Clear and Present Thriller

By RICHARD SCHICKEL

What do Jack Ryan, a spectacularly energetic CIA operative, and a spectacularly sedentary movie reviewer have in common? In the end, both of them have to make an audience of clueless innocents understand the incredibly complex series of events related in Clear and Present Danger -- and keep them alert in the process.

As Jack, played by Harrison Ford, will ultimately testify before a Senate committee, it all starts with a President and his men deciding to insert a small guerrilla force into Colombia to hit one of the cocaine cartels. This is done in deep secrecy, and among those left out of the loop is Jack. After escaping an ambush, he learns that the men in suits are selling out the troops in the field and even trying to do a deal with one of the drug lords.

That's the main line. A whole lot of other interesting stuff feeds smoothly into it: the fight against cancer by Jack's shrewd old mentor (James Earl Jones); an FBI secretary seduced by the oiliest drug runner; the field operatives led by Willem Dafoe who do spectacular damage to the cartel's operations; amusing glimpses of the life-style of its rich and infamous boss. What's truly appealing about the film is that it plays fair with all this material and the audience. Unlike the typical action movie, which is always trampling over narrative logic in order to rush on to the next explosion, this movie had writers (John Milius, Donald Stewart, Steven Zaillian; the film is based on a Tom Clancy novel) who take the time to keep us in the picture. You may not remember all of it later, but as the plot unfolds, its logic is, you might say, clear and present.

The movie has two other qualities you don't always find in films of this kind: a sense of humor and a sense of character. At a particularly desperate moment when Jack must confront the drug boss, he simply walks up to the boss's gate and blandly presents a CIA business card to the menacing guards. It's a much smarter, more amusing choice than blasting his way in.

This is the third movie with Jack as its hero, so he is a known quantity -- a humanist spook with an overdeveloped moral sense -- but Ford, playing the part for the second time, knows how to keep his earnestness fresh. Meanwhile, Donald Moffat's President is tough and unctuous, his National Security Adviser (Harris Yulin) is tough and tense, and his chief aide (Henry Czerny) is tough and tough.

Director Phillip Noyce deserves credit for the easy confidence of his pace, his quick way with the telling detail. In this movie, unlike some others one might name, the lies ring true, and, at least for the length of its running time, absorb you in a conscientiously constructed fictional world.