion system. With the Kremlin stating that he plans to attack the U.S., and Ryan stating that he wants to defect, thereby giving the submarine to the Americans so the Russians cannot attack, which was the primary motive in creating the Red October, tensions run high, both above and underneath the water, in a race against time to try to uncover the truth, before it’s too late.
Director John McTiernan had just come off two hugely successful movies, “Predator” and “Die Hard” and was the perfect choice to helm “Red October.” As Jack Ryan, Alec Baldwin was offered his best role to date and although I do not personally like the man, in this role, he was never better. Sean Connery as the enigmatic Ramius, whose true intentions are not revealed until nearly the end of the film, shines in one of his best onscreen representations since playing James Bond. Although Ramius is supposed to be Russian, Connery’s worldwide appeal and charismatic persona allowed most, if not all viewers, to overlook this aspect. The movie is exciting and tense and makes for one hell of an explosive finale.
On a side note, the presentation of “The Hunt for Red October” on 4K is, at times, a little too dark. I watched some of the same scenes on Blu-ray, mostly shots of the submarines moving through the murky depths of the Atlantic and I could make them out a lot more clearly on Blu-ray than on 4K. Other than this one aside, the overall quality on 4K is stunning.
After the worldwide success of “The Hunt for Red October,” Paramount felt that they had a new franchise on their hands. Wanting to bring Jack Ryn back for another outing, this time “Patriot Games,” based on the novel where Jack Ryan interrupts a terror attack on the Prince and Princess of Wales, Baldwin was asked to reprise his role but stated that he was busy working on a stage production of “A Streetcar Named Desire” on Broadway. He said that he could do the movie after it finished or that they could re-cast him. They went with the latter and the film was much better because of it. Harrison Ford took over the iconic role and added more depth and intensity than his predecessor and while the film did away with certain elements of the book, namely taking the terrorist attack on the Prince and Princess of Wales and changing it to the Prince’s cousin instead (the producers didn’t want to give ideas to the IRA), the movie, overall, remains entertaining and taut.
While on vacation in London with his wife Cathy (Anne Archer) and young daughter Sally (Thora Birch), Jack happens across a terrorist attack on Lord William Holmes (James Fox), Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and the cousin to the Prince of Wales. He intercedes and kills two of the terrorists but is injured in the crossfire. The terrorists escape but one is captured by the police. Come to find out, one of the men Ryan shot and killed, was the younger brother of Sean Miller (Sean Bean), one of the leaders of the IRA terror group and after he is sentenced to prison, he manages to escape, with the help of his colleagues. After returning to the US, Cathy and Sally are involved in a high-speed chase at the hands of Sean which ends with both of them winding up in the hospital. Jack returns to the CIA to track them down and when Lord Holmes attends his house on the east coast to offer him a Knighthood for his heroic actions in saving him and his family, they quickly realize they are not alone.
“Patriot Games” was directed by Phillip Noyce, who made the tense-filled thriller, “Dead Calm,” starring Sam Neill, Nicole Kidman, and Billy Zane. The film suffered a lot of controversy on its release, from author Tom Clancy distancing himself from the movie, claiming that it resembled nothing of his story, to critics saying it only added fuel to the troubles that were going on in Northern Ireland at the time. As someone who was born and raised in Ireland, I can tell you, the movie did nothing of the sort. Some of these so-called critics are best left reviewing films and not real-world situations. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and felt no revulsion or detestation towards it whatsoever, in most action films, there always has to be a bad guy and depending on the nature of the script, and the story’s location, the villains will undoubtedly hail from the region. Sometimes the Irish are the bad guys, sometimes the Russians, other times, the Middle East, and sometimes the Americans. In the end, it’s a fictional film based on a fictional novel and is action-filled and tightly drawn. One of the best in the series.
