Clear and Present Danger (1994)
81%RT Audience Score: 74%
Awards & Nominations: Nominated for 2 Oscars
3 wins & 11 nominations total
Perfecting the formula established in earlier installments, Clear and Present Danger reunites its predecessor’s creative core to solidly entertaining effect
Clear and Present Danger is a movie that’s jam-packed with politics, CIA scheming, and special forces sniping. It’s a guy movie that’s both cutting in its indictment of how power corrupts even the best intentions and bravely optimistic in asserting that one can maintain one’s sense of honor and integrity in a rigged system. Harrison Ford’s performance as Jack Ryan is earnest and fresh, and the narrative complexity and momentum make this a true cinematic equivalent of an absorbing page-turner. Plus, who doesn’t love a smart bomb dropped by an F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet on a Colombian drug lord’s daughter’s quinceañera? In other words, a REAL murder Hornet.
Production Company(ies)
Focus Features, Anonymous Content This Is That Productions,
Distributor
Paramount Pictures
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico
MPAA / Certificate
Rated PG-13 for some intense action/violence and language
Year of Release
1994
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby Digital DTSDTS-Stereo
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Aspect ratio:2.39 : 1
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Runtime:2h 21m
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Language(s):English, Spanish
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Aug 3, 1994 Original
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 26, 1999
Genre(s)
Drama
Keyword(s)
starring Harrison Ford, Willem Dafoe, Anne Archer, Joaquim de Almeida, Henry Czerny, Harris Yulin, James Earl Jones, Benjamin Bratt, Miguel Sandoval, Raymond Cruz, Dean Jones, Thora Birch, Ann Magnuson, Donald Moffat, Ted Raimi, directed by Phillip Noyce, written by Tom Clancy, Donald Stewart, Steven Zaillian, John Milius, produced by Mace Neufeld, Robert Rehme, box office performance, budget, drama, action, thriller, CIA, drug dealers, Colombia, cover-ups, American businessman, murder, yacht, revenge, moral center, humanist spook, politics, special forces, smart bomb, F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet, quinceañera, Patriot Games, bestselling novel, Tom Clancy, PG-13, reviewed by Tom Tunney, Richard Schickel, Todd McCarthy, Trevor Johnston, Nell Minow, Janet Maslin, Mark Jackson, Grant Watson, Mike Massie, James Kendrick, Barbara Shulgasser
Worldwide gross: $215,887,717
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $436,767,919
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 348
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 47,630,089
US/Canada gross: $122,187,717
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $247,201,071
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 258
US/Canada opening weekend: $20,348,017
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $41,166,590
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 296
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $62,000,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $125,433,773
Production budget ranking: 294
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $67,546,087
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): $243,788,058
ROI to date (est.): 126%
ROI ranking: 837
Willem Dafoe – John Clark
Anne Archer – Cathy Muller Ryan
Joaquim de Almeida – Col. Felix Cortez
Henry Czerny – Robert Ritter
Harris Yulin – James Cutter
Director(s)
Phillip Noyce
Writer(s)
Tom Clancy, Donald Stewart, Steven Zaillian, John Milius
Producer(s)
Mace Neufeld, Robert Rehme
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
Nominated for 2 Oscars
3 wins & 11 nominations total
Academy Awards
Oscar Nominees
All Critics (45) | Top Critics (13) | Fresh (36) | Rotten (9)
In both novel and film, Ryan is the moral centre, but the film jettisons the book’s range of supporting characters whose differing values help define his position.
February 6, 2020
Tom Tunney
Sight & Sound
TOP CRITIC
This is the third movie with Jack as its hero, so he is a known quantity — a humanist spook with an overdeveloped moral sense — but Ford, playing the part for the second time, knows how to keep his earnestness fresh.
January 13, 2010
Richard Schickel
TIME Magazine
TOP CRITIC
Narrative complexity and momentum make this a true cinematic equivalent of an absorbing page-turner.
August 8, 2008
Todd McCarthy
Variety
TOP CRITIC
There’s a glimmer of interest in the film’s ideological contortions, but as a commercial action thriller this is inflated and sluggish.
February 9, 2006
Trevor Johnston
Time Out
TOP CRITIC
October 8, 2003 | Rating: 3/5
Nell Minow
Movie Mom
TOP CRITIC
In a film that opens with the sight of a waving American flag, subtlety may not be foremost on anyone’s mind. But Mr. Ford’s wary intelligence does wonders for a potentially one-dimensional character.
May 20, 2003 | Rating: 3/4
Janet Maslin
New York Times
TOP CRITIC
This is a guy movie; jam-packed with politics, CIA scheming, special forces sniping, and a smart bomb dropped by an F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet on a Colombian drug lord’s daughter’s quinceañera. In other words, a REAL murder Hornet.
December 13, 2020 | Rating: 4/5
Mark Jackson
Epoch Times
Plot suffocates the film. Simply too much happens.
October 14, 2020 | Rating: 7/10
Grant Watson
Fiction Machine
The premise is a fairly standard backstabbing and covert operations blend, but the details are substantial.
September 11, 2020 | Rating: 7/10
Mike Massie
Gone With The Twins
both cutting in its indictment of how power corrupts even the best intentions and bravely optimistic in asserting that, not only can one maintain one’s sense of honor and integrity in a rigged system, but very possibly make all the difference in the world
September 17, 2018 | Rating: 3/4
James Kendrick
Q Network Film Desk
’90s book-based political thriller has violence, language.
July 10, 2018 | Rating: 2/5
Barbara Shulgasser
Common Sense Media
Having figured out how to make a Jack Ryan action thriller with Patriot Games, the same cluster of filmmakers got to do it again… managing to improve virtually across the board.
January 21, 2014 | Rating: 8/10
Tim Brayton
Antagony & Ecstasy…
Plot
Jack Ryan is back and this time the bad guys are in his own government. When Admiral James Greer becomes sick with cancer, Ryan is appointed acting CIA Deputy Director of Intelligence. Almost before he can draw a breath in his new position, one of the president’s closest friends and his family are murdered in their sleep by what appears to be drug cartels. Ryan is called in to investigate, but unknown to him the CIA has already sent a secret field operative to lead an illegal paramilitary force in Colombia against the cartels. Things get even more complicated when his team is set up and he loses an agent in the field and a friend of his wife’s, who was the murdered agent’s secretary, is murdered that same day. Ryan must then risk not only his career, but his life to expose the truth behind the mystery.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
Nothing to add here about Clear and Present Danger.
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