Patriot Games is a 1992 film based on the novel of the same name by Tom Clancy. It was released on June 5, 1992 and directed by Phillip Noyce. In the movie, Jack Ryan was played by Harrison Ford, Jack's surgeon-wife, Dr. Cathy Muller Ryan, by Anne Archer and the vengeful and psychopathic IRA terrorist, Sean Miller, is played by Sean Bean.
Plot
Jack Ryan (Ford) is on a "working vacation" in London with his family, after having retired from the CIA. Here they witness a terrorist attack on Lord William Holmes, British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and a distant member of the British Royal Family. Ryan intervenes and kills one of the attackers, Patrick Miller, while his older brother Sean (Sean Bean) looks on. The remaining terrorists flee and leave Miller to be apprehended by the police. Ryan is wounded in the process but testifies in court against Sean Miller, who is part of the Ulster Liberation Army—a breakaway group of the Provisional IRA. Ryan is awarded a knighthood—a KCVO: Knight Commander of the Victorian Order—and eventually returns to the United States.
While being transferred to Albany Prison on the Isle of Wight, Miller's escort convoy is ambushed by his ULA comrades who kill the police officers, and he escapes from custody. Miller and his companions flee Britain for North Africa to plan their next kidnapping attempt on Lord Holmes. Miller however, cannot shake his anger towards Ryan for killing his younger brother and persuades several members of his entourage to accompany him to the United States to murder Ryan and his family. Ryan survives as he is attacked just outside of the United States Naval Academy. Miller attacks Ryan's wife and daughter on the highway, and they subsequently crash and are severely injured. Enraged over the near-loss of his family, Ryan decides to go back to work for the CIA, having earlier rejected the appeal of his former superior, Admiral James Greer (James Earl Jones). Ryan's tireless work leads him to conclude that Miller has taken refuge in a training camp run by a North African warlord. A SAS strike team attacks and kills everyone in the camp while Ryan looks on through a live satellite feed. Unbeknownst to Ryan, Miller and his companions had already fled the camp and were on their way to the US to stage their next attack on Lord Holmes.
Lord Holmes decides to visit Ryan at his home to present his KCVO. With the aid of Lord Holmes' traitorous assistant, Miller's group tracks Holmes to this location, kills the Diplomatic Security Service agents and Maryland state troopers guarding the house, and attempts once more to kidnap Lord Holmes. Ryan leads Holmes and his family to safety while he attempts to lure Miller and his companions away from his home. The FBI is called in with their Hostage Rescue Teams, who pick up Holmes. Upon realizing that Ryan is leading them away from Holmes, Miller's companions try to persuade Miller to turn around, but an enraged and deranged Miller kills his terrorist companions and continues pursuit of Ryan. Ryan and Miller fight hand to hand, and Miller is killed when he falls backward onto a boat anchor and his body is destroyed in the subsequent explosion of the craft.
Credits roll just after Caroline Ryan learns the gender of the child she is going to have, and before she tells Jack and Sally.
Cast
Production
Author Tom Clancy distanced himself from the movie because of a number of plot changes. Most significantly, the Prince became "Lord Holmes", the Queen Mother's cousin; and Sean Miller is killed at the end.
The movie was filmed in England and in the Washington, D.C. area including Annapolis, Maryland.[1] However, skyscrapers shown in Annapolis are fictitious. During the highway chase, Jack tells Cathy to meet him at the state police barracks on Houston Street. There is no such street in Annapolis or its suburbs.
Harrison Ford accidentally hit Sean Bean with a boat hook while shooting the final scene; Bean has a scar over his eye as a result. (In Bean's subsequent Sharpe series, this would be emphasized with makeup to add credibility to his character.)
Casting
The actors who played Jack and Carolyn Ryan in The Hunt for Red October, Alec Baldwin and Gates McFadden, were unavailable due to other commitments. At the time, Baldwin was performing A Midsummer Night's Dream on Broadway and McFadden had become a regular on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. Despite the film's plot and setting, Richard Harris, Patrick Bergin and Jonathan Ryan, are the only Irish actors to appear in the film. The film is also notable for featuring three actors who have starred in the Star Wars film series: Harrison Ford (Han Solo), James Earl Jones (Darth Vader), and Samuel L. Jackson (Mace Windu). Ford and Jones previously co-starred in the original Star Wars trilogy, however they never appeared in the same scene together as Darth Vader was portrayed on-screen by David Prowse while Jones provided the voice of Vader in post-production. Jackson would later star in the Star Wars prequel trilogy.
Also noteworthy of this film is the inclusion of the actors who portrayed two of the most famous fictional characters representing good and evil: Richard Harris as Albus Dumbledore(of Harry Potter fame) and James Earl Jones as Darth Vader. In addition, Sean Bean portrayed Boromir in The Lord of the Rings, while Harrison Ford portrayed Indiana Jones. Together these constitute four of the most popular, highest-grossing adventure film series of all time.
Music
The score by James Horner contains musical references to works by Aram Khachaturian (Adagio from "Gayane" Suite) and Dmitri Shostakovich (Symphony No. 5, 3rd mvt.). One particular sequence in the music accompanying the scene in which Ryan, Greer, et al. view the live satellite feed of the SAS attack contains a nearly direct sampling from the latter.[citation needed]
A music video is shown in an early scene featuring Clannad's song "Theme from Harry's Game", originally made for an ITV drama about The Troubles in 1982. Patrick Bergin's character Kevin O'Donnell watches it during the scene where the Provisional IRA tries to kill him. Its appearance proved influential, and when the song was included on the Patriot Games soundtrack in 1992, it helped jump-start Clannad's popularity in the U.S.[citation needed]
Differences between the book and film
There were several differences between the original novel and the film, some minor and some major. These include:
- The entire storyline where Sean Miller wanted to attack Ryan because he killed his brother was not in the novel. His rage against Ryan was because he has never failed a mission before Ryan intervened, and he grew more angry when he failed to kill his wife and daughter.
- In the film, when Sean Miller escaped he executed the three officers. In the novel, he spared their lives.
- In the film, Admiral Greer and Marty Cantour were asking Jack to COME BACK to the CIA, obviously a reference that The Hunt for Red October film happened before this movie. In the novels, Patriot Games was a prequel to The Hunt for Red October so Greer and Marty were actually RECRUITING , where the soldier was soon killed by the gate guards. In the novel, Ryan was never hurt, the PIRA soldier was waiting outside the gates for Ryan to arrive, only for him to get unwanted attention by the gate guards and get promptly arrested.
- In the film, it was the British SAS that raided the camp in North Africa. In the novel, it was the French DGSE.
- In the film, Dennis Cooley, the rare-book collector and IRA informant, was executed by Sean Miller when he asked to come along on the operation. In the novel, Dennis actually was welcomed to join in on the raid.
- The climax where the IRA raid Ryan's home played out differently. In the novel, the PIRA raided Ryan's home and managed to capture most of the inhabitants, until Robby Jackson managed to ambush them to get them outside. Everyone escaped down the cliff to the awaiting boats where a chase ensured, leading them all the way to the harbor of the Annapolis Academy, and they got many units to trap and corner Sean Miller and his small band on an ocean liner. Meanwhile, an FBI HRT unit arrived at the Ryan home to wipe out the surviving PIRA members remaining. In the ocean liner, Ryan captures Sean Miller but doesn't kill him. Instead, he allows him to be captured by the police where he will get the death penalty for previously killing a police officer on US soil.
- At the very end of the movie, the viewer is left wondering what gender the child is (which was revealed in Clear and Present Danger that it was a boy). In the novel, Cathy gave birth to a son.
References
External links