“Clear and Present Danger” came two years after “Patriot Games” and most of the starring cast, as well as director Phillip Noyce, returned in their respective roles. It is regarded as one of, if not the best in the series but unfortunately, that aspect is something I have to disagree with. While I hadn’t watched any of the Jack Ryan movies in some time before viewing them all again in 4K, “Clear and Present Danger,” while entertaining, is probably my least favorite, and that’s saying something as Ford is my favorite actor of all time. It all boils down to the fact that in nearly every scene, Ryan acts like a young, naive schoolboy who doesn’t know what’s going on. This was evident as I watched it for the first time in years and it became a big distraction for me. Ryan has been in the CIA long enough to have an understanding of what is transpiring around him but here, he is constantly presented as wide-eyed and innocent. In both “The Hunt for Red October” and “Patriot Games,” Ryan was thrust into situations he was not well equipped to deal with but he found his footing and did what he had to do in order to survive. In “Clear and Present Danger,” he has a constant look of bewilderment and confusion, and the only time it dissipates, somewhat, is during the action-filled finale, where Ford always excels.
With no Russian commanders or Irish terrorists anywhere to be found, “Clear and Present Danger” decides to tackle the war on drugs. When a friend of the President of the United States and his family are found murdered on their luxury yacht at sea, President Bennett (Donald Moffat) decides to do something about it. When Ryan unearths information that Bennett’s friend was laundering money for the South American drug cartels and was killed because he was skimming money from them, Bennett declares a private war on the drug cartels and initiates Operation Reciprocity. In retaliation for his friend’s murder, and the influx of drugs pouring into the US, he sends an elite group of American soldiers into Colombia, in the capable hands of John Clark (Willem Dafoe), an ex-military commander, to start a war between the cartels. But when things quickly go south, and the plug on Reciprocity is pulled, Ryan has no choice but to go down to Colombia himself and find Clark so they can rescue the remaining survivors of Clark’s team.
The film has some genuinely exciting action set pieces, especially the ambush on Ryan and his team in Colombia and while the addition of Willem Dafoe helps elevate the movie, for the most part, it is the slowest Jack Ryan film to date. As an indie filmmaker myself for over thirty years, I understand, only too well, the importance of story exposition and character development but here, at times, it literally drags on, and feels like forever. Even Bond, Bourne and the “Mission: Impossible” franchises are able to explain to the audience what is going on without making it feel like there’s no end in sight. The movie was a big hit back in 1994, grossing over $20 million in its first weekend, going on to gross over $215 worldwide. It seemed like Paramount did indeed have a lucrative franchise on their hands but this was the last film Ford would appear in as Ryan and it would be another eight years before the character would return to the big screen.
When Ben Affleck was cast as Batman a few years back, the internet exploded. Some liked the idea, most, it seemed, did not. But in all fairness, when “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” finally came out, while the movie was a mixed bag, to say the very least, I felt that Affleck infused the film with just the right amount of emotional appeal which made the film more tolerable and his portrayal of Bruce Wayne/Batman, respectable. Rewind to 2001 and Paramount announced that Ben Affleck would be the new Jack Ryan since Ford and director Phillip Noyce couldn’t agree on a final shooting script. For the most part, I think the moviegoing public had no problem with this since there hadn’t been a Jack Ryan movie in over seven years and rebooting the series seemed like the right approach. I like Ben Affleck, especially as a director these days but his performance as Jack Ryan, at least for me, was a worthy successor to Ford’s.
Set early on in his career in the CIA when he is dating Cathy (Bridget Moynahan), the woman who would eventually become his wife, he is recruited by William Cabot (Morgan Freeman), the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, to accompany him on a routine mission to Russia to examine a Russian nuclear weapons facility, and to meet the new Russian President, Alexander Nemerov (Ciarán Hinds), who has just succeeded his predecessor who died from a heart attack. His reason for bringing Ryan with him is because he did a lot of extensive research on Nemerov and he wants to know if he is the hardliner the Russian press is making him out to be. Ryan disagrees and even when it is revealed later on in the news that Russia attacked Ukraine, utilizing a deadly nerve gas which killed thousands, he tells Cabot that something is not right. Cabot sends him to Ukraine where he meets John Clark (Liev Schreiber), a CIA field operative and together, they realize that a nuclear bomb was built and shipped to the United States, where it is to be detonated at a football game, in which the President of the United States will be attending. With time running out, Ryan quickly ascertains that a faceless third party is at work here, trying to start World War III between the US and Russia.
