When it came out in March 1990, The Hunt for Red October was a smash hit, grossing $122 million in North America and passing the $200 million mark worldwide. It led to a huge spike in popularity for author Tom Clancy’s techno-thrillers, which centred on CIA analyst Jack Ryan. In John McTiernan’s film, Ryan was played by Alec Baldwin, with the role elevating him to stardom. Yet, by the time they were ready to make a sequel two years later, Baldwin was out and replaced by Harrison Ford, who had infamously turned down the role just a few years earlier, figuring no one wanted to see a “submarine movie.”
So, why did Paramount ditch the lead of one of its biggest hits and a potential new face for what promised to be a huge franchise in favour of Ford? Why did the original director, John McTiernan, skip the sequel, too? And—most curiously—why did author Tom Clancy complain constantly about the movie while it was in production?
Even before The Hunt for Red October hit theatres, Tom Clancy’s star was rising. The book version of The Hunt for Red October had initially been issued by the Naval Institute Press, with Clancy receiving a slim $5,000 for it—but it sold well beyond anyone’s expectations. That led to Clancy being snapped up by Putnam, which published his follow-up, Red Storm Rising, another hit. But his next book, Patriot Games, which continued the adventures of his Hunt for Red October protagonist, Jack Ryan, made its debut at the top of the New York Times Best Seller list. Its follow-up, The Cardinal of the Kremlin, was the bestselling novel of 1988—and this was BEFORE The Hunt for Red October movie came out.
Yet, despite all the success as far as the books went, it wasn’t a sure thing that The Hunt for Red October would be a smash. Sure, it had Sean Connery, but his recent hits had paired him with top-shelf leading men, including Kevin Costner in The Untouchables and Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Alec Baldwin was largely unknown, having played mostly supporting roles up to that point. Yet, it was a big, BIG hit, and it elevated Baldwin to star status. Suddenly, the tabloids and shows like Entertainment Tonight were obsessed with him, with everyone thinking he would become a star on the level of Harrison Ford. Yes, everyone thought that—including Baldwin himself, which is perhaps when the trouble started.
But more on that in a bit.
With Red October a smash, Paramount Pictures, along with producers Mace Neufeld and Robert Rehme, wanted a sequel right away. After all, with Clancy regularly churning out Jack Ryan novels, they figured they had a gold mine on their hands and potentially a tentpole spy movie franchise that could rival the James Bond series, which had gone dormant. Paramount paid a huge sum—$2.5 million—for the rights to film two Clancy bestsellers, Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger.
Initially, the idea had been for John McTiernan to return, but he had hoped to shoot Clear and Present Danger first, a move Alec Baldwin agreed with. However, the studio was adamant that they make Patriot Games. The novel focused on “the Troubles,” with Jack Ryan foiling an IRA assassination attempt on the Royal Family and then finding himself targeted by a rogue IRA extremist, Sean Miller, who wants revenge for his brother, whom Ryan was forced to kill during the attack. McTiernan apparently felt uncomfortable depicting the IRA due to his Irish-American background, so he was out.
Still, the plan had been to keep Alec Baldwin on board. However, Baldwin had made The Marrying Man as his Red October follow-up, and it was a notoriously fraught production. He and co-star Kim Basinger had fallen in love and would eventually marry, but a disastrous article in Premiere magazine portrayed both as petulant, spoiled actors who had ruined the film, fallen out spectacularly with playwright Neil Simon, and sent the budget ballooning. Baldwin was especially slammed for allegedly having violent temper tantrums and swearing at crew members.
The movie also flopped badly, making Baldwin’s christening as a new movie star seem premature. Simply put, he couldn’t have picked a worse follow-up. In his autobiography, Baldwin called making the film a devastating mistake, saying it was the single decision he made that changed his life forever.
Baldwin admits that producer Mace Neufeld had read the Premiere article and actually called him to warn him about his relationship with Basinger and his image. Still, it was full steam ahead with Baldwin as Jack Ryan.
With McTiernan out, the studio opted to hire Phillip Noyce to helm the new film. Noyce had broken out with the hit Dead Calm, which established his thriller bona fides, and while his follow-up, Blind Fury, starring Rutger Hauer, had barely been released, it showed his flair for action. The script would be written by W. Peter Iliff, the writer of Point Break, and Donald E. Stewart, who had written the acclaimed political thriller Missing.
Baldwin wrote in his book that when he met with Noyce and co-producer Robert Rehme, he had a feeling they wanted him out, especially when he started making script suggestions. Baldwin also wanted to return to the stage to play Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire and hoped to do both projects, but Paramount was not keen. Baldwin refused to sign a contract for the film because they hadn’t figured out when it would shoot, and they gave him only a few days to make up his mind.
