Jack Ryan Returns to the Screen

Written by Jon Williams

On August 31, the entire eight-episode first season of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan became available for streaming. This new iteration brings the character to life for the first time since 2014, and to the small screen for the first time ever. Positive critical and viewer reactions are already rolling in, and the series has already been renewed for a second season.

This time around Ryan is played by John Krasinski, as the series focuses on the early days of the burgeoning CIA agent’s career. Krasinski has been in the pop culture spotlight lately as the star, director, and co-writer of the hit horror flick A Quiet Place, which came out earlier this year. He is probably even better known for his breakout role as Jim Halpert on The Office, which he played for the entirety of the comedy series’ nine-season run. The rest of Jack Ryan’s main cast is rounded out by Wendell Pierce, Abbie Cornish, Ali Suliman, and Dina Shihabi.

The show may be new, but the character of Jack Ryan is anything but. He originally came to be in Tom Clancy’s 1984 The Hunt for Red October. The novel tells how Jack Ryan, at this point a young CIA analyst, helps to ensure the defection of a grizzled Soviet navy captain with a devastating new submarine. The book became a bestseller following huge critical reaction, including an endorsement from President Ronald Reagan. Ryan has since featured in more than twenty novels, including such titles as Clear and Present Danger, Executive Orders, Command Authority, the recently released Line of Sight, and the forthcoming Oath of Office. Sadly, author Tom Clancy passed away in 2013, but the mantle of writing the Ryan character has been taken on by fellow authors Mark Greaney, Mike Maden, and Marc Cameron.

Jack Ryan remained as words on a page until 1990. That was the year The Hunt for Red October made him a big-screen sensation as well, bringing in over $120 million at the domestic box office. The movie featured a star-studded cast that included Sean Connery, Sam Neill, and James Earl Jones, as well as Alec Baldwin as Ryan himself. It was followed in 1992 with Patriot Games, with Harrison Ford taking over as Jack Ryan, a role he reprised in 1994’s Clear and Present Danger. The series was rebooted with 2002’s The Sum of All Fears, with Ben Affleck in the main character’s role. That movie took Clancy’s novel of the same name from 1991 and updated it for a 2002 setting. The series was then rebooted again in 2014 with Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, an original origin story not based on any specific Clancy book, this time with Chris Pine starring.

And that’s where Jack Ryan’s screen presence left off, until the new streaming series debuted two weeks ago. As more and more people discover the show, Tom Clancy’s audiobooks and the past movies are sure to be in demand. Use the links above to find the materials, or SmartBrowse ‘Jack Ryan’ on our website for a full list of audiobooks we carry in the series.

Harrison Ford Returning for Indy 5

Written by Jon Williams

Rumors have been swirling for quite some time, but the news finally became official earlier this week. Harrison Ford will once again don the fedora and brandish the whip as Indiana Jones for the fifth film in the series, set to hit theaters in 2019. Steven Spielberg is back to direct, but George Lucas, who shaped the stories of the first four installments, will not be involved.

Ford’s portrayal of the adventurous archaeologist dates back to 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark, in which he must prevent the Nazis from seizing and using the Ark of the Covenant to achieve world domination. It was followed in 1984 by Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, which was actually set before the first film, and the level of violence contributed to the creation of the PG13 rating by the MPAA that same year. The third film, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, came in 1989, and featured the addition of Sean Connery to the cast as Indy’s father.

After The Last Crusade, there was a nineteen-year break before the fourth film. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull moves the series ahead from the 1930s to 1957 and replaces the Nazis with the Soviets as antagonists. It seemed as though that movie was a chance for Ford and Jones to pass the torch to Shia LaBeouf and continue the series with a younger lead, but apparently that was not the case. LaBeouf is unlikely to return for the new film, although it is a possibility.

Of course, fans who were “jonesing” for more Indy didn’t have to wait out that whole nineteen-year period without a fix. The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles was a television series that ran for two seasons starting in 1992, and then was revived for four TV movies from 1994-1996. (Please note: for the DVD release, the movies were edited into episodes, and the episodes from both seasons and the movies appear chronologically by when they were set, rather than in the order they originally aired.)

By the time the next film releases in 2009, that will be an eleven-year gap between movies, and Ford will be 77 years old. Of course, he’s certainly no stranger to reprising iconic roles after many years away. Star Wars: The Force Awakens, one of the biggest blockbusters of all time, starred Ford in a central role as Han Solo, a character he hadn’t played since Return of the Jedi in 1983. Also, coming in 2018, Ford will appear as replicant/hunter Rick Deckard in the sequel to the 1982 sci-fi classic Blade Runner, directed by Ridley Scott and based on a novel by Philip K. Dick.

Ford has been a big name in Hollywood ever since his first starring role in the original Star Wars in 1977. Over the course of his long career he’s put together a very impressive filmography. So, are there any other characters you’d like to see him resurrect? A return to Jack Ryan, perhaps? Let us know in the comments section below, or tell us about favorite Ford movies or fun Indy memories.

Jack’s Back

Written by Jon Williams

On January 17, the movie Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit will hit theaters nationwide. It features the title character as a young intelligence officer for the CIA as he uncovers a terrorist plot and must investigate to find evidence to support his claims. The film features such notable names as Kevin Costner as Ryan’s CIA role model, Keira Knightley as Ryan’s wife, and Kenneth Branagh (who also directs the film) as the villain.

Actor Chris Pine has already taken the reins of one iconic role, taking over for William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise in the 2009 Star Trek reboot, as well as its 2013 sequel. Now he does it again, becoming the fourth actor to bring Jack Ryan to the big screen. With this being a story of Ryan’s early days as an operative, a younger actor was needed, and Pine eagerly stepped into the shoes of the actors who came before him.

The first actor to bring Jack Ryan to life, of course, was Alec Baldwin in 1990’s The Hunt for Red October, in which he helps the captain of a Soviet nuclear submarine to defect to the United States with his ship. At that point, Baldwin was known primarily for his role as a confused, recently deceased ghost in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice. He has since gone on to have quite a distinguished acting career, appearing recently in the Woody Allen film Blue Jasmine, and starring for seven seasons as Tina Fey’s blowhard boss in 30 Rock.

Baldwin played Ryan in just that film. For 1992’s Patriot Games, the role went to Harrison Ford, which continued with the 1994 film Clear and Present Danger. Ford will always and forever be best known as Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy, a role he is rumored to be reprising, as well as Indiana Jones, but he has had a long and varied career that includes American Graffiti, Apocalypse Now, Blade Runner, The Fugitive, and, more recently, the Jackie Robinson biopic 42 (just to name a very few).

After 1994, the character was put on the shelf for a few years. Then in 2002 came a movie exploring some of Jack Ryan’s younger days: The Sum of All Fears, featuring Ben Affleck in the title role. After starring in the cult hit Dazed and Confused and the Kevin Smith comedies Mallrats and Chasing Amy, Affleck jumped into the spotlight with 1997’s Good Will Hunting. He has since become one of the biggest movie stars in the world, poised to take over the role of Batman, as well as an acclaimed director.

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is the first film in the series since 2002. It departs from its predecessors in that it’s the first of the films not to be based directly on a novel. The character was created by late author Tom Clancy (who passed away in October of last year) in the 1984 novel The Hunt for Red October, which was adapted for the 1990 film. Ryan went on to feature in a number of Clancy’s novels, climbing through the ranks of the CIA and eventually becoming President of the United States, with his son, Jack Ryan, Jr. taking his father’s place as an operative.

With the new film’s release just days away, make sure you have the Clancy audiobooks and previous films on your shelves for patrons who will want to catch up on Ryan’s exciting exploits.