Clear and Present Danger (film)

All you want to know about Clear and Present Danger (film)

Clear and Present Danger

Clear and Present Danger film poster
Directed by Phillip Noyce
Written by Novel:
Tom Clancy
Screenplay:
Donald Stewart
Steven Zaillian
John Milius
Starring Harrison Ford
Willem Dafoe
Anne Archer
Miguel Sandoval
Joaquim de Almeida
and
James Earl Jones
Music by James Horner
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date(s) August 3, 1994
Running time 141 min.
Language English
Budget $65,000,000
Preceded by Patriot Games
Followed by The Sum of All Fears

Clear and Present Danger is a 1994 film directed by Phillip Noyce, based on the book of the same name by Tom Clancy.

As in the novel, Jack Ryan is appointed Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Acting Deputy Director and discovers that he is being kept in the dark by colleagues who are conducting a covert war against drug lords in Colombia.

Contents

Plot

The movie opens with a United States Coast Guard patrol boat stopping a suspicious yacht, finding that an American businessman and his family had been murdered by several men still operating the craft. The murdered man happens to have been a close friend of President of the United States. President Bennett (Donald Moffat) finds out that the man was murdered because of his ties to the Cali Cartel, having skimmed over $650 million from the Cartel for his own use. In his anger, the President tells James Cutter, his National Security Advisor, that the Colombian drug cartels represent "a clear and present danger" to the U.S., indirectly giving Cutter unofficial permission to take down the men responsible for his friend's death.

Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford), meanwhile, is appointed Deputy Director (Intelligence) when his friend, mentor, and boss Admiral James Greer (James Earl Jones) is diagnosed with an aggressive, and ultimately fatal, case of pancreatic cancer. Upon his appointment, Ryan is asked to go before the United States Congress to request increased funding of $70 million for ongoing CIA intelligence operations in Colombia. Congress agrees to provide the funding, with Senator Mayo receiving Ryan's word that "no troops" or black-ops will be used in Colombia. Needing to keep an unwitting Ryan out of the loop, Cutter turns to CIA Deputy Director of Operations Robert Ritter, who secures a document giving him permission to do what he sees fit to take down the cartel. Ritter then assembles a black-ops team with the help of John Clark (Willem Dafoe), a secret field operative. John and his team travel to Colombia and begin destroying the various Cartel gangs, their equipment and hidden drug lab facilities.

The head of one of the drug gangs, Ernesto Escobedo, is enraged at having lost over $600 million as a result of the freezing of assets, and has his main operative, Felix Cortez (Joaquim de Almeida), take care of the problem. Felix, a former Cuban intelligence officer, happens to have an unwitting contact inside the U.S. government - Moira Wolfson, a secretary to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Emil Jacobs. Felix feigns romantic interest and uses Moira, who doesn't know of his true nature or intentions, to discover that Jacobs is visiting Colombia to negotiate with the local attorney general concerning the frozen money. Unaware of these covert dealings, Ryan finds himself caught in the middle of an assassination attempt on Jacobs, from which only Ryan survives. Felix travels to the United States and kills Moira under pretense of a romantic weekend getaway. Felix's real motivation is to cause distrust among the leaders of the Cartel (as none of them knows who ordered the ambush of the FBI Director). Felix also believes he can assume control of the cartel himself following the inevitable gang war that will result.

In retaliation for the assassination of Jacobs, Cutter orders the aerial bombing of a villa where all of the Cartel's leaders are supposed to meet to sort out the recent development. The bombing is mostly successful, killing a large number of the Cartel leaders and fooling the media and other observers into thinking that the destruction was caused by a car bomb set by a rival drug lord. However, Escobedo and Cortez happen to be running late. They avoid the bombing, but innocent women and children are also killed in the action, much to Cutter's dismay. The situation is exacerbated when Ryan and Cortez independently discover that the United States was responsible for the bombing.

Felix uses this knowledge to broker a deal with Cutter. Felix will assassinate Escobedo and take over the Cartel, then reduce drug shipments to the U.S. and allow the FBI to arrest some of his workers at regular intervals so as to make the U.S. appear to be winning the drug war. In exchange, Cutter will shut down all operations in Colombia and allow Cortez to capture and kill Clark's soldiers. Cutter agrees and orders Ritter to get rid of all evidence of their operations and cut off the troops in Colombia from all support.