By this point, though, it was likely already too late, as John McTiernan allegedly warned Baldwin that Paramount was negotiating with Harrison Ford behind his back. Baldwin wouldn’t budge on his desire to do both the play and Patriot Games, so when he opted not to sign the contract by the deadline, he was replaced by Ford—and it became headline news.
Interestingly, Ford was always Paramount’s first choice to play Jack Ryan, although he had turned down Red Octoberbecause he—rightly—believed Ryan’s role was secondary to that of Ramius, played by Sean Connery. Yet, he admitted regretting his decision once he saw the film.
At the time, Ford was among Hollywood’s elite, but his Indiana Jones series had become dormant. For a time, Jack Ryan would be a smart, action-driven franchise that would work well considering his age, with Ford turning 50 the year Patriot Games was released. The book was also a prequel to The Hunt for Red October, but that aspect was predictably jettisoned.
Too bad, then, that Tom Clancy didn’t agree. Indeed, the author was upset about Ford playing the part, as he believed him to be too old. But that was just the beginning of the Clancy issues that would plague the film.
With Baldwin not returning, the role of Jack Ryan’s wife, which would be central to the story, was also recast, with Gates McFadden being replaced by Anne Archer. The film would hinge on Ryan’s family being threatened, with his wife, Cathy, and daughter, Sally, being attacked by Miller.
The film’s villain, Sean Miller, was played by Sean Bean in what would prove to be an early role for the actor. An Englishman, he adopted an Irish accent for the part, but he had already played a variety of Irish roles by this point, having starred in Mike Figgis’s Stormy Monday and appeared in The Field opposite Richard Harris. Harris would also play a role in Patriot Games as Paddy O’Neil, a member of Sinn Féin who is somewhat sympathetic to Ryan, while Miller is shown to be part of a rogue faction of the IRA.
Miller’s superior would be played by Patrick Bergin, who was then coming off playing the villain in Sleeping with the Enemy, while Polly Walker would play a sultry IRA hitwoman. She would actually be playing a composite character based on several female accomplices in the novel.
While many roles from Red October were recast, James Earl Jones was brought back as Ryan’s boss, Admiral Greer, while Samuel L. Jackson, in an early role, would play his Naval Academy buddy, Robby Jackson, who helps him fight off the baddies in the action-packed conclusion.
So, with such a good cast, why was Clancy so upset? It went beyond Ford being “too old.” The movie greatly simplified Clancy’s novel, perhaps in a way that was too politically correct for the author, who always emphasized realism above everything else.
For one thing, the entire premise that Sean Miller wants revenge because his brother was killed by Ryan is an invention of the screenwriters. In the book, Miller is simply a sociopathic IRA member who targets Ryan because he threatens the cause and because he feels humiliated by Ryan for foiling his operation. He’s a true believer.
Many in Hollywood were somewhat sympathetic to the notion of Irish independence, and so Miller is presented in the film as more of a rogue psycho, driven primarily by a need for vengeance rather than anything ideological. By the end of the film, he’s a foaming psychopath who even executes his own compatriots in his mad quest to eliminate Ryan. Oddly, this doesn’t make him scarier, as you understand—to some extent—his desire to avenge his brother. The fact that, in the novel, a true believer would actually go after Ryan’s family in a genuine act of political terrorism rather than simple vengeance is all the more chilling.
There were many other changes, but one important one was that, in the novel, Miller tries to kill the Prince and Princess of Wales—Charles and Diana. This would have been too explosive for the film, so they were replaced by more generic English aristocrats. One must also remember that the threat of IRA terrorism was very real in this era, and it wasn’t unimaginable that the Royal Family would be targeted, so the film needed to be sensitive in that regard.
One thing worth mentioning is how the film tried to strike a delicate political balance, as the filmmakers didn’t want it to seem as though they were demonizing Ireland or the struggle for independence. One way they did this was by casting Richard Harris, perhaps one of the most famous Irish leading men of all time and someone who publicly supported the establishment of an Irish republic but repudiated the violence of the IRA. His character, Paddy O’Neil, is associated with Sinn Féin and the mainstream republican movement, but the movie repeatedly distinguishes that movement from Sean Miller and Kevin O’Donnell’s fictional Ulster Liberation Army, described as an “ultra-violent faction” of the IRA. The movie plays it all much safer than the novel.
The ending was also problematic for Clancy. In the film, Ryan kills Miller, impaling him with a boat anchor in what is a pretty conventional Hollywood ending for an action film. It was actually a reshoot, with test audiences rejecting the original ending, which featured an underwater fight.
