Patriot Games

Last updated

Patriot Games
PatriotGames.JPG
First edition cover
Author Tom Clancy
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
SeriesJack Ryan
Genre
Publisher G.P. Putnam's Sons
Publication date
July 1987
Media typePrint (Hardcover, Paperback)
Pages540
ISBN 0399132414
Preceded by The Hunt for Red October  
Followed by The Cardinal of the Kremlin  

Patriot Games is a thriller novel, written by Tom Clancy and published in July 1987. Without Remorse , released six years later, is an indirect prequel, and it is chronologically the first book featuring Jack Ryan, the main character in most of Clancy's novels. The novel focuses on Ryan being the target of Irish terrorist group Ulster Liberation Army for thwarting their kidnapping attempt on the Prince and Princess of Wales in London. It debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list. [1] A film adaptation, starring Harrison Ford as Ryan, premiered on June 5, 1992.

Contents

Plot summary

A kidnapping attempt on the Prince and Princess of Wales and their infant son [note 1] occurs on the Mall in London. The attack is orchestrated by members of the Ulster Liberation Army, a splinter group of the Provisional Irish Republican Army. However, Jack Ryan intervenes, incapacitating one of the attackers, Sean Miller. During the gun battle, Ryan is shot in the shoulder by one of the other gunmen, John Michael McCrory, as they exchange fire. McCrory is killed, and Miller is later arrested.

While recovering from his wound, Ryan is honored by the British government and is knighted. Meanwhile, Miller is sentenced to life imprisonment for the kidnapping attempt; however, his ULA compatriots led by Kevin O’Donnell free him while he is being transported to a maximum security prison in the Isle of Wight. They are then aided by their Libyan allies in escaping into their secret camp in the North African desert, and Miller vows revenge on Ryan.

Ryan returns to teach history at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, confident that the ULA will not attack him in the United States. Unbeknownst to him, Miller had persuaded O’Donnell to launch an operation in the U.S. aimed at targeting Ryan and his family, and had recruited the assistance of an African-American domestic terrorist group known as “the Movement” to do so. Though primarily for revenge, the operation is also designed to reduce American support for the rival PIRA, which is to be blamed for the upcoming attack. The assassin sent to kill Ryan is intercepted before he manages to complete his task, however his wife Cathy and daughter Sally are seriously injured when Miller causes their car to crash on a freeway; they are rescued by state troopers and volunteer firemen and later transported by helicopter to the University of Maryland Medical Center for treatment.

After the attack on his family, Ryan accepts an offer from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to start working as an analyst at their headquarters. Later, the Prince and Princess of Wales come to visit Ryan at his house in Maryland. However, this provides another opportunity for the ULA, once again recruiting the services of “the Movement”. The night of the visit, they launch a sneak attack on Ryan's home to kidnap the Prince and Princess of Wales, as well as Ryan's family.

Although several guards around the house are killed, Ryan, his friend, fighter pilot Robert “Robby” Jackson, and the Prince manage to dispatch some of the terrorists. They later receive assistance from the local police, the United States Marines, and sailors from the U.S. Naval Academy, who prevent the remaining terrorists from escaping the country in a container ship. Ryan encounters a cornered Miller and tries to kill him, but is restrained by his weapons instructor. After the ULA terrorists are apprehended, he arrives in Annapolis to witness the birth of his son, Jack Ryan, Jr.

Characters

Themes

Patriot Games was notable for subverting the moral ambiguity of the antagonists in espionage novels by John le Carré, Len Deighton, and Robert Ludlum. According to Marc Cerasini's essay on the novel, “Clancy’s sensible revulsion toward the terrorists is so strident and intense...that it verges on the physical.” He added that “the author’s understandable disgust toward his villains is ‘bourgeois’, for there is not a shred of sympathy for these Irish ‘patriots’.”

