Jack Ryan: Difference between revisions

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[[Tom Clancy]]'s most famous series of novels, featuring CIA analyst Jack Ryan. Four of them have been adapted into movies, and one is connected to a series of video games. Among fans, this continuity is often referred to as the "Ryanverse."

 

== The Jack Ryan series (arranged by event chronology, not order of publication) ==

 

* ''[[Clear and Present Danger]]'' -- A rogue adviser to the President launches a covert and illegal war on the Columbian narcotics industry, and Ryan must rescue the soldiers before they are abandoned to their fate. The third film from the series and the second to star [[Harrison Ford]].

* ''[[The Sum of All Fears]]'' -- Arab terrorists get their hands on a nuclear bomb and try to set it off within the United States, and a burned out Ryan is the [[Only Sane Man]] in a dangerously paranoid U.S. administration. Loosely adapted into the fourth film as a sort of reboot, featuring [[Ben Affleck]] as a newbie Ryan, with the Arabs swapped for Neo-Nazis.

 

* [[Action Duo]]: Clark and Chavez.

* [[America Saves the Day]]: A fairly standard plot, especially in later novels, although very explicitly averted in ''Clear and Present Danger'' and ''The Sum of all Fears''.

* [[And Some Other Stuff]]: In the afterword to ''The Sum of All Fears'', Clancy admits to fudging some details of the workings and construction of nuclear weapons, in an effort to not help anyone with unkind intentions involving nukes (though he also acknowledges, if somewhat cynically, it probably won't actually stop anything).

** While Clancy had admitted that his books are something of an allegory to real life, this tendency does cause some of his books to contain some considerable continuity errors, such as {{spoiler|the assassination attempt on [[The Pope|John Paul II]] being in 1982 instead of 1981}} in ''Red Rabbit'', or Ronald Reagan running for reelection in 1988 in ''Clear and Present Danger'' (though in the second case it may well be Walter Mondale who defeated Reagan in 1984).

* [[A Nuclear Error]]: Averted; Clancy's discussion of the political conditions surrounding the deployment of nuclear weapons is very accurate.

* [[Apocalypse How]]: In ''Rainbow Six'', a genetically engineered strain of the Ebola virus is designed intentionally to wipe out 99% of humanity, save for a [[Animal Wrongs Group|"chosen few"]].

* [[Ascended Extra]]: Several minor characters later get their own books (John Clark, nee Kelly, and ''Without Remorse'') or become far more important later on (Robby Jackson, a very minor background character in one scene in ''The Hunt for Red October'', later is revealed to be an old friend of Jack Ryan).

* [[Asian Store Owner]]: Mrs. Zimmer.

** In ''Rainbow Six'', Rainbow is a [[Badass Crew]], formed from parts of various [[Badass Army|Badass Armies]], though they are portrayed as realistically badass and very, very mortal.

** Jack Ryan, ironically, seems to be a [[Deconstruction]] of a [[Badass]]. Sure, he does get some badassery, but he suffers PTSD, injury, and totally realistic angst and pangs of conscience almost immediately afterwards.

'''Colonel Bondarenko''': Yes, I suppose he is. }}

** Misha. Filitov. Fought for Russia against the Germans, famous for killing Germans ''whilst on fire.'' As a [[Retired Badass]], he became so disgusted with Marxist-Leninism in general and [[Josef Stalin]] in particular that he took up spying for NATO, and was unbelievably good at it that he escaped being caught for over nearly thirty years. Doubles as a [[Memetic Badass]] amongst the entire Soviet military establishment.

** The USSS is definitely a [[World of Badass]], especially Andrea Price and the service Grandfather, Donnie "Don" Russell.

* [[Badass Army]]: America (and to lesser extents other good guys) are portrayed as commanding one, though America seems to get the lion's share.

* [[Badass Grandpa]]:

** John Clark, who is already approaching sixty by ''Rainbow Six'', isn't quite what he used to be in ''Without Remorse'', but as noted in ''Rainbow Six'', he's still on everybody's "don't-fuck-with list."