Meanwhile, Ryan is told about this meeting between Cutter and Cortez. With some help, he hacks into Ritter's computer and discovers Ritter's and Cutter's work in Colombia. Ritter notices Ryan's presence on the computer while he deletes all of the files, and the two men soon confront each other. Ritter tells Ryan that he has written permission from the President to do anything necessary to defeat the Cali Cartel, and so does Cutter. That means that Jack will be the scapegoat for what has been happening since he doesn't have that protection and was responsible for the increased funding from Congress that made the Colombian operations possible.

Ryan is now informed that Greer has succumbed to cancer in hospital. As the funeral takes place, the black-ops team is ambushed in Colombia. After finding out, he decides to go to Colombia by himself in secret to find John Clark and save the soldiers. However, Ritter and Cutter find out about this and tell Clark (who is angry over the communications cut-off from his men) that Ryan was responsible for the operations' shut-down. Clark vows to kill Ryan, and almost does before Ryan convinces him that Ritter and Cutter are responsible.

Clark hires a local retired American pilot and Ryan buys a Bell helicopter from a local owner using CIA money. They fly to where the soldiers were attacked and find the squad's scout/sniper, Domingo Chavez, who tells them that two of his unit members are being held prisoner and the rest are dead. Ryan decides to visit Escobedo's mansion and tell him (using the evidence from Cutter's meeting with Cortez) what Cortez has been doing. Enraged, Escobedo calls Cortez in and accuses him of treachery. One of Felix's men kills Escobedo and henchmen, but is shot by Chavez. Ryan, Clark, and Chavez then rescue the prisoners, kill Cortez, and escape.

Back home, Ryan angrily confronts the President, who was indirectly responsible for all the carnage. The President smugly tries to convince Ryan that he now holds 'a chip in the big game' - by being in the loop of what happened, Ryan can use the President for special favors, in return for keeping the debacle secret. But the late Admiral Greer would be the scapegoat instead. Ryan is unable to bear dishonoring the black-ops team who died in the raid, the innocent civilians (whom Cutter called "collateral damage") who died from the aerial bomb at the villa and the legacy of his mentor. He angrily tells the President that he intends to blow the whistle at a Congressional Oversight Committee session despite the damage it could do to his career. He then walks out of the Oval Office, and the movie ends with Ryan beginning his testimony to Congress.

Differences between the book and film

The film deviates very significantly from the original book version. Perhaps the greatest deviation from the book is in the film's portrayal of the American politicians, notably Moore, Ritter, and Cutter. In the film, all three are unsympathetic characters, whereas in the book, only Cutter is the villain—--both Ritter and Moore are portrayed sympathetically, and are essentially tied down by Cutter into abandoning the SHOWBOAT teams. When Moore and Ritter learn of Ryan's plan to rescue the soldiers, they offer him aid and support.

The film also takes a few cinematic shortcuts: people die instead of suffering more complex consequences of their acts. There are also further more differences:

