Warning: SPOILERS for Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse.
Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse 2 should bring back Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan, but this time as the President of the United States. Michael B. Jordan stars in Without Remorse, which is the new cinematic origin of Tom Clancy’s CIA operative John Clark. Without Remorse also set up a sequel which is expected to be titled Rainbow Six and will adapt Clancy’s novel about John Clark forming an elite team to fight global terrorists.
Without Remorse is set in a different universe than Amazon’s Jack Ryan series starring John Krasinski. However, Without Remorse has a clear connection to Jack Ryan and the greater Tom Clancy franchise, specifically John’s ally Lt. Commander Karen Greer (Jodie Turner-Smith), who is the niece of Jack Ryan’s closest friend, James Greer. In Without Remorse, Greer helps Jordan’s hero, ex-Navy SEAL Senior Chief John Kelly, tackle an international conspiracy after his own family is targeted by Russian assassins. By the end of Without Remorse, Kelly is “dead” and becomes a ghost, with the CIA giving him a new identity as John Clark. Without Remorse‘s mid-credits scene then shows Clark pitching new CIA Director Robert Ritter (Jamie Bell) on his idea for a hand-picked team of special operatives that he codenamed Rainbow.
When Clark told Ritter about Rainbow, he specifically asked to pitch his concept to the President of the United States, which would be a perfect way to bring in Harrison Ford as President Jack Ryan. Ford starred in two Tom Clancy films in the 1990s, Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger. In the latter film, Jack Ryan took over the position of CIA Deputy Director – Intelligence from Admiral James Greer (James Earl Jones), who died of cancer. This was the highest level of the government Ryan rose to in the films because after Ford left the role, the next two Jack Ryan movies starring Ben Affleck and Chris Pine, respectively, were both reboots about a younger Ryan. However, in Tom Clancy’s novels, Jack Ryan became President and had to run and oversee the United States against all manner of foreign and domestic adversaries.
Ford did play the President of the United States in Air Force One but that wasn’t Jack Ryan. Still, returning to the Jack Ryan role, but this time as POTUS, would be a natural fit for Ford and a surefire way to excite fans about Without Remorse‘s sequel, even if it’s a smaller role for the legendary movie star while Jordan and his Rainbow team carry the action. It would also be a direct way to link Michael B. Jordan’s Without Remorse films to the first three Jack Ryan movies, establishing a shared continuity that would please longtime fans.
While Ford would be the fan-favorite pick to return as Jack Ryan, Alec Baldwin, who was the first actor to play Ryan in The Hunt for Red October, would also be a great choice. As would Ben Affleck, who is now almost 20-years removed from playing Ryan in 2002’s The Sum of All Fears, and has gained the necessary gravitas to play Jack Ryan as President. While there would be issues with continuity for the most diehard Tom Clancy fans, the sheer novelty of bringing back Ford, Baldwin, or Affleck as a classic Jack Ryan opposite Michael B. Jordan’s John Clark would be hard to resist for Tom Clancy aficionados.
Without Remorse’s ending already offered a simple explanation as to how President Jack Ryan could meet Michael B. Jordan’s John Clark even though Ford’s Ryan fought alongside Clark, played by Willem Dafoe, in Clear and Present Danger: “John Clark” is a CIA codename for a black ops ‘ghost’, so it’s as easy as saying John Kelly is merely the latest John Clark. And this would definitely be a secret that President Jack Ryan, a former CIA Deputy Director, would know if Harrison Ford appears in Without Remorse 2.