“The Sum of All Fears” dealt with terrorism one year after the tragic events of September 11th, 2001 and when the nuclear bomb is detonated, instead of filling the scene with heart-pounding music and spectacular sound effects, director Phil Alden Robinson chose instead, to use, nothing. No music, no spectacular Hollywood sound effects, just momentary silence upon its initial detonation. The scene works as you find yourself not believing what you are seeing, and even though it is fiction, it recalls September 11th the year before and makes it even more convincing because up until that date, there were many Americans who believed that an attack on American soil was impossible. The movie is filled with solid performances from Ben Affleck, Morgan Freeman, James Cromwell, Philip Baker Hall, Bridget Moynahan, Liev Schreiber, Michael Byrne, and a decidedly nasty Alan Bates as the film’s central villain, a neo-Nazi who wants desperately for the US and Russia to blow each other apart so they can leave a united Fascist Europe to rule the world. While Affleck played Ryan with great enthusiasm, sadly, it would be his only time as the CIA analyst, and it would be another twelve years before Chris Pine would pick up his mantle.
By 2014, a new generation of filmgoers had arrived and most were not even remotely familiar with the character of Jack Ryan. Many had heard about “The Hunt for Red October” and “Patriot Games” and their successors but had probably never even seen them. They were familiar with James Bond, Ethan Hunt, Jason Bourne, even TV’s Jack Bauer, but Jack Ryan was nonexistent. So Paramount decided to reboot the franchise, yet again, this time starring one of Hollywood’s hottest young actors, Chris Pine. Kenneth Branagh took on the reins as director and also that of the story’s central antagonist, Viktor Cherevin, and Keira Knightley portrayed Ryan’s girlfriend, and eventual wife, Cathy. Unlike the previous four entries in the series, “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit” was not based on any of Tom Clancy’s novels but was, instead, a new story penned by Adam Cozand and David Koepp.
After the events of September 11th, 2001, Ryan, who at the time is studying at the London School of Economics, enlists in the Marines and while on tour in Afghanistan, his chopper is shot down. He manages to save two of his team members but his spine is critically injured in the process and he spends nearly a year in the U.S. recovering and learning to walk again. While there, he meets medical student Cathy Muller (Keira Knightley) and after he leaves, they become a couple. Ryan is recruited into the CIA by the mysterious Thomas Harper (Kevin Costner) and works undercover on Wall Street at various corporations, looking for suspicious financial transactions that would indicate terrorist activity. Ryan discovers that billions of dollars at a partnering Russian company have simply vanished and brings this to the attention of Harper, who decides to send him to Russia to meet with Viktor Cherevin, the company’s owner and CEO. While there, Ryan is attacked and almost killed and when Cathy decides to surprise him by turning up at his hotel unannounced, it causes friction between them as his life is in danger. Ryan quickly surmises that Viktor has a plan to detonate a bomb directly underneath Wall Street with the intent of leaving the U.S. vulnerable to complete financial collapse following the attack, and which would also weaken global markets and must try to stop Viktor before it’s too late.
“Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit” is a straightforward thriller, it adds nothing new to the genre but because of the combined talents involved, Pine, Knightley, Branagh, and Costner, the film is elevated as a result. Watching most of the action unfold in Russia makes for a nice change of scenery and Pine more than holds his own as the overwrought but apprehensive analyst. The movie opened to mixed reviews and less than stellar box office returns, prompting Pine to state that there would be no sequel. Once again, Jack Ryan seemed destined to stay on the pages of his author’s books but now with Amazon having produced a new TV series titled “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan,” which premieres August 31st and stars John Krasinski in the titular role, it is yet to be seen if it is any good and if it will warrant a second season. Like the last two movie installments in the series, the new show focuses on up-and-coming CIA analyst, Jack Ryan, who is thrust into a dangerous field assignment as he uncovers a pattern in terrorist communication that launches him into the center of a dangerous gambit. Here’s hoping that the powers-to-be at Amazon know what they are doing.
Now available on 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Collection from Paramount Home Media Distribution
