What's your favorite "Jack Ryan" movie? And favorite actor to portray him?

You're probably right.........books are always better than the film adaptations. There medium of film is rather restricting where as books can take the time to draw out a grand story with great character development.

In the film it states that Ryan was a marine for a very short time before being injured. He wasn't in combat.......he had basically gone through the marine training. This in no way makes somebody a hero. I know several current marines who have been marines for a long time that wouldn't just randomly jump in to a gunfight with several masked hooligans.....much less jump into a gunfight unarmed ala the beginning of Patriot Games. They sure as hell aren't going to be going solo into South America to rescue a few soldiers single handedly..........

Face it.........they took the character of Jack Ryan in Red October and did a complete 180 for Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger. They brought the character back a little bit in Sum of All Fears........the Jack Ryan in the last film is most like the Jack Ryan in the first film.

Well, I still have to disagree with you. The whole thing about talking about him being an ex-marine was supposed to demonstrate on that film that this guy was no wimp.

Patriot Games starts with him doing soimething by instinct and then he just gets more and more drawn in. Had Alec not turned down the role he would have done the exact same things, and I really do not see a huge difference in character- simply in actions.

same here if you read the books on which the movies are based you will notice that it goes far slowly, ryan seriously dislikes field work, he doesn't do it often but this doesn't mean he sucks at it

Fire........we're not talking about books here. Grasp it. We're talking about 4 specific movies. Killer MOVIES forums....not killer books forums. I bet all the Jack Ryan novels are great........but that no way reflects on what is presented in these four particular movies. Different medium, different audience and different interpretations of the character.

nobody said he sucked at field work......actually in both The Hunt for Red October and The Sum of All Fears we are given the impression that this is the very first time Jack has ever been in the field, not at his desk.

Well Evil Dead the movies are based on the BOOKS.
you are complaining about something that absolutely makes no sense and the only reason it makes no sense to you is because you didn't read the books.
well if it would be the first time ever he did something like that he'd suck at it, but he doesn't why? because he was a marine.

Patriot Games

"you are complaining about something that absolutely makes no sense and the only reason it makes no sense to you is because you didn't read the books"

exactly........so you are now admitting that the character is portrayed differently in the movies, but not in the books........but if I had read the books then I wouldn't think the character had changed. Game, Set, Match.

Glad to see Red October is now tied for first.......great flick

I didn't know this was a competition and I don't remember ever saying that the character was portrayed the same in the books as in the movies.

every character portrayed in both a book and a movie will be portrayed differently

If you mean that I said his character behaves differently in the different movies well ofc. It does but I always stated that wasn't unlogical certainly not if you have read the books. In the movies it might look like quite a sudden change from one movie to another but in the books it goes far more slowly. And in the end after you have read almost all of them you will see that ryan really isn't much of an action here.

This was my first introduction to the character. The way Jack Ryan is portrayed in this movie is how I knew the character to be. He was just a desk jocky sent out into the field. When Patriot Games came along......they casted a much older Harrison Ford to play the character and gave the character a lot more balls. The Jack Ryan in Red October wouldn't have just jumped into a gunfight with terrorists to save the cousin of the Queen. He was a desk jocky. He would have wet himself in the situation.

They changed the character so much from Red October to Patriot Games it isn't funny. Then Clear and Present Danger comes along.......by the end of that movie Ryan is going into South America to single handedly rescue service men left behind? Not the CIA analyist I know. I love Harrison Ford as an actor and I think he did a great job on both movies..........my problem lies in the change the put upon the character of Jack Ryan. All of a sudden instead of a pencil pushing geek who analyzes data for the CIA we have a chock full of machismo bad ass who doesn't hesitate to jump into dangerous situations, even when uncalled for------------- Evil Dead

And Evil Dead, I have to very much disagree with you. Ryan might moan about being put on a field job when his career is analysis, but you make him out to be a pure bookworm.--------Ushgarak

think ush is right on this one---------fire

Now you are saying that the character did indeed change between the first and second movies...........before you were agreeing with Ush that the character was the exact same. Which one is it?