The novel is also said to be inspired by the gothic horror genre in the depiction of the ULA as “twisted political misfits” who practice political violence in the vein of Count Dracula and his “family”, as well as other gothic elements like the presence of the Prince and Princess of Wales. [2]

Development

Clancy started working on Patriot Games in 1979,[ citation needed ] along with other novels which would later be published: The Hunt for Red October (1984) and The Cardinal of the Kremlin (1988). He says of his passion for accuracy and detail: "When I was in London, researching Patriot Games, I spent 20 hours walking around the Mall with a camera, clipboard and tape recorder, just choreographing my opening chapter, to make sure it would happen exactly the way I wrote it. Later, when I took my kids there, I could tell them, 'This is the tree that Jack Ryan hid his wife and daughter behind, and that's the road where the bad guys escaped.' I feel a moral obligation to my readers to get it right. In the insurance business, you have to pay attention to details or a client could lose everything. A doctor has to, a cop, a fireman, why not a writer?" Although he was criticized for doubling down on technical details in the novel, Clancy considers Patriot Games to be his best.

Discussing the final scene where Jack Ryan lets the primary antagonist Sean Miller live instead of killing him, Clancy remarked: "Of all the letters I got on Patriot Games, not one said, 'He should have killed the little bastard.' Personally I'd have done it. You harm my kids and I'll blow you away. You don't touch my kids. But I'm not Jack Ryan. He has to be in control. He plays by the rules." [3]

Reception

Commercially, Patriot Games debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list for the week of August 2, 1987. It has since sold over 1,063,000 hardcover copies by the next year. [4]

Critically, the book received generally positive reviews. The New York Times praised it as "a powerful piece of popular fiction; its plot, if implausible, is irresistible, and its emotions are universal." [3] However, Kirkus Reviews's verdict is mixed, stating that "Exciting shoot-outs and chases, and lots of Royal wish-fulfillment; but without naval authenticity to bolster the prose, Clancy is a fish out of water." [5]

Film adaptation

The novel was adapted as a feature film, which was released on June 5, 1992. Jack Ryan was played by Harrison Ford and Sean Miller was played by Sean Bean. The film is notable for being the sequel to the previous movie The Hunt for Red October (1990), although the order is the opposite in the books. Additionally, the Prince and Princess of Wales were replaced by Lord Holmes, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and the Queen's cousin, as the ULA's primary target. Patriot Games spent two weeks as the No. 1 film, eventually grossing $178,051,587 in worldwide box office business. [6] It has garnered generally positive reviews, and earned a 73% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 33 reviews. [7]

Conversely, the movie was criticized by Clancy for deviating too much from the source material, stating that "I don't like eating dirt, and I won't eat any from these guys." "There is only one, maybe two, scenes in the shooting script that correspond to a scene in the book," Clancy later added. "They have a movie called Patriot Games that uses my characters—but it's not my story." [8] He eventually asked for his name to be removed from the film's promotional materials, and in an apparent countermove, entered negotiations with the same team at Paramount Pictures to sell the rights to his other novel The Sum of All Fears (1991). By the time the film was released in 2002, the author had cooled off on the idea of having his books made into films. [9]

Notes

  1. ↑ Considering the time frame of the novel, this would refer to Prince Charles and Princess Diana, their infant son being the later Prince William.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Clancy</span> American author (1947–2013)

Thomas Leo Clancy Jr. was an American novelist. He is best known for his technically detailed espionage and military-science storylines set during and after the Cold War. Seventeen of his novels have been bestsellers and more than 100 million copies of his books have been sold. His name was also used on screenplays written by ghostwriters, nonfiction books on military subjects occasionally with co-authors, and video games. He was a part-owner of his hometown Major League Baseball team, the Baltimore Orioles, and vice-chairman of their community activities and public affairs committees.

<i>The Hunt for Red October</i> 1984 novel by Tom Clancy

The Hunt for Red October is the debut novel by American author Tom Clancy, first published on October 1, 1984, by the Naval Institute Press. It depicts Soviet submarine captain Marko Ramius as he seemingly goes rogue with his country's cutting-edge ballistic missile submarine Red October, and marks the first appearance of Clancy's most popular fictional character, Jack Ryan, an analyst working for the Central Intelligence Agency, as he must prove his theory that Ramius is intending to defect to the United States.

<i>The Cardinal of the Kremlin</i> 1988 thriller novel by Tom Clancy

The Cardinal of the Kremlin is an espionage thriller novel, written by Tom Clancy and released on May 20, 1988. A direct sequel to The Hunt for Red October (1984), it features CIA analyst Jack Ryan as he extracts CARDINAL, the agency's highest placed agent in the Soviet government who is being pursued by the KGB, as well as the Soviet intelligence agency's director. The novel also features the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), a real-life missile-defense system developed by the United States during that time, and its Russian counterpart. The book debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list.

