Ben Affleck takes on the challenge of playing Jack Ryan (played in the past by both Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford). In this film, Jack is a young historian doing research for the CIA. When the president of Russia suddenly dies, the man who succeeds him Zorkin (Richard Marner) is a political unknown, much to the dismay of the Americans. Jack Ryan had once written a largely-unread research paper on Zorkin, which even went so far as to predict that he was a possible candidate for this post. As a result of his research, he is recruited by CIA director Bill Cabot (Morgan Freeman) to provide background on the new president.
Jack soon finds himself in at the deep end. A nuclear bomb explodes in Baltimore. It is an old lost Israeli bomb, secretly bought and used by terrorists, but the nervous Americans are quick to blame the Russians. This is exactly what the terrorists were seeking open warfare between the two nations. Now only Jack can prevent all out nuclear war.
As an action movie on its own, this one holds up well, even if it does feel a little familiar. However, this is not just any actioner but a Jack Ryan film, and to a degree it fails to live up to expectations. Ben Affleck does a workmanlike job of playing Jack, but he simply isn't old enough to have the maturity for the role, although changes made to his position in the CIA and the non-existence of the family he used to have do paper over some of the cracks. The film is based on the novel by Tom Clancy. The plot is lacking the depth and complexity of the novel from which it is drawn, and in this sense it is the weakest of the films adapted from Clancy's work.