Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

Plot synopsis:
Jack Ryan (Chris Pine) joins the U.S. Marine Corps after the 9/11 attacks. He is a Marine second lieutenant when the helicopter he is riding in is shot down over Afghanistan. Ryan is critically injured and during a lengthy rehab, he attracts the attention of Dr. Cathy Muller (Keira Knightley), his future wife, and the interest of the CIA, in the person of Thomas Harper (Kevin Costner). The CIA is impressed with Ryan's ability to recognize complex patterns. As part of the recruitment, Ryan is sent by the CIA back to finish his PhD at the London School of Economics, which he had dropped after enlisting.Ten years later, Ryan is working on Wall Street at both a cover job as a compliance officer at a stock brokerage, and as a covert CIA analyst, looking for suspect financial transactions that would indicate terrorist activity. When the Russian Federation loses a key vote before the United Nations, Ryan notices that the markets do not respond in the expected way. He discovers that trillions of dollars held by Russian organizations have "fallen off the radar". There is so much money held out of view that the United States economy may actually be vulnerable to a sudden move. All of these funds are controlled by Viktor Cheverin (Kenneth Branagh), a veteran of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Cheverin, along with a group of key Russian politicians, have been left embittered by the United States' covert intervention in the invasion and are seeking revenge.Ryan's employer happens to do business with Cheverin, so when Ryan discovers that certain accounts have become firewalled away from him as auditor, he has a legitimate excuse to visit Moscow and investigate. On arrival he narrowly survives a murder attempt by an assassin posing as his bodyguard. Ryan sends out an SOS and is surprised to learn that his backup is Harper. During their debrief, Ryan explains how Cheverin's shadow investments can make the United States vulnerable: A staged terrorist attack will spook and weaken global markets including US debt obligations. Then Cheverin will dump all of his inventory onto the market at the same time, causing the American dollar to collapse. It would hurt China too because of their dollar holdings, and so the goal is to trigger a new Great Depression.At his frosty meeting with Cheverin the next day, he is told that the problem company and all of its assets have been sold. This is transparently about stopping Ryan's audit.Meanwhile, Ryan's fiancée Cathy has become concerned that he is having an affair and secretly flies to Moscow to meet him. Against protocol for unmarried couples, Ryan reveals that he works for the CIA, to her great relief. Improvising on the situation, Harper has Cathy agree to be included in a plan to infiltrate Cheverin's offices. Ryan and Cathy meet Cheverin at an upscale restaurant across the street from Cheverin's office; over dinner Ryan causes a scene and "insults" Cathy. Excusing himself, he gains access to Cheverin's office where he downloads critical files. He discovers Cheverin has been secretly propping up the Chinese and Japanese economies for 20 years, and that the entire global economy is vulnerable. Cheverin, alerted to Ryan's infiltration, abducts Cathy. Ryan rescues her, but Cheverin maintains that Ryan cannot stop his plan.Ryan and the CIA discover Cheverin used a falsified death certificate to place his son Aleksandr (Alec Utgoff) in the United States as a sleeper agent. Ryan uses his talent for pattern recognition to locate Aleksandr's hideout and intended target: Wall Street. He locates a bomb hidden in a dummy police response vehicle and gives chase. Unable to defuse it, he hijacks the vehicle and crashes it into the East River, killing Aleksandr and preventing the loss of any innocent life.Ryan and Cathy are reunited and discuss their future together. Cathy decides to stay with him despite his career and the risks he has to take. Cheverin is executed by his co-conspirators in Russia, while Ryan, now married, and Harper are called to the White House to brief the president.

Tags: suspenseful, murder, violence, flashback, action, revenge

Review:
Tom Clancy's best-known character has endured and enjoyed a varied existence to say the least.Intended as the second reimagining, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, is more a rebirth of the Marine turned CIA agent turned world-saving, death-defying, awe-inspiring, all American hero.
Ryan is firstly observed and then recruited by the shadowy Thomas Harper (Kevin Costner) as a desk-bound CIA analyst, but a trip to Russia to investigate the nefarious financial dealings of Viktor Cheverin (Kenneth Branagh) elevates Ryan very swiftly to role of field agent, and an action man is (re)born.Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is neither as loud nor as brainless as last year's White-House-under-attack double act of White House Down and Olympus Has Fallen but it is about as much fun and has at least as many plot holes.
The entire finale comes about as a result of a catalogue of unrealistically simple contrivances and there is no reason to have Ryan's girlfriend, Cathy Muller (Keira Knightly), anywhere near Moscow other than to sex up the film and redress the situation of the underused Anne Archer from the Harrison Ford years.There are no prizes for acting here.
