Taglines: The war of drugs would lead him to the war of power.
Clear and Present Danger movie storyline. Jack Ryan is back and this time the bad guys are in his own government. When Admiral James Greer becomes sick with cancer, Ryan is appointed acting CIA Deputy Director of Intelligence. Almost before he can draw a breath in his new position, one of the president’s closest friends and his family are murdered in their sleep by what appears to by drug cartels.
Ryan is called in to investigate, but unknown to him the CIA has already sent a secret field operative to lead an illegal paramilitary force in Colombia against cartels. Things get even more complicated when his team is set up and he loses an agent in the field and a friend of his wife’s, who was the murdered agent’s secretary, is murdered that same day. Ryan must then risk not only his career, but his life to expose the truth behind the mystery.
Clear and Present Danger is a 1994 American spy thriller film directed by Phillip Noyce and based on Tom Clancy’s novel of the same name. It was preceded by the 1990 film The Hunt for Red October and the 1992 film Patriot Games, all three featuring Clancy’s character Jack Ryan. It is the last film version of Clancy’s novels to feature Harrison Ford as Ryan and James Earl Jones as Vice Admiral James Greer, as well as the final installment directed by Noyce.
As in the novel, Ryan is appointed CIA Acting Deputy Director, and discovers he is being kept in the dark by colleagues who are conducting a covert war against a drug cartel in Colombia, apparently with the approval of the President. The film premiered in theaters in the United States on August 3, 1994, and was a major financial success, earning over $200 million at the box office.
About the Story
A U.S. Coast Guard patrol boat stops a suspicious yacht, discovering that an American businessman and his family have been murdered. The murdered man is a close friend of the President. President Bennett learns that the man was murdered because of his ties to a drug cartel, having skimmed over $650 million from it.
The President tells James Cutter, his National Security Advisor, that Colombian drug cartels represent a “clear and present danger” to the U.S., indirectly giving him unofficial permission to kill the men responsible for his friend’s murder. When Vice Admiral Jim Greer is stricken with terminal cancer, Jack Ryan is appointed Deputy Director for Intelligence and is asked to go before Congress to request increased funding for ongoing CIA operations in Colombia.
Seeking to keep Ryan out of the loop, Cutter turns to the CIA’s Deputy Director for Operations Bob Ritter, who secures a document giving him permission to act as he sees fit to take down the cartel. Ritter assembles a black operations team with the help of John Clark. The team inserts itself in Colombia, with Clark running the logistics, and Captain Ricardo Ramirez leading a ground force in search-and-destroy missions against various drug cartels.
The head of one of the drug gangs, Ernesto Escobedo, is enraged at having lost over $650 million as a result of the freezing of assets, and has his intelligence officer, Félix Cortez, try to retrieve the funds. Through a contact, Cortez discovers FBI Director Emil Jacobs is visiting Colombia to negotiate with Colombia’s attorney general concerning the frozen money. Cortez has Jacobs ambushed and killed, engineering it so that suspicion will fall on Escobedo.
Cortez brokers a deal with Cutter. Cortez will assassinate Escobedo and take over the cartel, then reduce drug shipments to the U.S. and allow American law enforcement to arrest some of his workers at regular intervals to make it appear as if the U.S. is winning the drug war. In exchange, Cutter will shut down all operations in Colombia and allow Cortez to subdue 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. Ryan is told about the meeting between Cutter and Cortez. He hacks Ritter’s computer and discovers the conspiracy unfolding in Colombia.
Clear and Present Danger (1994)
Directed by: Phillip Noyce
Starring: Harrison Ford, Willem Dafoe, Anne Archer, Joaquim de Almeida, Henry Czerny, Harris Yulin, Benjamin Bratt, Thora Birch, Ann Magnuson, Raymond Cruz
Screenplay by: John Milius, Donald E. Stewart, Steven Zaillian
Production Design by: Terence Marsh
Cinematography by: Donald McAlpine
Film Editing by: Neil Travis
Costume Design by: Bernie Pollack
Set Decoration by: Jay Hart, Mickey S. Michaels
Art Direction by: William Cruse
Music by: James Horner
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some intense action/violence and language.
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: August 3, 1994
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