Patriot Games (film)
| Patriot Games | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical poster | |
| Directed by | Phillip Noyce |
| Written by | Novel: Tom Clancy Screenplay: W. Peter Iliff Donald E. Stewart Steven Zaillian |
| Produced by | Mace Neufeld Robert G. Rehme |
| Starring | Harrison Ford Patrick Bergin Sean Bean Samuel L Jackson Anne Archer |
| Cinematography | Donald M. McAlpine |
| Edited by | William Hoy Neil Travis |
| Music by | James Horner |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date | June 5, 1992 |
Running time | 117 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $25,300,200 |
| Box office | Domestic: $83,351,587 Worldwide: $178,051,587 |
Patriot Games is a 1992 film based on the novel of the same name by Tom Clancy, and is the sequel to the 1990 film the Hunt for Red October. 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. He has retired from the CIA and is a Professor at the US Naval Academy. 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 (the cousin of the Queen Mother). Ryan intervenes and kills one of the attackers, Patrick Miller, while his older brother Sean (Sean Bean) looks on. Ryan is badly wounded.
The remaining terrorists flee and leave Miller to be apprehended by the police. Whilst recovering, Ryan is called to testify in court against Sean Miller, who is part of the Ulster Liberation Army—a fictional 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 an attack outside the United States Naval Academy. Simultaneously, Miller and a colleague attack Ryan's wife and daughter as they're driving on a busy highway. They crash; both Cathy and her daughter 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, Vice Admiral James Greer (James Earl Jones).
Ryan's tireless work leads him to conclude that Miller has taken refuge in a training camp, one of many located in Libya. A SAS strike team attacks and kills everyone in the camp while Ryan looks on through a live satellite feed. But 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 formally 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 Hostage Rescue Teams are scrambled to pick up Holmes. Upon realising 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 his pursuit of Ryan. Ryan and Miller fight hand to hand; Miller is killed when Ryan impales him backward on a boat anchor, and his body is obliterated 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
- Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan
- Anne Archer as Dr. Caroline "Cathy" Ryan
- Patrick Bergin as Kevin O'Donnell
- Sean Bean as Sean Miller
- Thora Birch as Sally Ryan
- James Fox as Lord William Holmes
- Ellen Geer as Rose
- Samuel L. Jackson as Lieutenant Commander Robby Jackson
- Polly Walker as Annette
- J. E. Freeman as Marty Cantor
- James Earl Jones as Vice Admiral Jim Greer
- Richard Harris as Paddy O'Neil
- Alex Norton as Dennis Cooley
- Hugh Fraser as Geoffrey Watkins
- David Threlfall as Inspector Robert Highland
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.
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 Caroline 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. McFadden, who appeared in "Red October" only for a moment, didn't accept "Patriot Games" greatly expanded screen role for Cathy Ryan due to her regular role as Dr. Beverly Crusher in 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.
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] Horner's score is also very reminiscient in places of the score for Aliens (film).
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]
When Jack Ryan meets Paddy O'Neil in the IRA bar the song "Pride of Our Land" can be heard in the background. The song is being performed by the band "Blended Spirits"
Differences between the book and film
There were several differences between the original novel and the film, some minor and some major. These include:
- In the book, Ryan visits London to carry out research in the WW2 naval archives. In the film, he is invited to give a talk to an audience of military officers.
- 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 angrier when he failed to kill his wife and daughter.
- In the film Ryan saves Lord Holmes and his family; in the book he saves TRH The Prince and Princess of Wales and the newborn Prince William of Wales.
- In the book the Queen and the Prince of Wales visit Ryan while he is recovering in a London hospital; this doesn't happen in the film.
- Cathy tells Jack in the book while they are in England that she is pregnant. In the film Cathy tells Jack when they are back home
- In the film, when Sean Miller escaped, he executed the three police officers. In the novel, he spared their lives.
- In the film, a ULA operative was stalking Ryan as he exited the academy, they fought, and the soldier was soon killed by the gate guards. In the novel, Ryan was never hurt, the ULA operative was waiting outside the gates for Ryan to arrive, only for him to get unwanted attention by the gate guards and be 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 ULA informant, was executed by Sean Miller when he asked to come along on the operation. In the novel, Dennis actually was welcomed to join the raid.
- The climax where the ULA raid Ryan's home played out differently. In the novel, the ULA 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 ULA 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 sex 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
