IMDb > The Sum of All Fears (2002)
The Sum of All Fears
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The Sum of All Fears (2002) More at IMDbPro »

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The Sum of All Fears (2002) -- 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.
The Sum of All Fears (2002) -- 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.
The Sum of All Fears (2002) -- ZuGuide.com - Trailer (Flash)
The Sum of All Fears (2002) -- Trailerfan.com - Trailer (Flash)
The Sum of All Fears (2002) -- Sinematurk - Trailer (Flash)

Overview

User Rating:
6.4/10   35,962 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 35% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Writers (WGA):
Tom Clancy (novel)
Paul Attanasio (screenplay) ...
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Contact:
View company contact information for The Sum of All Fears on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
31 May 2002 (USA) more
Genre:
Action | Drama | Thriller more
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. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
more
Awards:
2 wins & 4 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(69 articles)
Star Trek’s Chris Pine to be the next Jack Ryan?
 (From Scorecard Review. 24 October 2009, 3:21 PM, PDT)

Chris Pine Is the New Jack Ryan!
 (From Fandango. 14 October 2009, 4:30 PM, PDT)

User Comments:
This virus is airborne more (533 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)
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Additional Details

Also Known As:
Der Anschlag (Germany)
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MPAA:
Rated PG-13 for violence, disaster images and brief strong language.
Runtime:
124 min | Spain:128 min
Country:
USA | Germany
Color:
Color
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
DTS | Dolby Digital
Filming Locations:
Baltimore, Maryland, USA more

Fun Stuff

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. more
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. more
Quotes:
[just before he falls over dead]
Zorkin: I am to be described as "robust" and "healthy."
more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in Dus (2005) more
Soundtrack:
The Star-Spangled Banner more

FAQ

Is this film a prequel to The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, and Clear and Present Danger?
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26 out of 37 people found the following comment useful.
This virus is airborne, 7 June 2003
4/10
Author: JasonJayDelmonico from outside the Beltway

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.

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A-4M Skyhawk steve-544-31268
How does nuclear war between the US and Russian benefit Germany? pschroeter
Why . . . why did they have to ruin this movie!? Bluto14
National Anthem Emmanuel_Goldstein30
A shame -- could have been a good movie The_Great_Pantubo
what was up with the chains and the uniforms (in that room at the dock)? ih8tt
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