In Hollywood, truly, nothing is sacred.Instead of the thought provoking, truth to power story we came to expect from a Jack Ryan movie, this brings us more of Hollywood's waronterrah porn.It was interesting a bit back in 2002 maybe.
Instead of the wounded full military/ drama stories we got with Red October and Patriot Games we end up with a standard Hollywood over the top action flick with analyst with no field experience Ryan and his clueless snooping girlfriend pulling enough moves on the streets of Moscow to put 007 to shame.
She turned up in Moscow having apparently talked her way into Russia without a visa ( like that's going to happen ) lands at Ryan's hotel room accusing him of having an affair then BOOM they suddenly include her in a CIA secret mission to save the country?
Using the star-power of Chris Pine's  Stark Trek franchise charm, to faded out female leads like Kiera  Knightley, and ex-Marvel super director Kenneth Branagh (Thor), Ryan  becomes a shady, old, and tiresome relic of the glorified days of the  once cool Tom Clancy character.
The Jack Ryan character, made famous previously by Alec Baldwin in The  Hunt for Red October, Harrison Ford in Patriot Games and Clear and  Present Danger and Ben Affleck in The Sum of All Fears came out well  before all the Ethan Hunt's and Jason Bourne's of its time.
Jack is recruited by agent Thomas Harper (Kevin Costner) to join the CIA as analyst infiltrated in Wall Street to check possible terrorist accounts and he can not tell that he works for the CIA even for Cathy.
"Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit" is another absurd movie with a shallow story and the usual exaggeration.
In Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, the genesis of Tom Clancy's much adored creation makes its way to the big screen with Chris Pine taking control of yet another one of Hollywood's big characters.
Kevin Costner gets a large chunk of screen time acting as Jack Ryan's mentor, while the beautiful Keira Knightley shines as the girlfriend — but is sometimes annoying with her fake American accent.
All of the lead actors were exactly what was needed: Chris Pine, soft on the eyes, action hero, an average Joe in for more than he bargained for, but a soldier first and foremost; Keira Knightley, the pretty innocent who tags along, and then is up to the tasks at hand; Kevin Costner, the old mentor and Kenneth Branagh, who gets special mention for playing a Russian flawlessly.
One of the worst spy films i saw in recent memory.I had no idea what is going on the screen.I was left wondering after the completion of the movie about the content of the movie.The movie had a pretty decent story to tell and if expressed properly could have been turned into a good entertainer.
I'm shocked and disappointed by this choppy collection of clichés punctuated by Chris Pine's apoplectic Jack Ryan, Kevin Costner's huge presence and kind gravitas, sequences with Director Kenneth Branagh SO profoundly sad it always seemed his dog had just died and Keira Knightley yet again moving through her bony sequences of pained smiles and limited nervous expressions that have become only tiresome in their sameness.
Right now world may be suffering from Islamic terrorism more than anything but apparently Russians are the only ones bombing/attacking/stealingAmericanFreedom in all Tom Clancy stories.It's like sitting through stupid Tom Clancy video games, except you can't even control the actions of the character in a movie.Tom Clancy was a hack writer.
He completely transformed into his role very convincingly, with no trace of British-ness.This particular Jack Ryan did not feel like this was going to be the same man in the other older films where we knew the character Jack Ryan first, like "Hunt for Red October" (played by Alec Baldwin), "Patriot Games" and "Clear and Present Danger" (played by Harrison Ford) or even "Sum of All Fears" (played by Ben Affleck).
This film only has the character Jack Ryan, but in a story NOT written by the books' author Tom Clancy at all.This film had an oddly generic feel like we have seen this story in some form before.
It was Branagh's energetic story-telling and Pine's charismatic portrayal as Ryan that turned the potentially mediocre script around and created a really effective and entertaining spy thriller, successfully rebooting the character for a possible film franchise.
A supposedly action film that takes a swipe in being a psychological thriller and falls short on both fronts.An American secret service agent working covertly in an investment bank and uncovers a plot by Russia to wreck the US economy and travels there to avert it.On the face of it, the main premise of the story is uninspiring and uninventive.
Chris Pine was very good at his role of playing Jack Ryan, and I found the storyline of the movie very engaging and interesting.
Exciting and moving prequel in which a young analyst , Jack Ryan, must carry out a risked assignment in Russia , there then goes into action ; being professionally played and directed by Kenneth Brannagh with a good cast such as Chris Pine as Jack Ryan , Keira Knightley and Kevin Costner .
Jack (at one point Ryan Gosling and James Franco were consider for the character, but in the end Chris Pine got the part) along with a ranking member (Kevin Costner) attempt to destroy a terrorist faction led by a magnate (this is the first time that Kenneth Branagh has played a Russian character), Cherevin company's owner , (whose logo clearly resembles one of Enron's drawing parallels between Enron scandal and Wall Street manipulation depicted in the movie) that threatens to induce a catastrophic conflict between the United States and Russia by detonating a bomb in New York City .
