Jack Ryan: Difference between revisions

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* [[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.

* [[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.

* [[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).

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** 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.

** Grennady Iosipovich Bondarenko is Russia's resident [[Colonel Badass]] ( {{spoiler|later [[Four Star Badass]]}}) - from personally commanding the {{spoiler|defense of the Soviet laser base}} in ''The Cardinal Of The Kremlin'' to being the right claw of the bear in ''The Bear and the Dragon'', if Mother Russia needs some dirty, dangerous work done, Grennady is in the thick of it. Also a [[Genius Bruiser]], being the designer of a laser-communication system and one of the smartest commanders in the series.

** Grennady Iosipovich Bondarenko is Russia's resident [[Colonel Badass]] ( {{spoiler|later [[Four-Star Badass]]}}) - from personally commanding the {{spoiler|defense of the Soviet laser base}} in ''The Cardinal Of The Kremlin'' to being the right claw of the bear in ''The Bear and the Dragon'', if Mother Russia needs some dirty, dangerous work done, Grennady is in the thick of it. Also a [[Genius Bruiser]], being the designer of a laser-communication system and one of the smartest commanders in the series.

** The Archer. Lost his family to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, deals with the angst by shooting Soviet planes down and generally making a royal nuisance of himself. Also a [[Religious Bruiser]] - he is a devout Muhjihad. Serves as a foil to Grennady Bondarenko, and his {{spoiler|death at Grennady's hands is surprisingly moving.}}

{{quote| '''The Archer''': ''Allahu Akhbar!''<br />

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** 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.

* [[Bodyguard Betrayal]]: An important plot issue in ''Executive Orders''; see [[Deep Cover Agent]], below.

* [[Bodyguard Betrayal]]: An important plot issue in ''Executive Orders''; see [[Deep-Cover Agent]], below.

* [[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]].

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* [[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.

* [[Deep Cover Agent]]: {{spoiler|Special Agent Aref Raman, US Secret Service}}, actually a long-term sleeper agent for the Iranians who was inserted into the US as a teenaged "refugee" and spent circa 15 years becoming a naturalized citizen, maintaining an absolutely perfect All-American profile, all so he could work himself into a position of trust standing right next to the President every day. He is one of several sleeper agents similarly placed in the protection details of world leaders; the plot of the novel gets moving when the President of Iraq is assassinated by the one in ''his'' bodyguard contingent.

* [[Deep-Cover Agent]]: {{spoiler|Special Agent Aref Raman, US Secret Service}}, actually a long-term sleeper agent for the Iranians who was inserted into the US as a teenaged "refugee" and spent circa 15 years becoming a naturalized citizen, maintaining an absolutely perfect All-American profile, all so he could work himself into a position of trust standing right next to the President every day. He is one of several sleeper agents similarly placed in the protection details of world leaders; the plot of the novel gets moving when the President of Iraq is assassinated by the one in ''his'' bodyguard contingent.

* [[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''.

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

** "Bronco", in ''Clear and Present Danger'', speculates that the [http://www.amarcexperience.com/AMARCDescription.asp Boneyard] in Arizona is where the a captured druggie DC-7B will eventually be dumped, given that one more old aircraft in storage there won't be particularly noteworthy.

* [[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 realise that it would have made the Earth move on [[Empty Quiver|a much, much bigger scale than they had first anticipated.]]

* [[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 realise 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''.

* [[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.

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

* [[Doorstopper]]

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

* [[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.

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** 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.

* [[False Flag Operation]]: Major plot points in ''Clear and Present Danger'' (by the United States), ''The Sum of All Fears'' (by the Arab terrorists), ''The Bear and the Dragon'' (by China), and present in several other books.

* [[False-Flag Operation]]: Major plot points in ''Clear and Present Danger'' (by the United States), ''The Sum of All Fears'' (by the Arab terrorists), ''The Bear and the Dragon'' (by China), and present in several other books.

* [[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.

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* [[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.

* [[Get Out of Jail Free Card]]:

* [["Get Out of Jail Free" Card]]:

** 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).

* [[The Great Politics Mess Up]]: ''The Sum of All Fears'' was written prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union, but set chronologically afterwards. However, it's only a partial example as it does discuss the country's impending collapse, merely getting the particulars of how it turned out wrong.

* [[The Great Politics Mess-Up]]: ''The Sum of All Fears'' was written prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union, but set chronologically afterwards. However, it's only a partial example as it does discuss the country's impending collapse, merely getting the particulars of how it turned out wrong.

* [[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''.

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* [[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.

* [[Hot Sub On Sub Action]]: More subs attack each other in Clancy's novels than in the entire history of naval warfare. On the other hand, most of these novels are premised on the [[Cold War]] heating up a bit, so it's entirely justified: after the '60s, that kind of sub-to-sub combat was not only possible but likely given that NATO and Warsaw Pact subs were constantly on one another's tails.

