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) ==

* ''[[Patriot Games]]'' -- Ex-Marine Jack Ryan, an American tourist in London, rescues the Prince of Wales from [[The Troubles|Irish terrorists]] and comes to the attention of both the IRA and the CIA. This was the second book to be filmed, with [[Harrison Ford]] as Ryan.

* ''[[Red Rabbit]]'' -- Ryan, a new CIA analyst, must assist in locating a Soviet defector with information about a KGB plot to assassinate [[The Pope]].

* ''[[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.

* ''[[Rainbow Six (novel)|Rainbow Six]]'' -- [[Badass]] Clark and Junior Badass Ding Chavez join an international paramilitary counterterrorism force. Little do they suspect that they'll be facing an enemy within their own country. Adapted into [[Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six (video game)|a series of video games]].

* ''[[The Bear and the Dragon]]'' -- China, facing an economic and political crisis, [[China Takes Over the World|decides to invade Russia.]] The U.S. must cement a friendship with its once-greatest foe to fight off the aggressor. But what will Ryan do when the threat turns nuclear?

 

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

* [[AKA-47]]: Completely and notably averted in the novels and games. In ''Rainbow Six'' however, "the new version of the venerable MP-5, chambered instead for the 10-mm Smith & Wesson cartridge" is erroneously referred to as the "MP-10" (actually the MP5/10); there has been [[Internet Backdraft|considerable debate]] regarding this given the usual amount of attention given to these kinds of details, with [[Word of God|Clancy himself saying at one point]] that he had personally seen and shot "the MP-10" (a submachine gun manufactured by an entirely different company, Special Weapons). In ''Dead or Alive'', Rainbow uses the more common MP5SD3 instead of the aforementioned MP5/10.

** 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"]].

* [[Useful Notes/Arab-Israeli Conflict|Arab Israeli Conflict]]: Ryan manages to solve it in the span of a few pages by turning Jerusalem into a neutral city-state with Swiss guards and a ruling council of religious leaders. The monumental size of this [[Hand Wave]] should be apparent. It also gets the [[Reset Button]] pressed on it a few books later.

* [[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.

{{quote|'''The Archer''': ''Allahu Akhbar!''

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

* [[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.

* [[Derelict Graveyard]]:

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

* [[Did the Earth Move For You, Too?]]: A throwaway joke in ''The Sum of All Fears'', as terrorists are digging up an unexploded bomb... Though it's some time before they realize that it would have made the Earth move on [[Empty Quiver|a much, much bigger scale than they had first anticipated.]]

* [[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''.

* [[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''.

* [[Hoist by His Own Petard]]: Former Vice President Ed Kealty near the end of ''Executive Orders''. In order to counter President {{spoiler|Ryan}}'s executive order quarantining America in the face of an Ebola epidemic, he files a suit to have the order vacated due to violating the Constitution. Unfortunately for him, by having the court refer to the President by name and office, he effectively kills his own claim for the Presidency {{spoiler|until ''Teeth of the Tiger''}}.

* [[Hooker with a Heart of Gold]]: Pamela Madden in ''Without Remorse'', is a [[Deconstruction]] of this concept. After befriending John Kelly and getting clean from drugs, she is ruthlessly raped and murdered by her former pimps.

* [[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.

** 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.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Long Running Book Series]]

[[Category:Spy Literature]]

[[Category:Literature]]