The Hunt for Red October (also known as the Jack Ryan franchise) consists of American action-thriller installments, based on the fictional titular character from a series of novels written by Tom Clancy. Various actors have portrayed the role.
Despite inconsistency with its lead actors and crew members, the series has been distributed solely by Paramount Pictures since its inception. Mace Neufeld has produced every film in the series, with producing partner Robert Rehme co-producing Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger, and Lorenzo di Bonaventura co-producing Shadow Recruit. With a combined unadjusted worldwide gross of $788.4 million to date,[1] the films constitute the 57th highest-grossing film series.[2] The films have been nominated for four Academy Awards, winning one for Sound Effects (now Sound Editing) in The Hunt for Red October (at the 63rd Awards).[3]
The continuity of the films does not follow the established timeline of the novels. In the book series, Patriot Games occurs before The Hunt for Red October, though the order was reversed in the film adaptations. Additionally, The Sum of All Fears departs significantly from its source material, with the events of the plot shifted from 1991 to 2002. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014) was a reboot, and intended first film in a new film series. Due to mixed reception, a sequel was never made. Despite this, the franchise continues with the television series titled Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, on Prime Video.
Development[]
After viewing galley proofs of Tom Clancy's 1984 novel The Hunt for Red October, producer Mace Neufeld optioned the rights to the novel in 1985. Despite the book becoming a best seller, no Hollywood studio was interested in purchasing the film rights because of the high cost of trying to condense the book's massive content into a two-hour film. "This book doesn't condense well into two or three pages", said Neufeld. "I read some of the reports from the other studios and the story was too complicated to understand. Fortunately, I was able to get a major executive at Paramount to read the book and he said: 'I think this can make a great movie. Let's see if we can develop it'".[4]
Films[]
| Film | U.S. release date | Director | Screenwriters | Producer(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Hunt for Red October | March 2, 1990 | John McTiernan | Larry Ferguson and Donald Stewart |
Mace Neufeld |
| Patriot Games | June 5, 1992 | Phillip Noyce | W. Peter Iliff and Donald Stewart |
Mace Neufeld and Robert G. Rehme |
| Clear and Present Danger | August 3, 1994 | Donald Stewart and John Milius and Steven Zaillian | ||
| The Sum of All Fears | May 31, 2002 | Phil Alden Robinson | Paul Attanasio and Daniel Pyne |
Mace Neufeld |
| Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit | January 17, 2014 | Kenneth Branagh | Adam Cozad and David Koepp |
Mace Neufeld, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, David Barron and Mark Vahradian |
The Hunt for Red October (1990)[]
- Main article: The Hunt for Red October (film)
During 1984, Central Intelligence Agency analyst Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin) must track down the Red October, a technologically superior Soviet nuclear submarine heading to America's east coast under the command of Captain Marko Ramius (Sean Connery), and prove to the American government his theory that the sub's mission is to defect rather than attack the American coast. Upon successfully boarding the vessel, Ryan is to signal the American submarine USS Dallas to assist the Red October in escaping from attacks by the Soviet submarine V.K. Konovalov so that it may be brought safely into US waters.[5]
Patriot Games (1992)[]
- Main article: Patriot Games: The Hunt for Red October 2
Former CIA analyst-turned field operative Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford), is now a professor at the U.S. Naval Academy after previously receiving serious injury while intervening in an attack on the British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in London and successfully killing one of the assailants. Because the remaining attackers were able to escape, the group now seeks revenge including Sean Miller (Sean Bean), the brother of the man Ryan killed. Miller vows to hunt down Ryan and avenge his brother, no matter how long it takes. Eventually, Ryan and his family are attacked in two separate, but simultaneous attempts. Ryan decides to rejoin the CIA, so that he can stop this group of Irish revolutionaries and protect the ones he loves.[6]
Clear and Present Danger (1994)[]
- Main article: Clear and Present Danger: The Hunt for Red October 3
Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford) is appointed as acting-CIA Deputy Director of Intelligence, as Vice Admiral James Greer (James Earl Jones) has been battling cancer. When a family close to the President is murdered in their sleep, by what appears to be a drug cartel, Ryan is called as investigator. Unknown to him, the CIA sends in a secret field operative to lead an illegal paramilitary force against the cartels in Colombia with the help of John Clark (Willem Dafoe). Risking both his life and his career, Ryan races against time to expose the truth.[7]
The Sum of All Fears (2002)[]
- Main article: The Sum of All Fears: The Hunt for Red October 4
A contemporary prequel, set during 2002, the plot portrays a younger Jack Ryan. After the President of the Russian Federation dies and is replaced by a man with a mysterious past, the United States goes on a Cold War-like state of alert. CIA director William Cabot (Morgan Freeman) recruits young analyst Jack Ryan (Ben Affleck) and assigns him to the situation in Russia, with the task to determine whether the paranoia is legitimate. Ryan soon discovers that a neo-nazi terrorist group plans to provoke a war between the U.S. and Russia, by detonating a nuclear bomb at a football game in Baltimore. Ryan works to resolve the assignment before it's too late.[8]
