Without Remorse recently became the 8th Tom Clancy novel to be adapted into a movie. The legendary action-thriller author is still about a dozen shy of Stephen King numbers but it's a remarkable feat. The military espionage movie starring Michael B Jordan was digitally released on Amazon Prime Video on April 30, 2021.
The movie is reported to have been in development hell for decades. Different actors, including Tom Hardy and Keanu Reeves, were attached to it at some point but the producers ultimately settled on Jordan. Upon watching Without Remorse, it's easy to notice that it's not quite faithful to the book.
Timeline
The action-thriller is set in 2020, with all the events happening in the modern political and intelligence landscape. There are no ongoing tensions between any two countries before the start of the movie's events.
Though the novel came out in 1993, Tom Clancy limited the events to the year 1970 as the Vietnam War was taking place. The decision to change the timeline is understandable since action movies revolving around the Vietnam War no longer draw viewer interest as they did in the '80s and '90s.
The Mission
The mission at the start of the movie kicks off the chain of events that follow. John Kelly and a group of U.S. Navy SEALs rescue a CIA operative in Aleppo. They think they are dealing with a pro-Assad paramilitary group, but after killing them, they discover that the culprits are actually from the Russian military.
Tom Clancy's approach in the novel is different. In it, the person captured is Air Force Colonel Robin Zacharias and not a CIA operative. The location is Vietnam too. And since Zacharias is in possession of highly classified information, the US government makes plans to extract him. Before they can do that, Soviet colonel Nikolay Grishanov executes them, leading to friction.
John's Love Interest(s)
The movie sets up the classic revenge narrative when Russian FSB operatives break into John's house to murder him and his pregnant wife Pam ends up dead. John is badly wounded during the attack but manages to kill all but one of the attackers. And Pam only gets about six minutes of screen time in the movie, with no character development at all.
This is a deviation from the novel where Pam isn't John's wife. She is a drug mule and escort who he picks up and falls in love with while grieving the death of his wife. His pregnant wife, named Patricia, has just died in a car accident. Unfortunately for John, he suffers a double tragedy when Pam also gets killed by her pimps.
John's Appearance
First appearing in the novel The Cardinal Of The Kremlin, John has been a recurring character in Tom Clancy's body of work. In the movie, he has a ripped body, which is thanks to actor Michael B. Jordan's own good looks. He is also Black with short hair. And therein lies the major difference.
In the novel, John is White and blonde. His parents are said to be of Irish descent, and the character is even portrayed by portrayed by Willem Dafoe in Clear and Present Danger and Liev Schreiber in The Sum of All Fears.
Lt. Commander Karen Greer Vs Nurse Sandra O'Toole
John's female friend—who he stays close to for the rest of the movie—is Lt. Commander Karen Greer. She helps Kelly locate the real culprits behind the attack on his home. She also goes with him to Russia to locate the only operative that remained alive after the attack. At the end of the movie, they part ways and wish each other well.
Things are much different in the novel where Greer doesn't exist. In her place is the nurse Sandra O'Toole. She helps John rehabilitate from the injuries he suffered during the confrontation with drug lords and pimps that were responsible for Pam's death. At the end of the movie, John actually marries O'Toole.
John's Prison Stint
John has a prison stint on screen that is very action-packed. He gets imprisoned after he kills the Russian diplomat, who issued passports to the FSB operatives. Behind bars, John proves to be a capable fighter when he takes out several guards on his own. He is then released in order to participate in the Russia mission.
The action hero doesn't get to spend time behind bars in the book. He only gets investigated for the murders of some drug lords but he remains a free man.
How John Is Recruited
The movie and the book differ in how John gets recruited to participate in the missions. Michael B. Jordan's character gets released from prison and taken to a room where he meets Greer, Ritter, and Clay. Greer suggests that John isn't in the best mental state for a mission but Clay recruits him anyway.
The book goes the route of a random skilled man going about his business before he is approached by a government official for a special op. Vice-Admiral Winslow "Dutch" Maxwell, the Assistant Chief of Naval Operations approaches John and tells him about the Vietnam mission, which he agrees to.
The Mission Getting Compromised
The mission gets compromised on screen just as the CIA black ops is planning to HALO jump into Russian soil. Though they are flying in a passenger jet to avoid detection, a Russian fighter spots them and shoots them down. The plane dives into the Barents Sea but luckily everyone survives.
In the book, it's a KGB mole that informs the Soviets about a possible rescue mission in Vietnam Despite the setback, John still manages to capture the Russian general behind the imprisonment of the American POWs.
The Corrupt Government Official
Though he appears to be John's ally at first, Secretary Of Defense Thomas Clay is later revealed to be corrupt in the movie. He is the one who gave away the identities of the Navy Seals and enabled Russian mercenaries to attack them at their homes. His mission was to cause war between Russia and America. According to him, Americans were divided and only war could unite them.
The corrupt official in Tom Clancy's book is Lieutenant Mark Charon. He has been protecting the drug lords and pimps responsible for Pam's death, even helping them ship heroin from Vietnam.
How John Fakes His Death And Changes His Identity
At the end of the movie, John fakes his death after getting a confession from Secretary Of Defense Thomas Clay. He drives his car into the Potomac River, drowning Clay before swimming out and escaping. Presumed dead, Greer gives him a new identity with his name changing from "John Kelly" to "John Clark."
That's not how events play out on the pages. Instead of John being in a car, he is in a boat where he is confronted by a police investigator that has singled him out as the murderer of the drug lords. To avoid capture, John capsizes his boat, faking his death in the process. His CIA superiors then give him a new identity.