Alec Baldwin played Jack Ryan in The Hunt for Red October (1990), but Harrison Ford replaced him for this and future films based on Tom Clancy's novels. Rumors give the reason as either Baldwin's "unprofessional behavior" during the making of The Hunt for Red October, or his supposed demand of $4 million. Others say that he declined to return as Ryan because he didn't like the script. The official version is that Baldwin was offered a theatre role that he preferred to reprising Ryan.
Although this film was a sequel to The Hunt for Red October (1990), the action of the original novels was in the opposite order: the novel "Patriot Games" was a prequel. Presumably the change was made because Harrison Ford is older than Alec Baldwin.
The country in North Africa in which the IRA train is never named, although the implication is that it is Libya.
The CIA scenes were filmed at the actual CIA headquarters; this was the first time the CIA had ever done such a thing.
The novel had the Prince and Princess of Wales and their baby as the target of the attempted kidnapping.
The line "There's never been a terrorist attack on American soil" was included in trailers for movie, but was left out of theatrical release because it sounded too much like an invitation or dare.
The original ending had Jack Ryan and Sean Miller fighting on large rocks in the middle of the stormy sea and Miller eventually drowning. Test audiences were not excited by this conclusion, so the new ending with the speedboat fight was filmed.
The satellite attack-watching sequence features rather emotional, thinly scored music by James Horner, but the music is, in fact, taken quite directly from the slow movement of Dmitri Shostakovich's 5th Symphony. It's only for about half a minute that Horner does this, and he blends it into his own stuff, but that one little part is a very direct, uncredited grab.
At the end of the film, "Doctor Zaillian" calls with information on the Ryans' pregnancy. The name is a tribute to screenwriter Steven Zaillian, who did an uncredited rewrite on the film.
The dual-beeping sound effect of Jack Ryan's EKG was also used in The Hunt for Red October (1990) as the sound of the USS Dallas' sonar tracking the Red October.
During the final scene in the kitchen, Jack opens the refrigerator door. On the door is a list of potential names for their next child. Under the heading of "Girls" are the names Samuel and Jackson. Samuel L. Jackson plays Robby in the film.
The name of the bar where Ryan confronts the IRA leader is The Patriot, which is also the code name of the terrorism case Jack Ryan is working on at the CIA.
In one scene where Jack Ryan is preparing breakfast for his daughter Sally, he asks her if she would like "...toast, or... toast?" Later on, in Clear and Present Danger (1994), Sally asks her younger brother this exact same question while she prepares him breakfast.
Excerpts from James Horner's score were taken directly from a piece of music from Aliens (1986) also scored by Horner. See also Clear and Present Danger (1994).
The cut above Sean Miller's left eye in the climatic fight with Jack Ryan was the real thing.
Patrick Malahide was cast in a featured role but had to pull out because of a dates clash with a TV film he was working at the same time
Richard Harris was an eleventh hour casting choice. He replaced an unknown actor who had to drop out
The room number at the beginning of the film where Jack Ryan is staying is 713. Harrison Ford's birthday is 7/13.
Harrison Ford was paid $7 million for his role as Jack Ryan.
Some actors refused parts in this because of the way it depicted the troubles.
Original author Tom Clancy disassociated himself from the production after reading the first draft of the script.
Paramount yanked all their advertising out of Variety when one of the magazine's film critics, Joseph McBride, called the film "fascistic, blatantly anti-Irish... a right-wing cartoon". Variety's editor Peter Bart privately sided with Paramount's boycott, calling McBride "unprofessional". Bart was subsequently embarrassed when his letter criticizing one of his reviewers and supporting studio censorship was leaked to the press. The Los Angeles Film Critics' Association and the National Society of Film Critics then publicly lambasted Bart for his "dismaying treatment" of one of his members of staff, saying "the question is not whether any responsible critic is right or wrong, but whether any responsible critic must be muted so as not to offend an advertiser or bruise a handful of tender egos".
James Fox replaced his brother Edward Fox as Lord Holmes.
The name of Paddy O'Neil, the IRA spokesman played by Richard Harris, is taken from the name used by the IRA organization to sign all statements originating from them, P. O'Neil.
Tom Watt claims that he got his part because it amused director Phillip Noyce that an actor called Watt was auditioning for the role of an electrician.
