Clear and Present Danger

CIA Analyst Jack Ryan is drawn into an illegal war fought by the US government against a Colombian drug cartel.

• Director:Phillip Noyce
• Genre:Action / Drama / Thriller
• Runtime:141 minutes

Cast

Harrison Ford : Jack Ryan
Willem Dafoe : John Clark
Anne Archer : Cathy Muller Ryan
Joaquim de Almeida : Col. Felix Cortez
Henry Czerny : Robert Ritter

A United States Coast Guard patrol boat stops a suspicious yacht, finding an American businessman and his family have been murdered by several men operating the craft. The murdered man happens to have been a close friend of the President of the United States. President Bennett (Donald Moffat) learns that the man was murdered because of his ties to the Cali Cartel, having skimmed over $650 million from the cartel. The President tells James Cutter (Harris Yulin), his National Security Advisor, that Colombian drug cartels represent “a clear and present danger” to the U.S., indirectly giving Cutter unofficial permission to take down the men responsible for his friend’s death.

Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford) is appointed Deputy Director (Intelligence) when his friend, mentor, and boss Admiral James Greer (James Earl Jones) is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Upon his appointment Ryan is asked to go before the United States Congress to request increased funding of $70 million for ongoing CIA intelligence operations in Colombia. Congress approves the funding, with Senator Mayo (Hope Lange) receiving Ryan’s word that no troops or black-ops will be used.

Needing to keep an unwitting Ryan out of the loop, Cutter turns to CIA Deputy Director for Operations Robert Ritter (Henry Czerny), who secures a document giving him permission to act as he sees fit to take down the cartel. Ritter assembles a black-ops team with the help of John Clark (Willem Dafoe), a secret field operative. Clark and his team travel to Colombia and begin destroying the various cartel gangs, their equipment and hidden drug lab facilities.

The head of one of the drug gangs, Ernesto Escobedo (Miguel Sandoval), is enraged at having lost over $600 million as a result of the freezing of assets, and has his intelligence officer, Félix Cortez (Joaquim de Almeida), take care of the problem. Cortez, a former colonel of Cuban military intelligence, has an unwitting contact inside the U.S. government — Moira Wolfson (Ann Magnuson), a secretary to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Emil Jacobs. Félix feigns romantic interest to discover that Jacobs is visiting Colombia to negotiate with the local attorney general concerning the frozen money. Read more

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