* [[Bavarian Fire Drill]]: The terrorists in ''The Sum of All Fears'' impersonate TV network service personnel to get their bomb (disguised as a commercial VCR) into the Denver Skydome. Their German terrorist accomplices get onto a Soviet army base in East Germany by donning Soviet officer uniforms, and pretending to be there for a surprise inspection.

* [[Black Best Friend]]: Robby Jackson rarely fails to have stories about his childhood in Alabama with his preacher father, or his time flying Tomcats for the Navy.

** A scene in ''The Cardinal of the Kremlin'' has an FBI agent shoot a gun out of a Soviet agent's hand, observing afterwards that he didn't know why he did it, despite being trained and training others specifically not to do it.

** In ''Rainbow Six'', Dieter Weber uses his sniper rifle to disable a terrorist's Uzi so that Homer Johnston can deliver a gut shot to make him die as slowly and painfully as possible. In this case, however, they knew they would get in trouble for it and despite covering their butts admirably ("Slapped the trigger a bit too hard, boss."), they are still mildly reprimanded and told that one exception is the limit.

* [[Boom Stick]]: Clark is a master of improvised weaponry, including a trick like this in ''Without Remorse'', using a shotgun shell at the end of a stick. The investigating cop lampshades it by saying, "This one's gonna end up in a medical journal."

* [[Bring My Brown Pants]]: Played almost entirely straight (he just barely manages not to need them) when the explosives specialist in the terror cell from ''The Sum Of All Fears'' realises that the mysterious object found in a farmer's field is not in fact an electronic-jamming pod as he'd first thought, having established that it's not a conventional bomb, but is actually a nuclear warhead. Understandably, this is not in any way [[Played for Laughs]].

** ''Without Remorse'' features a young Jack Ryan talking with his dad about joining the Marines after getting his degree to help pay off his tuition. Of course, we all know how that ends.

** ''Red Rabbit'' contains a few of these. Most notably, when discussing the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, one of Ryan's coworkers notes that the Afghans are helpless in the face of Soviet helicopters unless an equalizer is brought into play, like the newly-developed Stinger missile. Much like the ones that the Archer wields in ''Cardinal of the Kremlin''...

** Puts in a brief appearance in ''Rainbow Six'' as the RCMP who pick up the would-be Basque terrorists who tried to hijack the plane that Clark and Chavez happen to be on, but otherwise ignored.

** The Japanese pilot who {{spoiler|kamikazes his 747 into the US Capitol Building}} in ''Debt of Honor'' took off from Vancouver, and in ''Executive Orders'' the RCMP aid in the investigation.

* [[Chinese With Chopper Support]]: The PLA appeared in ''The Bear and the Dragon.''

* [[Church Militant]]: Daryaei uses religion as a pretense for creating the UIR and threatening their neighboring states, intending to bring all of the world (or as much of it as he can) under the rule of Shi'a.

* [[Closest Thing We Got]]: A veterinary surgeon is drafted into providing care for gunshot victims in ''Patriot Games''. Treated realistically in that he fails to save at least one life.

* [[Code Name]]

* [[Cold Sniper]]: Played straight, inverted, and [[Deconstructed]] in different novels.

* [[Continuity Nod]]: All over the novels and some of the games.

* [[Contrived Coincidence]]: See the entry on that page. In general, lots of what gets the plot moving depends on either someone having a change of heart at the right moment, such as {{spoiler|Popov spilling the beans entirely to Clark about Horizon's goals in ''Rainbow Six'', and Team-2 just happening to be at the Sydney Olympics at the time}}, or someone making a discovery that went ignored by everyone else just in the nick of time. To be fair, much of this is justified since it's uncovered by analysts who are doing what they're paid for.

* [[Death From Above]]: The Joint Stand-Off Weapon "Smart Pig," as the Chinese 29th Type A Group Army find out to their misfortune in ''The Bear and the Dragon''.

* [[Death Equals Redemption]]: While not exactly a villain in this case, in ''Sum of All Fears'' Harry Ricks apologizes to his XO for the way he commanded ''USS Maine'' shortly before {{spoiler|they're hit by one of ''Admiral Lunin'''s torpedoes}}. Thankfully, it ends better for most of the rest of the crew.

