Tom Clancy, author of some of the film world’s best known political espionage thrillers, passed away last night at the age of 66 in his hometown of Baltimore, MD. Like Robert Ludlum and John Grisham, Clancy was one of those hugely prolific authors whose work came to infiltrate and influence an entire decade of movies. Starting in 1990 with John McTiernan’s The Hunt for Red October, and stretching all the way to the newly rebooted Jack Ryan franchise film Jack Ryan: Shadow One (due out on Christmas Day), Clancy has become a byword for a particular kind of spy thriller, based in politics, intrigue, weak politicians, and resolute everymen (his heroes were never superhuman like James Bond) taking down the bad guys.
While many of Clancy’s books found life in video games (the famous “Splinter Cell” series is based on works of his), it was his Jack Ryan books that found the strongest foothold in film; five films to date have featured that character and four actors have played him. Jack Ryan is an ex-soldier (medically retired) investment broker who often becomes embroiled in terrorist attacks, and who, in some movies, is also secretly a CIA spook. Clancy wrote eight Ryan novels and numerous spinoffs. His actual bibliography is too extensive to list here.
The Cold War plays heavily into Clancy’s work, and few of his stories are going to elapse without some mention of the Russians. Clancy was a great supporter of troops and soldiers, and highly critical of many left-wing politicians (he himself was notoriously conservative). The bulk of his stories, however, were about achieving justice for the people of the world (politicians and military leaders were often corruptible and of dubious allegiance), and ending violence and war through tactical means.
This can be illustrated in a fantastic scene from 1994’s Clear and Present Danger. Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford) confronts the president (Donald Moffat), accusing him of malfeasance. “How dare you bark at me,” the president yells at him, “I’m the president of the United States!” Jack Ryan, without missing a beat, shouts back without making eye contact, “How dare YOU, sir!”
His stories were steely and intelligent, and the films based on his stories played like thrillers for grown-ups. There were young hotheads, of course, but the mechanics of the government and the military were often the first things on his mind. Rest in peace, Tom Clancy.
Here is a rundown of Jack Ryan on film:
Witney Seibold is a featured contributor on the CraveOnline Film Channel, co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. You can read his weekly articles Trolling, Free Film School and The Series Project, and follow him on “Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.
Tom Clancy
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The Hunt for Red October (dir. John McTiernan, 1990)
Perhaps second chronologically (Clancy may have written Patriot Games first), Alec Baldwin plays Jack Ryan, Tom Clancy's well-worn and all-purpose CIA/ex-soldier/broker hero. Set in 1984 during the height of the Cold War (natch) Ryan has to match wits and suss out the actual motivations of a Russian submarine commander (Sean Connery) who may be defecting to the U.S., or may be attacking it. As with most of Clancy's movies, the cast includes some awesome supporting players, including Sam Neill, Tim Curry, Scott Glenn, and James Earl Jones.
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Patriot Games (dir. Phillip Noyce, 1992)
A runaway hit in 1992, Patriot Games stars Harrison Ford as a slightly more fatherly Jack Ryan (he now has a closer and more notable relationship with his family) who protects a diplomat from an IRA assassination. The rest of the film involves Ryan trying to investigate who the assassins are while protecting his family and himself from mysterious IRA goons. The film was thrilling, but realistic and mature in a way most thrillers hadn't been during the time.
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Clear and Present Danger (dir. Phillip Noyce, 1994)
The only direct sequel in the Jack Ryan movies (at least to date), Clear and Present Danger also stars Harrison Ford, this time embroiled in Colombian drug mix-up. The U.S. government has been making deals with a drug cartel, and has perhaps been carrying out assassinations at their behest. Probably the most representative of the Clancy film canon, Clear and Present Danger holds a strong criticism for the executive branch and little patience for governmental malfeasance.
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The Sum of All Fears (dir. Phil Alden Robinson, 2002)
Not so much a prequel as a reboot of the Jack Ryan material, Ben Affleck plays our CIA boy in blue for this underrated 2002 thriller. A bit more pulpy than the previous films (there are more chases and explosions), The Sum of All Fears follows a young Jack Ryan as he must track down some stolen Soviet nukes before a bad guy can bomb a sporting event in Baltimore. Morgan Freeman, Philip Baker Hall, and James Cromwell also show up.
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Jack Ryan: Shadow One (dir. Kenneth Branagh, 2013)
Yet another reboot with yet another younger actor, this upcoming film stars Chris Pine as Ryan, dealing, again, with Russian nukes, and a plot to blow up a chunk of the U.S. This is the first “inspired by Tom Clancy” feature film, drawing on the character as a standalone entity, rather than on any of Clancy's actual novels. Branagh is a spirited and theatrical director. We'll see how he can handle out-and-out action. And we'll see how the young and sexy Chris Pine handles playing the versatile character of Jack Ryan.
