The Sum of All Fears
      
Director: Phil Alden Robinson
Year: 2002
Rating: 7.0
This is the big one. Jack Ryan saves the world in the fourth film in the series. This one takes us back to when Ryan is just a Russian analyst - so from that to saving the world should have gotten him a nice bonus. Like the Randy Newman song almost went, "Boom goes Baltimore". That was a relief though I am certainly fond of the city. Lovely harbor area, Camden Yards where the Orioles have gotten good again, the beautiful row houses - but at least it wasn't New York City for a change. When I was living there for 35-years the nuclear shadow was always in the back of my mind. Not being killed so much as the value of my co-op dropping to zero. I was counting on that for my retirement. But I have been around long enough to remember the Cuban Missile Crisis when our family was living in the suburbs of D.C. and my father wanted my mother to take me and my brother on a road trip. He was pretty sure it was going to happen. My mom refused. Fail Safe and Dr. Strangelove were the first two great films that dealt with this fear. Somehow though we have managed not to blow each other up - thanks to Jack Ryan.

 

Ryan - played by Ben Affleck - is just another lower-level analyst who specializes in Russia. When there is a change in the regime, he is asked to bring his expertise to a meeting with the President (James Cromwell) and the head of the CIA, William Cabot (Morgan Freeman).  Cabot likes this young fellow and takes him along on a trip to meet the new Russian President (Ciarán Hinds). Meanwhile, the film actually opened with an Israeli plane going down during the 1973 war with a nuke on board. It crashes but the bomb gets covered with sand over the years until a couple Bedouins dig it up and sell it. Who then sells it on to a right-wing fascist group who wants to start a war between Russia and America, Yikes. A small nuke here and an attack on a battleship there and both countries are on the verge of pushing the button. There goes my co-op.

 

A good bunch of character actors in this - Bruce McGill, Philip Baker Hall, Alan Bates, Liev Schreiber as the CIA agent on the ground in Russia, Ron Rifkin and Bridget Moynahan in the thankless role of Ryan's girlfriend - who in the two previous films is married to him in the form of Anne Archer. The final 30-minutes from boom to almost boom plays out very well. This was supposed to be released in late 2001 but was pushed back to 2002 because after 9-11 it was considered too frightening. It was a big box-office hit but nothing else till 2014 with Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. he is played by Chris Pine in that one with Keira Knightly doing the girlfriend thing. He is once again an action hero. In the books Ryan becomes President but the movies have not gotten there yet. Of course, Harrison Ford in Air Force One is a pretty good substitute.