Spy author Tom Clancy’s hero Jack Ryan has been played by five different actors across five theatrical movies and a streaming series, so how do these projects rank in comparison with one another? For younger readers, Clancy’s name is likely to be synonymous with the Splinter Cell video game series and its subsequent spin-off empire. However, lovers of spy fiction will know the espionage author from his many successful novels, with the prolific Clancy being one of the pre-eminent authors of the genre alongside James Bond creator Ian Fleming.
Clancy’s success saw the author sell almost as many books worldwide as horror icon Stephen King, but despite his impressive sales numbers and cultural influence, there are far fewer movie adaptations of Clancy’s work. His spy fiction was perfectly suited to screen adaptation, however, with its fast-paced action and dramatic international subterfuge gripping millions of readers worldwide. Nevertheless, official adaptations of Clancy’s writing were few and far between.
However, the notable exception to this rule was Clancy’s Jack Ryan novels, and the attendant “Ryanverse.” A CIA analyst and sometimes field agent who use his quick wit to defuse countless international incidents, Ryan was a more relatable super-spy than Bond and a less conflicted, more morally uncomplicated figure than Jason Bourne. In the world of Clancy’s novels, the CIA were unimpeachable good guys and Ryan was an everyday hero among them, a likably nebbish rookie who rose through the ranks from inexperienced newbie to eventual acting deputy director. Clancy’s Jack Ryan novels have been adapted into five movies and a show, with the projects varying in terms of tone and quality.
Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan
Ranking the recent Prime Video series Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan as the worst Jack Ryan project is sure to annoy a lot of fans who enjoy the fast-paced thriller, but The Office star John Krasinski’s tenure in the role has given Ryan his least believable screen adventure thus far. The first season was met with broad but unenthused critical approval, but the second season’s sojourn to Venezuela was an embarrassing misfire that earned criticism not only from audiences and reviewers but even from the country’s real-life government. Dismissed as “crass propaganda” by Venezuela’s Minister of Cultural Affairs, the second season’s decision to file off any rough edges from Krasinski’s Ryan made an already-idealized character feel flat and lifeless, sapping the story of any complexity or moral ambiguity. Clancy's work was often accused of whitewashing the reality of the CIA, but the cartoony do-gooder Krasinski plays Ryan as would make even Edward Snowden cringe.
Patriot Games
Patriot Games was the first Clancy adaptation to star Harrison Ford as an older, more experienced Jack Ryan but is the weaker of his two movies, with Sean Bean’s villainous IRA agent being the main highlight of this middling action thriller. Bean is great as the nuanced anti-villain, but he is wasted in an otherwise predictable movie whose black and white morality leaves viewers with little to dig into or even remember beyond some serviceable action setpieces. Ford is uncharacteristically humorless as Ryan too and fails to bring the nervy energy his predecessor Alec Baldwin gave the role, while Clancy made his upset with the movie's many changes to his novel public.
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
Getting into some stronger territory, the 2014 reboot Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit improves the screen standing of Clancy’s most popular hero by giving him a 21st-century makeover. Chris Pine’s Ryan is slicker and sharper than his predecessors, Pirates of the Caribbean heroine Kiera Knightley is typically great as his love interest, while director/co-star Kenneth Brannagh puts in an agreeably campy villainous turn. This version of Jack is uber-competent in a move that - while not true to the source character’s nervy uncertainty - does make him a more dynamic figure, and Brannagh’s finely honed skills as a blockbuster helmer ensure the knotty plot moves at a quick pace instead of getting dragged down in attempts at self-serious political commentary.
Clear and Present Danger
The criticism from many reviewers that Ford’s Jack Ryan and the CIA are depicted as virtuous heroes in South America is a valid one, given the organization’s then-recent real-life support of the Contras. But thanks to a tense, sharp script from Red Dawn’s John Milius, Clear and Present Danger is a far stronger second outing for Harrison Ford’s Ryan. The character’s beleaguered attitude here feels truer to his novel counterpart than his Patriot Games-era heroism, while the fast-paced, impactful action sequences ensure that the real-world politics of Clear and Present Danger are easier glossed over than its more uneven predecessor.
The Sum Of All Fears
Easily the most underrated Jack Ryan outing, The Sum Of All Fears is also almost the best movie starring Clancy’s much-loved creation. Updating the original villains - stereotypical Middle Eastern terrorists - to Neo-Nazis ensures this early ‘00s thriller has a prescient, still-relevant threat at its center. Future Batman Ben Affleck’s conflicted Jack Ryan is a more grounded and relatable hero than most iterations of the character too. The plot, which sees said Neo-Nazis attempting to cause an all-out war between the US and Russia to establish a European fascist superstate in the fallout, is a touch overlong and arguably too complicated for its own good. That said, The Sum Of All Fears is an effective, pacy thriller that captures the strengths of both Clancy’s fast-paced plotting and Ryan’s everyman appeal as a believable protagonist.
The Hunt For Red October
The first screen outing of Jack Ryan remains the strongest Tom Clancy adaptation and by extension, the best project the character has starred in so far. A young Alec Baldwin plays rookie Jack Ryan, who is thrown in the center of a potentially disastrous international incident when a Russian submarine commander goes rogue and defects from the Soviet Union. Despite arriving in cinemas after the end of the Cold War, this action thriller still succeeded with critics and it is easy to see why. Even viewers who know nothing of Clancy’s work will be impressed by The Hunt For Red October thanks to the influential original Bond Sean Connery’s work as the morally murky Soviet defector, Baldwin’s stellar central turn as the wet-behind-the-ears CIA agent, and the assured direction of John McTiernan. The Die Hard director consistently ratchets up the tension throughout this Tom Clancy adaptation, ensuring The Hunt For Red October’s status as the best Jack Ryan project viewers have seen throughout his many big and small-screen outings.