Book Vs. Movie - Patriot Games

    Published in 1987, Patriot Games was the second novel in Tom Clancy's “Ryanverse” series, a prequel to The Hunt for Red October. Just like the latter book, this too was adapted into a movie in 1992 directed by Philip Noyce. The Patriot Games film differs noticeably more from its source material than Red October's did, leaving out a lot of material to present us with a more easily digested action film – hence the run time being 20 minutes shorter. Question is: does this make it a better adventure than the book? Let's find out.

    Here's a quick plot synopsis: while with his family in London, UK, Jack Ryan finds himself in the middle of an Irish terrorist attack. He intervenes, foiling the plot, killing one of the attackers, and rescuing what turns out to be Prince Charles and Lady Diana. He is lauded as a hero, granted knighthood, and becomes friends with the royals. The surviving terrorist, Sean Miller, is tried and sentenced to life imprisonment. While on his way to prison, Miller's comrades from the Ulster Liberation Army – a rival of the PIRA – eliminate his captors and rescue him. In response to this news Ryan takes up shooting practice and installs a home security system. Later, Miller leads another attack, this time on Ryan and his family in Maryland. Ryan's would-be assassin is intercepted and caught, but Ryan's pregnant wife and daughter are seriously injured when Miller shoots up their car, causing it to crash. Enraged, Ryan rejoins the CIA so that he can track down the ULA and destroy them. Meanwhile, the royal couple are on a visit to the US and the Ryans have them over for dinner. Miller leads yet another attack on the house. After a firefight kills most of the guards, Ryan, his family, the royal couple, and his friends the Jacksons escape in a boat to the US Naval Academy. Abandoning their mission, the terrorists attempt to escape to their freighter and smuggle themselves out of the country, but are intercepted and apprehended by some marines and local police. Ryan reluctantly decides not to kill Miller.

    In contrast with THFRO, the Patriot Games film's changes are mainly made not for the sake of brevity (though there are a few of those), but rather to make it feel more like an action/thriller film. For example, the ULA assassin Annette (who is now Irish instead of French) has a much bigger role in the film probably because hot chicks help sell movies. However, one positive change is that the interactions in the story now feel more personal. For example, the film changes it so that Sean Miller's younger brother is the one killed by Ryan in the opening attack on the royals. This gives a reason as to why Miller is so obsessed with getting revenge, whereas in the book he's just mad at Ryan because he made him fail: not as convincing. Similarly the film portrays Kevin O'Donnell, the ULA's leader, as Miller's adoptive father. Changes like these serve to give more weight to the events in the film and they are good. On the other hand there are changes that only serve to push the film more towards action-spectacle territory. This is most evident in the ending; here only Ryan escapes on a boat, leading the terrorists away from everyone else who hide in a cleft in the cliffs. A furious Miller murders his comrades for suggesting they turn back, boards Ryan's boat, fistfights him, and gets impaled on an anchor just before the out-of-control boat speeds into some rocks and explodes.

    As mentioned earlier, there are some changes that were made to the plot due to the time constraints of a two-hour film. For instance, the scene where Sean Miller is freed during the prison transfer is considerably shorter and less intense (it takes place on a bridge instead of a ferry at sea). Marine Sergeant Breckenridge and his plot about helping Ryan learn to shoot is completely absent. Likewise, Marty Cantor's role is greatly reduced. They've also jettisoned the scene where a fisherman discovers a terrorist's Uzi in a quarry and turns it in to the FBI. However, one interesting change the film made was to have Ryan talk with and receive intel from the Sinn Fean guy campaigning in the US; in the book Ryan angrily lunged at him and then never wanted to see him again.

    It also seemed as if the filmmakers wanted to alter the story to both remain timeless and appeal to a wider audience (i.e. Less offensive). This would explain why the film replaced the royal couple with Lord William Holmes, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. This might also explain why the movie got rid of the whole Sean-got-raped-in-prison thing as well as the plotlines of the racist Miller being forced to cooperate with an African-American terrorist group for his stateside operations.

    Other than that, here's the rest of the film's little differences I was able to spot:

• The assassin tasked with killing Ryan carries out his attack and fails (in the book, marines arrested him before he could do it)
• The whole angry boss cliche is played out between Ryan and his CIA superiors
• Admiral Greer plays a bigger role (Makes sense: when there's a perfectly good James Earl Jones lying around you put him to good use)
• The terrorists don't belong to the ULA, they instead are just an extreme splinter group of the PIRA
• The terrorists kill Dennis Cooley (in the book, they let him tag along for the assault on the Ryan estate)
• The SAS successfully attacks the correct terrorist camp without being scared off by the Libyans
• Jack Ryan's son isn't born before the ending

    And that's it. While I did like the movie, it's pretty clear that the book is the superior version of Patriot Games. While the movie certainly isn't bad – it has some great acting – it isn't quite as suspenseful or immersive as the book, or even the film adaptation of The Hunt for Red October. It instead lands closer to generic action movie territory. Casual Tom Clancy fans might prefer this approach, but not fans of the Ryanverse books. It deviates just a little too much.