Jack Ryan (full name John Patrick Ryan, Ph.D.) is the protagonist of the film, The Sum of All Fears.
Biography[]
Jack Ryan is a former member of the U.S. Marine Corps. Following a helicopter crash that injured his back, he earned his doctorate and joined the CIA as an analyst in the early 2000s working under Mary Pat Foley. He also met and began to date Cathy Mueller. In September 2002, Ryan was summoned by CIA Director William Cabot to join him at Congress committee meeting led by Senator Jessup to discuss the new Russian President Alexander Nemerov. This was because Ryan had written an extensive report on Nemerov and correctly predicted he would succeed President Zorkin.
After the meeting, Ryan is forced to cancel a date with Cathy to accompany Cabot to Moscow to examine a Russian nuclear weapons facility as prescribed by the START treaty. Before they travel to the facility, however, they meet Nemerov himself as well as his aid Anatoly Grushkov. Nemerov recognized Ryan as the man who had written a report about him and expresses his like for Ryan, much to Cabot's relief. Nemerov then tells Cabot to relay a message to President J. Robert Fowler for the United States to remain out of Russia's war in Chechnya and him stabilize Russia in his own way without outside interference. Cabot agreed to relay the message but told him that Fowler would not like it, explaining that the United States is not only concerned with stability and peace in Chechnya but with Nemerov's control over his military. At this remark, Nemerov stood up and threatened action against the United States should they interfere.
At the nuclear weapons facility, Ryan notices that three scientists listed on the facility's roster are absent: Spassky, Milinov, Orlov. On the plane ride home, Cabot tells Ryan that the Russian Government has no idea where the three men are, citing a confidential secure informant inside the Kremlin, codenamed "Spinnaker". After returning to the United States, Cabot gives Ryan tickets to the White House Correspondents Dinner to make it up to Cathy. During the dinner, Ryan and other top government officials receive news that Russian has launched a chemical attack on Grozny, the capital of Chechnya. Ryan joins Cabot in a meeting with the Cabinet immediately after. When asked by Cabot to tell everyone what he thought of the situation, Ryan attempted to defend Nemerov by indicating that rogue military commanders could have ordered the attack instead. After leaving the briefing room, however, Ryan's theory is disproven as Nemerov gives a press conference to take responsibility for the attack. In response, Fowler deploys peacekeepers to Chechnya.
A few weeks later, CIA field operative John Clark tracked the missing scientists to an abandoned Soviet military facility in Ukraine. Cabot suspects they are building a secret nuclear weapon that Russia could use without any way to trace it back to them and sends Ryan to join Clark in Ukraine to further investigate. While Ryan is initially ordered by Clark to stay with the boat, he disregards this after seeing two Ukrainian military personnel enter the facility. Ryan then manages to get behind both guards as they have Clark cornered and orders them at gunpoint in Ukrainian to drop their weapons. After subduing the guards, Ryan and Clark find the corpses of all three scientists and evidence that they had developed a nuclear bomb which was taken offsite in a large crate.
On the plane ride home, Ryan asks his coworker Dillon to find any evidence of where the crate may have gone to. Dillon pulls the shipping manifests from Ukraine from the last two weeks and tells Ryan that a large crate matching the description was picked up from Kiev International Airport ten days prior. He then goes on to tell Ryan that it was shipped to the Canary Islands and put on a cargo ship for Baltimore. Ryan attempts to warn Cabot of the bomb but is unable to reach Cabot who was attending a football game with President Fowler in Baltimore. Ryan then takes a helicopter and heads to the city docks to see if he can find the bomb. During the helicopter ride, Ryan is finally able to make contact with Cabot and warn him of the bomb. This prompts Cabot to order the President be evacuated to safety. Shortly after, the nuclear bomb detonates, destroying the majority of Baltimore and causing Ryan's helicopter to crash. Ryan survives the crash with minor injuries and contacts Mary Pat Foley.
Foley tells Ryan that Cabot managed to get the President to safety and the he has been taken airborne aboard Air Force One. Ryan stresses to Mary that the attack was not carried out by the Russians and tells her to get him in touch with Cabot but learns that he is now missing. Ryan then tells Foley that they need to prove the Russians were not involved in the attack or risk nuclear war. With no time to get back to Langley, Ryan tells Foley that he intends to travel to a nearby AFRAT command post which is conducting an assessment of the bomb site. Ryan meets the AFRAT Commander Lorna Shiro and asks her to give him the location of where the bomb's isotopic signature originated. While waiting for the assessment team to return to the command post, Ryan calls Dillon again and tells him to find the name of the person who signed for the bomb's crate when it arrived at port. Before getting off the phone, Dillon tells Ryan they are searching hospitals for Cabot but have not yet found him. This prompted Ryan to ask Dillon if Baltimore Memorial Hospital was still intact as it was the hospital where Cathy Mueller worked at. Dillon reassured Ryan by telling him that it was still standing though the phone lines were down.
After AFRAT team members Wesson and Stubbs arrive back at the command post, they conclude the bomb's plutonium was manufactured at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina in 1968, evidence which seems to exonerate the Russians. Ryan then leaves and travels to a nearby disaster relief site where he finds Cabot. Cabot tells Ryan to contact Spinnaker and make sure Cathy is alright before he passes away. Ryan takes Cabots belongings from a bag beside him and commanders a truck to take him to the city docks. After accidently crashing the vehicle, Ryan uses Cabot's PDA to contact Spinnaker and learns that the plutonium was stolen by the CIA and secretly given to Israel, until they lost it during the Yom Kippur War.
Meanwhile, Clark learns from a dying Ghazi that the bomb originated from an an arms dealer named Derek Olson. With this information, the CIA hacks into Olson's computer and learns that the bomb was sold to billionaire Richard Dressler. Ryan arrives at the docks in search of the signatory Jared Mason and is told of Dressler's involvement by Mary Pat Foley. Inside a warehouse, Ryan finds Mason's corpse and is ambushed by Haft. The two briefly struggle until Ryan gets the upper hand and uses a chain to strangle him. Ryan tried to interrogate Haft about Dressler was but is stopped by police officers sent by Foley to assist him. The officers then take him to the Pentagon at his request.
Despite some issues, Ryan managed to enter the Pentagon by using Cabot's ID card. He meets General Wilkes and requests access to the National Military Command Center to get a message to Nemerov. Wilkes initially refuses but grants access after hearing Ryan's plea to get the right information out to the right people. Ryan tells Nemerov that he knows Russia was not behind the attack, while also asking Nemerov to stand down his forces as a show of good faith. While Ryan is cut off by Wilkes before he can finish his message, Nemerov agrees to stand down which prompts President Fowler to do the same. With the threat of nuclear war now over, Ryan travels to Baltimore Memorial Hospital to check on Cathy.
A few days later, Ryan proposes to Cathy which she acceptes. Ryan then attends the peace summit between the United States and Russia where Fowler and Nemerov agree to counter nuclear proliferation at the Kremlin. Afterwards, Ryan joined Cathy for a picnic in Lafayette Park and listened to Fowler and Nemerov's joint speeches. They were then approached by Anatoly Grushkov who reveals himself to be Spinnaker. Grushkov then surprises Ryan by handing Cathy a present for their engagement, which they had not yet told anyone about. Ryan asks him how he could of known but is only met with a smile from Grushkov who walks away.
Gallery[]
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