Patriot Games
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This article does not cite any references or sources. (January 2009) |
| Patriot Games | |
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 1st edition |
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| Author(s) | Tom Clancy |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Jack Ryan universe |
| Genre(s) | Thriller novel |
| Publisher | Putnam |
| Publication date | 1987 (1st edition) |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 540 pp (hardback edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-399-13241-4 (hardback edition) |
| OCLC Number | 15316611 |
| Dewey Decimal | 813/.54 19 |
| LC Classification | PS3553.L245 P38 1987 |
| Preceded by | The Hunt for Red October |
| Followed by | The Cardinal of the Kremlin |
Patriot Games (1987) is a novel by Tom Clancy. It is chronologically the first book (predating the events in The Hunt for Red October) focusing on CIA analyst Jack Ryan, the main character in many of Clancy's novels. It is the indirect sequel to Without Remorse. The title comes from an Irish Rebel Song called "The Patriot Game", an Irish ballad about the Border Campaign in Northern Ireland.
Plot[edit]
In London, Jack Ryan saves the Prince and Princess of Wales, along with their infant firstborn son, from an Irish terrorist group called Ulster Liberation Army (ULA) during a kidnapping attempt on the Mall. Sean Miller, a ULA terrorist captured by Ryan, is sentenced to life imprisonment for killing the royal driver. However, he is freed by ULA members while being transported to prison. The ULA later goes after Ryan and his family, partially as an act of revenge, but primarily because they seek to reduce American support for the rival Provisional Irish Republican Army. The assassin sent to kill Ryan is intercepted before he manages to complete his task, but his expectant wife, Cathy, and daughter, Sally, are injured when Miller causes their car to crash on a freeway. They are flown by helicopter to the University of Maryland Medical Center.
After the attack on his family, Jack accepts an offer from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to start working as an analyst at the agency's headquarters. Later, the Prince and Princess of Wales come to visit Ryan in America. This gives the ULA another opportunity to conduct another operation—they plan to kill Ryan and his family and kidnap the Royal Family. The attack ultimately fails: after a firefight and a flight, Ryan, his friend Robby Jackson, and the Prince, with the help of Marines and sailors from the U.S. Naval Academy and local police, manage to apprehend and subdue the terrorists. The ultimate fate of the terrorists is not stated in the book. Ryan arrives at Bethesda after the final arrest to be with Cathy for the birth of their son, who will be godparented by Robby Jackson and his wife, as well as the Prince and Princess of Wales.
In Clancy's later novel The Sum of All Fears, it is mentioned in passing that Miller and his colleagues were sentenced to death and executed for their crimes. Jack Ryan, Jr., the son born at the novel's close, follows his father into the CIA, and becomes a central character in Clancy's first post-President-Ryan novel, The Teeth of the Tiger.
Film adaptation[edit]
The novel was adapted as a feature film in 1992. It stars Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan and Sean Bean as Sean Miller. Among the most significant changes were that the Prince of Wales is replaced as the terrorists' target with "Lord Holmes" (James Fox), the Queen Mother's cousin and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland; and Sean Miller is motivated by personal revenge against Ryan, who fatally shoots Miller's younger brother in the opening scene.
| Preceded by Without Remorse (set 1971) Introduces CIA operative John Clark |
Jack Ryan universe books Chronologically Central Figure: Jack Ryan Second Published |
Succeeded by Red Rabbit (set 1981) |
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