The Sum of All Fears

Overview

"Ben Affleck stars as action hero Jack Ryan in the adaptation of Tom Clancy's The Sum of all Fears. The film is presented in a pristine-looking 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer. Paramount has done an excellent job at making sure the colors, black levels, and flesh tones are all well saturated and represented accurately. Besides the smallest amount of edge enhancement, this transfer appears to be in great shape. The soundtrack is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround in English. This is a very enveloping sound mix that sports directional effects from both the front and rear speakers to maximum effects. All aspects of the mix are free and clear of any hiss or distortion, making this 5.1 audio track a great ride for movie fans. Also included on this disc are Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround soundtracks in English and French, as well as English subtitles. This special ""Collector's Edition"" of The Sum of all Fears sports a few fine supplements, starting with a commentary track by director Phil Alden Robinson and cinematographer John Lindley, and a second by director Robinson and novelist Tom Clancy. Both of these commentaries should provide viewers with a wealth of both story and technical information about the making of the film. While Clancy often complains about the ""butchering"" job done to his book, he is filled with a lot of neat information about the script and the events that take place in the film. Seven short featurettes (""Casting,"" ""Production,"" ""Carrier Attack,"" ""A-4,"" ""Hospital,"" ""Motorcade,"" and ""Helicopter"") offer a glimpse into how the film was cast, what it was like to work on the special effects, and how many of the visual stunts were achieved. Each of these featurettes focuses on a different aspect of the film, some running longer than others. Finally there is a theatrical trailer for the film."

Product Details

Release Date:	10/29/2002
UPC:	0097363372240
Original Release:	2002
Rating:	PG-13
Source:	Paramount
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, Dolby Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	2:03:00

Special Features

Closed Caption;Commentary by the director and cinematographer; Commentary by the director and novelist; The making of the Sum of All Fears; Creating reality: the visual effects of the Sum of All Fears; Theatrical trailer; Widescreen; Dolby Digital 5.1 and Surround; English and French language; English subtitles

