"Well they're moving at close to 30 knots. At that speed they could run over my daughter's stereo and not hear it."
Hunt for Red October turns 30
- Thread starter Flying Spaghetti Monster
- Start date
"Well they're moving at close to 30 knots. At that speed they could run over my daughter's stereo and not hear it."
I routinely quote, "You'll receive the Order of Lenin for this." Especially at work, when I like something someone in my Graphics department has done.
I rewatched the 90s Jack Ryan movies in the fall, and while the two Harrison Ford films are fine, something about them just didn't feel right. Then it clicked with me -- Red October is a one-off "lightning in a bottle" kind of thing, that works by itself, while the Ford films are a serialized political thriller. And, while I would love to have seen more of Baldwin as Jack Ryan, I realized that I'm happy that he's not in Patriot Games and beyond, because that would have diminished the "lightning in the bottle" quality of Red October. Ford's films reinvent the character, just as Tom Clancy had to reinvent the character for there to be more adventures, and I really do prefer Red October as its own, standalone thing. Ford is fine for the Jack Ryan that (eventually) becomes president of the United States, and I'd have been interested in seeing him in that role (essentially, the Republican answer to The West Wing's Jed Bartlett), but he wouldn't have been fine as the Jack Ryan who figured out what Marko Ramius was up to.
I do wonder what a 1997-ish Cardinal of the Kremlin with Ford and, I kid you not, William Shatner as one of the Russian characters would have been like. I'm not even sure why the production fell apart. Script problems, maybe?
I love that film! The Murmansk brushing incident! It's just a bunch of boozed up fishermen!
Don't remind me. I try not to think about that bullshit Jack Ryan series...
Actually, if you listen to his commentary on the film, I'm pretty sure he thought so too.
Clancy was a good little soldier when it came to shilling for films based on his books. His stock line was "They know how to make movies and I don't", but I got the DVD of "Sum" when it first came out, and one of the commentary tracks was one with Phil Alden Robinson and Clancy, and Clancy introduces himself thusly:
"Hi, I'm Tom Clancy, I'm the guy who wrote the book the film is based on that they completely ignored..."
And it just goes from there, with Clancy basically MST-ing the film while Robinson defended his choices. It's one of the funniest commentaries I've ever heard.
"Who's Stanley?"
"Stanley's a bear."
(beat)
"Aright. Now, what's important enough to get you on a plane in the middle of the night?"
"Once more, we play our dangerous game. A game of chess, against our old adversary, the American Navy.
For 40 years your fathers before you played this game well. But today the game is different
We have the advantage. It reminds me of the heady days of Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin.
The world trembled at the sound of our rockets. It will tremble again at the sound of our silence."
"Stanley's a bear."
(beat)
"Aright. Now, what's important enough to get you on a plane in the middle of the night?"
"Once more, we play our dangerous game. A game of chess, against our old adversary, the American Navy.
For 40 years your fathers before you played this game well. But today the game is different
We have the advantage. It reminds me of the heady days of Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin.
The world trembled at the sound of our rockets. It will tremble again at the sound of our silence."
C
Captain pl1ngpl0ng
Guest
i havnt seen it in ages, gotta do something about that... maybe this weekend.
Paramount, to celebrate the anniversary, just released the film on blue ray and 4k this past week. Enjoy
I've read all the books (not the recent ones not written but Tom) and re read them ocasionally.. Really wish the amazon series would just stick to the books.. I mean with Very little adapting.. the books can be made as is ( Russia is still an enemy.. mostly..) Owell..
Now.. the thing that sticks with me for Hunt?? THE SOUNDTRACK! Basil Poldarious in his prime! (Rip) Love the music.. 100 times better than Ford's ones..
Now.. the thing that sticks with me for Hunt?? THE SOUNDTRACK! Basil Poldarious in his prime! (Rip) Love the music.. 100 times better than Ford's ones..
Like anything said in a Scottish accent that's meant to be Russian.
Have you see the Jack Ryan Amazon series? I refuse to watch it so I don't know if it's based on any of the books at all.
I also refuse to watch it. Just the trailers show that it's typical of Hollywood's mishandling of the character. They've been trying to turn him into an American James Bond since Clear and Present Danger. Sum had to reboot him younger to make him doing set-piece action scenes make sense. Shadow Recruit was shit.
Red October's saving grace is that it was directed by someone who actually read the book and {mostly) understood the character.
I have completely forgot about Shadow Recruit. I've never seen it, but I forgot it was made.
I refuse to watch the Amazon show because it's partly funded by the CIA, so that's why they changed the character to fit the James Bond feel.
That's the one with Chris Pine, innit?
He'd make a great Jack Jr., come to think of it...
Good for you, cause try as I might, I can't forget seeing it.
Because they'd rather see bullshit portrayals of their organization than anything realistic. They must keep their secrets after all...
As far as i can tell, it's not a repurposed story. It's just not based on any of Clancy's books.
Yup. Reboot Jim Kirk is the fourth live action (and second reboot) Jack Ryan.
And if I had any desire to see Jack Jr. in a movie, I'd agree. Jack Jr. is just the Clancy version of Jason Bourne. I don't need another Jason Bourne. I likes Matt Damon just fine.
According to Wikipedia, they determined it to be too difficult to adapt. So, yeah, script problems it sounds like.
It's weird, but I think if they did a faithful adaptation of Sum of All Fears, with Ben Affleck of today cast as Jack Ryan, he would be a much better fit for the role then early 2000's Affleck was in the movie we got.
Both seasons are new stories not from the books, although the second season does incorporate plot elements from Clear and Present Danger.
IIRC, wasn't the original plan for it to launch a cinematic universe which would include separate film series for Jack Ryan and John Clark, eventually having them team up in a crossover film?
It's the greatest ironic line ever.
A couple points of order:
-(Book) Ryan is a registered Independent, not Republican. He certainly leans conservative, but he doesn't vote party.
-In any case, i would still rather see Baldwin play President Ryan. He's a raving liberal in real life, but he's certainly a good enough actor to play a conservative.
Speaking of Trek actors, I always see a couple when I'm reading the books.
Ever since I read Cardinal the first time I've pictured Jonathan Frakes (Young, beardless Riker) as John Clark. Make of this what you will. It's certainly not as potentially objectionable as picturing Wil Wheaton as Ben Goodley, introduced in Sum.
On the other hand, even though she's actually played the part I never see Gates McFadden as Cathy. I usually see Anne Archer. (though hair color wise they're both wrong.)
In the books written for, sorry, "co-written with" Clancy, Ryan is referred to as a Republican. Or more specifically, he was the Republican candidate in the election for his second term as President.
I actually imagine Jason Isaacs as John Clark. Or rather, I imagine his Captain Lorca voice and speech patterns when I read Clark's dialogue.
Fair enough, but the first time his affiliation is mentioned is in a book written by Clancy (either sum or Executive Orders) and the passage makes a point of naming Jack and Cathy as Independents, which (supposedly) makes it difficult for party loyalists to get a read on their politics. (I know...I'm just telling you what I read...)