* [[Hot Sub-On-Sub Action]]: More subs attack each other in Clancy's novels than in the entire history of naval warfare. On the other hand, most of these novels are premised on the [[Cold War]] heating up a bit, so it's entirely justified: after the '60s, that kind of sub-to-sub combat was not only possible but likely given that NATO and Warsaw Pact subs were constantly on one another's tails.

* [[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.

* [[I Am Not Left Handed]]: When the North Carolina National Guard goes to the NTC for training exercises against the 11th ACR, they don't let on that they have IVIS training.

* [[I Am Not Left-Handed]]: When the North Carolina National Guard goes to the NTC for training exercises against the 11th ACR, they don't let on that they have IVIS training.

* [[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}}.

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* [[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.

* [[~~Its~~ for A Book]]: While doing the research for ''The Sum of All Fears'', Clancy was able to get the specifications for all the machinery needed to build a nuclear bomb delivered to his doorstep. He then pointed out in his author's notes that it's all commercially available within the U.S.

* [[It's for A Book]]: While doing the research for ''The Sum of All Fears'', Clancy was able to get the specifications for all the machinery needed to build a nuclear bomb delivered to his doorstep. He then pointed out in his author's notes that it's all commercially available within the U.S.

* [[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.

* [[It Works Better With Bullets]]: Subverted in ''Executive Orders'', as a suspected assassin is tricked by having his gun's ammunition switched with duds, rather than blanks or left empty as one might expect. This is done because, as a professional bodyguard, he'd immediately recognize the difference in weight.

* [[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.

* [[Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique]]: John Clark uses this a lot, particularly in ''Without Remorse'' and ''The Sum of all Fears''; in the latter it's also a case of [[Mutilation Interrogation]], and it fails in that the badguys were planning all along to lie under interrogation to [[False Flag Operation|falsely implicate]] Iran in their bomb plot.

* [[Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique]]: John Clark uses this a lot, particularly in ''Without Remorse'' and ''The Sum of all Fears''; in the latter it's also a case of [[Mutilation Interrogation]], and it fails in that the badguys were planning all along to lie under interrogation to [[False-Flag Operation|falsely implicate]] Iran in their bomb plot.

* [[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]].

* [[Just in Time]]: Subverted in ''Red Rabbit''. Ryan manages to successfully stop Boris Strokov right before the assassination attempt... only to {{spoiler|have the Turkish gunman shoot [[The Pope]] and be apprehended}}. Though considering that [~~http://en.~~wikipedia~~.org/wiki/Pope_John_Paul_II_assassination_attempt~~ it's based on the actual event...]

* [[Just in Time]]: Subverted in ''Red Rabbit''. Ryan manages to successfully stop Boris Strokov right before the assassination attempt... only to {{spoiler|have the Turkish gunman shoot [[The Pope]] and be apprehended}}. Though considering that [[wikipedia:Pope John Paul II assassination attempt|it's based on the actual event...]]

* [[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.

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** 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.}}

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

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

* [[Mnogo Nukes]]

* [[Moscow Centre]]: A majority of Clancy's fictional works involve the KGB or its successors. Until the last few Ryanverse novels, people of [[Moscow Centre]] were always cast as the antagonists, though infrequently as outright villains.

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* [[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.

* [[Not With the Safety On You Won't]]: A subversion at the end of ''Patriot Games''. Ryan is all set to shoot a terrorist in cold blood, but the gun doesn't fire. It turns out that a marine safety instructor lowered the hammer earlier, and Ryan "forgot" to cock the weapon before firing. The reader (and Ryan himself) is left uncertain whether or not it was deliberate, but the point is that Ryan manages to leave the scene with a clean conscience. "I'm not a murderer."

* [[Not With the Safety On, You Won't]]: A subversion at the end of ''Patriot Games''. Ryan is all set to shoot a terrorist in cold blood, but the gun doesn't fire. It turns out that a marine safety instructor lowered the hammer earlier, and Ryan "forgot" to cock the weapon before firing. The reader (and Ryan himself) is left uncertain whether or not it was deliberate, but the point is that Ryan manages to leave the scene with a clean conscience. "I'm not a murderer."

* [[NSA]]

* [[Number of the Beast]]:

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* [[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}}.

* [[Pants Positive Safety]]: In ''Patriot Games'', Jack Ryan absentmindedly shoves a loaded semi-auto pistol down his waistband, with the safety off and the hammer cocked<ref>as in an inadvertent bump would be all that was needed to set it off, ending his line at Jack Jr</ref>. Gunny Breckenridge takes the gun out, puts the safety on and gives it back.

