Ex-CIA agent Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford) is forced back into service when he saves the lives of the English minister to Northern Ireland and his family from a terrorist attack, killing one of the perpetrators in the process. The dead man's brother, also a member of an IRA splinter faction, vows revenge on Ryan and his family and pursues them to the United States. Ryan knows it is only a matter of time till he comes face to face with his nemesis... and that only one of them will come out alive. Based on Tom Clancy's bestselling novel.
His days as a CIA analyst behind him, Jack Ryan travels to London to vacation with his family. Outside Buckingham Palace, he is caught in the middle of an attack on a member of the royal family but manages to foil the attempt and dispatch one of the terrorists. The Irish terrorists vow revenge. Based on Tom Clancy's novel.
Prequel to the 1990 film The Hunt for Red October, also based on a novel by Tom Clancy. Hunt starred Alec Baldwin as Jack Ryan and featured Gates McFadden from TV's "Star Trek: the Next Generation" as Cathy Ryan. Baldwin, given the choice of Patriot Games or the Broadway revival of "Streetcar Named Desire," chose "Streetcar." Only James Earl Jones as Admiral James Greer returns in Patriot Games. Harrison Ford returned to star in the next Jack Ryan film as well - A Clear and Present Danger shot in 1993.
The film downplays the British-Irish political and social issues raised in the novel and focuses on the threat to the family unit instead.
Captain Michael T. Sherman and Lieutenant James E. Brooks served as Navy technical advisors.
Patriot Games is the first feature to film inside CIA headquarters.
Patriot Games is not to be confused with The Patriot Game, a 1978 French documentary by Arthur MacCaig on the struggle of the IRA to reunite Northern and southern Ireland and free all of Ireland from English rule.
Estimated budget $43 million.
Shot in Technicolor and Panavision on location in London, England; Washington, DC; Maryland; and Los Angeles, California. Filming began November 2, 1991; completed February 18, 1992. Sound by Dolby (Spectral Recording). Visual effects and video displays by Video Image.
Screened at 1992 Venice Film Festival (Venetian Nights).
Released in USA June 5, 1992. Released on video November 24, 1992.
Reviewed in the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times June 5, 1992.
Available to buy in the UK.
DVD Features:
Region 1
Keep Case
Widescreen
Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 DTS Surround - English
Subtitles - English, Frenc, Spanish
Additional Release Material:
Featurette - 1. PATRIOT GAMES CLOSE UP
Trailers - Theatrical Trailer
Story
Tom Clancy: American novelist, THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER (1990)
Review 1:
"...Sleek....Ford's restrained performance is just right..."
Source: New York Times
p.C17 06/05/1992
Review 2:
"...Lively..."
Source: USA Today
p.4D 06/05/1992
Review 3:
"...[Ford is] the rare action star who's witty enough to thrive on good dialogue..."
Source: Entertainment Weekly
p.36-7 06/15/1992
Review 4:
"...The film's frequent action sequences are crisply done, the technology that Clancy is known for is skillfully visualized..."
Source: Los Angeles Times
p.F1 06/05/1992
Review 5:
"...The high-tech stuff is absorbing. Harrison Ford once again demonstrates what a solid, convincing actor he is..."
Source: Chicago Sun-Times
p.41 06/12/1992
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