# Sum Of All Fears film (spoilers)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sum-of-all-fears-film-spoilers/111989
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [June 2, 2002, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sum-of-all-fears-film-spoilers/111989 "2002-06-02T04:12:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ElwoodCuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElwoodCuse)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2002, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sum-of-all-fears-film-spoilers/111989/1 "2002-06-02T04:12:07Z")
Saw the film Friday night. Up front, I will disclose that I am a big Clancy fan, but I’m not here to nitpick differences between the film and the book. I’m going to discuss the film more as “inspired by” than “based on” the book.
First–Affleck lies to his girlfriend about working for the CIA. Why? Since when do CIA office types have to do that? Ryan is not a covered field agent, he’s a low-level analyst. I figure he could say that he works for the CIA, but little to nothing about what he actually does.
Second–the bad guys. Yes, I know they were changed but they were lame. There was hardly any development of their motives or anything. It was just “they’re neo-Nazis, and since we all know Nazis are evil, there you go.”
Third–the nuclear explosion and its handling. I think that they shouldn’t have given away in the trailers that the bomb was going to go off. The IMDb the other day had a quote from the director saying that he wrestled with this same choice. I think it would have been a better surprise if they didn’t. The film is clearly being targeted at non-Clancy fans (since it plays so fast and loose with the book), and thus people who don’t know how the book ends. It would have been neat if people expected Ryan to clip wires and disarm the bomb to save the day.
Fourth–the bomb actually going off was a big disappointment. One was given no true sense of the destruction, since all we saw were a couple mushroom cloud shots and a shockwave traveling across what might as well have been the Mojave Desert.
And how did Affleck’s girlfriend (and everyone else at the hospital for that matter) seem pretty well unaffected by the explosion? The first thing we see of the bomb is all of them gettign blown away in the hospital and then they are fine later. Affleck looked pretty good for being in a helicopter crash, too.
By far, the best nuclear explosion I’ve ever seen in a movie is in Terminator 2.
Fifth–the setup of the football game. I know they can’t say NFL or Super Bowl for legal reasons, but they could have done a better job of setting up the importance of it all. They could have said “football championship” or something. And did we really need the shot of Morgan Freeman glancing at the scoreboard to remember what city he was in?
BTW, I’m guessing that the stadium was digitally inserted into the Baltimore skyline. The stadium in the game is really Olympic Park in Montreal. Also, right before the bomb goes off, on the far left you can see the Ravens Stadium in the aerial shot.
Finally, I’ll check in with the one thing I did like about the movie–Leiv Schreiber as John Clark. While he was (as Affleck was) way too young to play who he did and seemed underskilled compared to his literary counterpart, he was cool and funny at times even. I loved when Ryan was showing him the PDA and trying to be serious and the unflappable Clark just replies “I gotta get one of those. I don’t even have email.”
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### Author:  [@Slainte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slainte)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2002, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sum-of-all-fears-film-spoilers/111989/2 "2002-06-02T15:56:02Z")
[slick hijack] I wonder if Unca Cecil has clout with Tom Clancy… do you think it was a coincidence that Baltimore was the city chosen for destruction?[/slight hijack] 😃
I quite enjoyed the movie but I haven’t read the book so I didn’t have specific expectations from it.
You have summed it up nicely.
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### Author:  [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2002, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sum-of-all-fears-film-spoilers/111989/3 "2002-06-02T16:15:54Z")
I don’t recall Freeman looking at the scoreboard. I recall several shots of freeman with the scoreboard in the background making it clear they were in Baltimore.
I think it is probably best that they gave away the explosion. Maybe not best for the movie, but best for the psyche of some people that don’t want to see that in general, or now specifically. When my wife agreed to go, I just assumed she had seen all the press about the nuclear explosion. She hadn’t, and was somewhat upset by it.
I agree that they didn’t really do a good job of explaining the scope of the destruction or conveying the personal impact. You’d think a destruction shot of the stadium would at least be mandatory. In some of the news reports it is said that the blast radius was about 1/2 mile and the secondary damage a couple miles, but really no geographic context is given.