* [[Pants-Positive Safety]]: In ''Patriot Games'', Jack Ryan absentmindedly shoves a loaded semi-auto pistol down his waistband, with the safety off and the hammer cocked<ref>as in an inadvertent bump would be all that was needed to set it off, ending his line at Jack Jr</ref>. Gunny Breckenridge takes the gun out, puts the safety on and gives it back.

* [[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.

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* [[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]]

* [[Remember When You Blew Up a Sun]]: Done with both Clark and Ryan (and to a lesser extent, Ding Chavez). For Ryan, few will ever pass up the opportunity to remark upon the time he dealt with the ULA invasion of his home in ''Patriot Games''. Clark's list is rather longer, ranging from {{spoiler|picking up KGB Chairman Gerasimov's family in ''Cardinal of the Kremlin'', to rescuing former Japanese Prime Minister Koga in ''Debt of Honor'', to guiding the bombs to kill Ayatollah Daryaei in ''Executive Orders''}}.

* [[Remember When You Blew Up a Sun?]]: Done with both Clark and Ryan (and to a lesser extent, Ding Chavez). For Ryan, few will ever pass up the opportunity to remark upon the time he dealt with the ULA invasion of his home in ''Patriot Games''. Clark's list is rather longer, ranging from {{spoiler|picking up KGB Chairman Gerasimov's family in ''Cardinal of the Kremlin'', to rescuing former Japanese Prime Minister Koga in ''Debt of Honor'', to guiding the bombs to kill Ayatollah Daryaei in ''Executive Orders''}}.

* [[Reporting Names]]

* [[Reset Button]]: This appears to have been pushed, as noted above in the [[Useful Notes/Arab-Israeli Conflict|Arab Israeli Conflict]] entry, in the two most recent Ryanverse books, ''Teeth of the Tiger'' and ''Dead or Alive'' (much more obviously so in the latter case, since in order to be able to incorporate 9/11 and the Afghanistan and Iraq wars into his plot, Clancy pretty much had to do away with the events of ''Executive Orders''. This also applies to the US/Russian relationship.)

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* [[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.

* [[Right Man in The Wrong Place]]: Jack Ryan on several occasions -- as he points out, he's an intelligence ''analyst'', not a spy, but keeps getting forced into the role by being on the spot.

* [[Right Wing Militia Fanatic]]: Used as throwaway villains in the "Mountain Men" subplot of ''Executive Orders''.

* [[Right-Wing Militia Fanatic]]: Used as throwaway villains in the "Mountain Men" subplot of ''Executive Orders''.

* [[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.

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* [[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.

* [[Twenty Fifth Amendment]]: Invoked in both ''The Sum of all Fears'' and ''Debt of Honor'', for different reasons.

* [[Twenty-Fifth Amendment]]: Invoked in both ''The Sum of all Fears'' and ''Debt of Honor'', for different reasons.

* [[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''.

* [[Wham Episode]]: The final chapter of ''Debt of Honor'', {{spoiler|which ends with a 747 being kamikazed into the Capitol Building. This became [[Harsher in Hindsight]] after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S.}}

* [[Wham! Episode]]: The final chapter of ''Debt of Honor'', {{spoiler|which ends with a 747 being kamikazed into the Capitol Building. This became [[Harsher in Hindsight]] after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S.}}

* [[Why We're Bummed Communism Fell]]: It's discussed in ''Debt of Honor'' (and regretted by Bart Mancuso) that due to the demise of the Soviet Union, the United States Navy was greatly downsized and is incapable of most of the things it was able to do in the past, despite still being able to take on every other navy in the world single-handedly {{spoiler|or at least until ''Stennis'' and ''Enterprise'' are crippled by torpedo attacks}}.

* [[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.

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

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

* [[Get Out of Jail Free Card]]: In the film version of ''[[Clear and Present Danger]]'', Ritter refers to the document from Cutter authorizing the anti-Cartel operations as this. This is a distinct change from the novel, where said document was meant to protect the CIA as a whole from any repercussions of said operations, not just the official holding the document.

* [["Get Out of Jail Free" Card]]: In the film version of ''[[Clear and Present Danger]]'', Ritter refers to the document from Cutter authorizing the anti-Cartel operations as this. This is a distinct change from the novel, where said document was meant to protect the CIA as a whole from any repercussions of said operations, not just the official holding the document.

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

* [[Right Wing Militia Fanatic]]: The antagonists of the film version of ''The Sum of All Fears''.

* [[Right-Wing Militia Fanatic]]: The antagonists of the film version of ''The Sum of All Fears''.

* [[Shout Out]]: In ''Patriot Games,'' you see Harrison Ford crossing ''Hanover Street.''

* [[Shout-Out]]: In ''Patriot Games,'' you see Harrison Ford crossing ''Hanover Street.''