Sunday, February 08, 2015

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

I watched Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit on Netflix yesterday. It's a darn good movie.

I read a lot of Clancy's Jack Ryan books while I was in the Navy. At one point, I was trying to collect all of them in hardcover. I was mostly successful.

So far, there have been four Jack Ryans in movies: Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Afleck, and Capt Kirk (Chris Pine). So far, I think Capt Kirk is the best.

There were some differences between this Jack Ryan and Tom Clancy's original character. Both were in the Marines and suffered a back injury. The original Jack Ryan was an historian. This one is a finance wizard. Thinking about it though, Clancy's books were written for the Cold War. This movie was for today. I imagine if Clancy wrote his books today, he'd probably go this route. Today, currency wars and terrorism are more of a threat than renegade KGB agents and submarine captains.

The financial threats in this movie were very real. I wonder if the scriptwriters read Jim Rickards' books (Currency Wars and The Death of Money), or if they used him as an advisor. The scenario in the movie seemed like it came right out of his books.

It was a good movie. I highly recommend it, and I hope there are future installments. 

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