You know what I found most distrubing about the movie? That a low-level CIA analyst was able to talk his way into the bowels of the Pentagon where he convinced a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to talk directly with the Russian president in an attempt to circumvent the president.
I know it was all for good in this movie, but that is still a scary thougth.
Also, shouldn’t the president have been one of the first peole contacted when the radiation response team determined that the plutonium was of US manufacture? Were they just going to save that tidbit for their congressional testimony in a couple of months?
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### Author:  [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2002, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sum-of-all-fears-film-spoilers/111989/4 "2002-06-03T02:16:09Z")
Did anyone else wonder how Affleck could still use his cell phone and Morgan Freedman’s PDA internet messaging while manuvering his way through the burning post-nuclear hell of the Baltimore docks?
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### Author:  [@BooBoo316](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BooBoo316)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2002, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sum-of-all-fears-film-spoilers/111989/5 "2002-06-03T04:03:17Z")
Top secret EMP-resistant CIA cell phone or another example of the stupidity of Hollywood? You make the call.
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### Author:  [@caffeine\_overdose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caffeine_overdose)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2002, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sum-of-all-fears-film-spoilers/111989/6 "2002-06-03T05:36:24Z")
wevets- I didn’t see the movie. but I was under the impression that if electronics were off when the EMP shockwave went through then they would be OK
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### Author:  [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2002, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sum-of-all-fears-film-spoilers/111989/7 "2002-06-03T08:05:01Z")
I haven’t seen it yet, but my first reaction when I saw the trailers for it was “Ben Afflek??? He’s WAY too young!”
I had the same reaction when I saw that Matt Damon is going to be starring in The Bourne Identity.
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### Author:  [@BooBoo316](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BooBoo316)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2002, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sum-of-all-fears-film-spoilers/111989/8 "2002-06-03T09:54:38Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by OpalCat \*
> \*\*I haven’t seen it yet, but my first reaction when I saw the trailers for it was “Ben Afflek??? He’s WAY too young!”
> \*\*
I had the exact same reaction, **Opal** , quickly followed by: “Ben Afflek??? He can’t even ACT!”
[sub]Well, actually he can pull off “smartass” pretty well, but that’s all the credit he’s getting from me.[/sub]
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### Author:  [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2002, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sum-of-all-fears-film-spoilers/111989/9 "2002-06-05T05:33:41Z")
1. Since when do they sing the _fourth_ verse of the “Star-Spangled Banner” at ballgames?
2.Do we need to use the “spoiler” tag if it says “spoiler” in the title of the thread? Well, what the hell–it is a movie about CIA guys.
I liked the part at the end, where the two Presidents are signing the treaty, and beautiful, hymn-like music is playing, and they keep cutting to shots of assorted bad guys being ruthlessly assassinated. Sort of Godfatheresque.
3.3. Is Hollywood on some sort of anti-tobacco kick now? First it was Obi-Wan vs. the Death Stick Dealer; now a.) the nuclear bomb is hidden inside a cigarette machine, and b.) the Head Bad Guy is blown to bits when he activates his car’s cigarette lighter. I did think it was a nice touch to have the car bomb activated by something other than the ignition–very logical, since of course any assassination target (especially an _eee-vil_ one) will have someone else start the car first.
1. No need for a spoiler here, since they include the nuclear bomb blast in the previews.
I agree that the impact of the bomb blast seemed underplayed. Actually, I recall thinking the same thing when I read the novel (although that was years ago).
2. The continuity of the Jack Ryan character, at least in the movies, is now so hopelessly tangled as to make the _Star Trek_ universe look seamless by comparison.
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### Author:  [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2002, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sum-of-all-fears-film-spoilers/111989/10 "2002-06-05T17:25:50Z")
Wasn’t SoAF supposed to be a “prequel” to the other Jack Ryan movies/stories?
Of course they messed this up by setting it in the present day, but still, I thought that _was_ the rationalization of letting Affleck take over.
