History Film / TheSumOfAllFears

-->'''Dressler:''' Hitler was not crazy; he was stupid. You don't fight Russia ''and'' America. [[LetsYouAndHimFight You get Russia and America to fight each other]].

* AdaptationDistillation: Very much so. Elizabeth Elliot and her romantic subplot with the President are nowhere to be found, no ground battle in Berlin or sinking of an American SSBN, Ryan is a rookie analyst rather than Deputy Director of the CIA, and more. Clancy said in the DVDCommentary "I wrote the book they ignored."

* ArtisticLicenseGeography:
** The football game takes place as a fictional stadium called the "Baltimore Forum" outside downtown. In real-life such a stadium would not exist since the M&T Bank Stadium is right within walking distance.

* BerserkButton: Russian leader Nemerov flips out when the U.S. president mentions Russian atrocities committed in Chechnya.
** Quite a nice and somewhat realistic moment, as he immediately retorts with a Whataboutism line.

* DeathByAdaptation: In the novel, the Druse farmer survived and wasn't mentioned at all after the bomb was recovered by the Arab terrorists. In the movie, he dies of radiation poisoning from the bomb, but not before giving Clark some vital information. Also his son, who died in the Yom Kippur War in the movie, but survived in the book, albeit as a cripple from his APC getting blown up.

* DiplomaticBackChannel: After receiving some information on the Russian nuclear facility he and Jack were visiting, Bill Cabot explains that he has a source in the Kremlin that he talks to in order to keep the back channels open. [[spoiler:After Cabot is killed during the attack on Baltimore, this contact is revealed to be Anatoli Grushkov, who offers to keep talking to Jack, to keep the back channels open in the hopes of staving off disaster.]]
* DolledUpInstallment: The [[LicensedGame game adaptation]] is really just ''VideoGame/GhostRecon1'' with new levels, characters, story, etc.

* ExternalCombustion: Subverted. Dressler is smart enough to have his bodyguard start the car first, and the poor guy obviously knows why. This is why the assassin wires the bomb into the cigarette lighter, since Dressler is a chain smoker. In a nice touch of irony, the bodyguard survives, having been sent off by Dressler to gather his things.

* ThoseWackyNazis: The villains. Here, they are noticeably all successful businessmen and politicians.

* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: Dressler has the three Russian scientists and his American collaborator brutally killed once they're no longer useful to him. Considering that they were all traitors of their own country and Neo-Nazi collaborators the kinda deserved it. Then Dressler himself and the rest of the conspirators become this when they're all killed by American and Russian assassins in revenge for their crimes.]]

* AmoralAfrikaner: Derek Olson, a notorious South African ArmDealer who sold the bomb to Dressler and he supplies various weapons to other terrorists in the world.

* BritishNazi: The Neo-Nazi leader is an Austrian billionare played by Creator/AlanBates.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler:Spassky, Orlov and Milinov are killed once they've built the bomb]].

* PoorCommunicationsKills: When calling Becker, who he is ''well aware'' does not believe Jack's interpretation of Nemerov (in fact, Becker calls him "the Nemerov apologist"), Jack, who at this point [[spoiler:is in in possession of actual evidence the Russians didn't blow this bomb]], responds with about the most unhelpful statement possible short of personally insulting Becker: "Sir, this bomb was not Nemerov. I know this guy." Becker promptly hangs up. Masterful.

* PoorCommunicationSkills: When calling Becker, who he is ''well aware'' does not believe Jack's interpretation of Nemerov (in fact, Becker calls him "the Nemerov apologist"), Jack, who at this point [[spoiler:is in in possession of actual evidence the Russians didn't blow this bomb]], responds with about the most unhelpful statement possible short of personally insulting Becker: "Sir, this bomb was not Nemerov. I know this guy." Becker promptly hangs up. Masterful.

* MissingStepsPlan: [[spoiler:How the neo-fascist conspiracy is actually going to take control over Europe following a nuclear war between USA and Russia, a scenario that is all but guaranteed to immediately escalate into WorldWarIII and lay complete waste to vast parts of Europe in the process is never really explained. They seem to operate under the assumption that without America and Russia to stop them, they can just waltz in and use their wealth to ''somehow'' take over the European states without any major problems, but in the kind of scenario they are setting up there likely won't ''be'' any states to take over and their wealth is going be rendered worthless.]]

