Clear and Present Danger (film)

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Clear and Present Danger

Clear and Present Danger film poster
Directed by Phillip Noyce
Written by Tom Clancy (book)
Donald Stewart
Steven Zaillian
John Milius
Starring Harrison Ford
Willem Dafoe
Anne Archer
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
IMDb profile

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

In the novel, Jack Ryan is thrown into the position of CIA Acting Deputy Director and discovers that he is being kept in the dark by his colleagues who are conducting a covert war against drug lords in Colombia.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The movie opens with the Coast Guard stopping a suspicious boat, finding that the owner of the boat and his family had been murdered by the men caught on the boat. The murdered man happens to have been a close friend of President Bennett. President Bennett finds out that the man was murdered because of his ties to the Cali Cartel, having skimmed over $600 million from the Cartel for his own use. In his anger, the President tells James Cutter, the National Security Advisor, that the Colombian drug cartels represent "a clear and present danger" to the U.S., thus giving Cutter unofficial permission to take down the men responsible for his friend's death.

Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford), meanwhile, is appointed Deputy Director of Intelligence when his friend Admiral Greer (James Earl Jones) is diagnosed with an aggressive case of cancer, which eventually proves fatal. Upon his appointment, Ryan is asked to go before 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 manages to get 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 and their equipment.

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 henchman 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 FBI Director Emile Jacobs. Felix pretends 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 that country's attorney general concerning the frozen money. Unaware of all this, Ryan finds himself caught in the crossfire when Felix orders his men to assassinate Jacobs and attack the entourage (including Ryan, who survives), while he himself kills Moira during a romantic weekend interlude. Cortez does this in an attempt to cause distrust among the leaders of the Cartel (as none of them knows who ordered the ambush of the FBI Director) so that he himself can take over after the inevitable gang war erupts.

Jack Ryan ambushed in Colombia.
Enlarge
Jack Ryan ambushed in Colombia.

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 discuss matters. 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, not only did Escobedo and Cortez survive the bombing, but some innocent women and children were also killed to Cutter's dismay. On top of this, both Ryan and Cortez independently discover that the United States was responsible for the bombing.

Felix uses this knowledge to broker a deal with Cutter, where Cortez 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 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 intelligence community's 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 finds himself at an impasse until he finds out that the black-ops team has been ambushed in Colombia. He decides to go to Colombia by himself in secret, 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 pilot friend of his and Ryan buys a Huey 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 mates 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 Cortez runs away. 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 'game' - by being in the loop of what happened, Ryan can use the President for special favors, in return for keeping his mouth shut. Ryan, however, angrily tells the President that he intends to blow the whistle at a special session of Congress, despite the ruin it could do to his career. He then walks out of the Oval Office, and the movie ends with Ryan about to testify about everything that happened.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Trivia


Jack Ryan films
Alec Baldwin: The Hunt for Red October
Harrison Ford: Patriot Games | Clear and Present Danger
Ben Affleck: The Sum of All Fears
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