<i>Debt of Honor</i> 1994 novel by Tom Clancy

Debt of Honor is a techno-thriller novel, written by Tom Clancy and released on August 17, 1994. A direct sequel to The Sum of All Fears (1991), Jack Ryan becomes the National Security Advisor when a secret cabal of Japanese industrialists seize control of their country’s government and wage war on the United States. The book debuted at number one on The New York Times bestseller list. The novel was later noted as containing plot elements which were similar to the circumstances of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the hijacking of United Airlines Flight 93.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Ryan (character)</span> Fictional character created by author Tom Clancy

John Patrick Ryan Sr. (Hon.) is a fictional character created by author Tom Clancy and featured in his Ryanverse novels, which have consistently topped the New York Times bestseller list over 30 years. Since Clancy's death in 2013, five other authors, Mark Greaney, Grant Blackwood, Mike Maden, Marc Cameron and Don Bentley, have continued writing new novels for the franchise and its other connecting series with the approval of the Clancy family estate.

John T. Clark is a fictional character created by Tom Clancy. He has been featured in many of his Ryanverse novels. Although he first appeared in The Cardinal of the Kremlin (1988), his origin story was detailed in Without Remorse (1993).

<i>Clear and Present Danger</i> Novel by Tom Clancy

Clear and Present Danger is a political thriller novel, written by Tom Clancy and published on August 17, 1989. A sequel to The Cardinal of the Kremlin (1988), main character Jack Ryan becomes acting Deputy Director of Intelligence in the Central Intelligence Agency, and discovers that he is being kept in the dark by his colleagues who are conducting a covert war against a drug cartel based in Colombia. It debuted at number one on The New York Times bestseller list. A film adaptation, featuring Harrison Ford reprising his role as Ryan, was released on August 3, 1994.

<i>Executive Orders</i> 1996 novel by Tom Clancy

Executive Orders is a techno-thriller novel, written by Tom Clancy and released on July 1, 1996. It picks up immediately where the final events of Debt of Honor (1994) left off, and features now-U.S. President Jack Ryan as he tries to deal with foreign and domestic threats. The book is dedicated to former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, who helped launch Clancy's worldwide success as a novelist. The book debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list.

<i>The Sum of All Fears</i> 1991 novel by Tom Clancy

The Sum of All Fears is a political thriller novel, written by Tom Clancy and released on August 14, 1991, as the sequel to Clear and Present Danger (1989). Main character Jack Ryan, who is now the Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, tries to stop a crisis concerning the Middle East peace process wherein Palestinian and former East German terrorists conspire to bring the United States and Soviet Union into nuclear war. It debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list. A film adaptation, which is a reboot of the Jack Ryan film series and starring Ben Affleck as the younger iteration of the CIA analyst, was released on May 31, 2002.

<i>The Teeth of the Tiger</i> 2003 thriller novel by Tom Clancy

The Teeth of the Tiger is a thriller novel, written by Tom Clancy and released on August 11, 2003. Set in a post-9/11 world, it is the first book to feature The Campus, a covert intelligence agency created by President Jack Ryan before the end of his term as chief executive. While he does not appear in the book, his son Jack Ryan Jr., as well as his nephews Dominic and Brian Caruso, are featured as The Campus operatives. The book debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list, and would become Clancy's last solely written novel before a seven-year break from writing fiction.

<i>Patriot Games</i> (film) 1992 film by Phillip Noyce

Patriot Games is a 1992 American action thriller film directed by Phillip Noyce and based on Tom Clancy's 1987 novel of the same name. It is a sequel to the 1990 film The Hunt for Red October, part of a series of films featuring Clancy's character Jack Ryan, but with different actors in the leading roles. Harrison Ford stars as Jack Ryan and Anne Archer as his wife, and James Earl Jones reprises his role as Admiral James Greer. The cast also includes Sean Bean, Patrick Bergin, Thora Birch, Samuel L. Jackson, James Fox, and Richard Harris.

