The Sum of All Fears (film)

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The Sum of All Fears

Theatrical poster for The Sum of All Fears.
Directed by Phil Alden Robinson
Produced by Mace Neufeld
Written by Tom Clancy (novel)
Paul Attanasio, Daniel Pyne (screenplay)
Starring Ben Affleck
Morgan Freeman
James Cromwell
Ciaran Hinds
Liev Schreiber
Bridget Moynahan
Michael Byrne
Music by Jerry Goldsmith
Cinematography John Lindley
Editing by Nicholas de Toth
Neil Travis
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date(s) May 29 2002
Running time 126 min. approx.
Country Flag of Germany Germany
Flag of United States United States
Language English
Budget US$68 million
Official website
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Sum of All Fears is a 2002 film directed by Phil Alden Robinson, from a screenplay by Paul Attanasio and Tom Clancy, based on the book of the same name by Tom Clancy. It stars Ben Affleck and Morgan Freeman.

Contents

[edit] Plot

During the Yom Kippur War in 1973, an Israeli A-4 jet carrying a nuclear bomb, gets shot down over the desert in the Middle East. In 2002, the bomb is found by a man named Olson (Colm Feore), he sells it to an Austrian neo-fascist named Richard Dressler (Alan Bates) for 50 million dollars on the black market. Meanwhile, the United States becomes concerned when Nemerov ([[Ciar�n Hinds]]) becomes president of the Russian Federation, because of his strong military control. Jack Ryan (Ben Affleck) and the CIA Director William Cabot (Morgan Freeman) go to Russia to inspect their nuclear weapons program.

When Ryan notices that three Russian nuclear scientists are missing, Cabot tells Ryan that the Russians don't know where they are. Cabot sends John Clark (Liev Schreiber) to track down those missing scientists. Those scientists are repairing the nuclear bomb Dressler bought in Ukraine. When President Nemerov orders an gas-warfare attack on the capital of Chechnya, Grozny, it concerns American President J. Robert Fowler and his administration, in response he sends peacekeeping troops to Chechnya. The nuclear bomb arrives in a crate in Baltimore, Maryland, and is placed at an American football stadium. Meanwhile, President Fowler and Cabot are attending a game at the stadium. Ryan calls Cabot to tell him that the bomb is in Baltimore. Cabot realizes that the bomb is at the stadium and evacuates the President, before it explodes. The bomb does explode, destroying a significant portion of the city of Baltimore.

After the disaster, President Fowler is rescued by United States Marine Corps troops, and taken airborne on Air Force One with his cabinet. Immediately, they fear that the bomb was Russian. Ryan and his girlfriend Dr. Catherine Muller (Bridget Moynahan) survive the blast, but Cabot dies later at a hosptial. After learning about the explosion, Dressler calls his neo-fascist friend who is a general in the Russian Air Force. The general orders his pilots to strike an American aircraft carrier in the Black Sea under the false information that the United States had launched an ICBM attack on Moscow. The strike is successful, in response President Fowler orders three United States Air Force F-16s to attack a Russian air base. Then, the President orders SNAPCOUNT, a strike using B-2 Spirit stealth bombers and ICBMs that would use nuclear bombs to destroy Russian missiles and planes. This would launch a nuclear war and possibly World War III. When the B-2 stealth bombers are discovered over Poland, President Nemerov orders to shoot them down.

Jack Ryan tries to stop the nuclear war, by going to The Pentagon and telling Nemerov that the nuclear bombing of Baltimore was a terrorist attack by a group of neo-fascists. Nemerov proposes a plan to Fowler to a stand down, preventing a nuclear war. Days later, both presidents sign a pact to reduce weapons of mass destruction. Later still, John Clark and Russian agents assassinate all the individuals responsible for the the explosion in Baltimore. At the end, Ryan and his girlfriend Cathy Muller get engaged.

  • Tagline: 27,000 Nuclear Weapons. One Is Missing.

[edit] Main Cast

[edit] Deviations from the book

While the basic plot was the same, there were significant changes from the book. Noting these substantial changes, in the commentary track on the DVD release, Tom Clancy jokingly introduces himself as "the author of the book that he [Phil Alden Robinson, who is present with Clancy] ignored".

  • The original terrorists in the novel were Muslim extremists, but in the movie, they are changed to neo-fascists. A common misconception is that this was done as a reaction to the September 11 attacks. However, the movie was filmed months before 9/11; it finished filming in June of 2001. On the "making-of" DVD extra, the director says that this was purely for elements relating to the plot, as Muslim extremists would not be able to plausibly accomplish all that was necessary for the story to work. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) did mount a 2-year lobbying campaign that ended on January 26, 2001 against using "Muslim villains", as the original book version did. Director Phil Alden Robinson is quoted in a letter to CAIR saying "I hope you will be reassured that I have no intention of promoting negative images of Muslims or Arabs, and I wish you the best in your continuing efforts to combat discrimination."[1] Screenwriter Dan Pyne claims that the decision to not use Arab terrorists was “possibly because that has become a cliche. At the time that I started writing the Sum Of All Fears, Joerg Haider was just starting to come into play in Austria. And simultaneous with that, I think, there was some neo-nationalist activity in Holland, and there was stuff going on in Spain and in Italy. So it seemed like a logical and lasting idea that would be universal.”[1] It has also been noted that a larger percent of profits stems from international audiences, and American filmmakers work to avoid alienating large segments of this customer base.[1]
  • The attacked city was changed from Denver to Baltimore.
  • The bomb in the movie is a tactical fission device, not a thermonuclear bomb as in the book.
  • The "battle for Berlin" is excluded from the script (since the book was based in the late 1980s there is still a Soviet garrison in the city and during the course of the book, there is a clash between Russian and American tanks)- although the Berlin Brigade, which was historically deactivated in 1994, is mentioned at the beginning of the movie.
  • Spinnaker (the mole in the Russian government) is actually found to be an unreliable source because he is making up or changing information for his own benefit to become a president of the USSR (or the Russian Federation).
  • Robby Jackson's role is deleted.
  • Instead of the U.S. fighters shooting down Libyan MiGs, the USS John C. Stennis is attacked by Backfire bombers.
  • Since the film is a reboot, some details of Jack Ryan's life are changed. In the film, Jack Ryan is a low-level intelligence analyst, whereas he is the Deputy Director of Central Intelligence in the book. The film also shows Ryan dating Catherine Muller and meeting John Clark for the first time, while in the book he is already married to Muller and they have children; Ryan met Clark in Clear and Present Danger.

[edit] Sources

  1. ^ a b producer: Lauren F. Cardillo. "Casting Calls", Running Down Dreams Productions & The Discovery Times Channel, 2003.

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:


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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