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)[]
- Main article: Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
A reboot of the film series, set during 2013. After the events of the September 11 attacks, Jack Ryan (Chris Pine), studying at the London School of Economics, becomes a Marine second lieutenant in Afghanistan. While on military tour he is critically injured after his helicopter is shot down. Twelve years later, Ryan is working under cover as a CIA analyst, and posing in a cover job on Wall Street as a compliance officer at a stock brokerage. He quickly discovers that certain accounts are inaccessible to him as the auditor, which leads him to discover the scheme of Viktor Cherevin (Kenneth Branagh). With the help of Thomas Harper (Kevin Costner), Jack works to stop Cherevin's plot to collapse the US dollar.[9]
Television[]
- Main article: Jack Ryan (television series)
Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan (2018–present)[]
| Season | Episodes | Originally released |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 | August 31, 2018 |
| 2 | 8 | October 31, 2019 |
Cast and crew[]
Cast[]
| Characters | Films | Television series | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Hunt for Red October | Patriot Games | Clear and Present Danger | The Sum of All Fears | Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit | Season 1 | Season 2 | ||
| 1990 | 1992 | 1994 | 2002 | 2014 | 2018 | 2019 | ||
| Template:Left header | Jack Ryan | Alec Baldwin | Harrison Ford | Ben Affleck | Chris Pine | John Krasinski | |||
| Template:Left header | Catherine "Cathy" Ryan (née Muller) | Gates McFadden | Anne Archer | Bridget Moynahan | Keira Knightley | Abbie Cornish | N/A | ||
| Template:Left header | James Greer | James Earl Jones | N/A | Wendell Pierce | |||||
| Template:Left header | Sally Ryan | Louise Borras | Thora Birch | N/A | |||||
| Template:Left header | John Clark | N/A | Willem Dafoe | Liev Schreiber | N/A | ||||
| Template:Left header | Matice Garth/Jeff | N/A | John Hoogenakker | ||||||
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Crew[]
| Film | Crew/Detail | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Composer | Cinematographer(s) | Editor(s) | Production companies |
Distributing company |
Running time | ||
| The Hunt for Red October | Basil Poledouris | Jan de Bont | Dennis Virkler & John Wright | Mace Neufeld Productions, Nina Saxon Film Design |
Paramount Pictures | 135 minutes | |
| Patriot Games | James Horner | Donald McAlpine | William Hoy & Neil Travis | Paramount Pictures, Mace Neufeld Productions |
117 minutes | ||
| Clear and Present Danger | Neil Travis | 141 minutes | |||||
| The Sum of All Fears | Jerry Goldsmith | John Lindley | Neil Travis & Nicolas de Toth | Paramount Pictures, Mace Neufeld Productions, MFP Munich Film Partners, S.O.A.F. Productions |
124 minutes | ||
| Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit | Patrick Doyle | Haris Zambarloukos | Martin Walsh | Paramount Pictures, Mace Neufeld Productions, di Bonaventura Pictures, Skydance Media |
105 minutes | ||
| Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan | Ramin Djawadi | Richard Rutkowski, Christopher Faloona, Checco Varese, Patrick Murguia, Jeffrey Greeley, and Arnau Valls Colomer | Paul Trejo, John M. Valerio, Sarah Boyd, Vikash Patel, Mark Goldman, and Stephen Semel | Amazon Original Series, Genre Arts, Push, Boot., Platinum Dunes, Skydance Television, Paramount Television Studios, Amazon Studios, Sunday Night Productions |
Amazon Prime Video | 960 minutes (1 hour per episode) | |
Reception[]
Box office performance[]
| Film | U.S. release date | Box office revenue | Budget | Reference | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | International | Worldwide | ||||
| The Hunt for Red October | March 2, 1990 | $122,012,643 | $78,500,000 | $200,512,643 | $30,000,000 | [10] |
| Patriot Games | June 5, 1992 | $83,351,587 | $94,700,000 | $178,051,587 | $45,000,000 | [11] |
| Clear and Present Danger | August 3, 1994 | $122,187,717 | $93,700,000 | $215,887,717 | $62,000,000 | [12] |
| The Sum of All Fears | May 31, 2002 | $118,907,036 | $75,014,336 | $193,921,372 | $68,000,000 | [13] |
| Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit | January 17, 2014 | $50,577,412 | $84,933,618 | $135,511,030 | $60,000,000 | [14] |
| Total | $497,036,395 | $426,847,954 | $923,884,349 | $265,000,000 | ||
Critical and public response[]
| Film | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic | CinemaScore[15] |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Hunt for Red October | 89% (71 reviews)[16] | 58 (17 reviews)[17] | A |
| Patriot Games | 73% (41 reviews)[18] | 64 (23 reviews)[19] | A– |
| Clear and Present Danger | 80% (45 reviews)[20] | 74 (14 reviews)[21] | A |
| The Sum of All Fears | 59% (175 reviews)[22] | 45 (35 reviews)[23] | A– |
| Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit | 54% (187 reviews)[24] | 57 (36 reviews)[25] | B |
Home media[]
On February 7, 2003, Paramount announced a box set entitled The Jack Ryan Special Edition DVD Collection, which includes new editions of The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger as well as the special edition of The Sum of All Fears.[26] Both the set and the individual editions of each film were released on May 6, 2003.[27] While the four films were originally intended to be released in a Blu-ray collection entitled The Jack Ryan Collection, the films were later broken up into separate releases for the high definition format on July 29, 2008.[28] On December 3, 2013, The Jack Ryan Collection was finally issued on Blu-ray.
