The Sum of All Fears

So I know I said I'd do A Clear and Present Danger after The Hunt for Red October because I was already going out of order... but then I saw The Sum of All Fears on Netflix.

I saw the trailer for The Sum of All Fears a long time ago and I think I wanted to watch this movie ever since I was in high school.

But I never got a hold of the movie and it wasn't on Netflix until a few months ago. Now I've tried to watch this movie multiple times since then... and... like Patriot Games, like The Hunt for Red October, its a slow movie. A very slow movie.

I could never for the life of me get through the first hour of this movie because so much happens. There are so many different elements of the movie, Jack Ryan's personal life, Israelis finding the nuclear bomb, Colm Feore buying the nuke from them, the Russians, the CIA going to Russia to inspect weapon disarmament. Its a very complex beginning with a lot of different threads.

The Sum of All Fears follows an international crisis between the United States and Russia. When the President of Russia dies, a new President, Alexander Nemerov takes up the mantle. Dr. Jack Ryan (played by Ben Affleck), a CIA analyst who's done extensive research on Nemerov is recruited to go and inspect the nuclear disarmament by the Director of the CIA William Cabot (played by Morgan Freeman). From there he helps investigate the disappearance of 3 missing nuclear scientists, uncovering a nuclear threat from a neo Nazi terrorist, and preventing Russia and the United States from entering World War 3.

That's a very abbreviated version of a very drawn out and long movie. The first hour and a half has really kind of become a joke for me in that if I ever want to fall asleep, I'll watch the first hour and half of The Sum of All Fears. Frankly, its boring. Everybody looks bored and there's a lot of things that happen that, in the end don't matter because of the second act of this movie. The best part about the first act of the movie is Liev Schreiber as John Clark.

Its funny because I identify more with Jack Ryan but I want to see more of John Clark. Clark is the actual CIA field operative you think of when you think of the CIA. He does the actual spying and he discovers the Russian scientists making the bomb. Pretty much every scene with Schreiber in was a good scene. Unfortunately, he holds a very small part in the movie and it just goes back to Ben Affleck.

Now keep in mind, this was well before Ben Affleck became a director, or started showing up in good movies. Its within the decade of Affleck's career I like to call the Armageddon Harbor era. The era where he did some really stupid movies and just was not a good actor. Now I have not seen all these movies, I'm sure there are some good ones out there and I think this is actually one of them. But Affleck is not really helping the movie that much.

First off, he doesn't look like he got his PHD in History. The picture to the left doesn't help that much but even when he doesn't look stupid in a field op uniform, he looks stupid in his normal clothes. He doesn't look like a brilliant CIA analyst. Secondly, his acting in this part is not horrible but its not good. He's just kind of... there. This holds to my theory of Ben Affleck in that he's not that great of an actor but surrounds himself with people who are so they hide his lackluster performance and the movie does pretty well. I guess maybe they were trying to go for the same look they were going for in The Hunt for Red October and Ben Affleck, I guess looks like a young Alec Baldwin... sorta? But overall Affleck doesn't really pull off the CIA agent look. He more pulls of the cute boyfriend look which they play off of in this movie with Bridget Moynahan as Cathy Miller, Ryan's future wife. But in the end, I didn't care about that relationship and thought it took away from the interesting stuff in the movie. So overall, Affleck just gives a standard, kind of boring Ryan which hurts the film because, he's the main focus of the movie.

But the good parts about it are the supporting cast.

Morgan Freeman plays the Director of the CIA William Cabot. This may sound bad but I thought for a long time that Morgan Freeman was a recast of James Earl Jone's character from the other Tom Clancy movies. That's not because they're both black, its because they both wear glasses, have a similar haircut and they're both big wigs in the CIA. But they're not. It doesn't really matter in the end but Morgan Freeman was really good in the movie. He was funny, he was an interesting character and he made me care about him.

Ciaran Hinds was good as the Russian President, James Cromwell was good as the US President.

The bad guys in this movie were strangely obscure in this movie.

Alan Bates plays a neo-nazi terrorist who acquires a nuclear bomb and intends to have the United States and Russia destroy each other so fascism and the ideals of the nazi party can rise again when they are both destroyed. As much as I wanted to like this villain, he was so hands off and so transparent that it was hard to always recognize him as the villain in the movie. While that may be a good thing because he followed through with his plan in the first place, that still doesn't really establish a great villain of the movie and just shows the US and Russia running around with their heads cut off in the second act. Colm Feore played a South African arms dealer but in the end he was very similar. He showed up to be the villain in some parts but overall, like I said the villains are very obscure in this film. So its kind of a good thing and sort of a con of the movie as well.

But that brings me to the second act of the movie.

Without giving too much away, the nuke goes off. I won't say where, I won't say how, I won't say who dies because of it but it is an incredible scene. The full scope of the destruction is just down right scary, the reactions to the blast just seem like something that would actually happen. The suspense is amazing. Just too many things were phenomenal about the second act of the movie.

There's a scene where the bomb just went off and the President is trying to figure out what to do. He's got the Secretary of State, and other prominent members of the cabinet surrounding him and they're all just in shock. They're all just losing it. There aren't too many movies where a nuclear bomb is detonated and in most cases the President is always shocked but in control. James Cromwell is not in control at this moment and its brilliant. Everyone in that room is scared shitless and its a brilliant scene. Basically, I would recommend this movie just so everybody can see the nuclear blast and the sequence that happens after it.

 Furthermore it sets off a nuclear standoff between the United States and the Russians which is carried out pretty brilliantly. I won't say the way its resolved is the best way it could have been resolved but it works and the end is just fulfilling. Again, its like the second act is a whole different movie and its very, very good.

So overall, The Sum of All Fears is a better than mediocre film. It had its advantages to movies like Red October and Patriot Games due to coming out in 2002 as opposed to the 90s. However, it has some major flaws that still makes the decision on whether or not its better a tough one. On one hand, Harrison Ford is probably the best Jack Ryan there is that I've seen. Also Patriot Games had a little bit more heart to it and seemed a little more of a smarter movie than The Sum of All Fears. However, the second act of The Sum of All Fears is quite possibly one of the best nuclear detonations I've seen on screen.

Overall, I think I enjoyed Patriot Games more but I think I enjoyed The Sum of All Fears more than The Hunt for Red October only because it had more payoff.

So that's what I thought of The Sum of All Fears. Have you seen it? What did you think? How does it compare with The Hunt for Red October, and Patriot Games? Comment and discuss below.

I'll leave you with this. I don't know if I've done enough to pay tribute to Tom Clancy who passed away in October last year. Here's a tribute video IGN did a while back. Enjoy!