* [[Defeat Means Friendship]]: One of the rare examples of this trope occurring on a national level, as the post-Cold War period eventually ends up with America's foremost strategic partner being ''Russia''.

* [[Defector From Commie Land]]: Used in ''Red Rabbit'', ''The Hunt for Red October'', and ''The Cardinal of the Kremlin''.

* [[Derelict Graveyard]]:

** Used as a drug dealer base in ''Without Remorse''.

* [[Dirty Communists]]: Played more or less straight until ''The Cardinal of the Kremlin'', but completely turned on its head afterwards, to the point where the Russian Federation actually becomes a NATO member nation in ''The Bear and the Dragon''.

* [[Discussed Trope]]: Clancy loves to discuss the tropes related to [[Reality Is Unrealistic]], largely via characters commenting on how people expect various aspects of police and spycraft to work because they saw it in a movie.

* [[Do a Barrel Roll]]: The "Crazy Ivan" maneuver in ''The Hunt For Red October''.

* [[Doorstopper]]

* [[Drives Like Crazy]]: Intentionally invoked by terrorists in ''Rainbow Six'' to (unsuccessfully) discourage pursuit.

** Robby Jackson has a tendency to handle his car with the same... panache, you might say, as he does his F-14.

* [[Dumb Muscle]]: Occasionally invoked by government officials regarding their bodyguards/SPOs. They (and the Marines) are usually characterized as "knuckle draggers," though in the case of the Secret Service, most if not all of them have at least a college degree and, in the case of Andrea Price, a Masters.

* [[Elite Army]]: Generally invoked regarding the United States armed forces. Gennady Bondarenko's main reason for visiting the National Training Center in ''Executive Orders'' is because he wants to learn from the Americans how to transform the Russian Army (ex Red Army) from [[Zerg Rush]] into this.

* [[Empty Quiver]]: Forms the basis of the plot of ''The Sum of All Fears''.

** Although Tom Clancy has never confirmed it, most readers believe that the character of Ed Kealty is an expy of real life US Senator Ted Kennedy. Both of them are Democratic senators from New England, both of them have liberal political views, both come from wealthy families, and both have been involved in sex scandals.

** General Secretary of the CPSU Andrey Ily'ch Narmonov is a very obvious expy of Mikhail Gorbachev.

* [[Failure Is the Only Option]]: Scott Adler's negotiation sessions with America's enemies always inevitably fail despite his skill; they have to, otherwise the United States military wouldn't get the chance to strut their stuff.

* [[Faking the Dead]]:

** John Kelly does this at the end of ''Without Remorse'' in order to evade arrest for murdering so many drug dealers; the spectacular nature of his boat capsizing also results in [[Never Found the Body|his corpse not being recovered]], though this isn't particularly uncommon for deaths at sea. He also has help from the CIA in replacing his fingerprint records, and continues to live as John Clark even after his Presidential pardon between ''Executive Orders'' and ''Rainbow Six''.

** This is also done in ''Red Rabbit'' to fake {{spoiler|the Zaitsev family's}} deaths from fire. Considerable effort is spent obtaining corpses that died from smoke inhlation, as well as rendering differing features unrecognizable.

* [[Feed the Mole]]: Used in ''The Hunt for Red October'', ''Without Remorse'', and ''Debt of Honor''. The former was disinformation about the acquisition of the titular submarine, and the latter was to determine the source of the leak about the Song Tay raid. The disinformation about ''Red October'' then becomes a [[Chekhov's Gun]] in ''The Cardinal of the Kremlin''.

* [[Fingore]]: In ''The Sum of all Fears'', John Clark [[Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique|interrogates]] a pair of Arab terrorists and breaks their fingers to get information to help track down those responsible for their attack.

* [[Genius Bruiser]]: John Kelly is, by most standards, a physically imposing man, and has demonstrated his strength multiple times, but, despite having only a high-school level education, has impressive analytical ability and can think on his feet (which is what prompted Ritter to hire him). During his tour in Vietnam, he was nominated for Officer Candidate School on at least three separate occasions, and has since then garnered enough knowledge to discuss subjects with ''college professors'' in their areas of expertise. By ''Rainbow Six'', he holds the rank of a simulated Major General.

