History Film / ClearAndPresentDanger

* GPSEvidence: Both Jack and Chavez figure out that there's American spec-ops raising hell in Colombia from checking what was left behind of a "car bomb" blowing up Rojas's estate in their own way (Jack analyzes a satellite photo of the blast crater, Chavez has a chemist look over some soot) and find anomalies (Jack sees the crater is too clean and shaped incorrectly for a "car bomb" and the chemist notices there's cellulose and the leftover chemicals of a highly expensive military-grade explosive, which only governments could afford), which leads back to the specifics of a laser-guided bomb with cellulose cover, only used by the U.S.

** John Clark is very protective of his soldiers, and is furious when the [=CIA=] pulls the plug on the operation and leaves his men to die.

** Felix Cortez is a far more pragmatic operative in the novel who does not murder [[spoiler:Moira Wolfe]] nor organizes the cartel ambush on Emil Jacobs, being outraged at the unnecessary escalation and retaliation that this would provoke from the American government.

** Inverted with the hitmen that kill Harden and his family. In the book, it's implied that they killed his son then raped Harden's wife and teen daughter in front of him before killing them. In the film, they simply killed them in their staterooms while they slept with no mention of sexual assault.

* CaptainObvious: When discussing the alleged car bomb :
-->'''Jack:''' What happens when a car bomb goes off ?
-->'''CIA Analyst:''' It explodes.
-->'''Jack:''' Right...

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: From the alcoholic helicopter pilot :
-->'''Jack:''' Do you have any time in this type [of helicopter] ?
-->'''Pilot:''' Nine o'clock.

* CoolCodeOfSource: There is a moment where a [=CIA=] cracker writes a "special program" to crack into Ritter's encrypted files. Unfortunately, it's a fake language.

* CurbStompBattle: The FBI director and his agents are cornered and viciously mowed down by Cortez's men; despite their brave efforts, Ryan is the only one to survive relatively unscathed. [[spoiler: Director Jacobs, Agent Dan Murray and the Ambassador are killed. During a phone conversation between Ryan and his wife Cathy, you can hear a news report in the background that the rest of the security detail were killed or wounded.]]
* DeathByAdaptation:
** In the film, [[spoiler:Moira Wolfe is murdered by Felix Cortez once she is no longer useful to him. In the book she survives, although the fact that Felix Cortez successfully got sensitive information from her results in her security clearance being revoked.]]

** Also applies to [[spoiler:Felix Cortez. In the film he is shot and killed by Chavez. In the book he is captured and handed over to Cuban authorities.]]

** Ernesto Escobedo has Felix Cortez.

** Felix Cortez, who tries to manipulate the movie's events so that he can take over the Cartel.

* GilliganCut: Jack Ryan knocking on the cartel boss's door :

* HoneyTrap: Felix Cortez seduces Moira Wolfe (the unmarried middle-aged secretary of FBI Director Emil Jacobs) and extracts sensitive information about the FBI from her.

* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler: Cortez is ultimately gunned down by Chavez, the only soldier to escape the ambush on his unit unscathed.]]

* ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish: Peter, the tech person who hacks into Hardin's floppy disk (using a combination of parts of birthdays from Hardin's family to unlock the disk) and later [[spoiler: helps Ryan remote-hack into Ritter's private terminal]], correctly guesses Ryan's ATM code is his birthday in reverse.
-->'''Dan Murray''': ''You've got to change your ATM code.''

* PrecisionFStrike: The film expends its one PG-13 F-bomb budget when [[spoiler: a ''very'' pissed off [[AFatherToHisMen Clark]] is finally contacted by Ritter after losing contact with the endangered American troops and having attempted to re-establish contact for hours to no avail.]]
-->'''Clark''': ''Where the '''fuck''' have you been? I've been calling.''

* SpySpeak
-->'''Commando''': The chicken is in the pot.\\
'''Clark''': Cook it.\\

* XanatosGambit: Clark pulls a simple, yet clever one near the end. [[spoiler: Cutter and Ritter claim that Ryan's investigation is the reason his communications have been shut down so he says that he's going to kill Ryan to fix the problem. Instead, Clark kidnaps Ryan and calls Ritter saying that he's killed Ryan, and when Ritter doesn't turn the coms back on, Clark realizes that the two were lying to him and teams up with a very much alive Ryan.]]
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: The drug cartel intelligence officer Felix Cortez [[NeckSnap snaps Moira Wolfe's neck]] after getting from her the information his employer desired. Ironically, it leads to him getting discovered because the FBI agents investigating the murder find a recording of his voice on Moira's answering machine.

** John Clark, described as having black hair in the original novel, was changed to blonde in the movie.

* XanatosGambit: Clark pulls a simple, yet clever one near the end. [[spoiler: Cutter and Ritter claim that Ryan's investigation is the reason his communications have been shut down so he says that he's going to kill Ryan to fix the problem. Instead, Clark kidnaps Ryan and calls Ritter saying that he's killed Ryan, and when Ritter doesn't turn the coms back on, Cutter realizes that the two were lying to him and teams up with a very much alive Ryan.]]

''Clear and Present Danger'' is a 1994 film starring Creator/HarrisonFord, Creator/WillemDafoe, Creator/JoaquimDeAlmeida, Creator/RaymondCruz, and Creator/BenjaminBratt, adapted from [[Literature/ClearAndPresentDanger the novel of the same name]]. It is the third and final film in the Jack Ryan trilogy (the first two being ''Film/TheHuntForRedOctober'' and ''Film/PatriotGames'' in 1990 and 1992, respectively; ''Film/TheSumOfAllFears'' in 2002 was a reboot of the franchise).

** Jack Ryan and John Clark. The former is a LawfulGood public servant who's furious when he discovers that his CIA colleagues and political superiors have started an illegal war, the latter is an off-the-books agent who's neck deep in the illegal war from the very start. Both of them, however, are willing to do whatever it takes to rescue the surviving American soldiers after they're cut off and betrayed.