2026, Andrew Bernstein (Jack Ryan) - Amazon
This movie begins in Dubai, with two operators sneaking into a half-constructed skyscraper. I was confused about this whole set piece, and doubly so when it returned later. Its a building under construction, so much so that half the floors don't even have walls. But the two men sneak through what must be a snazzy display centre on a lower floor, but not the bottom floor as it has glass floors showing the ground waaaay below. At first I was wondering why there would be a completed condo in an otherwise empty skeletal building but then I saw the flyer stands. Anywayz, the men find their way to the server room that is the object of their hunt. Its also unfinished -- plastic sheeting, drywall unpainted, entire walls are just frameworks. Yet there are constructed cubicles with computer monitors. Either Dubai's project management skills are shite, or this movie has checklists to fulfill that defy common logic. Its likely the latter, as those monitors are just dressing there to be shot. And this attribute defines the entire movie! Everything; every action, every scene, is just setup like they were checking boxes as to what an espionage action-thriller movie requires. And it ended up making the movie itself just a frustrating hollow shell of the genre, even dropping lower than the other seasons of the show, and myriad other depictions of Tom Clancy's main character.
Checkbox - Jack has retired from the CIA and become a private risk analyst for a big company, but something happens (the aforementioned operation in Dubai) that requires his old buddy James Greer (Wendell Piece, Superman), who is now Deputy Director of the CIA, to ask Jack to play courier. But its never just a pick-up. They spend a lot of time with playful banter about how Greer's jobs are never as easy as he says they are.
Of course, its not just a pickup. He is there to meet an old friend of Greer, an MI6 operative, who gets himself killed before he can Exposition Dump to Ryan. That forces Ryan to give chase, on boat, shoot people, get shot at, etc. Dubai has a strict anti-shooting-people policy so that doesn't ingratiate himself with the locals. Also, he doesn't make his civilian job meeting, so I am guessing he's ... fired? But what is he chasing, what was he trying to Pick Up?
Checkbox - this is all instigated by Something Dark from Greer's Past. In the show, Greer has always been the one more ready to play fast & loose with the rules and the choices between right & wrong. Its not surprising, to us, that he had played part in developing a Top Secret black-ops team with MI6, to take down villains before they became a problem. This time it was Project Starling. Eventually they Went Too Far and were shut-down, but Greer's British counterpart, Crown (groan; Max Beesley, Survivors) kept on doing it. And the MacGuffin being sought in the half-finished server room was his .. I don't know... list? It was stuff; valuable info. Now he wants it back.
Checkbox - Crown tells them about a terrorist plot on UK soil. But he doesn't tell them everything outright, masking it with the idea that if his team didn't prepare to stop it, the Good Guys would have never known. It gives Ryan and his begrudgingly new MI6 friends (Sienna Miller, 21 Bridges) some sleuthing and counter-terrorism stuff to do.
Checkbox - its all a ploy! Crown drew the counter-terrorism forces in one direction, so he could blow up something/someone in the other direction. This time its the current Director of the CIA, a character from the previous series, Elizabeth Wright (Betty Gabriel, Counterpart). She is considered the proper leader that Greer can follow, which means she won't bring back Project Starling. So, Crown blows her up. I guess that is why? The problem with checkbox plot points is that the story never really cares about the why more that it is checking the box.
Checkbox - revenge. The real reason the movie killed her off.
But we still have a MacGuffin to attain. To bring Crown's organization down, they have to complete the failed mission from the opening act. But wait, wasn't Ryan sent to Dubai to get the fruits of that mission? Fake-out ! There was nothing. Greer's buddy died before he could tell Ryan what his opening crew was trying to do, let alone pass along the (not) attained info. So, Ryan and crew have to sleuth it out, discover the half-assembled building and go back to Dubai to ... checkbox the shit out of things with henchmen in black suits & automatic weapons and near deaths and... yawn. They get the info, kill Crown and can now disassemble his operation.
Except... so what? In the series the stakes always seemed higher. Remember, this is the character series that had them actually ignite a dirty bomb on American soil (The Sum of All Fears with Ben Affleck as Ryan) so it all seems like a major let down that the Big Bad is just about having a working organization still doing black-ops despite the US and British governments disavowing it? I get that the centre of the show, and the movie, was that Jack Ryan is the moral compass and if he doesn't like something, its Really Bad, but that hasn't stopped him from constant use of deadly force throughout it all. The only thing that sets him apart from Crown is that his actions are responsive instead of proactive, and he apparently cares about collateral damage.
And yet, Ryan is still charming, still bearing buckets of charisma and the banter is on-point. Personally, I prefer his side-kick, the more motivated by Doing a Job private contractor Mike November. Greer is Greer but now he's the actual Director of the CIA which means... well, absolutely nothing, but maybe the chance to make him the Bad Guy in whatever comes next. I will probably watch it, but ... yawn.
Which leaves me wondering why I invest time and energy and emotions in things that bore the crap out of me. At some point, while doing the write up for one of these movies, I will let my attention drift and focus on the aforementioned black suited henchmen. I always wonder why they are doing what they are doing? Only for money? They rarely get names, but do they have families? Friends? Histories? But that is for another movie, another boredom.
