Why "Jack Ryan"...when it isn't? [closed]

The body of work from Tom Clancy regarding Jack Ryan runs so contrary to the material in the new Prime series "Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan" that other than the name and very few other factors "this" Jack Ryan is NOT "that" Jack Ryan.

They are both CIA analysts and they interact with a guy named James Greer. But other than that this (new) character might as well be Joe Turner (Robert Redford in Three Days of the Condor), yet they produce and publicize this new series around a link to the original Clancy character.

Why? (as in, where is the advantage or motive? what benefit is gained?) I've only seen a few episodes, and I would not call it bad (nor am I willing to call it 'great') but Jack Ryan, Joe Turner, Bob Smith are just names and these episodes cannot be (canon) prequels to the original character, so why bother trying to foist the illusion? Or am I missing a stronger connection to the Tom Clancy character here that justifies the usage of this brand a little more?

Would this be a lesser show if they just called it "Bob Smith"

Best Answer

Probably the most important element of Jack Ryan's personality is that he's just an analyst in the CIA, yet he repeatedly gets drawn into dangerous situations where he's forced to act as an operative. He succeeds, and even excels, despite his lack of operational training.

Arguably the second most important element of Jack Ryan is his back injury. While he was a Marine, he was in a serious helicopter crash that severely damaged his spine. It could have left him paralyzed, but he spent years learning to walk again, driven by his love of country and strength of character.

You mentioned his boss, Jim Greer. But he's more than just a black guy that Jack works with. Greer is a calculated and experienced intelligence officer, and sees Jack as young and brash - until he discover's Jack's value and becomes his mentor.

There's also Cathy, his girlfriend, fiance, or wife (depending on his age). Cathy is naturally loving and gentle, but like Jack, she has the capacity for complex tactics and great bravery when it's called for.

To be fair, there are differences between this Jack Ryan and other Jack Ryans. To make him more relatable to modern audiences, they replaced his cold war enemies with a Middle-Eastern terrorist.

When the same character appears in different movies over such a long time period, these kinds of discrepancies are unavoidable. The best comparison I can think of is James Bond, who has plenty of his own discrepancies over his decades of movies.

The Jason Bourne movies were able to maintain continuity, but only because the movies were so close together. Still, he's dramatically different from the Jason Bourne that appears in the original Robert Ludlum books.