Other media[]
Video games[]
The film series has spawned three video games for various systems. Two side scroller games were produced in 1990 to coincide with the release of The Hunt for Red October, one for computer systems was released by Grandslam Interactive Ltd. while another was released for Nintendo consoles by Hi-Tech Expressions, Inc.[29] In 2002, the video game The Sum of All Fears was released by Ubisoft for the PC, PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube.[30]
Domingo Chavez (as Ding Chavez) and John Clark both appear as a member and the leader of Team Rainbow in the older Rainbow Six games, these characters also appeared in the book.
Cancelled projects[]
A film, based on the novel The Cardinal of the Kremlin, was planned. It was to involve Harrison Ford and William Shatner.[31] It was never released and the idea was most likely scrapped.
References[]
- ↑ "Jack Ryan Movies". IMDb.
- ↑ "Movie Franchises". Nash Information Services.
- ↑ "The 63rd Academy Awards (1991) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
- ↑ Thomas, Bob. "High-Tech Novel Took Five Years to Reach Screen", Associated Press, March 2, 1990.
- ↑ Variety Staff (December 31, 1989). "The Hunt for Red October". Retrieved on November 6, 2021.
- ↑ McBride, Joseph (June 3, 1992). "Patriot Games". Retrieved on November 6, 2021.
- ↑ McCarthy, Todd (August 1, 1994). "Clear and Present Danger". Retrieved on November 6, 2021.
- ↑ Koehler, Robert (May 23, 2002). "The Sum of All Fears". Retrieved on November 6, 2021.
- ↑ Chang, Justin (January 15, 2014). "Film Review: ‘Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit’". Retrieved on November 6, 2021.
- ↑ "The Hunt For Red October (1990)". Box Office Mojo.
- ↑ "Patriot Games (1992)". Box Office Mojo.
- ↑ "Clear and Present Danger(1994)". Box Office Mojo.
- ↑ "The Sum of All Fears (2002)". Box Office Mojo.
- ↑ "Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)". Box Office Mojo.
- ↑ "CinemaScore". CinemaScore.
- ↑ "The Hunt for Red October". Rotten Tomatoes.
- ↑ "The Hunt for Red October (1990): Reviews". Metacritic.
- ↑
- ↑ "Patriot Games (1992): Reviews". Metacritic.
- ↑ "Clear and Present Danger". Rotten Tomatoes.
- ↑ "Clear and Present Danger (1994): Reviews". Metacritic.
- ↑ "The Sum of All Fears". Rotten Tomatoes.
- ↑ "The Sum of All Fears (2002): Reviews". Metacritic.
- ↑ "Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit". Rotten Tomatoes.
- ↑ "Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014): Reviews". Metacritic.
- ↑ Conrad, Jeremy (February 7, 2003). "The Jack Ryan Special Edition Collection". IGN Entertainment, Inc..
- ↑ Bernardin, Marc (May 9, 2003). "The Jack Ryan Special Edition DVD Collection (2003)". CNN.
- ↑ Dreuth, Josh (May 28, 2008). "Jack Ryan Gets Split for Blu-ray". Blu-ray.com.
- ↑ "The Hunt for Red October for Amiga (1990)". GameFly.
- ↑ "The Sum of All Fears for GameCube (2003)". GameFly.
- ↑ "Tos TrekMUSE Interview with William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and DeForest Kelley".
External links[]