The picture has a very good support cast who gives excellent performance such as Kenneth Branagh , Peter Andersson , Gemma Chan , Mikhail Baryshnikov and Colm Feore had a supporting role Sum of all fears (2002), the previous reboot of the Jack Ryan franchise starring Ben Affleck , he'd also played a main villain in Kenneth Branagh's Thor .
Special mention to veteran Kevin Costner , he was actually the first actor offered the role of Jack Ryan Hunt of the Red October (1990), which was the character's first film appearance, but turned it down to make Dancing with wolves (1990) instead .
Brisk, tense and gripping, this reboot of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan is a solid spy thriller that breathes new life into the character.
But in the latest reboot of Tom Clancy's most famous big- screen character, it is 'Star Trek's' Chris Pine who has the honour of playing the heroic intelligence analyst Jack Ryan.
It is also with the latter that Ryan meets then-US Navy Commander William Harper (Kevin Costner), who recruits him for the CIA on account of his brilliant analytical mind and stations him in the heart of Wall Street.Picking up ten years after in present day, the film imagines an international espionage plot driven by the Russians to destabilise the United States economy and thereby trigger anarchy within the nation.
Jack also gets much tutelage and professional advice from William, whose mentor-rookie relationship is well-played with nuance and subtlety.Most of the action Branagh reserves for the second half of the movie, as Jack is welcomed in Moscow by a burly Ugandan working for Viktor who tries to assassinate him shortly after in his hotel room.
Trust us when we say that the last third of the movie pretty much unfolds at a breakneck pace, never quite letting up on the adrenaline until Jack defuses the terrorist threat back home in downtown New York.Pine does a reasonably convincing job playing the rookie forced to rely on his instincts when he is suddenly thrust into the field, but the real surprise here is Costner.
"Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit" is an action film about Jack Ryan, a CIA analyst who works undercover in Wall Street, looking for suspicious financial transactions that could be related to terrorist activity.
When he uncovers a Russian plot to crash the U.S. economy, he becomes the target of many and is forced to spring into action to protect his country.This reboot of the Jack Ryan film series features an original story, not an adaptation of a particular Tom Clancy novel.The movie features a fresh and modern cast comprised of Chris Pine as the title character, Keira Knightley, Kevin Costner and Kenneth Branagh.
Branagh makes also a great job regarding the movie's direction.The movie is also full of great action scenes, occurring in locations that range from Moscow to New York.All this elements make "Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit" a solid action thriller film that manages to keep the action from beginning to end, a film that will definitely entertain you!
It is beautifully shot, well paced and quite diverting.The script is a little linear when compared to Clancy's novels but this criticism is made redundant by the suspense, action and glamour the film provides.I wasn't sure about Chris Pine as Jack.
Her: Thank god, I thought you were cheating on me) and the suspension of disbelief is Empire State Building high here.The story is not realistic at all (I think it can be pulled off but there was not one single element to make it look like anything more than a bad plot, almost in the SF sphere without the science in it) and it tried to hard to be a Jason Bourne meets technothriller meets current world affairs type of deal.By the ⅓ of the movie I was bored.
Chris Pine plays Jack Ryan, a CIA analyst turned reluctant field agent as he, along with his unit commanded by Thomas Harper (Kevin Costner), tries to thwart a Russian terror plot.Shadow Recruit has action, humour, character, emotion, and a good plot (which is sometimes sorely lacking in action movies).
Jack Ryan a young but overtly intelligent CIA analyst uncovers a Russian plot to crash the U.S. economy through a series of conspiracies and a terrorist attack plot.A thrilling movie with decent action, pacing and a story though not based on any Tom Clancy novel but with very close similarities to one.
Thought the plot is kind of predictable there is nothing boring about it so the excitement doesn't fade.Just like all action movies Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit has its common flaws.
(I am thinking of a better name but that is all i have at the moment.Today i will be talking about the 2014 action/ spy thriller Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.
IMDb blurb - 'Jack Ryan, as a young covert CIA analyst, uncovers a Russian plot to crash the U.S. economy with a terrorist attack.'Having seen the other Jack Ryan instalments (Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger and Sum of All Fears) i was at first somewhat apprehensive in watching this as i do love the films and books of which the came from.
In all, Shadow Recruit is a very well thought out film with wonderful acting by Pine as our lead, Keira Knightley as his girlfriend and Kevin Costner as the veteran CIA handler.