* [[Genre Savvy]]: John Clark is this. He even frequently lampshades it.

** John Clark gets one when the President of the United States pardons him.

** It goes [[Up to Eleven]] in ''The Teeth of the Tiger'', in which the ex-President has issued preemptive pardons to all of the Black Ops operatives with blanks for names, dates, and offenses committed. The dubious legality of this is lampshaded by the man in charge.

* [[Good People Have Good Sex]]: Averted in ''The Sum of All Fears'', when Ryan's drinking and stress fatigue nearly destroy his sex life (and marriage).

* [[Guy in Back]]: Featured in several novels, including Robby Jackson's RIO<ref>Radar Intercept Officer</ref> in ''The Hunt for Red October'', who's severely injured by a missile fired by a hotheaded Soviet pilot with wounded pride from an earlier encounter with US forces.

* [[Helicopter Blender]]: [[Lampshaded]] and averted in ''Rainbow Six''.

** Yuri Andropov, Leonid Brezhnev, and a few others from the real USSR Politburo play a major role in ''Red Rabbit''. Similarly, [[The Pope|Pope John Paul II]] appears as well.

* [[History Marches On]]: Given the time between publications of his novels, "time" for the characters gets stretched out as events in [[Real Life]] occur. For instance, Ryan leaves government service around 1992 in ''The Sum of All Fears'', but somehow spends only two years on vacation until ''Debt of Honor'', which takes places in 1996, and {{spoiler|serves as President}} for another year or two up until 2001-ish between ''Executive Orders'' and ''The Bear and the Dragon''.

* [[Honest Corporate Executive]]: In ''Debt of Honor'', Founder/Chairman of the Columbus Group of mutual funds George Winston is practically a saint, as are most of the Wall Street executives in the story.

* [[Hot Line]]: ''Sum of All Fears''. Played realistically in that instead of the stereotypical "red phone" with national leaders directly conversing, it's a teletype connection with translators on both ends. Using this form of communication nearly backfires, however, because President Fowler, having chosen to believe faulty intelligence information, suspects that he's talking to someone other than the Soviet Premier.

* [[Humiliation Conga]]: This is more or less what happens to Torajiro Sato at the end of ''Debt of Honor''. Not only content with having the Americans win at the end of the book, Clancy subjects Sato to several consecutive traumatic experiences, all in more or less the same day. {{spoiler|First he watches his brother drown when ''USS Tennessee'' plants two torpedoes in his Aegis destroyer, then he has to identify his son's body immediately after the Americans destroy most of Saipan's fighters, then he watches as Robby Jackson lands on the island to request a surrender, then he has to fly his retreating countrymen back to Japan, including Yamata, who has been arrested, and ''then'' he comes to the realization that flying passengers to and from a Japan that has lost its honor in a war is all that remains of the rest of his life}}. This ultimately culminates with Sato {{spoiler|parking his 747 on top of Capitol Hill, with most of the United States government in it}}.

* [[The Hunter]]: John Kelly in ''Without Remorse'' deliberately fits himself into this persona while hunting the drug dealers who killed his girlfriend.

* [[IKEA Erotica]]: His first fullblown description in ''The Bear and the Dragon'' was mediocre, and that's being charitable.

* [[In Its Hour of Need]]: In ''The Bear and the Dragon'', Ryan chooses to stay in Washington, DC rather than flee to safety after the Chinese {{spoiler|launch their one remaining nuclear missile at the city}}.

* [[Interservice Rivalry]]: All over the place. CIA vs. FBI, FBI vs. Secret Service, KGB vs. GRU, etc.

* [[Issue Drift]]: The RyanVerse novels have grown more politically focused over time, reflecting Clancy's conservative (and occasionally libertarian) viewpoints.

* [[It Won't Turn Off]]: Subverted in ''Debt of Honor'' -- a Japanese executive's television is confused by the infrared signal of a spotting laser used by a Comanche attack helicopter to guide a missile into his apartment.

