The Sum of All Fears

In the respectable thriller The Sum of All Fears, Ben Affleck has taken over the role of the CIA agent Jack Ryan, previously played first by Alec Baldwin and then by Harrison Ford. Now, apparently, younger blood is called for.

There is no chronological consistency between The Sum of All Fears and the earlier adaptations of John Clancy's novels, but one must try to disregard that. In this thriller Jack Ryan receives his baptism of fire, and it is certainly not without humour when the young, nerdy desk agent is thrown into action very much against his will.

Russia has barely got a new president before a serious crisis arises between the USA and Russia. Because Jack Ryan has studied Nemerov, he is put in the firing line. First the Russians carry out a brutal assault on the population of Chechnya, but worse comes when a bomb leaves most of Baltimore in ruins. The American president has good reason to believe the Russians were behind it, so all at once there is an imminent danger of nuclear war. How can Jack Ryan prove otherwise? What not even he knows is that a powerful organisation is scheming to play the Cold Warriors off against each other.

The Sum of All Fears works best at the beginning, while it still has both feet firmly on the ground, but gradually realism and credibility go out of the window.