Harrison Ford took over the role of Jack Ryan with commanding style in 1992's PATRIOT GAMES.
When Alec Baldwin inexplicably decided he didn't want to play the role again after the box office smash "The Hunt For Red October", Ford assumed the character and made Ryan his own.
The film opens with Jack and his wife Cathy (the beautiful and reliably good Anne Archer) and daughter Sally (Thora Birch) preparing to head home from London.
When the family finds themselves caught in an assassination attempt on the Royals by IRA extremists, Ryan leaps into the middle, saves the royals and manages to kill most of the terrorists.
The lone survivor is Sean Miller, played with great intensity by Sean Bean (Game of Thrones, Goldeneye). When Miller's younger brother is shot and killed by Ryan in the skirmish, Sean makes it his personal mission to gain revenge against Jack.
As most Tom Clancy film adaptions do, the film showcases a lot of globe trotting action, terrorist/CIA battles and plot twists.
Ford is so good as Jack Ryan, you'll be rooting for him every step of the way whether he's battling pencil pushing analysts or machine gun toting extremists.
James Earl Jones, James Fox and a young Samuel L. Jackson add plenty of gravitas to the gun play.
The late, great Richard Harris owns the screen in all his scenes as IRA leader Paddy O'Neil. His verbal and political sparing with Ford provides plenty of fireworks.
This is a great action film. If the last action scene tends to register as a bit "too much" on the water after everything leading up to it, I forgave it pretty quickly in balance with the rest of this well made thriller.
Ford kicks butt and gets an A.
This film was followed by "A Clear and Present Danger".
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