<i>The Sum of All Fears</i> (film) 2002 film by Phil Alden Robinson

The Sum of All Fears is a 2002 American spy thriller film directed by Phil Alden Robinson, based on Tom Clancy's 1991 novel of the same name. The film, which is set in the Jack Ryan film series, is a reboot taking place in 2002. Jack Ryan is portrayed as a younger character by Ben Affleck, in comparison with the previous films: The Hunt for Red October (1990) starring Alec Baldwin as Jack Ryan and the sequels, Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and Present Danger (1994), both starring Harrison Ford in the role.

The Ryanverse is a term for the political drama media franchise created by author Tom Clancy centering on the character of Jack Ryan and the fictional universe featuring Jack and other characters, such as John Clark and Domingo Chavez.

<i>Dead or Alive</i> (novel) 2010 novel by Tom Clancy

Dead or Alive is a techno-thriller novel, written by Tom Clancy and co-written with Grant Blackwood, and released on December 7, 2010. It is Clancy's first novel in seven years after The Teeth of the Tiger (2003), and follows the hunt by The Campus for "the Emir", a Middle Eastern terrorist based on Osama bin Laden. It unites several characters from the Ryanverse, including former president Jack Ryan, his son Jack Ryan Jr., his nephews Dominic and Brian Caruso, and Rainbow Six veterans John Clark and Domingo Chavez. The book debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list.

<i>Jack Ryan</i> (franchise) American series of action films depicting the character created by Tom Clancy

The Jack Ryan franchise consists of American action-thriller installments, based on the fictional titular character from a series of novels written by Tom Clancy. Various actors have portrayed the role.

The following is a complete list of books published by Tom Clancy, an American author of contemporary spy fiction and military fiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Greaney (novelist)</span> American novelist (born 1967)

Mark Greaney is an American novelist focusing on thriller. He is best known as Tom Clancy's collaborator on his final books during his lifetime, and for continuing the Jack Ryan character and the Tom Clancy universe following Clancy's death in 2013. He is also known for the Gray Man series of novels, which was produced by Netflix into a feature film.

<i>Commander in Chief</i> (novel) 2015 novel by Mark Greaney

Commander in Chief is a political thriller novel, written by Mark Greaney and released on December 1, 2015. In the book, President Jack Ryan and The Campus must stop Russian president Valeri Volodin from launching a covert violent offensive in an effort to bring back Russia as a superpower. Commander in Chief is Greaney’s third solo entry in the Jack Ryan series, which is part of the overall Tom Clancy universe. The book debuted at number two on the New York Times bestseller list.

<i>Duty and Honor</i> (novel)

Duty and Honor is a thriller novel, written by Grant Blackwood and published on June 14, 2016. In the novel, Jack Ryan Jr. must stop a German private contractor from unleashing false flag attacks to profit from the war on terror. Duty and Honor is Blackwood’s last contribution to the Jack Ryan Jr. series, which is part of the overall Tom Clancy universe. It debuted at number four on the New York Times bestseller list.

<i>Oath of Office</i> (novel) 2018 thriller novel

Oath of Office is a techno-thriller novel, written by Marc Cameron and published on November 27, 2018. Set in author Tom Clancy's "Ryanverse," universe, President Jack Ryan and The Campus deal with a sinister plot behind a series of protests in Iran, dubbed the Persian Spring. Oath of Office is Cameron's second book in the Jack Ryan series. The book debuted at number eight on the New York Times bestseller list.

References

  1. ↑ "The New York Times bestseller list for August 2, 1987" (PDF). Retrieved July 9, 2018.
  2. ↑ Greenberg, Martin H. (2005). The Tom Clancy Companion (Revised ed.). Berkley Books. pp.  15–17. ISBN   9780425186220.
  3. 1 2 Anderson, Patrick (May 1988). "King of the 'Techno-Thriller'". The New York Times. Retrieved July 11, 2018.
  4. ↑ Masley, Peter; Streitfeld, Peter. "Novelist Clancy Embroiled in Dispute over Copyright". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 15, 2018.
  5. ↑ "Patriot Games by Tom Clancy". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved July 12, 2018.
  6. ↑ "Box Office Mojo" . Retrieved July 11, 2018.
  7. ↑ "Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved July 11, 2018.
  8. ↑ Yardley, Jonathan. "Tom Clancy: Firing, And Missing". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 11, 2018.
  9. ↑ Brew, Simon. "Why Tom Clancy's Name Isn't on the Patriot Games Poster". Den of Geek. Retrieved July 12, 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.