James Horner (who, like all composers, often re-uses his own material) borrows part of his score from Aliens (1986) in scoring this film. Specifically, the key elements of "Resolution and Hyperspace" from the "Aliens" soundtrack appears in this movie as the music that plays while Ryan and the others watch the SAS attack on the Libyan training camp.
When the IRA are coming to kill Kevin O'Donnell, he is watching Harry's Game (1982) (TV) on his TV, a film about the IRA. The music in that scene is Clannad's song "Harry's Theme", made for that same film.
Kenneth Griffith turned down the Gerald Sim part.
Admiral Greer:
Excuse me, Jack, tell me one thing in life that is absolutely for certain.
Jack Ryan:
My daughter's love.
Marty Cantor:
Jack, do you have any idea what a big deal it is to retask those satellites?
Jack Ryan:
Yeah.
Paddy O'Neil:
The day I turn in my own countrymen, will be the day I put a bullet in my own head.
Jimmy O'Reardon:
Ah, ye're not gonna make me wear a rubber, are ye? Ye know, the church says wearin' one o' them's a sin, darlin'.
Annette Bearer:
So's this. Darlin'.
[shoots Jimmy while he lies in bed]
Sean Miller:
I saw his wife and daughter die, but she and Neddy blew it. Ryan's still alive.
Kevin O'Donnell:
They're not dead, Sean.
Sean Miller:
What?
Kevin O'Donnell:
They survived it. I can't say it any plainer than that. It doesn't matter. Your trip served its purpose.
Sean Miller:
It *does* matter!
Sean Miller:
How's the family, Ryan? Nearly lost 'em, didn't you? It's easy to get at them. Are you there?
Jack Ryan:
Yeah.
Sean Miller:
I understand your little girl's feeling better. Lost her spleen, eh? Pity, that. Make it a might difficult for her to fight off infection, eh Jacky boy?
Jack Ryan:
You sick son of a bitch.
[Showing Marty some pictures of the woman they're after, provided by Paddy O'Neil]
Jack Ryan:
Paddy O'Neil can sleep at night. And he probably enjoys the irony. She's not Irish; she's English.
[about Paddy O'Neil and the pictures he provided to Jack]
Marty Cantor:
You tell him you're looking for a girl, so he gives you pictures of a girl.
Jack Ryan:
I didn't tell him I was looking for a girl, Marty.
[to Ryan]
Sean Miller:
Bloody proud of yourself, aren't you? You stuck your nose in where it didn't belong. And now you've killed my baby brother.
[regarding Sally Ryan, who they are about to kill]
Miller's Driver:
Kinda cute, isn't she?
Sean Miller:
Is she?
Lt. Cmdr. Robby Jackson:
Attention to order. I have a presentation to make. For service above and beyond the call of duty of a tourist, or even a Marine, we recognize Professor John Patrick Ryan, with the Order of the Purple Target.
[He hangs a medal around Jack's neck in the shape of a bulls-eye, with the words "SHOOT ME" on it]
Lt. Cmdr. Robby Jackson:
And hope that he will duck next time, lest he become part of history, rather than a teacher of it.
Errors in geography: Cathy Ryan heads west from Annapolis, Maryland in her Porsche, yet gets shot at on a highway in Los Angeles.
Errors in geography: Dennis Cooley runs out of his bookshop in the Burlington Arcade and into a tube station at Aldwych, a mile away.
Errors in geography: Tube trains from Aldwych ran only to the next station, Holborn, yet an announcement is heard in the station: "All change at Acton Town for Hatton Cross. Hatton Cross train stopping at Oxford Circus, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Green Park, Acton Town, Hampstead Heath, Marble Arch, Hounslow East,[inaudible], Hyde Park. All change at Acton Town for Hatton Cross."
Errors in geography: Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus, Green Park, Hyde Park Corner (not "Hyde Park"), Acton Town, Hounslow East, and Hatton Cross stations occur in that order along the Piccadilly Line. The other 12 stations in between, at which all trains stop, should also have been mentioned. Marble Arch and Oxford Circus are on the Central Line, not the Piccadilly, while Hampstead Heath is not on the Underground at all, but was a British Rail station.
Continuity: The announcement also contradicts itself, telling passengers both that the train is for Hatton Cross and that they must change at Acton Town for Hatton Cross. Also, the instruction "all change" means that passengers for ANY other destination must change, and is not used in relation to a specific destination.
