Nerds That Geek Movie Review - 'Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit'

Written by Shae Rufe and Scott Edwards

Shae's Review
I'm not familiar with the book series, or the author, admittedly. But my dad is a huge Tom Clancy fan, so when this novel was revamped into a movie, we had to go see it. Plus, Chris Pine and Keira Knightley!? Yeah. I'm totally down for this movie. So, the original plot line was made modern for the sake of keeping things relevant and people interested. Ryan is a high school kid when the Twin Towers fall. After that, he goes into the Marines. During a tour and trying to help a kid buckle in on a helicopter, they're shot down. Jack survives but might not be able to walk. Enter Dr. Cathy Muller; the spunky intern who challenges Jack to do better. 

In the end, Jack does end up walking, even running, again. And he and Cathy end up dating. Enter, William Harper (Kevin Costner), who recruits Jack for the CIA. He's placed at a bank to be an analyst, searching for hidden accounts. 

Jack just happens to be a better analyst than anyone ever expected him to be. In his search, Jack reveals a plot by Viktor Chervin; a Russian veteran from Dessert Storm. Viktor has several hidden accounts, all of which he plans to sell and bankrupt the U.S. plummeting it into another Great Depression. Jack decides that he can uncover the rest of the accounts and stop the plot, but he needs to go to Russia and have direct access to the accounts. Harper agrees and sends him there. Only, things don't go so smoothly. Viktor's onto Jack; Cathy show's up. In the end Viktor proves a worthy adversary and Jack's analyst status get's updated to Active Agent.

Viktor kidnaps Cathy and nearly kills her, in an attempt to get the Hard Drive that Jack now has of all their hidden accounts. Thankfully, Jack both delivers the drive to Harper and saves Cathy. All's well that ends well. However, the ending leaves an opening for several possible sequels. Sadly, it looks like those aren't going to happen since they never brought another one out and made it into a series on Amazon, but my favorite Captain (Sorry Shatner and Stewart…) sure was fun to watch in this!

Scotty's Review
In the always changing work industry, you will always be asked to do something that is not your responsibility. This is just a fact of life and having a job that you would like to hold on to, you pretty much always do it without asking a question. When the new tasks start to become too much however, do you start to push back on your employer, saying that it is not your job, or do you simply continue? I have always been a firm believer that you should get paid for what you do and when seeing so many people getting away with doing the bare minimum in their jobs, it frustrates me that they are still allowed to continue, when they could be accomplishing so much more.

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​While studying abroad, young Jack Ryan hears the news that rocks his world, the Twin Towers have fallen in New York. Wanting to do his duty for his country, Jack joins the Marines and joins the fight against terrorists, both foreign and domestic. When heading out on patrol, his helicopter is hit with a missile and crashes, but Jack being stronger than his injuries he has enough power to pull all of his fellow Marines to safety from the wreckage. With a broken back, Jack is taken off of the front lines and sent back to the states to be rehabilitated, but there is someone watching him.

Thomas Harper, a C.I.A. operative has been watching Jack through his recovery and wants to bring him in to the business, but as an analyst on Wall Street. Knowing that there is something brewing across the ocean, Harper wants Jack to keep his eyes on anything suspicious having to do with Russian accounts. Jack is placed in a large firm and is able to find a long list of accounts that he is not able to access and reports back to Harper about his findings. Being sent to Russia is the last thing Jack expects as he is just an analyst and has very minimal experience in the field. 

Arriving in Russia, Jack is attacked by the driver that is sent to retrieve him from the airport. Falling back on his training from the Marines, Jack is able to subdue the situation, but needs help from the agency and finds out how quickly they are able to work. Getting to his banking destination to audit the records he was not able to access in the states, Jack finds out that the head of the firm, Viktor Cherevin is not a man to be trifled with and will have to form another plan of attack to view the records. With his fiancé showing up unannounced to check on him, Jack now has the perfect decoy in place to distract Viktor, but will it be enough to get away with both his and his fiancé’s lives?

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit follows Jack Ryan as he grows up following the attack on New York. Knowing that there is always a threat against the United States, the C.I.A. is starting to follow money trails as they know that the U.S. dollar should be falling drastically in the market but is holding its own. Thinking that the Russians are planning something, they enlist Jack’s help in finding out who is behind it and what they are planning. Just being an analyst, Jack thinks that he will be okay with just moving stealthily around the offices but finds out that there is much more to it than that. Becoming a field agent very quickly, Jack has to find a way to see the accounts that he was not able to access while in the states and working on Wall Street. Meeting with the head of the trading firm in Russia, Viktor Cherevin, Jack finds out that he is being followed by more than his own people. Needing to find out what Cherevin’s plan is with his hidden holdings, Jack stumbles upon a plot that is not only time sensitive, but deadly for more than just him and his fiancé Cathy Muller.

This is the fastest paced Jack Ryan movie to date and it is a reboot. One thing that I like about this movie is that it followed the lines of the first movie that came out, The Hunt for Red October, on his military past. The thing I did not like about it were the dates being called out in huge numbers.  Besides that, this is a great re-start to the series and there are plenty of questions that have not been answered and, oh yeah, the action is just fantastic. I liked how the story played out as well, since Jack is suspicious of everyone that he talks to and has to put his trust in someone that may eventually become an enemy in the future. I must admit that I liked the villain in this story as well, probably my favorite one to date as Cherevin has a plan and is willing to stop at nothing to make his country rise to the top of the world power once again. It has some of the original flair from the first movie but is up to date with how the world has changed and shows how technology can be a greater threat than we could ever know. Happy Viewing.

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