Jack's Back!

CIA hero Jack Ryan gets a TV reboot in Amazon prime video’s high-octane thriller starring John Krasinski

- Richard Mcclure

NEW ACTION DRAMA

Jack Ryan available from Fri 31 Aug, Amazon Prime Video

Ever since his first appearance on the big screen in 1990 thriller The Hunt for Red October, Jack Ryan has become one of cinema’s most popular and enduring action heroes. First portrayed by Alec Baldwin, he’s been played by some of Hollywood’s biggest names (see panel) in a string of movies taking more than $900million at the box office.

Created by author Tom Clancy, the CIA operative comes to TV for the first time this week in a new Amazon Prime series starring John Krasinski in the title role.

With all episodes released at once, the eight-part series begins with a flashback to Lebanon in 1983 as a stray bomb claims the lives of a group of innocent children during an American airstrike. As we skip ahead to the present day, one of the bombing’s survivors, Mousa Bin Suleiman (Ali Suliman), is now a jihadi terrorist based in Syria, who has pledged to take his revenge on the US.

At the same time in Washington DC, Jack Ryan detects a string of suspicious bank transfers that suggest a massive terror strike is imminent. After finally convincing his new boss James Greer (The Wire’s Wendell Pierce) that there is a legitimate threat, Ryan is flown out to a secret military base in Yemen to help interrogate a recently captured courier, who knows far more than he is admitting to.

We met up with Krasinski, best-known as Jim in the US version of The Office, to hear more about Ryan’s latest mission...

When you started out as an actor, did you ever think you’d get to play an action hero?