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) ==

 

* ''[[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]].

 

* [[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.

'''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.

* [[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.

* [[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.

* [[Doorstopper]]

* [[Drama Bomb]]: See [[Wham! Episode]], below.

* [[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.

* [[Drugs Are Bad]]: The justification for the plot of ''Clear And Present Danger''. Subverted when the methods the government uses to attack the drug trade are shown as [[What the Hell, Hero?|clearly worse]] than the trade itself. Played straight, however, in ''Without Remorse'', although the drug dealers in question were also engaged in prostitution and a number of other nasty things. Played straight when Ryan asks for a Presidential pardon for Clark and as soon as he mentions that the people Clark murdered were drug dealers, it's a slam dunk.

* [[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]]:

* [[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.

* [[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.

* [[Middle-Eastern Coalition]]: Iran forms this with Iraq and attempts to expand it to include others forcibly in ''Executive Orders''.

* [[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.

* [[Nice Job Fixing It, Villain]]: In ''Executive Orders'', the Mountain Men subplot involves some domestic terrorists intent on exploding a truck bomb at the White House. Iran's biowarfare attack, however, causes a travel lockdown that {{spoiler|keeps them penned up at a motel long enough for them to get caught}}. It may come across as a [[Shaggy Dog Story]] but the moral is that evil sometimes defeats itself. There's some [[Irony]] here as well, in that Daryaei himself laments near the beginning that if only all of these plotters would ''coordinate'' with each other, they'd be more successful.

* [[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.

* [[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.

* [[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''.

** 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: ===

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Long Running Book Series]]

[[Category:Spy Literature]]

[[Category:Literature]]