Jack Ryan

Tom Clancy (1947 - 2013) was an American author and historian best known for his technically detailed espionage and military science storylines set during and in the aftermath of the Cold War, and for video games that bear his name for licensing and promotional purposes. Seventeen of his novels were bestsellers, and more than 100 million copies of his books are in print.

Clancy wrote his first novel The Hunt for Red October in 1984, President Reagan was a fan of the book and it shot straight into the New York Times Best Sellers list. Ten of his books have hit the number one spot on the best sellers chart. His novel Clear and Present Danger was published in 1989 and sold nearly 2 million copies, it was the best-selling novel of the 1980’s.

The main hero of Clancy’s novels is Jack Ryan, who starts off as a CIA analyst, eventually becomes vice-president and than in Debt of Honor, when a crazed Japanese seeking revenge flies his 747 Jumbo Jet into the Capitol Building killing the President and everyone in there, Jack Ryan becomes President of the United States.

The Hunt for Red October (1990) directed by John McTiernan, starring Sean Connery, Alec Baldwin, Scott Glenn, Sam Neill, James Earl Jones, Joss Ackland, Richard Jordan, Peter Firth, Tim Curry, Stellan Skarsgard and Jeffrey Jones. 134mins.

Russian Captain Marko Ramius (Connery) defects to the West, taking with him the Soviet Union's most advanced submarine, the Red October.

Alec Baldwin was the first actor to play Clancy's hero Jack Ryan. Based on a Tom Clancy novel, first published in 1984. Kevin Costner and Harrison Ford were considered for Ryan and Klaus Maria Brandeur for Ramius.

Nominated for three Oscars winning one - Best Sound Effects Editing.

The Hunt for Red October cost $30m and has grossed $200m worldwide.

Jack Ryan: I'm not an agent, I just write books for the CIA. 

Captain Ramius: A great day comrades, we sail into history! 

Patriot Games (1992) directed by Phillip Noyce, starring Harrison Ford, Anne Archer. Thora Birch, Sean Bean, Patrick Bergin, James Fox, Samuel L. Jackson, Polly Walker, James Earl Jones and Richard Harris. 117mins.

Harrison Ford took over the role of Jack Ryan when Alec Baldwin was unavailable to reprise the role. When Ryan thwarts an attack in London by an IRA splinter group he and his family are targeted in revenge. Based on Tom Clancy's 1987 novel of the same name.The novel was actually a prequel to the events in Hunt for Red October.

Patriot Games cost $45m and has grossed $178m worldwide.

Jack Ryan: I want to know where Sean Miller and Kevin O'Donnell are. 
Paddy O'Neil: Let me try and understand this. You want me to sell out my fellow lrishmen to you? I don't think you understand me at all. 
Jack Ryan: I don't give a sh!t whether you did it or not. But if you don't help me, I will put such a stranglehold on your gun money that your boys will be out in the streets throwing rocks! I will *f@cking* destroy you! I will make it my mission in life! 

Clear and Present Danger (1994) directed by Phillip Noyce, starring Harrison Ford, Willem Dafoe, Anne Archer, Thora Birch, Joaquim de Almeida, Miguel Sandoval, Henry Czerny, Harris Yulin, Donald Moffat and Benjamin Bratt. 141mins.

Based on Clancy's 1989 novel. The US President plans covert action against a Colombian drug cartel which killed his friend. Ryan discovers there is dirty work afoot, a conspiracy which leads all the way to the White House.

Nominated for two Oscars - Best Sound and Best Sound Effects Editing.

Clear and Present Danger cost $62m and has grossed $215m worldwide.

The President: How dare you come in here and lecture me! 
Jack Ryan: How dare *you*, sir!
The President: How dare you come into this office and bark at me like some little junkyard dog? I am the President of the United States!
 
The President: You'll take the blame. Cutter and Ritter will take some too, but it won't amount to much. They'll get a slap on the wrist and $20,000 an hour on the lecture circuit. The rest, you'll dump on Greer. Yes, you'll take him down with you. You'll destroy his reputation. But it won't go any further than that. It's the old Potomac two-step, Jack. 
Jack Ryan: I'm sorry, Mr. President, I don't dance. 

The Sum of All Fears (2002) directed by Phil Alden Robinson, starring Ben Affleck, Morgan Freeman, Bridget Moynahan, James Cromwell, Liev Schreiber, Bruce McGill, Ciaran Hinds, Ron Rifkin and Alan Bates. 124mins.

Based on Clancy's 1991 novel of the same name. Affleck is playing a younger version of Jack Ryan but set in 2002 when going by his age should have been set in the early 1980's.

A terrorist faction plan to explode a Russian nuclear missile, which went missing in 1973, on a US city thus provoking a war between the US and Russia. CIA analyst Jack Ryan tries to avert a catastrophe.

In the novel the villains were Muslim extremists, this was changed to Neo-Nazi terrorists in the film. On the commentary track the director said this had nothing to do with 9/11 and thought it would be more realistic if European terrorists were the villains.

The Sum of All Fears cost $68m and has grossed $194m worldwide.

Jack Ryan: General, the President is basing his decisions on some really bad information right now. And if you shut me out, your family, and my family, and twenty-five million other families will be dead in thirty minutes. 

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014) directed by Kenneth Branagh, starring Chris Pine, Kevin Costner, Keira Knightley, Kenneth Branagh, Lenn Kudrjawizki and Colm Feore. 105mins.

Chris Pine is the latest actor to play Jack Ryan on film. Pine has played the young Captain Kirk in two successful Star Trek movies. There have been 5 Jack Ryan movies and 4 different actors playing the role!

Tom Clancy died in October 2013, before filming was finished. Shadow Recruit uses characters from Clancy's novels but is not based on any of his books. This is a prequel to the Jack Ryan novels.

Kevin Costner was offered the role of Jack Ryan for Hunt for Red October, but turned it down to make Dances With Wolves. Chris Pine had co-starred with previous Jack Ryan, Ben Affleck, in Smokin' Aces (2006).

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit cost $60m to produce and has grossed $18m in it's opening weekend at the US box office.

The President: What's your name, son? 
Jack Ryan: Ryan, Mr. President, Jack Ryan.