It’s always interesting to think about what the algorithms think of my watching habits. Recently, I was recommended Clear and Present Danger as I was flipping around looking for something to watch with my Netflix subscription on the first cloudy, cold day of the year. I had a fire going, and I just wanted to veg out. The Harrison Ford flick from 1994, based on a Tom Clancy novel, seemed like the perfect option when I scrolled by it. It was, for more reasons than I thought it would.
A Lot Is Going On Here
I loved Clear and Present Danger when it came out in the mid-’90s. I was already a fan of the Clancy novel and of all the Jack Ryan movies, so when the movie was released, I remember going to the theaters on opening weekend to see it. That was followed by watching a lot on cable in the next couple of years. However, I don’t think I’ve sat down to watch it since about 1997. 30 years is a long time, and tastes change, both my own and in how movies look and feel.
Clear and Present Danger holds up in the ways I hoped it would. It’s still a great action movie with some engaging characters. It’s also a timely critique of the War on Drugs, which even by the mid-’90s was losing steam and popularity with people. It was being recognized as a drain on resources with dubious legality. There have been a lot of Jack Ryanverse movies and actors in the lead role over the years, and this remains one of the best.
What I Really Love Is The Cast
Sometimes, the best way for a movie to endure over time is the cast, and Clear and Present Danger has an A+ cast. Harrison Ford, of course, is once again great as Jack Ryan in his second go with the character after Patriot Games. Willem Dafoe is perfect as the grizzled CIA operative John Clark (a mainstay character in the Ryanverse). Between this movie and the Mission: Impossible movies, there is really no one better at playing a swarmy bureaucratic functionary like Henry Czerny, and he’s just so unlikable in this movie, it’s wonderful.
The late James Earl Jones, who played Admiral James Greer for the third and final time here, has a smaller role in this than he did in The Hunt for Red October and Patriot Games, but his scenes are so heartfelt and, honestly, funny at times, that it made me miss the acting great even more. Joaquim de Almeida, who plays the ambitious henchman, Félix Cortez, in the movie, has been a little typecast over the years as a drug trafficker, but he’s so good at the role, so I understand why. His boss, played by Miguel Sandoval, is also perfect as the Pablo Escobar-like narco kingpin, Ernesto Escobedo (hardly disguising the connection).
There are also a slew of great supporting roles from character actors like Clarke Gregg, Reg E. Cathy, Benjamin Bratt, Donald Moffat, and Rex Linn. And I haven’t even mentioned Anne Archer yet, who does her best work in the series as Cathy Ryan. It’s just stacked up and down.
We don’t know if the next installment of the Ryanverse will be on the 2026 movie schedule, but whenever it is, I’ll be there at the theater, just like I was 30 years ago when Clear and Present Danger came out.