* [[I Want My Beloved to Be Fashionable]]: In ''Patriot Games'', Cathy Ryan has Jack buy some rather nice English suits. It's extended on and commented on throughout many of the subsequent novels.

* [[Japan Takes Over the World]]: In ''Debt of Honor'', a [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] and his patsy Prime Minister conspire to get Japan to pull the same gambit it tried in [[World War Two]].

* [[Kaiju Defense Force]]: in ''Debt of Honor''. Many of them are portrayed sympathetically.

* [[Kansas City Shuffle]]: The CIA's plan to fool the Soviet Navy in ''The Hunt for Red October'' revolves partly around this.

* [[Make It Look Like an Accident]]:

** [[Invoked Trope|Invoked]] by a Navy doctor in ''The Hunt for Red October'', when a KGB agent thinks it's a good idea to break out a cigarette and lighter next to a patient who's on 100% oxygen.

** The assassination of the Premier of Turkmenistan by Daryaei's agents was done this way in ''Executive Orders'' to force elections to replace him with someone who would be friendly to the UIR.

** The MO of the Caruso brothers in ''Teeth of the Tiger''. The poor sap who gets run over by the streetcar dies this way.

** Zhang Han San is this to Premier Xu in ''The Bear and the Dragon''.

* [[Manly Tears]]: Both Ryan and Clark aren't afraid to cry when they need to; {{spoiler|Ryan when he promises to take care of Zimmer's family for him, Kelly upon realization that Pam lied to protect him to the very end, Clark upon meeting Oreza twenty years after faking his own death, both Clark and Chavez upon the birth of John Conor Chavez.}}

* [[Mnogo Nukes]]

* [[Mugging the Monster]]:

** Note to muggers (and nosy cops) -- John Clark is ''not'' the kind of person you want to mess with on a dark street at night.

* [[My Secret Pregnancy]]: An occurrence of this due to family planning laws sets off the principal conflict in ''The Bear and the Dragon''.

* [[Mythology Gag]]: A minor one. In the beginning of ''Debt of Honor'', Ron Jones quips to his former CO, now-Rear Admiral Bart Mancuso, that ''USS Chicago'' is currently in the Arctic Ocean tracking whales. In ''[[Red Storm Rising]]'', ''Chicago'' was the boat commanded by Mancuso's [[Expy]] Dan McCafferty, who at one point asks his sonarman to report some anomalous contacts as they are traversing the Arctic Ocean on their way to conduct attacks on Soviet air bases... which turn out to be whales.

* [[No Party Given]]: Trent and Fellows's parties are not explicitly named, even though it's quite obvious that Trent is a liberal and Fellows is a conservative. Ditto for Fowler and Durling, who belong to the same party as Fellows.

* [[NSA]]

* [[Number of the Beast]]:

* [[Only Sane Man]] - Arnold van Damm seems to serve as one for Jack Ryan, especially in regards to toning down Jack's idealism by tempering it with knowledge the real world is not nearly as ideal. May even serve as a meta example by lampshading how Clancy's own views, even in his own literary universe, don't completely work out as they were intended.

* [[Our Presidents Are Different]] - {{spoiler|Jack Ryan}} seems to be a mix of President Iron and Personable, whereas {{spoiler|Ed Kealty}} is shown as President Playboy, Scheming, and Strawman. Incidentally, between ''Executive Orders'' and ''The Bear and the Dragon'', {{spoiler|Ryan's election platform largely comes off as selling himself as Jack Ryan, Regular Guy}}.

* [[Pay Evil Unto Evil]]: ''Without Remorse'', ''Teeth of the Tiger'', and ''Dead or Alive'' are largely about this.

* [[Peace Through Superior Firepower]]: The American military arsenal is described in lavish, loving detail.

* [[Perfect Poison]]: The succinylcholine used in ''Teeth of the Tiger''. It kills by simulating a heart attack via muscular paralysis, and is rapidly eliminated from the bloodstream, leaving no traces of what killed its victim.

* [[Pink Mist]]: Clancy, for all your realistically gory headshot descriptions. This is especially prevalent in ''Rainbow Six'', though realistic in that counter-terrorists are always trained to go for the head.