Inspired to help his country, he's soon in uniform serving in Afghanistan, where he has the misfortune of being shot out of the sky in his chopper, but the good fortune to be nursed back to health by a beguiling doctor, Cathy Muller (Keira Knightley, complete with an American accent), with whom he takes up as soon as his treatment is finished.There is a certain generation-spanning pleasure in watching veteran CIA handler William Harper (Kevin Costner, in low-key authoritative form) set Jack up as a financial intelligence analyst within a big Wall Street firm, where he spends a decade before being given five seconds to pack for his mission to Moscow.
Unexpectedly, Cathy then turns up in Moscow and finally must be told what her husband does for a living, leading to the film's high point, a dinner scene at a fancy Moscow boite during which the couple enacts an elaborate charade that allows Jack the chance to steal secret info from Cheverin, whose vices -- vodka, vanity, women -- are neatly exploited.Such key plot elements as financial-based terrorism, lingering Russian animosity towards the U.S., sleeper agents and the electronic world providing the main battleground are aptly handled and the action is plentiful, if not terribly unusual.
He did such epic and great films like "Hamlet" and "Henry V." I even liked his version of "Thor." However, "Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit" isn't Branagh at his directing best.2014 is just not a good year for reboots.
It's no doubt the reason why another major Hollywood studio was willing to take a chance on him helming a potentially enormously lucrative franchise reboot.As it turns out, Branagh really is quite good at balancing thrilling action beats against solid character development - Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is a bit smarter than the average, by-the-numbers thriller.
Just as his fiancée Cathy (Keira Knightley) starts to fret about the fraying state of their relationship, Jack uncovers a massive financial conspiracy engineered by Viktor Cherevin (Branagh), a shady, off-the-books Russian operative who intends to kick off a double-barrelled terrorism attack on America.So far, so Cold War. In a cinematic world uprooted by the gritty cynicism of The Bourne Identity, that's probably Shadow Recruit's biggest flaw.
"You're not just an analyst anymore, you're operational now."The most famous and beloved CIA analyst, Jack Ryan, is back for the fifth time although now it's Chris Pine's turn to interpret the hero Tom Clancy first made famous in his novels.
This is where the action and espionage games begin.Chris Pine is a very charismatic actor; he proved it during the Star Trek reboot, and now he has done the same thing with Jack Ryan.
Let's get the good parts out of the way first:Chris Pine.OK, now that we got that out of the way...WHAT THE HELL, JACK RYAN SHADOW RECRUIT???Listen, in going over what really bothered me about this movie, I sort of have to spoil some of it.
(Seriously, this is such a pet peeve when it comes to action movies, why do we still deal with this?) Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit scores a 2.5 out of 5 on The BDBOS.
Chris Pine ("Star Trek") is the latest actor to portray the late Tom Clancy's signature hero, Jack Ryan, an honor that has gone to Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck in previous movie incarnations.In the latest, "Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit," which is an original story designed to reboot the series, our hero is an ex-marine turned undercover financial analyst for the CIA who discovers that the dastardly Russians are plotting to crash the dollar while simultaneously launching a terrorist attack on American soil.To no one's real surprise, perhaps, the skilled hand of the original author is sorely lacking in the Adam Kozad/David Koepp screenplay, which seems intent on resurrecting the old Cold War thriller genre in a post-Cold War world.
Chris Pine is pretty as Jack Ryan, I don't know why he is so under rated a lot of times, He's a pretty good actor.
Chris Pine is a "special agent" (in the "This Means War" Yes!), Kenneth Branagh compare that he is director, he is also rough Russian guy (with British style), Keira Knightley is not panacea and her beauty could not save the movie unfortunately, same as Kevin Costners experience.
He's got the theater training to play up the menace, but it's not a well-written part, and he wasn't all that dangerous.I'd like to see more with Pine in the role, as he can carry Jack Ryan as action hero.
While finding this out, he uncovers a plot by Cherevin to have a terrorist attack by crashing the U.S. economy.From seeing the work Kenneth Branagh did as the director of Thor, it's easy to see why Paramount wanted to have him direct the new Jack Ryan film.
I did enjoy that Branagh's version was its own stand alone story.Chris Pine is now the fourth actor to portray Jack Ryan on the big screen.
I am speaking of the new film, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.
Afghanistan war hero Jack Ryan joins the CIA and, while trying to ferret out terrorist funding in Moscow, falls foul of a plot to undermine the dollar.Not as dry as it sounds from that, this film prequels the character played here by Chris Pine, but previously by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck in a contemporary reboot.
Ryan gets a Wall Street job, but is undercover as a "shadow recruit", actually looking for financial transactions that may indicate a plot against the USA.Following the same formula as the original movies, Ryan's girlfriend, eventually to become his wife, is Cathy Muller, played by Brit Keira Knightley using a pretty good American accent.