Movies - The Sum of All Fears

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	Movies - The Sum of All Fears

The Sum of All Fears is a best-selling thriller novel by Tom Clancy, and part of the Jack Ryan series. It was the fourth book of the series to be turned into a film.

Novel

The book begins during the Yom Kippur War; at its height the Israelis opt for a tactical nuclear strike, but this was changed at the last minute. Unfortunately, one nuclear weapon had not been removed yet from an Israeli attack aircraft and that aircraft crashed into a mountain, creating a "Broken Arrow".

The plot then moves to the present day. A small group of Muslim extremist terrorists recover the bomb and convert it from a nuclear fission device to a thermonuclear device. The terrorists decide to use the weapon at the Super Bowl in Denver, and then frame the Russians. Jack Ryan, at the time DDCI (Deputy Director of Central Intelligence), must prevent a nuclear exchange between Russia and the USA.

The book began with this quote:

:"Why, you may take the most gallant sailor, the most intrepid airman or the most audacious soldier, put them at a table together - what do you get? The sum of their fears." — Winston Churchill

Film

The Sum of All Fears was turned into a film in 2002 by Phil Alden Robinson, starring Ben Affleck and Morgan Freeman. While the basic plot was the same, there were significant changes from the book. Noting these substantial changes, in the commentary track on the DVD release, Tom Clancy introduces himself as "the author of the book that he (Phil Alden Robinson) ignored".

The original terrorists in the novel were Muslim extremists, but in the movie, they are changed to neo-Nazis. A common misconception is that this was done as a reaction to the 9/11 attacks. However the script was conceived before September 11, 2001.
The attacked city was changed from Denver to Baltimore, Maryland.
Jack Ryan is a low-level Intelligence Officer analyst in the movie, whereas he is the Deputy Director of Central Intelligence in the book.
The bomb in the movie is a tactical fission device, not a thermonuclear bomb as in the book.
The setting is in a post-Soviet world.

Another subtle - but interesting - difference in the post-9/11 world is that the goal of the terrorists in the movie is to get Russia and the US to fight each other, in hopes that fascism will ultimately prevail following World War III. The goal in the book was for the terrorists to let themselves get caught and frame the Iranian president for the attack in order to provoke the American president into launching a nuclear strike on the city of Qom, which would kill scores of innocents and thus shame the US in the eyes of the world.

Main Cast:

Ben Affleck
... Jack Ryan
Morgan Freeman
... DCI William Cabot
Bridget Moynahan
... Dr. Catherine Muller
James Cromwell
... President Robert Fowler
Liev Schreiber
... John Clark
Alan Bates
... Richard Dressler
Ron Rifkin
... Secy. State Sidney Owens
Ciarán Hinds
... President Nemerov

Game

See: The Sum of All Fears (game)

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