* [[The Plot Reaper]]: How a certain [[Author Stand In]] {{spoiler|gets to be President at the end of ''Debt of Honor''}}.

* [[Prequel]]: ''Without Remorse'' and ''Patriot Games''. ''Patriot Games'' was published after ''The Hunt For Red October,'' which mentions Ryan's heroics at the beginning of that book in passing. It also includes in throwaway dialogue the insider trading deal that Ryan is investigated for in ''The Cardinal of the Kremlin'' {{spoiler|to get the Russians to try and turn him}}, and used as part of a smear campaign against him in ''The Sum of All Fears.''

* [[Psycho Lesbian]]: ''The Cardinal of the Kremlin'' features a American female rocket scientist who essentially hands her male co-worker over to [[Moscow Centre|the KGB]] in order to (clumsily) attempt to [[Comforting the Widow|seduce the guy's fiancee]].

* [[Red Scare]]

* [[Reporting Names]]

* [[Rich Bitch]]:

** Elizabeth Elliot in ''The Sum of All Fears''.

** The Prime Minister of India in ''Executive Orders''.

* [[Rich Idiot With No Day Job]]: The police (and as a result drug dealers) in ''Without Remorse'' initially identify Kelly as a "rich beach bum" given that he leases his own island.

* [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]]: Clark ''lives'' off of this trope in ''Without Remorse''.

* [[Royals Who Actually Do Something]]: The Prince of Wales in ''Patriot Games''. He gets to show off his military training during the penultimate shootout.

* [[Scary Black Man]]: Invoked by Robby Jackson in ''Patriot Games'' in order to intimidate a terrorist, who had ''very'' unwisely dropped the N-Bomb towards Robby's wife.

* [[Science Marches On]]: Several books set [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]] make use of proposed weapons systems that never went into production, or never existed in the first place.

** Also from ''The Bear and the Dragon'' {{spoiler|As of the mid-2000s, the Chinese nuclear arsenal had grown hugely in sophistication, numbers and mobility (specifically solid-fuel road-mobile ICBM's that can fire on virtually no notice) from what Clancy describes as a viable special operations target.}}

* [[Scotireland]]: The tendency of people to do this is [[Lampshaded]] in ''Patriot Games''.

* [[Semper Fi]]: Jack Ryan is a former Marine.

* [[Shoot Out the Lock]]: Defied -- in several novels it's pointed out that this does ''not'' work in real life. In most cases, the shooter has to use several more bullets and messily destroy the lock mechanism to open the door.

** Tom Clancy lived in Annapolis, Maryland -- site of the US Naval Academy. Between the staff and instructors living in town, and the fact that a nontrivial chunk of Annapolis' population are retired naval personnel and families, we can reasonably presume that at least one of his friends or neighbors was available for a professional consult.

** In his ''Playboy'' interview, Clancy said that some detail about submarine operation that he included in ''Red October'', that he had pieced together himself, turned out to be not only correct but classified. He got a visit from the FBI, trying to figure out how he had gotten that information. The conversation basically went:

'''Bureau:''' We can't tell you, it's classified. }}

** It was not uncommon in the USN Sub community at the time to see highlighted copies of "Hunt For Red October" with different color shading marking what level of secrecy had been breached by Clancy's sources.

* [[Shrine to Self]]: Several military characters are shown to have this attitude.

* [[Smoking Is Cool]]: Largely averted. While Ryan was a former smoker (and occasionally fell back into the habit after {{spoiler|becoming President}}), most of the actual badasses don't smoke, with the US Army Rangers and Rainbow being specifically singled out at various times. The occasional military personnel does smoke, but Clancy makes it fairly clear that they do so as a stress reliever.

* [[Smug Snake]]: Ernesto Escobedo's default attitude towards America and Americans in ''Clear And Present Danger''. In fact, quite a few villains fall into this category, including the Prime Minister of India, the drug dealers in ''Without Remorse'', the leader of Iran in ''Executive Orders'', etc.

* [[Sociopathic Soldier]]: Soviet KGB troops tend to get this treatment, as distinct from the Red Army's soldiers. Even the Red Army soldiers show their disdain for their green-shoulder-board-wearing comrades.

