[Larz]

I in some way agree with dFrisk, and then still not fully - as far as I'm concerned, no movie has ever come as close to hitting the general atmosphere of the books as Sum of All Fears did.

Ben Affleck was good as Ryan - he was way better than the goofy-looking Harrison Ford, yet not as good as the young-but-competent-looking Alec Baldwin. Jack Ryan in my mind is young and ambitious, yet always a tad intimidated byt the magnitude of the situation - while remaining incredibly sharp in his thinking at all times. Affleck shows that, Baldwin perfected it, Ford was too action-oriented, and a bit goofy looking.

I'm not sure you're right about the chronology - TC seems to have decided to tell two different stories. One of Movie-Ryan, and one of Book-Ryan. It's fine by me, the movies and books would never fit together anyways, given the vastly different story-telling techniques used in the different media.

As I see it, regardless of how he would have placed such dramatic events into the timeline, it would have been a misfit. This one takes an entry-level CIA-agent, and gives him a jumpstart in the agency - a jump-start that fits very well with the trusted employee status that Ryan has in Red October. As far as I recall, the inconcistencies that this placement creates are only in the stuff that helps tell a credible story but isn't crucial to the "meat" of the stories.

Timeline for the movies as I see it now is:

Sum of All Fears
Red October
Patriot Games
Clear and Present Danger