Jack Ryan and his family are vacationing in England. Quite by accident, Ryan thwarts a terrorist attack - outside Buckingham Palace on Lord Holmes, a member of the royal family - by a splinter IRA group, killing the younger brother of one of the terrorists. Retuning to the U.S. with his family, Ryan thinks that's the end of the matter. But the terrorist won't let the matter rest and he won't stop until he's had his revenge.

Alec Baldwin bowed out of this film when production was pushed back from '91 to '92. He had already committed to doing a revival of "A Streetcar Named Desire" on Broadway and told then Paramount President Brandon Tartikof to either work around him or find someone else to play Ryan. Ford was then approached to play Ryan in "Patriot Games" after having turned down the role in "The Hunt for Red October", because he felt the script was more focused on Captain Ramius than on Jack Ryan.

Admiral Greer:
Excuse me, Jack, tell me one thing in life that is absolutely for certain.


Jack Ryan:
My daughter's love.

Errors in geography: Dennis Cooley runs out of his bookshop in the Burlington Arcade and into a tube station at Aldwych, a mile away.

Performed by Clannad