* [[Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan]]: Featured in ''The Cardinal of the Kremlin''.

* [[Spy School]]: Several references are made throughout the series to "The Farm", a CIA training facility in Virginia. In some of the latter books Clark is shown teaching some classes there.

* [[Status Quo Is God]]: Fought tooth and nail, but ultimately victorious in favor of real world progression. Many of Jack Ryan's, and others', accomplishments are undone or nullified within the next book or two.

* [[Straw Civilian]]: Several. Especially noted when Navy pilot Robby Jackson states that jet engine noise is the "Sound of Freedom". To the people living near the military airport, the value of freedom from low blood pressure, sound sleep, and good hearing is left unmentioned, but that's Robby's response to the complaints.

* [[Strawman Political]]: Clancy makes regular use of strawman liberals, pacifists, and environmentalists throughout his novels.

* [[Take a Third Option]]: Much of the setup in ''Debt of Honor'' revolves around {{spoiler|Japan}} launching their systematic attacks on America's financial sectors and military in such a way that any response would not be possible for months or years. Ryan finds a way to sidestep all of these through clever [[Loophole Abuse]] and special operations maneuvering. As President Durling noted when he gave Jack some advice, "I fought in [[The Vietnam War|a war]] where the other side made the rules. It didn't work out very well."

* [[Take That]]: Clancy takes the opportunity in several of his novels to note that the that none of the things that happen in Ian Fleming's ''[[James Bond]]'' novels would ever pass muster in reality. Pot shots are also taken at NBC and environmentalists in ''Executive Orders'' and ''Rainbow Six''.

* [[Techno Babble]]: Clancy's lengthy, loving descriptions of exactly how military technology works can occupy whole chapters. A typical example can be found in ''Sum of All Fears'', where a chapter is given over to describing how a thermonuclear bomb detonates. However, the process is plot-relevant, as the engineer who designed it didn't complete a step needed to ensure the detonation was as powerful as intended, providing a crucial clue that prevents all-out war.

* [[Technology Porn]]: Lots, especially military technology.

* [[Throwing Out the Script]]:

** In ''Executive Orders'', {{spoiler|President}} Ryan is giving a speech at a presidential funeral. Instead of reading the speech written for him, he speaks off the cuff to the children of the deceased president.

* [[Took a Level In Dumbass]]: Almost all of Clancy's villains do this at one point or another in most of his books after ''The Sume Of All Fears''.

* [[Treasure Chest Cavity]]: In ''Without Remorse'', the drug dealers smuggle heroin inside the corpses of slain U.S. soldiers.

* [[Unreliable Narrator]]: Clancy writes a lot of enemy plotting from their POV (as the protagonists rarely meet the antagonists directly). As said enemy plotters are frequently ideological and/or mentally unbalanced, their assessment of an operation can differ radically from what it will or could actually achieve.

* [[Western Terrorists]]: The Warrior Society in ''The Sum of all Fears'', and the Mountain Men in ''Executive Orders''. Alex Dobbens's group also plays a role in helping the ULA attack Ryan's home in ''Patriot Games''.

* [[Wish Fulfillment]]: When {{spoiler|almost all of Congress is killed at the end of ''Debt of Honor''}}, they are replaced by ordinary Americans who just want to get things done.

* [[Yellow Peril]]: Tom Clancy loves this:

** Played straight in ''Dead or Alive'' by the terrorist group, who kills all but two people who worked with them while they were setting up for their attacks. The two exceptions are the prostitute hired to provide sex for the group's leader and the woman who was extracting the information from the Yucca Flats employee.

** Subverted in the opposite direction in ''Rainbow Six''. Failing to use this trope with respect to Popov is what gets Horizon Corp's schemes busted.

 

=== The film adaptations provide examples of: ===

* [[Badass Bookworm]]: Jack Ryan, even more than in the books.

* [[Fake Russian]]: Most of the crew of the ''Red October'', for a start.

* [[Make the Bear Angry Again]]: In the film version of ''The Sum of All Fears''.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Long Running Book Series]]

[[Category:Spy Literature]]

[[Category:Literature]]