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### Author:  [@ElwoodCuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElwoodCuse)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2002, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sum-of-all-fears-film-spoilers/111989/11 "2002-06-05T19:05:31Z")
Don’t even bother trying to reconcile the books and the movies.
The movies are really messed up as far as continuity, but the books follow a fairly logical order.
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### Author:  [@RickQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickQ)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2002, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sum-of-all-fears-film-spoilers/111989/12 "2002-06-05T19:17:00Z")
**KKBattousai**. I think it was (I have not read the book, but I have read several more with the Jack Ryan character in, a few of which take place after “Clear and Present Danger”), but if that is the case, it does kind of mess things up for the books which happen in the future.
The other thing which I did not like was
the fact that Ryan had the chance to tell someone the plutonium was from the US (when he was on the phone to…can’t remember which person, someone like the defense secretary and he did not mention straight away that the plutonium was US made. That should have been the first thing out of his mouth. Instead, he said something else, then got cut off. Doh!
As soon as I found out the main character was Jack Ryan, the film became less enjoyable because it was a step back (to a time before the other films/novels) and it did not fit in with the character’s history, imho.
Rick
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### Author:  [@RickQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickQ)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2002, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sum-of-all-fears-film-spoilers/111989/13 "2002-06-05T19:27:52Z")
**KKBattousai**. I think it was (I have not read the book, but I have read several more with the Jack Ryan character in, a few of which take place after “Clear and Present Danger”), but if that is the case, it does kind of mess things up for the books which happen in the future.
The other thing which I did not like was
the fact that Ryan had the chance to tell someone the plutonium was from the US (when he was on the phone to…can’t remember which person, someone like the defense secretary and he did not mention straight away that the plutonium was US made. That should have been the first thing out of his mouth. Instead, he said something else, then got cut off. Doh!
As soon as I found out the main character was Jack Ryan, the film became less enjoyable because it was a step back (to a time before the other films/novels) and it did not fit in with the character’s history, imho.
Rick
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### Author:  [@RickQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickQ)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2002, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sum-of-all-fears-film-spoilers/111989/14 "2002-06-05T19:40:54Z")
Doh!
Don’t you just hate it when that happens
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### Author:  [@Kilt-wearin\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilt-wearin_man)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2002, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sum-of-all-fears-film-spoilers/111989/15 "2002-06-05T20:13:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by caffeine\_overdose \*
> \*\*wevets- I didn’t see the movie. but I was under the impression that if electronics were off when the EMP shockwave went through then they would be OK \*\*
Well, his cellphone might’ve been unaffected by the EMP somehow, but he wouldn’t get a signal if all the cellular transmission towers in town had been nuked. No tower within a few miles = no signal.
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### Author:  [@Journeyman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Journeyman)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2002, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sum-of-all-fears-film-spoilers/111989/16 "2002-06-05T20:59:19Z")
Doesn’t an EMP overload and fry circuitry? Thus rendering it useless, regardless of whether it’s on or off?
I know very little about it, perhaps someone more knowledgable doper could reduce my ignorance on the matter?
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### Author:  [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2002, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sum-of-all-fears-film-spoilers/111989/17 "2002-06-05T23:10:47Z")
**KKBattousai** , _Patriot Games_ was a prequel (dealing with events in Ryan’s life which were alluded to in the earlier-published _The Hunt for Red October_), but _The Sum of All Fears_ was not. _SoAF_ was supposed to take place after, IIRC, _PG_, _HfRO_, _The Cardinal of the Kremlin_, and _Clear and Present Danger_. I sort of stopped reading them after that, but the next two were _Debt of Honor_ and _Executive Orders_. This [Amazon.com page](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/series/-/114/mass_market/ref=ref=pd_sim_series/002-2398879-4929655) seems to present them in internal chronological order.
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### Author:  [@thinksnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thinksnow)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2002, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sum-of-all-fears-film-spoilers/111989/18 "2002-06-06T03:49:11Z")
I [started a discussion](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=117818) on this a while ago. See what you think…