But what Clancy hated was that Ryan killed Miller, as in the book, he remains controlled and turns Miller over to the authorities, with Miller being executed for his crimes between novels. To Clancy, this made Jack Ryan just another Hollywood action hero.
To play devil’s advocate for the studio, it would have been hard for them to end the film with Ryan NOT killing Miller, especially after his family is attacked. Patriot Games came out at a time when action was the dominant Hollywood genre, and audiences expected the hero to waste the bad guy in a satisfying way. They might have accepted someone like Alec Baldwin turning Miller over to the authorities, but once Ford was cast, Miller had to die—and at Ryan’s hands.
There was more to it, of course. As explained earlier, the novel is a prequel to Red October, and Ryan is supposed to be an analyst, even if he is a former Marine. He’s able to spring into action to save the Royal Family, but as the book goes on, he becomes more proficient with weapons so that he can protect his family. From the moment Patriot Games starts, we know Ford’s Ryan is a badass.
As such, Patriot Games was marketed as a much harder-edged action movie than Red October. That film was primarily a thriller with very little onscreen violence. It actually managed to earn a PG rating, although nowadays it would certainly be PG-13.
Patriot Games was made as a straight-up R-rated movie, with a high body count, violence, and a number of F-bombs. It was meant to be a movie for adults. It would be the only movie in the series to receive this rating.
Why? Perhaps because Patriot Games, while still a major hit, didn’t gross as much at the box office as The Hunt for Red October. It made $83 million domestically, which was still a major success given its $45 million budget, and it made more than double that overseas. But even still, it was about $40 million less than Red October made domestically, something Baldwin noted with glee in his autobiography.
It didn’t help that it came out during the summer of 1992 and had to contend with Batman Returns, which opened two weeks into Patriot Games’ run.
Ford himself noted that Clancy’s open criticism hurt the film, saying, “I think [Clancy’s criticism] did hurt the film… I don’t think it should have. It’s inevitable that a book changes in bringing it to the screen. It’s generally accepted by those professionals that have had some experience with the process. And if one doesn’t want to submit to the process, the simple expedient is not to sell your stuff.”
Indeed, Clancy was so outspoken that he initially wanted his name removed from the film and its marketing. Alas, he eventually caved when the studio offered him a particularly rich deal for a follow-up, Clear and Present Danger.
The ironic thing, though, is that Clancy and Ford, as well as Noyce, had an even bigger falling out over the sequel. The film initially had a script by John Milius, who was friends with Clancy, that stayed close to the book, but it was rewritten to make Jack Ryan more of the driving force behind the narrative. Clancy was livid, taking shots at Ford and Noyce in the press.
All of that helps explain why Ford stopped playing Jack Ryan after Clear and Present Danger, despite the fact that it was a major success, with its domestic gross equalling that of The Hunt for Red October. No doubt Ford had had enough, and he was also in a different place in his career.
You see, before Patriot Games came out, Ford was at a point where the way forward was a bit murky. Indiana Jones was done, and while Presumed Innocent was a hit that allowed him to stretch, he had a major flop with his follow-up, Regarding Henry. Audiences wanted him back in action, so Jack Ryan made sense.
But the year after Patriot Games, he made The Fugitive, which was his biggest non-Indiana Jones or Star Wars hit, so he no longer really needed to be Jack Ryan. It’s a shame because he could have kept playing the role, with Ryan becoming president of the United States in Executive Orders. Ford, of course, would play the president in his own Clancy-esque thriller, Air Force One, which, naturally, was a huge hit.
Despite his issues with Hollywood’s treatment of his books, Clancy would remain involved as they continued to be adapted. In 2002, the series was rebooted with Ben Affleck starring in The Sum of All Fears, a book that was changed even more dramatically than any of the Noyce/Ford films. Amusingly, Clancy was somehow convinced to do a commentary track for the DVD, and it’s worth a listen, as he slams the film so relentlessly that it’s incredible the track wasn’t deleted.
Clancy would pass away in 2013, but his novels are still being adapted, with his famous novel Without Remorse casting Michael B. Jordan as his other signature hero, John Clark, and there’s buzz that he will reprise the role in a Rainbow Sixadaptation.
Meanwhile, Paramount tried to reboot Jack Ryan again with Chris Pine and Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit before Amazon had better luck with its streaming series Jack Ryan, which starred John Krasinski and recently received a film spin-off. Ironically, none of the subsequent adaptations were especially faithful to the novels, so perhaps Clancy’s issues with Patriot Games were overblown. It’s still recognizably set in the world he created, even if he may not have thought so.
While he hated it, the film has stood the test of time, and while it may not be the stone-cold classic that The Hunt for Red October is, it’s still considered signature ’90s action flick.