The Sum of All Fears debuted in American theaters in May of 2002, which depending on how you look at it, was either dreadful or opportune timing. Filmed just prior to the tragedies of September 11, 2001 the film never exploits or mentions September 11th directly, but in some way anticipates the trend of exploitive cinema that would begin not long afterward. At the time of The Sum of All Fears theatrical release, the events in the film and recent real life events seemed to similar for me to be able to see The Sum of All Fears as anything but unnecessary. Now, given six years of hindsight I can say that The Sum of All Fears is a passable action film, with serious flaws.
As the film begins, it’s the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. Israel sends aloft a single A-4 carrying a small fission bomb, a weapon at the ready to be used as a last resort. The aircraft is shot down, its nuclear payload buried in the sand and invisible to the eye. Fast forward to 2002; it is discovered that a Nazi sympathizer named Dressler (Alan Bates) has purchased a nuclear warhead from an arms dealer named Olson (Colm Feore). The bomb is purchased for $400 by Olson and sold to Dressler for $50 million. The bomb´s atomic material is then shipped to the Ukraine where three Russian scientists have been hired to build a nuclear bomb. The goal is to ship the nuclear bomb to the United States and for Dressler to get the two superpowers to face off in a nuclear war.
Jack Ryan (Ben Affleck) is portrayed as a Junior CIA Analyst on the ´Russian Desk´ where he catches the attention of CIA Director William Cabot (Morgan Freeman) because he had written a lengthy report on Alexander Nemerov (Ciaran Hinds). Nemerov has become President after the previous one fell ill. Under the orders of President Fowler (James Cromwell) Ryan and Cabot travel to Russia to try and figure out where the new President stands politically. Shortly after the meeting, Russia attacks Chechnya and many believe Nemerov to be a hardliner, though Ryan strongly believes he isn’t.
Despite all the political intrigue, The Sum of All Fears finds a little time for Jack Ryan’s social life. Unlike the previous three films, where Jack Ryan is a happily married man, The Sum of All Fears takes us back to when he was dating Dr. Cathy Muller (Bridget Moynahan). At first he tells her he’s a historian, but reveals the truth when he is sent to Russian by Cabot.
Unlike the first three Jack Ryan films, it’s fair to say that the story drags on for the first hour or so. The story takes its sweet time building up to a climactic nuclear explosion in Baltimore, halfway through the film. There’s finally some action when a few key people are either injured or killed. After the explosion, Ryan tries desperately to get important information to President Fowler about the nuclear explosion and convince him that Nemerov and the Russians are not behind the explosion, in hopes of avoiding World War III.
Sadly, Ben Affleck didn’t have the action hero chops of Alec Baldwin or Harrison Ford to be a convincing Jack Ryan, and he failed to create any excitement with his portrayal of the character. Of the Jack Ryan films, The Sum of All Fears is easily the most unwatchable; you’ll have to be a real fan of the series just to get through the sluggish first hour.
The Sum of All Fears is the most recent of the four Jack Ryan films and looks the best of any of them on Blu-ray. Mastered with the AVC MPEG-4 codec, the film is shown in 2.35:1 widescreen. Audio is provided in a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio mix. Accompanying French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 surround mixes are included and subtitles are provided for English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese.
The first Commentary by Director Phil Alden Robinson and Cinematographer John Lindley, is a rather technical accounting of the shots on the film. The Commentary by Director Phil Alden Robinson and Novelist Tom Clancy is the most fun. Clancy begins his introduction by stating that Robison ignored his novel. Clancy spent most of the time pointing out the poor decisions made by straying from his novel and all of the inaccuracies in the film. After listening to this, you’ll get the impression Clancy did the commentary just to let everyone know how much he disliked the film.
The disc also includes two documentaries. “The Making of The Sum of All Fears” (29:55) is broken down into two parts: “A Cautionary Tale: Casting” and “A Cautionary Tale: Production.” Ben Affleck, Phil Alden Robinson and others lend their times and they discuss how the project changed after Harrison Ford decided against a third film and how they decided to re-start the story of Jack Ryan. “Creating Reality: The Visual Effects of The Sum of All Fears“(27:48) looks at five scenes in the film, “Carrier Attack,” “A-4,” “Hospital,” “Motorcade” and “Helicopter” and how each of them were made. The Theatrical Trailer is shown in high definition and is the only HD supplement on the disc.
