Clear and Present Danger (1994) on Netflix
PG-1319942h 21mActionCrimeDrama
When Admiral James Greer falls ill, CIA analyst Jack Ryan becomes acting Deputy Director of Intelligence. A murdered businessman's ties to a Colombian cartel pull Ryan into a covert war.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb6.9/10117,904 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes80%
Trailer
Plot summary
A Coast Guard crew boards an American yacht in the Caribbean and finds that its owner, the businessman Peter Hardin, and his family were killed by the ship's Colombian crew. Jack Ryan, a CIA analyst, discovers that Hardin moved money for the Cali Cartel, whose head, Ernesto Escobedo, ordered the killing over embezzled drug profits. President Bennett, a close friend of Hardin, quietly lets National Security Advisor James Cutter start a covert campaign against the cartel in Colombia. Admiral James Greer enters treatment for pancreatic cancer, and Ryan takes over as acting Deputy Director of Intelligence. Ryan asks Congress for more funding for Colombians who fight the drug cartels, and he assures lawmakers that no American military forces are involved.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Clear and Present Danger (1994)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The Pentagon had issues with the script, which was rewritten to win approval for the use of military equipment. In a letter to the producer, Max Neufeld, it said it was unhappy with “very negative portrayals of the U.S. President and his national security advisor” and with U.S. military combat forces conducting illegal, covert operations in Colombia.
- The studio decided that filming on location in Colombia was too dangerous, so the film was shot in Mexico, with Mexico City standing in for Bogotá and the Hacienda San Gabriel de la Palmas in Cuernavaca serving as Escobedo's headquarters. Ironically, that decision ran into the outbreak of the Chiapas conflict.
- The film ran drastically behind schedule and over budget, and part of the footage shot in the United States was destroyed by the 1994 Northridge earthquake. After negative results from test screenings, parts of the film were reshot using scenes written by Stewart and Zaillian.
SPOILER
John Milius's first draft was more faithful to the original book than the final film. In his original ending, Cortez went to Washington to kill the National Security Advisor, only to be killed himself in a mugging by drug addicts.- Clancy was so dissatisfied with Patriot Games that he was reluctant to allow any further adaptations of his material, agreeing only after negotiations with Paramount Pictures and a large financial deal. Donald E. Stewart was hired to give Jack Ryan more screen time, and Steven Zaillian rewrote the script again after Clancy openly criticized it.
