As the American film and television industries have been cultivated on franchises carried by charismatic leading characters, very few have had the staying power as Ryanverse, the collection of projects built around the Tom Clancy-created Jack Ryan. The titular character has been featured in an ample amount of successful projects throughout various artistic mediums. These include Tom Clancy's novel series, various feature films throughout the 1990s and 2000s, and a recent marquee series on Amazon Prime Video, which ran for four seasons. Very few franchises have held such a level of staying power in the action and espionage genres. The protagonist's history and credits were upgraded in order to fit the period in which they were rebooted.
Update July 14, 2023: In honor of the release of the final episode on Amazon Prime, this list has been updated with more information.
In concert with the character evolving over time, the featured actors also brought a unique perspective and freshness with them to the role. The five talented performers made it hard for viewers to stop watching once they started watching any of the Jack Ryan adaptations. So, let us check out every actor who has played Jack Ryan to date and rank them.
5 Chris Pine
Serving as the second reboot of the Jack Ryan film franchise, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit was released in 2014 and welcomed Chris Pine to the universe as the portrayal of the titular character. Pine's depiction received acclaim for being a competent and realistic portrayal of the iconic literary figure. Despite this, he has also been dubbed the "unknown Jack Ryan" owing to the film's lackluster performance at the box office, thus killing future cinematic plans for this iteration. Shadow Recruit has a unique plot where Jack Ryan is caught up in a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse with a nefarious Russian oligarch (played by Kenneth Branagh, who also served as the film's director) as The latter poses a risk to the US financial market. Ryan has to take quick, covert action to prevent a financial collapse of a global magnitude.
Chris Pine has been into many action movies and fully embraces Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit's high usage of exhilarating, action-filled long shots while balancing his portrayal with a level of calculative intelligence. It can be challenging to pull off a role as well-known and adulated as Jack Ryan, particularly when providing a more youthful and novice perspective to this iteration of the fictitious CIA analyst. And although his portrayal of Jack Ryan wound being for one project and is technically the lowest ranked iteration, there is still much to get out of Chris Pine's portrayal of Jack Ryan.
4 Ben Affleck
Ben Affleck is another performer who had the opportunity to portray a young, novice iteration of Tom Clancy's most renowned protagonist. The Sum of All Fears, the first official cinematic reboot of Jack Ryan, is predicated around a Neo-Nazi terrorist group that is seeking to spark a conflict between the United States and a new Russian political regime. Although the movie didn't stand out as much in comparison to the original Jack Ryan trilogy, Affleck did well in his CIA agent role. As with earlier iterations of Jack Ryan, Affleck stays true to the principles of the character in his choices of composure in the face of the highly stressful circumstances in front of him.
Ben Affleck has given many high-rated performances that have established him as an elite Hollywood talent, and it was not surprising that the movie earned decently at the box office. With his fresh take on the well-established role, Affleck adeptly brought the CIA protagonist naturally into the 21st century, following the relatively dated presentation of Jack Ryan in the classic Tom Clancy novels and the original film trilogy. Much like Chris Pine did around a decade afterward, Affleck provided the character with a new sense of freshness and passion. Though, unlike the more recent theatrical iteration, it's more of a disappointment that Affleck's tenure as the iconic character was never followed up after The Sum of All Fears.
3 Alec Baldwin
When Alec Baldwin portrayed the role of Jack Ryan in the 1990s The Hunt for Red October, he provided the face for the first on-screen portrayal of the legendary literary figure. Baldwin's exhilarating journey as the secret operative served as a major turning point in the actor's ascent into a more mature, leading actor in major Hollywood productions. When at his best, Baldwin fully captures the wit and bravery of Jack Ryan as captured by Tom Clancy on the silver screen. The Hunt for Red October features Ryan, a scholar who had crossed paths with Ramius (as played by Sean Connery) in Russia, who assumes that the Russian submarine commander plans to escape to the USA and leads a perilous effort to make Ramius' scheme a reality.
Baldwin's portrayal of Ryan had a far more somber tone in relation to his future compatriots, as he often reflected on the extremely high potential repercussions of the sea battle off the American Eastern Shore at the Cold War's conclusion. Baldwin's depiction of Jack Ryan suffers from the fact that Ramius seems like the film's main focus. In the sequences they have together at the movie's climax, Sean Connery had more control over the frame than Alec did. Several Jack Ryan devotees disagree, claiming that Baldwin's performance in the picture was the best rendition of Clancy's work. Though unfortunately for Baldwin and fans of his portrayal, the actor was forced out of the role due to behind-the-scenes business machinations at Paramount Pictures. The notion of Baldwin becoming even more tied to the acclaimed role remains one of Hollywood's predominant "what if" scenarios.
2 John Krasinski
In the well-received television adaptation starring John Krasinski for Amazon Prime Video, Ryan is resurrected to his beginnings as a CIA operative and morally upright genius. Krasinski has portrayed a modern take on the Jack Ryan character throughout the four-season run of the popular television series. John Krasinski epitomizes the modern-day action hero, and the characteristics of every prior representation are unified to create a wholistic persona with Krasinski's take on Dr. Ryan. This rendition introduces Jack Ryan as a desk-bound analyst still dealing with the physical wounds and psychological trauma of his time spent in Marine action. As he pursues Mousa bin Suleiman, an Islamic terrorist, Ryan finds himself returning to the field and continues onwards for the duration of the series.
In the second season of Jack Ryan, he adopts a cynical attitude (something unique in relation to previous iterations) due to malpractice from the United States government's involvement with a corrupt Venezuela government. Another notable shift for this version of the franchise, Jack Ryan and his allies finds themselves having to deal more with government bureaucracy in the fourth and final season as the titular character finds himself as the deputy director of the CIA. Krasinski's charisma and convincing action scenes are sufficient to put him above his Jack Ryan peers on the screens. It surely ranks among John Krasinki’s top acts on the screens. Jack Ryan's final season premiered on June 30, 2023, and aired its final episode on July 14, 2023.
1 Harrison Ford
In Clear and Present Danger and Patriot Games, Harrison Ford reinvented Tom Clancy's Intelligence officer and brought him to the cinema in place of Alec Baldwin for the remainder of the initial trilogy. The legendary actor remains the only performer to portray the character twice in movies. As well, Ford continues to be the ideal representation of the role that many ardent Clancy fans have in mind (he has been cited as a primary influence for the John Krasinski-led television adaptation). As a CIA operative, historian, and professor at the US Marine Corps who also happens to be a devoted father, Tom Clancy is portrayed by Ford in all of his essential attributes.
Harrison Ford is known for his incredible performances throughout the duration of his career, and Jack Ryan is among one of his most iconic (even if he doesn't technically rank in MovieWeb's list of Ford's best performances). With Ford having a recent return to one of his iconic roles for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and the current Amazon Prime series coming to a close, a reprisal of his take on Jack Ryan in some form (that probably involves significantly less action for the now 81-year-old actor) could an interesting narrative opportunity to explore.
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