Following the 9/11-delayed Collateral Damage and Big Trouble, which both had studios worried they'd hit too close to home (but didn't), The Sum of All Fears should be a much better indication of the public's ability to tolerate a shockingly brutal and incredibly realistic look at a devastating terrorist act committed on U.S. soil.  Tom Clancy's story is more plausible and has a much higher body count, making it the only one of the three films that should cause viewers to genuinely flinch and shift uncomfortably in their seats as they watch.  But it could have been a lot worse – the other Clancy novel Hollywood considered adapting for the big screen was Executive Orders, which was about a Japanese terrorist who crashes a commercial jet into the Capitol.

Fears is the latest of Clancy's Jack Ryan novels to surface at the googleplex, and following Alec Baldwin (The Hunt For Red October) and Harrison Ford (Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger), Changing Lanes' Ben Affleck is the third actor to assume the Ryan handle and persona – though, admittedly, he does much more of the former than the latter.  Affleck was cast when Ford turned the role down while he considered taking Michael Douglas's part in Traffic (which he obviously didn't), and said casting may have seemed like a good idea at the time (kind of like when screenwriters Paul Attanasio and Daniel Pyne decided the novel's antagonists – Muslim terrorists – seemed both silly and farfetched).  I don't know whether Fears was scripted this way, or if it's the result of an editing-room salvage job, but the film plays as more of an ensemble piece than the previous Ryan flicks, which, in retrospect, seems like a good idea because Affleck ain't that great here.

Fears requires you to suspend a little disbelief before you sit down to watch it, as it's a prequel to the other three films, though it takes place in time after they do.  The novel had Ryan as the director of the CIA, but that would seem highly unlikely with Affleck filling out the role, so they've busted him down to a simple office analyst who has been on the job for just over a year.  The only reason he becomes involved in the story is because of his knowledge about brand-new Russian President Nemerov (Ciarán Hinds), who most Washington insiders fear could be a dangerous hardliner.  Their worst fears are realized soon after when Chechnya is bombed in what is widely assumed to be a Russian assault, despite their denials.

But Our Jack knows better.  Without getting into too much of the story, Ryan tracks down a nuclear warhead that has been planted in a Baltimore football stadium hosting the Super Bowl (except it's Olympic Stadium in Montreal – with a dome and CFL teams!).  This might call to mind Black Sunday, but when the nuke goes off, John Frankenheimer's classic will be the farthest thing from your mind.

Fears is pretty slow until this point, bogged down by the purposefully confusing political setup, but once the shit hits the fan, the film really takes off.  The second half focuses on U.S. President Fowler (James Cromwell) and his band of advisors (Morgan Freeman, Philip Baker Hall, Bruce McGill and Ron Rifkin) as they try to figure out what the hell to do.  Nemerov swears the Super Bowl attack wasn't him, but how much trust can you put into a guy who has thousands of missiles pointed at you?  The post-blast bedlam is easily the best part of this film.

Things that don't work include Affleck's stony portrayal of Ryan, as well as his shoddily developed romance with Serendipity's Bridget Moynahan, and an ending that's way too uplifting in light of the horror and devastation that preceded it.  Director Phil Alden Robinson, whose last big-screen directing credit was 1992's Sneakers (way back when Robert Redford's face didn't look like so much like an unmade bed), does a fine job pacing the second half, but it might just seem that way because the first half was such a mess.  Six months ago, the studio wasn't sure they'd ever release Fears, but they shouldn't be alarmed.  Remember – The Siege became the hottest rental of the week immediately following the 9/11 attacks.

1:57 –

for violence, disaster images and brief strong language