Clear and Present Danger

When Admiral Greer falls seriously ill, Jack Ryan steps in as acting Deputy Director of Intelligence at the CIA, balancing urgent responsibilities with the shadows of Washington politics. A political ally and generous patron to the presidency is found dead aboard his private yacht, and Ryan starts mapping curious links between the victim and drug networks. In parallel, former CIA operative John Clark is dispatched to Colombia with orders to target cartel leadership, a mission framed as retaliation. Back in Washington, Ryan navigates a maze of stalled reports, conflicting briefings, and senior officials who would rather protect reputations than reveal truth. As clues accumulate, the stakes come into view, forcing him to challenge a system protecting powerful interests over justice.

The movie was directed by Phillip Noyce and released in 1994. It adapts Tom Clancy's novel Clear and Present Danger with a screenplay by Steven Zaillian, along with John Milius and Donald E. Stewart, continuing the Jack Ryan film series.

Box office total reached 215,887,717 worldwide on a 62,000,000 budget, underscoring strong reception for a mid-90s political thriller. Its success shaped the studio's 1990s lineup and helped finance future sequels while encouraging more contemporary espionage stories for future franchise plans.

The film helped cement the Jack Ryan film series as a practical political thriller in the 1990s. Its grounded depictions of covert ops and cartel violence fed into a wave of realism in action cinema and solidified Harrison Ford's take on the character. Its action sequences became talking points worldwide.

Critics generally responded with brisk pacing and strong performances, while some noted the plot's complexity could bog down the drama. Thematically, the film investigates accountability in intelligence work, the murky ethics of covert retaliation, and the friction between political expediency and truth.