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Ben Affleck	Jack Ryan
Morgan Freeman	DCI William Cabot
James Cromwell	President Robert Fowler
Liev Schreiber	John Clark
Bridget Moynahan	Dr. Cathy Muller
Alan Bates	Dressler
Philip Baker Hall	Defense Secretary Becker
Ron Rifkin	Secretary of State Sidney Owens
Bruce McGill	National Security Advisor Revell
Colm Feore	Olson
Josef Sommer	Senator Jessup
Richard Marner	President Zorkin
Ian Mongrain	Syrian Radar Operator
Russell Bobbitt	Israeli Pilot
John Beasley	General Lasseter
Al Vandecruys	US STRATCOM Colonel
Richard Cohee	Mt. Weather General
Philip Pretten	President's Military Aide
Alison Darcy	Fowler's Aide
Ostap Soroka	Zorkin's Translator
Robert Martin Robinson	Zorkin's Interviewer
Dale Godboldo	Rudy
Lee Garlington	Mary Pat Foley
Jamie Harrold	Dillon
Stefan Kalipha	Arab Gravedigger
Nabil Elouahabi	Ghazi
Maria Monakhova	Zorkin's Aide
Francois Bryon	CIA Wardrobe Guy
Pragna Desai	Dr. Rita Russell
Michel Abou-Samah	Olson's Translator
Edward Zinoviev	Nemerov's Aide
Sheena Larkin	Pam Lathrop
Frank Fontaine	General Rand
Andre Cornellier	Kremlin Photographer
Maxime Opadtchii	Kremlin Photographer's Assistant
Mariusz Sibiga	Nemerov's Translator
Michael Byrne	Anatoli Grushkov
Norm Berketa	American Scientist,Actor
Mace Neufeld	WHCA Dinner Chairman
Jennifer Seguin	President's Aide
Josh Kimmel	White House Mess Waiter
Evgeniy Lazarev	General Dubinin
Sven-Ole Thorsen	Haft
Heinar Piller	Dressler's Associate
Arthur Holden	Dressler's Associate
Marcel Sabourin	Monsieur Monceau
Vie Nystrom	Dressler's Secretary
Joel Bissonnette	Jared Mason
Kwasi Songui	Dockyard Navy Veteran
Marina Lapina	Nemerov's Wife
Victoria Reuter	Russian Nurse
France Arbour	Spassky's Mother
Lubomir Mykytiuk	Spassky
Vladimir Radian	Orlov
Gregory Hlady	Milinov
Valeri Koudriavtsev	Ukrainian Guard
Victor Pedtchenko	Ukrainian Guard
Willie Gault	Sportscaster
Gary Gelfand	Sportscaster
Arnold McCuller	National Anthem Singer
Craig Hosking	Helicopter Pilot
Jerry Markbreit	Referee
John Eaves	Secret Service Agent
J.J. Carle	Hospital Physician
MSGT David Vazquez	Marine Rescuer
Marie Matiko	Captain Vicky Shiro
David Schaap	US STRATCOM Colonel
Lisa Gay Hamilton	Capt. Lorna Shiro
Kirk Taylor	AFRAT Specialist Wesson
Jason Antoon	AFRAT Specialist Stubbs
Lisa Bronwyn Moore	NAOC Hotline Operator
Alexander Belyavsky	Admiral Ivanov
Jason Winer	Aircraft Carrier Petty Officer
Antonio David Lyons	Aircraft Carrier Petty Officer
Lennie Loftin	Aircraft Carrier Duty Officer
Mike McDougal	Russian Pilot
Matt Holland	Pickup Truck Owner
Roger Tonry	F-16 Pilot
Oleg Belkin	Russian Defense Minister
Constantine Gregory	General Bulgakov
Griffith Brewer	Burn Victim
Jacklyn St. Pierre	Baltimore Nurse
Mariah Inger	Baltimore Nurse
Mark Anthony Krupa	US STRATCOM Captain
Joseph Antaki	Arab Doctor
Marcel Jeanin	Baltimore Cop
Gerry Wood	AF Lt. Colonel
Conrad Pla	Pentagon Security Guard
Philip Akin	General Wilkes
Henri Pardo	Pentagon NCO
Irwin Dillion	Pentagon Mo-Link Operator
Real Auger	Dubinin's Killer
Gilles Marsolais	Dubinin's Killer
Eric Steibi	Dressler's Aide
Ciarán Hinds	prezydent Nemerov
Ken Jenkins	Admiral Pollack
Amita Balla	Actor
Maksim Osadchiy-Korytkovskiy	Kremlin Photographer's Assistant
Lev Prygunov	General Saratkin
Daniel Pyne	Actor
Mindy Marin	Actor
Larisa Isaeva	Actor
Jerry Goldsmith	Composer
Carole King	Composer
John Parish	Composer
Tabitha Fair	Composer

Technical Credits

Paul Attanasio

Daniel Pyne

Paul Attanasio	Screenwriter
Daniel Pyne	Screenwriter
Phil Alden Robinson	Director
Tom Clancy	Executive Producer
Louis Craig	Special Effects
Al DiSarro	Special Effects
Terry Leonard	Stunts
Stratton Leopold	Executive Producer,Producer
Mindy Marin	Casting
Dave McKeown	Stunts
Mace Neufeld	Producer,Director
Jophery C. Brown	Stunts
Jean Frenette	Stunts
Zack Davis	Sound Effects
Gary Bierend	Special Effects
Pierre Côté	Special Effects
Mario Dumont	Special Effects
Jacques Langlois	Special Effects
Louis Pedneault	Special Effects
Christian Rivest	Special Effects
Philippe Roberge	Special Effects
Sebastien Roussel	Special Effects
Ezra Franklyn	Stunts
Gary D. Bierend	Special Effects
Michael Payne	Sound/Sound Designer
Patrick Rousseau	Sound/Sound Designer
Tim Walston	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

