History Trivia / TheSumOfAllFears

* BackedByThePentagon: The carrier that was attacked [[WhatCouldHaveBeen was originally to have been]] sunk, but in order to keep military support for the film, the script had to be adjusted so that the carrier survived, though it was no longer battle-worthly (that is, couldn't do much of anything except limp away).

** Creator/WolfgangPetersen was offered the chance to direct but declined.

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-->'''Clancy''': This is bullshit. If the CIA paid this much attention to their employees, Aldrich Ames wouldn't have gotten 12 men killed.
-->...
-->'''Clancy''': How the hell do [the Russians] know the stealth bombers have just lifted off?\\
'''Robinson''': Well, don't they have radar, satellites?\\
'''Clancy''': The whole point of stealth, ''Phil'', is you can't see them on radar at all.\\
'''Robinson''': Well, the satellites don't pick them up?\\
'''Clancy''': If the satellite's overhead at that particular moment. They only do that twice a day.\\
'''Robinson''': [[DiggingYourselfDeeper Taking off, though, don't they have a thermal-]]\\
'''Clancy''': [[SarcasmMode If you had a KGB guy on the ground with a cellphone, sitting in his car, watching the airfield, yeah.]]

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Oh man. The movie is about large scale terrorism and finished filming in ''June'' 2001.
** The terrorists are changed from Arab nationalists to neo-Nazi European types in part because generic Arab terrorists had become cliché. [[PragmaticAdaptation Also, East Germany, one of the nations involved, had ceased to exist by the time the film was made]].
** In reworking a plot that was already released in book form in 1991 (begun in and broadly dated to the late 1980s) and centered around Cold War tropes, the movie depends heavily on a ConflictBall between the USA and Russia. In real life, the ''late'' 1990s United States was already seriously concerned about a terrorist actor with loose ex-Russian nuke material. This went UpToEleven after the 9/11 attacks when, among other things, there was a credible threat delivered to President Bush that al-Qaeda had smuggled a small tactical nuclear weapon out of the former USSR and into New York City.
** Since the [[MakeTheBearAngryAgain deterioration of relations between Putin's Russia and NATO]], and the loudly public re-emergence in the mid-late 2010s of [[ANaziByAnyOtherName neo-Nazi movements]] in the West, the film version has become HarsherInHindsight.
*** The US' planning in general came to be focused on a true "improvised nuclear device" that wouldn't require expertise as seen in both the novel and movie ( TruthInTelevision in the novel in particular that more advanced nukes are easily botched and out of the reach of terrorists themselves). There is a lot of such planning, much of which was released to the public, and the idea of a terrorist doing this is now so deeply ingrained that it would be all but impossible to leap to the conclusion the fascists want.
** The portrayal of US-Russia relations in the movie is clearly based on the realities of the 90's with the post-UsefulNotes/ColdWar thaw and general improvement in relations between East and West being prominent. Also the Chechen conflict is a plot point. Today the same premise would feature a far more tense and paranoid atmosphere between the two.
** The Russian president in the film is pretty much a Putin expy. He's portrayed pretty much the way most in the West viewed Putin circa 2001, a bit tough and rough around the edges but a good guy ultimately. That line of thought has not aged well since then, unfortunately.

-->'''Clancy''': How the hell do [the Russians] know the stealth bombers have just lifted off?
-->'''Robinson''': Well, don't they have radar, satellites?
-->'''Clancy''': The whole point of stealth, ''Phil'', is you can't see them on radar at all.
-->'''Robinson''': Well, the satellites don't pick them up?
-->'''Clancy''': If the satellite's overhead at that particular moment. They only do that twice a day.
-->'''Robinson''': [[DiggingYourselfDeeper Taking off, though, don't they have a thermal-]]
-->'''Clancy''': [[SarcasmMode If you had a KGB guy on the ground with a cellphone, sitting in his car, watching the airfield, yeah.]]

** The portrayal of US-Russia relations in the movie is clearly based on the realities of the 90's with the post-ColdWar thaw and general improvement in relations between East and West being prominent. Also the Chechen conflict is a plot point. Today the same premise would feature a far more tense and paranoid atmosphere between the two.

** The portrayal of US-Russia relations in the movie is clearly based on the realities of the 90's with the post-ColdWar thaw and general improvement in relations between East and West being proeminent. Also the Chechen conflict is a plot point. Today the same premise would feature a far more tense and paranoid atmosphere between the two.

** The portrayal of US-Russia relations in the movie is clearly based on the realities of the 90's with the post-ColdWar thaw and general improvement in relations between East and West being proeminent. Alsoc the Chechen conflict is a plot point. Today the same premise would feature a far more tense and paranoid atmosphere between the two.

** The portrayal of US-Russia relations in the movie is clearly based on the realities of the 90's with the post-ColdWar thaw and general improvement in relations between East and West being proeminent.Also the chechen conflict is a plot point.Today the same premise would feature a far more tense and paranoid atmosphere between the two.

** Since the [[MakeTheBearAngryAgain deterioration of relations between Putin's Russia and NATO]], and the loudly public re-emergence in the mid-late 2010s of neo-Nazi movements in the West, the film version has become HarsherInHindsight.

** The terrorists are changed from Arab nationalists to neo-Nazi European types in part because generic Arab terrorists had become cliché.
** In reworking a plot that was already released in book form in 1991 (begun in and broadly dated to the late 1980s) and centered around Cold War tropes, the movie depends heavily on a ConflictBall between the USA and Russia. In real life, the ''late'' 1990s United States was already seriously concerned about a terrorist actor with loose ex-Russian nuke material. This went UpToEleven after the 9/11 attacks when, among other things, there was a credible threat delivered to President Bush that al-Qaeda had smuggled a small tactical nuclear weapon out of the former USSR and into New York City.

* BackedByThePentagon: The carrier that was attacked [[WhatCouldHaveBeen was originally to have been]] sunk, but in order to keep military support for the film, the script had to be adjusted so that the carrier survived, though it was mission killed (that is, couldn't do much of anything except limp away).

* DVDCommentary: A pretty hilarious one featuring director Phil Alden Robinson and Tom Clancy himself ([[EstablishingCharacterMoment who introduces himself as "the author of the book [Phil] ignored"]]) where the latter spends nearly the entire running time picking apart every inaccuracy and change to the book ''right in front of Robinson'', with gems such as these:

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Originally Harrison Ford was going to play Jack Ryan and the film was going to be a follow-up to ''Film/ClearAndPresentDanger'', but Ford declined to return as Ryan because he didn't like the script.
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* DVDCommentary: A pretty hilarious featuring director Phil Alden Robinson and Tom Clancy himself ([[EstablishingCharacterMoment who introduces himself as "the author of the book [Phil] ignored"]]) where the latter spends nearly the entire running time picking apart every inaccuracy and change to the book ''right in front of Robinson'', with gems such as these: