The Sum of All Fears (2002)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Phil Alden Robinson

Writers (WGA):

Tom Clancy (novel)
Paul Attanasio (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

31 May 2002 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

27,000 Nuclear Weapons. One Is Missing.

Plot:

CIA analyst Jack Ryan must thwart the plans of a terrorist faction that threatens to induce a catastrophic conflict between the United States and Russia's newly elected president by detonating a nuclear weapon at a football game in Baltimore.

Plot Keywords:

CIA | Russia | Jack Ryan | Nuclear Bomb | Scientist

Awards:

2 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Ben Affleck	...	Jack Ryan
Morgan Freeman	...	DCI William Cabot
James Cromwell	...	President Robert 'Bob' Fowler
Ken Jenkins	...	Admiral Pollack
Liev Schreiber	...	John Clark
Bruce McGill	...	National Security Advisor Gene Revell
John Beasley	...	General Lasseter
Russell Bobbitt	...	Israeli Pilot
Philip Baker Hall	...	Defense Secretary David Becker
Al Vandecruys	...	US STRATCOM Colonel
Richard Cohee	...	Mt. Weather General
Philip Pretten	...	President's Military Aide
Alison Darcy	...	Fowler's Aide
Richard Marner	...	President Zorkin
Ostap Soroka	...	Zorkin's Translator

Also Known As:

Der Anschlag (Germany)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for violence, disaster images and brief strong language.

Runtime:

124 min | Spain:128 min

Country:

USA | Germany

Language:

English | Russian | Ukrainian | German | Arabic

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:12 | South Korea:12 | Malaysia:U | New Zealand:M | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Austria:12 (Steiermark) | Austria:16 | Brazil:12 | Canada:14A (DVD rating) | Finland:K-15 | Germany:12 | Hong Kong:IIA | Netherlands:12 | Norway:15 | Peru:14 | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:12 (canton of the Grisons) | UK:12 | USA:PG-13 (certificate #38988)

Filming Locations:

Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

After having bought the 12-type fission bomb for $400 from the Arab digger (a nominal sum, for the digger's dead son rather than the "worthless" device), Olson emails his contact. On the TV in the background an episode of the BBC TV series "Antiques Roadshow" (1997) is playing. This is a TV show that tours the UK (and occasionally other parts of the world) assessing and valuing items that the general public have found, just like the digger did, and often surprising people with their value.

Goofs:

Factual errors: When the nuclear bomb detonates, its shock wave is strong enough to flip the presidential limousine in the outskirts of the city over. It would have to have a yield of at least 1 megaton to do this, but news broadcasts describe the explosion as being smaller than that of the Hiroshima bomb. The Hiroshima bomb had a yield of 15 kilotons.

Quotes:

[just before he falls over dead]
Zorkin: I am to be described as "robust" and "healthy."

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Dus (2005)

Soundtrack:

The Star-Spangled Banner

This virus is airborne

Final Score: 4.0 (out of 10)

The movie adaptation of Tom Clancy's "The Sum of All Fears" might be a starkly frightening movie, could be a cautionary tale of homeland terrorism and nuclear war - that is, if it wasn't caught in the confounding cinematic time-warp it finds itself in. It is primarily set after the fall of the Berlin wall and the end of the nuclear arms race with the Russians, however it's also a prequel with a younger, cocky Jack Ryan (plug-in flavor of the month Ben Affleck) and with the principle villains being Nazis. This movie will probably be remembered more for it's unfortunate post-9/11 release date (which gave it a sense of importance) then the silly story and content. It's not even so much that the Nazis-as-bad-guys thing is an overused, now out of date cliche as much as the idea that they were Middle Eastern terrorists in Clancy's book and the writers and director Phil Robinson changed them smacks of pure political correctness. Nobody wants to offend the terrorists. As a result the movie feels phony. And that's a big problem because we feel detached from it and, thus, don't feel it is as sharp, timely and intense as Clancy meant it to be. The reason that movies like "Fail Safe" and "Dr. Strangelove" were so brilliant is because they were gutsy enough to take on the public's fears directly. This movie isn't, in fact, it goes out of it's way to hide in it's phony world from doing anything gutsy. All movie villains have to be white Anglo Saxon Europeans most likely with `sinister' Russian or German accents. This type of stuff might frighten liberal Hollywood types who think the president might drop nukes at any moment, but it's not going to resonate with most people.

It also doesn't help that we can't connect with the characters. Affleck does a fine job or running around yelling, but there isn't a lot of development in the young Ryan or in any character we meet. Robinson's direction is purely rudimentary. The whole thing has the feel of a clumsy TV movie. It's race-against-the-clock gives us no real payoff. There is exactly one really good scene here involving Morgan Freeman, a cell phone and a stadium full of people. It also has one interesting little monologue about how the internet and technology has connected terrorism globally like never before. But without any characters, eye-candy action or resonating story we're left pondering why we wasted our time on this thing.

Alternate viewing recommendation: "24 - Season 2". Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Bauer runs circles around Ryan in generally the same plot only more intense, frighteningly timely and on a more epic scale.