** Jack Ryan grabs it ''hard'' when he has tries to contact the President, but is only able to get on the phone with Becker, a man who hates him and dismissively refers to him as "the Nemerov apologist" right off the bat. Instead of taking the professional approach, and just sticking to ''immediately'' telling Becker that he can ''prove'' the plutonium in the bomb was of American origin, which would ''at least'' encourage further investigation before retaliation, Jack instead decides to get into an argument with the guy about Nemerov's integrity, which just makes Becker hang up on him. Of course, Becker is handling the idiot ball here too, since he's willingly ignoring potential new information from a CIA Analyst who he knows was working directly for Bill Cabot in recent weeks.

** It might be somewhat understandable that the US President attends a big national public event like the Superbowl, even in a time where international tensions are running very high; in such times the USA would want to project strength and unity, and using a public facing figure like the President would be the way to do it. What is much less excusable is that the Director of the CIA decides to attend the same event, at a time where his job very much requires him keep an close eye on the situation, and the only way to contact him, in a situation where a noisy crowd is guaranteed to be present and high network traffic will likely cause calls to drop, is a regular cell phone.
** Jack Ryan grabs it ''hard'' when he has finally gotten on the phone with one of the President's advisors, a man who hates him and dismissively refers to him as "Nemerov apologist" right off the bat. Instead of ''immediately'' telling him that he can ''prove'' the plutonium in the bomb was of American origin, which would ''at least'' encourage further investigation before retaliation, he decides to argue with the guy about Nemerov's integrity, which just makes the advisor hang up on him. Arguably the advisor, too, is handling the idiot ball here, since he's ignoring potential new information from a CIA Analyst who he knows was working directly for Bill Cabot in recent weeks.

* MissingStepsPlan: [[spoiler:How the neo-fascist conspiracy is actually going to take control over Europe following a nuclear war between USA and Russia, a scenario that is all but guaranteed to immediately escalate into WorldWarIII and lay complete waste to vast parts of Europe in the process is never really explained. They seem to operate under the assumption that without America and Russia to stop them, they can just waltz in and use their wealth to take over the European states without any major problems, but in the kind of scenario they are setting up there likely won't ''be'' any states to take over and their wealth is going be rendered worthless.]]

-->'''Monceau''': In light of the week's events, I am grown uncomfortable with this plan. So I must beg your leave, gentlemen.\\
'''Dressler''': Herr Haft will help you out.\\
'''Haft''': Your scarf, monsieur. (''strangles him'')

-->'''Clark''': Suit up!\\
'''Ryan''': Clark, no! Clark! NO!\\

* PretextForWar: The villains plan revolves around [[spoiler: making a nuke that looks Russian, and then detonating it on American soil, thus getting the two superpowers to launch attacks against one another.]]

* IdiotBall: It might be somewhat understandable that the US President attends a big national public event like the Superbowl, even in a time where international tensions are running high; in such times the USA would want to project strength and unity, and using a public facing figure like the President would be the way to do it. What is much less excusable is that the director of the CIA decides to attend the same event, at a time where his job very much requires him keep an close eye on the situation, and the only way to contact him, in a situation where a noisy crowd is guaranteed to be present and high network traffic will likey cause calls to drop, is a regular cell phone.

* IdiotBall: It might be somewhat understandable that the US President attends a big national public event like the Superbowl, even in a time where international tensions are running high; in such times the USA would want to project strength and unity, and using a public facing figure like the President would be the way to do it. What is much less excusable is that the director of the CIA decides to attend the same event, at a time where his job very much requires him keep an close eye on the situation, and the only way to contact him, in a situation where a noisy crowd is present, is a regular cell phone.

* AllGermansAreNazis: Sorta, the main baddie is an Austrian Neo-Nazi who is aggrieved that Europe is sidelined to playing second-fiddle to the United States on the world stage.