History Literature / JackRyan

** While Clancy had admitted that his books are something of an allegory to real life, this tendency does cause some of his books to contain some considerable continuity errors, such as [[spoiler: the assassination attempt on [[UsefulNotes/ThePope John Paul II]] being in 1982 instead of 1981]] in ''Red Rabbit'', or Ronald Reagan running for reelection in 1988 in ''Clear and Present Danger'' (though in the second case it may well be Walter Mondale who defeated Reagan in 1984).

** At one point Cliff Rutledge says that the USA has the longest continual stable government in the world, which is a fairly dubious statement. Whilst the various criteria can be subjectively defined for various ends, many would argue that there are several "continual stable governments" that have existed for longer - the UK has maintained a constitutional monarchy, with various constitutional revisions down the years, since 1707, for example. That said, what Rutledge means is slightly unclear, he could be talking about the USA being the oldest Republic or democracy, both of which are ''slightly'' more defensible positions[[labelnote:*]] Still not necessarily true, though. Depending on how wide or narrow your definitions of "continual", "stable" and "democracy" are. Iceland, San Marino, the Iroquois and the Isle of Man can viably claim further back, depending on definition.[[/labelnote]]

* {{Qurac}}: Surprisingly, given the subject matter, Averted. Clancy seems fairly cognizant of the region and its people. In Debt of Honor, he mentions that Iraq can get pretty cold in the winter.

* SpySchool: Several references are made throughout the series to "The Farm", a CIA training facility in Virginia[[note]]Specifically, Camp Peary. For obvious reasons, the CIA has never confirmed, denied or spoken about the existence of a CIA training facility there[[/note]]. In some of the latter books Clark is shown teaching some classes there.

** A major plot point in ''The Bear and the Dragon'' is the CIA was able to get access to the private records of a Chinese Politboro member about what went on in their meetings, allowing them to know what China's leadership decided on in their meetings within a day of them making the decisions. In ''Threat Vector'' it gets mentioned that the Politboro member in question died a few months after the events of that book, rendering their source useless and leaving the US government in the dark as to what the new Chinese Politboro is up to.

* TookALevelInDumbass: Almost all of Clancy's villains do this at one point or another in most of his books after ''The Sum Of All Fears''.
* TranquilFury: John Clark is master of this. He makes a CIA deputy director damn near piss his pants in fear without even raising his voice and while still speaking respectfully.

* YellowPeril: His portrayal of Japan in ''Debt of Honor'' and China in ''The Bear And The Dragon''.

* ''Flash Point'' — Written by Don Bentley. Jack Jr. finds himself pitted against an unseen enemy bent on destroying The Campus, which also tries to start a US–China war.

* ''Literature/TeethOfTheTiger'' -- In the world after Ryan's departure from government, there are new terrorist threats. Ryan's son, also named Jack, joins a Black Ops group dedicated to attacking them on their own turf.

** It goes UpToEleven in ''The Teeth of the Tiger'', in which the ex-President has issued preemptive pardons to all of the Black Ops operatives with blanks for names, dates, and offenses committed. The dubious legality of this is lampshaded by the man in charge.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Just look at how many books there are in the series. Each one introduces more into the mix.

* ''Film/JackRyanShadowRecruit'' (2013)

[[AC: Other Works]]
[[index]]
* ''Film/JackRyanShadowRecruit'' -- An original film starring Creator/ChrisPine in the title role, Creator/KeiraKnightley, and Creator/KennethBranagh, who also directs.
* ''Series/JackRyan'' -- A series airing on Creator/{{Amazon|Studios}} and starring Creator/JohnKrasinski (who also co-produces) in the title role.
* ''Film/WithoutRemorse'': A loose adaptation of the [[Literature/WithoutRemorse novel of the same name]], starring Creator/MichaelBJordan as Navy SEAL John Clark. The film debuted on May 7, 2021 on Creator/PrimeVideo.
[[/index]]

* ''Film/JackRyanShadowRecruit'' -- An original film tarring Creator/ChrisPine in the title role, Creator/KeiraKnightley, and Creator/KennethBranagh, who also directs.

* BadDreams: Ryan's no James Bond. He's not the "kill-the-bad-guy, never-look-back" type; rather his experiences have a lasting effect on him, particularly the [[Literature/ClearAndPresentDanger Colombian Incident]]. According to Cathy, there were some nights where she'd be woken up from Jack crying in his sleep.

* BlackBestFriend: Robby Jackson rarely fails to have stories about his childhood in Alabama with his preacher father, or his time flying Tomcats for the Navy.

* AmericaSavesTheDay: A fairly standard plot, especially in later novels, although very explicitly averted in ''Clear and Present Danger'', ''The Sum of all Fears'', and '' Rainbow Six''.

* ''Literature/OathOfOffice'' -- In the latest upcoming addition to the Ryanverse written by Marc Cameron, Jack Senior has a lot on his plate: protests in Iran, a deadly flu outbreak in the US with spring floods in the Southeast, an unethical senator hellbent on bringing his presidency down with the help of bot-planted stories, and two hijacked Russian nuclear missiles.

* ShownTheirWork: Considering that Clancy was an insurance salesman with no prior military experience before becoming an author, a lot of the details included in his works (particularly the earlier books, before he started licensing his own name out to other authors), gained from purely open sources, occasionally to the discomfort of government agencies whose job is to protect classified information that he inadvertently managed to derive from publicly available information. In fact, the descriptions of submarine warfare in ''The Hunt For Red October'' are so realistic that it has become one of the only fictional works to appear on the U.S. Naval Academy's recommended reading list.

* ''Literature/LineOfSight'' -- In the latest upcoming addition to the Ryanverse written by Mike Maden, Jack Junior tracks down the Bosnian girl whose eyesight his mother saved [[UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars twenty years ago]]. He finds a self-possessed beauty who runs a refugee agency that helps the children of her native Bosnia and has to rescue her after she is kidnapped in Sarajevo.

* ShrineToSelf: Several military characters are shown to have this attitude. It's called the "I Love Me" wall.

* ''Literature/PowerAndEmpire'' -- The latest upcoming addition to the Ryanverse. Written by Marc Cameron, it focuses on Jack Senior facing the shadow games of the Chinese with the [=G20=] negotiations on the way.

Creator/TomClancy's most famous series of novels, which focus mainly on CIA analyst Jack Ryan and, to a lesser extent, CIA field operative John Clark. Four of them have been adapted into movies, one is connected to a series of video games, and one film, ''Film/JackRyanShadowRecruit'', is a reboot of the universe taking some items from the books but not based on any specific novel. Among fans, this continuity is often referred to as the "Ryanverse."