Factual errors: Train departure announcements on the London Underground, if made at all, do not list the train's stops except where these might vary from one train to another.
Errors in geography: Just as the announcement is finishing, another train can be heard arriving. After 1917, Aldwych station had only one track.
Errors in geography: Sean Miller is transferred from a prison in Southwark (in London) to the high security unit on the Isle of Wight. This would involve a land journey of 50 miles to the southwest, then a ferry across the Solent. However, the ambush is depicted as occurring at the Middlesbrough moving bridge, 200 miles north of London; and in later dialogue it's said to have been in Kent near the Channel, which would be southeast of London and at least 70 miles from the Isle of Wight ferry routes.
Factual errors: Jack Ryan could not have avoided the assassin by jumping behind a car because that particular street near the U.S. Naval Academy does not allow parking.
Revealing mistakes: When they show Midshipman running on the Naval Academy campus, they show them running in a ceremonial area, when running is not allowed.
Errors in geography: Cathy and Sally Ryan arrive at the hospital via a "LifeFlight" helicopter. MedEvacs in Maryland are primarily done by the Maryland State Police and there is no "LifeFlight" helicopter anywhere near the state of Maryland.
Continuity: When Paddy O'Neil gives Jack a present, its position on the table changes between shots.
Continuity: In the CIA brain-storming session, while Jack is on his way to the bathroom to "throw some water" on his face, the papers he's carrying in his right hand disappear.
Continuity: Just before he is shot, Jimmy O'Reardon is naked on the bed. As he is being shot, a blanket suddenly covers the lower half of his body. When he falls backwards onto the bed, the blanket also moves as if it is attached with some sort of adhesive.
Audio/visual unsynchronized: The band playing toward the beginning of the film showed drums playing out of sync with the music being played.
Revealing mistakes: "Dead" Paddy Boy's eyes are moving when the wool mask is being removed from his head.
Revealing mistakes: After the attack on him outside the Naval Academy when Jack Ryan gets in his parked and locked car and drives away the passenger side window is open (due to filming him starting the car). Later the window is seen to be closed.
Continuity: The two cars accompanying each prison van are identical early-1990s model Vauxhall Cavaliers, yet the wrecked burnt out car to the rear of the prison van after Sean Miller had been freed is an early-1980s Rover.
Continuity: When Jimmy O'Reardon is shot, the first shot hits him in the forehead. The second shot clearly misses, hitting the lamp behind him. In later dialog Ryan states that Jimmy O'Reardon was killed by a "double-tap to the head" when in fact he was only hit once.
Audio/visual unsynchronized: The UZI machine pistols the terrorists use in the house attack towards the end, have no silencers fitted, but still make the sound of a silenced weapon.
Factual errors: Lord Holmes says that The Queen has decided to invest Jack Ryan K.C.V.O. (Knight Commander of the [Royal] Victorian Order). The insignia is a neck badge and a breast star. When Lord Holmes shows the insignia to Ryan at his home, it is just a small round silver medal, the insignia of the Royal Victorian Medal (R.V.M.), a very minor award by comparison.
Follows
The Hunt for Red October (1990)
Followed by
Clear and Present Danger (1994)
The Sum of All Fears (2002)
Without Remorse (2007)
Rainbow Six (2008)
Edited into
Commercial Entertainment Product (1992) (V)
- Contains footage edited in from Patriot Games (1992)
References
Blade Runner (1982)
Referenced in
"The Larry Sanders Show: The Garden Weasel (#1.1)" (1992)
- mentioned in show
Appât, L' (1995)
Baazi (1995)
Parfum d'Emmanuelle, Le (1995) (TV)
Face/Off (1997)
American Beauty (1999)
- In American Beauty, the childhood pictures of Thora Birch (one of her in a tuxedo-like outfit) previously appeared in Patriot Games (1992).
Thumb Wars: The Phantom Cuticle (1999) (TV)
"Family Guy: Patriot Games (#4.20)" (2006)
- title reference
Featured in
Spies Above (1996) (TV)
Patriot Games: Up Close (2002) (TV)
- clips shown
Spoofed in
Patriot Dames (1992) (V)
- porn parody
Wrongfully Accused (1998)