A mostly successful effort to reboot Paramount's successful Tom Clancy franchise of high-tech political thrillers, this elaborate action hit is surprisingly gripping and effective for most of its running time, only fumbling with a poorly developed villain and a few regrettable clichés in its final act. Quickly becoming the American version of James Bond, the Jack Ryan character is here interpreted by the third actor in only four films, but it's a welcome surprise that Ben Affleck delivers his second good performance in the same year (after Changing Lanes). Affleck revealed a new vulnerability and emotional depth that will be welcomed by fans preferring Alec Baldwin's slightly nerdy take on Ryan over Harrison Ford's more seasoned tough-guy version. The script's conceit of returning Ryan to his young analysis-drone roots works quite well, emphasizing the character's fish-out-of-water qualities and making him a better stand-in for audience identification -- as well as giving the veteran Morgan Freeman something to play against as Ryan's wily fox of a professional mentor. A sequence involving a terrorist nuclear explosion on American soil is handled well effects-wise, and tastefully, out of consideration for real-world events only months before. However, the placement of the climactic blast at the film's midpoint, rather than later in the narrative where it belongs, serves to deflate the remaining tension. Scenes depicting the president's dickering with advisors over whether or not to launch a retaliatory strike smack of overly familiar Cold War vintage dramas such as By Dawn's Early Light, and it doesn't help that Ryan ends up grappling with a beefy neo-Nazi in a darkened Baltimore warehouse, a beat more reminiscent of a typical Barnaby Jones episode than an expensive summer blockbuster. Speaking of Nazis, Alan Bates as the film's proto-Hitler wannabe Dressler is never quite delineated clearly, showing up only occasionally to make demented fascist-apologist speeches and then disappearing for long stretches, his evil scheme never seeming realistic enough to create a palpable sense of dread. Nevertheless, the final payoff is satisfying and for most of the journey there, the filmmakers deliver the pulse-pounding goods, ensuring further Affleck-as-Ryan adventures will be in the offing.

The master of the techno-thriller places nuclear-weapon technology in the hands of Third World terrorists and sets the superpowers on the path to Armageddon just when everybody thought it was safe to relax. Clancy dishes out page after page of highly detailed atomic bomb assembly directions and nuclear submarine specifications, enough technodazzle to satisfy the most seriously committed technofreak, but it is plain old-fashioned plotting in the best, hair-raising, we're-all-going-to-die-in-five-seconds-if-somebody- doesn't-do-something tradition that keeps things cracking in the very eventful life of Jack Ryan, hijacker of submarines, friend of princes, wizard of Wall Street, true spirit of the CIA, and devoted father. This time Ryan's nemeses are Arab terrorists who stumble on a lost Israeli atom bomb and get big ideas; the cowardly but attractive National Security Director who shares the President's pillow and hates our Jack; and the bottle. It is the last of these plagues that most worries Ryan's pretty ophthalmologist wife and friends. Stressed out by his responsibilities at Langley, unwinding every night with wine-in-a-box, he's gotten paunchy and cranky and unable to fulfill his husbandly role, and he's become vulnerable to the machinations of his archenemy Liz Elliot, the widowered President's favorite advisor. A boozy, discredited Jack Ryan means that the US is in deep danger when the Arabs hire an East German physicist to upgrade their beat-up but still lethal old bomb before placing it outside the Super Bowl game in Denver. With Ryan out of favor there's no one to counter Ms. Elliot's misinformed ravings. The pesky terrorists and their truculent Native American recruit intendthe atomic explosion to stir things up between the Americans and the supposedly defanged Soviets—and they get their wish. Ignoring Jack Ryan, listening to Liz Elliot, everybody in Washington panics, the Soviets get their backs up, bombers launch, submarines crank up their missiles, and thanks to more terrorist meddling, tanks from both sides start blowing each other up in Berlin. Has Jack knocked off the sauce in time to save the world? Clancy swears he has left the critical parts out of the atom bomb directions, and we will all just have to pray that he has. They sure seem complete, though. This is quite a rouser. (Book-of- the-Month Main Selection for August.)

Kirkus Reviews

A whiz-bang page-turner!”—The New York Times Book Review

“The Sum of All Fears delivers!”—People

“Explosive.”—Detroit Free Press

“A nonstop roller coaster ride to a nail-biting climax…ingenious.”—Publishers Weekly

“Tom Clancy at his best…This is a book not to be missed.”—Dallas Morning News

“Extraordinary suspense.”—Kansas City Star

“Clancy delivers with deadly accuracy and power…a spectacularly violent climax.”—Playboy

“Truly chilling…harrowing.”—Chicago Tribune

“Clancy knows how to build a thriller…stirring and vivid.”—Boston Globe

“Hair-raising…This is quite a rouser.”—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher