Clancy franchise takes youthful but solid turn with Pine as Jack Ryan

Advertisement

Advertise with us

Befitting a spy thriller, one comes to the rebooted Tom Clancy hero Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit with suspicions a-tingle, exacerbated by the casting of Chris Pine as the celebrated CIA analyst.

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/01/2014 (4607 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Befitting a spy thriller, one comes to the rebooted Tom Clancy hero Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit with suspicions a-tingle, exacerbated by the casting of Chris Pine as the celebrated CIA analyst.

Pine, 33, was already cast as Capt. James Tiberius Kirk in the rebooted Star Trek franchise to bring youth and sexy vigour to one of science fiction’s grand old men. It appears Paramount didn’t even venture outside their own studio gates to find a new Ryan.

Another problem: the Ryan character was already rebooted in the 2002 movie The Sum of All Fears with Ben Affleck in the role. While the movie was a modest box office success, well, let’s just say the Affleck iteration didn’t take.

Larry Horricks / Paramount Pictures
Chris Pine as Jack Ryan in Shadow Recruit.
Larry Horricks / Paramount Pictures Chris Pine as Jack Ryan in Shadow Recruit.

Scripted by Adam Cozad and David Koepp and directed by Kenneth Branagh, Shadow Recruit is the first of the Ryan films not based on a Clancy novel and offers a more holistic reboot. Pine’s Ryan is a student at the London School of Economics when the terrorist attacks of 2001 compel him to join the Marines and fight for his country. Instead of receiving injuries in Vietnam, a la Clancy, his helicopter is shot down over Afghanistan.

During his rehab, he not only meets his future wife Cathy (Keira Knightley), he is recruited by CIA handler Thomas Harper (Kevin Costner) with a new mission in Ryan’s economics bailiwick: Go to work on Wall Street and seek out big-money transactions that might be linked to terrorist organizations. (Presumably, he isn’t given the broader task of detecting criminal activity, which would be like being parachuted into Nebraska to look for corn.)

He uncovers a serious impending transaction tied to ruthless Russian oligarch Viktor Cherevin (played by director Branagh with a combination of vanity and chilly brutality worthy of Vladimir Putin). The plot would only work, Ryan surmises, if it is tied to a domestic terrorist attack. So, at Harper’s insistence, Ryan is sent to Moscow to investigate further, only to find that the “desk job” of auditing corporate books involves fighting off assassins. “You’re not just an analyst anymore,” Harper tells him as he hands Ryan a gun. “You’re operational now.”

Adding to Ryan’s problems: Cathy shows up at his Moscow hotel with the intention of enjoying an exotic Russian getaway.

A January release for an expensive studio movie is usually a sign of trouble, but Shadow Recruit turns out to be a wholly satisfactory Ryan outing, especially compared to the franchise fumble The Sum of All Fears. The story is a solid espionage tale, handsomely mounted. (Note how Andrew Laws’ dark, cold, elegant production design is perfectly synched to Branagh’s character in the Moscow scenes.) If Pine can’t deliver a tone of world-weary gravitas, Costner (one of the original choices to play Jack Ryan in The Hunt for Red October) compensates in that department. His Thomas Harper is a more fully developed CIA mentor than was seen in any of the previous Jack Ryan films, carrying the full, tragic weight of his CIA past.

Anatoliy Vorobev
Kenneth Branagh (center) is Viktor Cherevin in JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT, from Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions.
JR-02811
Anatoliy Vorobev Kenneth Branagh (center) is Viktor Cherevin in JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT, from Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions. JR-02811

In the past, Branagh’s expertise was best displayed in his Shakespearean films, but in this contemporary arena, the man pulls off his double duty in style. The scene in which he shares dinner with Knightley’s Cathy (pressed into service as Jack’s mission mate) is a little gem of seduction with an undercurrent of malice.

And isn’t that what spy movies should be all about?

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

Larry Horricks
Left to right: Chris Pine is Jack Ryan and Kevin Costner is Thomas Harper in JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT, from Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions.
JR-07230R
Larry Horricks Left to right: Chris Pine is Jack Ryan and Kevin Costner is Thomas Harper in JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT, from Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions. JR-07230R
CP
This image released by Paramount Pictures shows Keira Knightley, right, and Chris Pine in
CP This image released by Paramount Pictures shows Keira Knightley, right, and Chris Pine in "Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit," an action thriller about a covert CIA analyst who uncovers a Russian plot to crash the U.S. economy with a terrorist attack. (AP Photo/Paramount Pictures, Larry Horricks)
Randall King

Randall King
Writer

Randall King writes about film for the Winnipeg Free Press.

Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.

Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.

History

Updated on Friday, January 17, 2014 6:39 AM CST: Changes headline, replaces photo, adds video

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

Trump’s tariff tantrum, geopolitical turmoil could be blessings in disguise for Manitoba’s diversified economy

Conrad Sweatman 18 minute read Preview

Trump’s tariff tantrum, geopolitical turmoil could be blessings in disguise for Manitoba’s diversified economy

Conrad Sweatman 18 minute read 3:58 PM CDT

It’s early July and Warren Luky’s second last day before he retires as president of United Steelworkers Local 6166. After a career at the bargaining table and in and around mineshafts, Luky speaks candidly as he fires up a barbecue at his Thompson home.

Luky, who represents 472 miners at Vale’s Thompson mining operation along with other northern labourers, is quite aware of the buzzwords currently attached to his trade and the region.

Phrases like “Arctic sovereignty,” “trade diversification,” “Indigenous-led” and “critical minerals” have caught on with politicians of all stripes over the past couple years as federal and provincial governments tout the need for greater Canadian sovereignty, with the push for major infrastructure projects declared a matter of national interest.

In light of the bitter collapse in trade negotiations between Canada and the U.S. on Aug. 21 — a historic blow to cross-border relations — these phrases are bound to become more contagious.

Read
3:58 PM CDT

Manitoba introduces $100M in supports to combat U.S. tariffs

Carol Sanders 5 minute read Preview

Manitoba introduces $100M in supports to combat U.S. tariffs

Carol Sanders 5 minute read Updated: 6:45 PM CDT

Manitoba is responding to the latest U.S. tariffs with more than $100 million in support for workers, businesses and producers to help them withstand the headwinds, but the opposition said it’s “too little, too late.”

Read
Updated: 6:45 PM CDT

Former care home nurse fined $8,000 for ‘disturbing in the extreme’ 2025 incident

Morgan Modjeski 3 minute read Preview

Former care home nurse fined $8,000 for ‘disturbing in the extreme’ 2025 incident

Morgan Modjeski 3 minute read Yesterday at 5:00 PM CDT

A former nurse has been fined $8,000 and is facing numerous restrictions after making a mistake “no registered nurse should have made” by inserting 10 centimetres of gauze into a patient’s anus instead of dressing a nearby wound.

Read
Yesterday at 5:00 PM CDT

U of M research role expands after $79-M federal injection

By Zoe Pierce 5 minute read Preview

U of M research role expands after $79-M federal injection

By Zoe Pierce 5 minute read 4:37 PM CDT

The University of Manitoba is playing in a new league.

A $79-million investment will bring five internationally recruited researchers to Manitoba to build “ambitious,” long-term research programs in areas of strategic national importance.

The five researchers will join the U of M thanks to the federal government’s $1.7-billion research talent initiative that’s designed to help Canadian universities compete globally for leading researchers.

The initiative’s flagship program, the Eddie Goldenberg Research Chairs of Canada, provides universities with the funding and resources to recruit world-class researchers, build research teams and pursue large-scale projects in fields considered important to Canada — from Arctic navigation and defence to sustainable mining, health equity and environmental law.

Read
4:37 PM CDT

Five exceptional Manitobans reflect on what it means to be Canadian while bracing against Trump’s vitriol and economic upheaval

Aaron Epp 11 minute read Preview

Five exceptional Manitobans reflect on what it means to be Canadian while bracing against Trump’s vitriol and economic upheaval

Aaron Epp 11 minute read 1:35 PM CDT

Canadians have been trying to make sense of a new reality since Canada-United States trade talks broke down on Aug. 21.

The following day, President Donald Trump’s administration imposed 50 per cent tariffs on US$20 billion worth of Canadian exports to the U.S.

The federal government responded in kind a few days later, rolling out tariffs on $27.6 billion worth of imports from the U.S.

The Free Press contacted five Manitobans who have been appointed to the Order of Canada and asked them for their thoughts on the status of Canada-U.S. relations and what is means to be a Canadian today. Their responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Read
1:35 PM CDT

City advised 275 people in 72 camps as of July

Joyanne Pursaga 5 minute read Preview

City advised 275 people in 72 camps as of July

Joyanne Pursaga 5 minute read 5:49 PM CDT

A tally by the City of Winnipeg shows the number of people in encampments has fallen by a few hundred since last September.

A Friday presentation to city council members shows 245 people lived in 72 encampments across the city in July, compared with about 100 encampments with 700 people in September 2025.

“There’s some good progress that’s being made … The number of people in encampments is less than half of what it was last year,” said Mayor Scott Gillingham.

The city did not provide numbers for July 2025. It has previously noted the number of encampments tends to increase in warmer months, which has happened each month since February 2026.

Read
5:49 PM CDT