  • Almost all of the Coast Guard's storyline was removed. The Coast Guard captured the Colombian murderers, faked an execution, and got them to confess. Later on, the Coast Guard ship served as the landing platform for the helicopter after everyone escaped.
  • In the movie, Clark says he only wants 12 soldiers, one team. In the book there were four teams.
  • Chavez's unit patch shows that he's in Special Forces, whereas he's actually 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division in the book.
  • In the movie, Chavez is portrayed as a sniper, in the book, he is the pointman.
  • In the book, Moira Wolf/Wolfson unsuccessfully attempts suicide, then is given a new job without classified access; in the film, Cortez kills her by breaking her neck.
  • In the book, Cortez is handed over to his former Cuban-Intelligence colleagues, at Guantanamo Bay, in front of Moira; in the film, he is shot.
  • In the movie, Jack Ryan seemed to be the last survivor of the ambush, carrying Dan Murray's dead body with him. In the book, Ryan and Murray weren't even part of that convoy. The only one to be killed in both the book and movie was FBI Director Emil Jacobs.
  • In the book, the ambush was solely RPG attacks and one of the suspects was captured by the Colombian army. In the film the ambush involves a protracted shoot-out.
  • In the movie, Cortez is shown planning the ambush. In the book, Cortez was unaware of the ambush until after it happened.
  • In the movie, it was called "Operation RECIPROCITY" throughout the whole movie. In the book, it was called "Operation SHOWBOAT." It wasn't until after the ambush in Colombia where "RECIPROCITY" was put into play.
  • In the book, it was an A-6 Intruder that dropped the bomb on the house, not an F/A-18 Hornet. In addition, Clark and his partner Larson (omitted from the movie) were the ones who laser-designated the house, not Clark and Chavez.
  • The computer-duel between Ryan and Ritter was not in the book. Ryan actually broke into Ritter's safe, took the files, and confronted Judge Moore about it, who openly admitted.
  • In the movie, Jack Ryan was at Greer's funeral. In the book, he couldn't make it to the funeral because he was on his way to Colombia.
  • In the movie, Jack Ryan arrives in Colombia by airline to meet Clark. In the book, his friend Robby Jackson flew him to Colombia via F-14 Tomcat. In addition, Dan Murray went to Colombia with Jack in another F-14, whereas in the movie Jack went alone.
  • In the movie, Chavez was the only one to escape when his team was ambushed. In the book, there were numerous soldiers that escaped (including First Sergeant Julio "Oso" Vega who eventually became a Rainbow Operator with Chavez's team in Rainbow Six).
  • In the book, Escobedo is handed over to his former associates whom he has betrayed; in the film, he is shot by Sipo (Cortez's lieutenant).
  • In the movie, Cutter is still alive at the end, whereas in the book he committed suicide after he learned that the FBI was on his tail (learned from Clark to be exact).
  • In the movie, Ryan ends up testifying in front of a Senate committee about the operation. In the book, two senators are informed in the Oval Office and decide to keep the operation secret.
  • In the movie, Cutter's meeting with Cortez seemed to be stumbled on. In the book, he had the FBI tailing him. Additionally, the movie shows the meeting taking place in a high-rise hotel, while the book had the meeting taking place on the porch of a house.
  • The movie shows Cortez and Ryan both doing research to determine the source of the bomb. Cortez is shown using computer resources and Ryan using books. In the book, Cortez used books (including the ones Ryan is shown using in the movie) and Ryan never researches at all.

Further production notes

The film was originally given an "R" rating by the MPAA, but in a rare appeal the producers fought for and received a final "PG-13" rating. The producers of Air Force One were inspired by this to try and overcome an assigned "R" rating in 1997 but were unsuccessful.

Clear and Present Danger's laserdisc is notable for being the first to have its soundtrack encoded in Dolby Digital AC-3.

Footage from the scene where Jack Ryan and party are ambushed in Bogotá is used in JAG episode 1.06. In JAG, Harm and party are ambushed in Lima.

During the rescue operation, the film crew helicopter is visible in the window of the helicopter that Ryan had bought.

The final honors at Arlington National Cemetery are not in the correct order nor complete for what a US Navy Admiral would receive. The portrayal was backwards and lacked the gun salute to which a flag officer is entitled.[1]

Cast

References

  1. ^ Arlington National Cemetery:: Ceremonies
v • d • e
Jack Ryan film series
Films
Actors playing Ryan
Other actors
Sean Connery (Marko Ramius) • James Earl Jones (James Greer; The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger) • Sean Bean (Sean Miller; Patriot Games) • Morgan Freeman (William Cabot; The Sum of All Fears) • Willem Dafoe (John Clark; Clear and Present Danger) • Liev Schreiber (John Clark; The Sum of All Fears)
v • d • e
Films directed by Phillip Noyce

Castor and Pollux (1973) • That's Showbiz (1973) • Backroads (1977) • Newsfront (1978) • Heatwave (1982) • Echoes of Paradise (1987) • Dead Calm (1989) • Blind Fury (1989) • Patriot Games (1992) • Silver (1993) • Clear and Present Danger (1994) • The Saint (1997) • The Bone Collector (1999) • Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) • The Quiet American (2002) • Catch a Fire (2006)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clear_and_Present_Danger_(film)"

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