Trivia / The Sum of All Fears

• Approval of God: Tom Clancy approved of the film, even naming Ben Affleck as his favorite version of Jack Ryan.
• Backed by the Pentagon:
  • The carrier that was attacked 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).
  • When the time came to film the nuclear detonation scene, in which the Presidential motorcade is severely damaged by the blast^note though their electronic devices, including civilian cell phones that aren't hardened against EMP, continue to work just fine, the director used real military personnel that were trained specifically for that situation. All he had to do was point to the overturned limo and tell them "The President is in that car!"
• Creator's Favorite Episode: Of the versions he saw while still alive, Tom Clancy named Ben Affleck as his favorite portrayal of Jack Ryan.
• Deleted Role: Matt Damon had a cameo as a waiter, but it was cut from the final film.
• DVD Commentary: A pretty hilarious one featuring director Phil Alden Robinson and Tom Clancy himself (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:
  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: Taking off, though, don't they have a thermal-
  Clancy: If you had a KGB guy on the ground with a cellphone, sitting in his car, watching the airfield, yeah.
• Fake Nationality: Austrian Neo-Nazi Dressler is played by the Biritsh Alan Bates and his right-hand Haft by the Danish Sven-Ole Thorsen.
• Fake Russian: Irish actor Ciarán Hinds as the President of the Russian Federation.
• Technology Marches On: To be expected from a novel based nominally in reality. Notably, the high-tech method used to bug an airplane, shown to take several hours, is now used in many noise-canceling headsets that cost less than 50 US Dollars.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Originally Harrison Ford was going to play Jack Ryan and the film was going to be a follow-up to Clear and Present Danger, but Ford declined to return as Ryan because he didn't like the script.
  • Denzel Washington turned down the role of William Cabot.
  • Wolfgang Petersen was offered the chance to direct but declined.

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