Since September 11, events that previously would have been unthinkable are suddenly, thinkable. In The Sum of All Fears, the latest film to be adapted from a Tom Clancy novel, this reality both helps and hinders the movie. Sum again centers around CIA Analyst Jack Ryan, first introduced in The Hunt for Red October with Alec Baldwin in the role, then in Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger with Harrison Ford. This time, Ben Affleck is Ryan, portrayed near the beginning of his career. An expert in Russian intelligence, Ryan’s knowledge suddenly becomes important when a new Russian leader comes to power, and he finds himself included in meetings with the CIA Director (Morgan Freeman) and even the U.S. President himself (James Cromwell). The situation escalates when a nuclear weapon is detonated on U.S. soil, and only Ryan believes that foreign terrorists, not the Russians, are behind it.

As a piece of entertainment, Sum is relatively well done. Affleck is believable as a young Ryan, and Freemen and Liev Schreiber as a young John Clark (played in previous films by Willem Dafoe) are both excellent. But in today’s world, can a film like this be just entertainment? Its realism both intensifies the effect of the film (especially with the nuclear blast and its aftermath) and detracts from it (in its depiction of Cold War-era types of interactions between a present-day U.S. and Russia). With our fears so close to the surface, movies can take on more significance than they deserve, but I certainly hope that the screen is as close as we ever get to a scenario like this.