The Sum of All Fears (film)

The Sum Of All Fears is a 2002 film starring Ben Affleck and Morgan Freeman about CIA analyst Jack Ryan as he hunts down a group of terrorists who plan to detonate a nuclear device at a U.S. football game.


 * Directed by Phil Alden Robinson. Screenplay by Paul Attansio and Daniel Pyne, based on the novel by Tom Clancy.

27,000 Nuclear Weapons. One Is Missing.

Jack Ryan

 * [reacting to being forced out of the Pentagon] General, the president is basing his decisions on some really bad information right now. And if you shut me out, your family, and my family, and 25 million other families will be dead in 30 minutes!!!
 * The bomb is in play! Dylan's called the AFRAT team! They're meeting me at the docks in twenty minutes! We're going to see if we can find it!
 * [negotiating with President Nemerov through a hotline] Sir, I know you. I know you had nothing to do with the Baltimore bomb, and you sure as hell know you didn't! But you're still about to launch a nuclear strike against us! This no longer has anything to do with Baltimore! Now it's about fear! Our fear of your missiles, your fear of our subs, fear of being weak, fear of making a mistake... the same fear of the other guy that had us build these goddamn bombs in the first place!

Richard Dressler

 * Most people believe that the 20th century was a death struggle between Communism and Capitalism, and that Fascism was but a hiccup. But today we know better. Communism was a fool's errand. The followers of Marx gone from this earth, but the followers of Hitler abound and thrive. Hitler, however, had one great disadvantage. He lived in a time when Fascism, like a virus... like the AIDS virus... needed a strong host in order to spread. Germany was that host. But Germany did not prevail. The world was too big. Fortunately, the world has changed. Global communications, cable TV, the internet. Today the world is smaller and a virus does not need a strong host in order to spread. The virus... is airborne. One more thing. Let no man call us crazy. They called Hitler crazy. But Hitler was not crazy. He was stupid. You don't fight Russia and America. You get Russia and America to fight each other... and destroy each other.

President Robert Fowler

 * [at a gala event] My beautiful wife, Julie, is from New Jersey. 15 electoral votes... and is, as you know, half Jewish. So we'll take Florida's 25 electoral votes and divide by two. My daughter, Jeanie, is expecting her first child. If it's a girl, she will be named Virginia. 13 electoral votes. In fact, even if it's a boy, he'll be named Virginia. She reminds me that I have publicly acknowledged that as a young Marine officer in Vietnam, I did, on a handful of occasions, smoke marijuana. [pause] California, 54 electoral votes! [guests laugh and make standing ovation]

Dialogue

 * [opening narration]
 * In 1973, Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack against Israel. By Day Two, Israeli ground forces appeared on the verge of defeat. In the event that their ground forces were overrun, an Israeli A-4 jet took off on patrol with one nuclear bomb.


 * [en route to Russia]
 * Cabot: Jack...Jack what are you doing?
 * Jack: Oh... I had a date tonight so I have to call and cancel.
 * Cabot: Well don't be stupid! Tell her where you're going. In fact tell her who you work for. She'll be impressed.
 * Jack: [to Cathy, his girlfriend, over the phone] OK. I work for the CIA, and the Director asked me at the last minute to come with him to Russia with him to do a nuclear arms inspection. Hello?
 * Cathy: That is so lame.
 * Jack: No, I swear, it's because of the START treaty, we get to inspect to make sure they're really decommissioning their nuclear arsenal [Cathy hangs up] Hello?...Hello? [sees Cabot laughing at him] Thanks a lot.


 * [at a Russian nuclear-weapons lab]
 * Cabot: What's the t-shirt say?
 * Depot Worker: "I am a bomb technician, if you see me running" [laughs] try to catch up."


 * [Bill Cabot summons John Clark]
 * Bill Cabot: How's your Russian?
 * John Clark: It still works. Why?
 * Cabot: Three Russian nuclear scientists are missing. I need to know where they are.


 * [over the Hot Line, after the carrier attack]
 * President Nemerov: [in Russian] I ordered no such attack. You must not respond to this action until we have investigated all possibilities.
 * President Fowler: Like you did in Chechnya? Mr. President, who is in control of your armed forces?
 * Nemerov: [in Russian] You dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. You dropped the bomb on Nagasaki. Do not lecture me on Chechnya!


 * [aboard the NAOC]
 * Owens: Are you advocating we launch a first strike...
 * Becker: [shouts] It is not a first strike! There's already been a first strike! And a second! Don't you get it?
 * Owens: No! I don't get it! I don't understand why we have to nuke them, for God's sake! It's not reasonable!
 * President Fowler: [shuts down both men] Sidney, goddamnit! They practically sank an aircraft carrier! Their missile silos are hot! We're getting nothing but bullshit from Nemerov! And let's not forget how this thing started, OK? They tried to kill me, remember! So don't fucking tell me to be reasonable!

Taglines

 * 27,000 Nuclear Weapons, One is Missing.

Cast

 * Ben Affleck - Jack Ryan
 * Morgan Freeman - DCI William Cabot
 * Bridget Moynahan - Dr. Catherine Muller
 * James Cromwell - President Robert Fowler
 * Liev Schreiber - John Clark
 * Alan Bates - Richard Dressler
 * Ron Rifkin - Secy. State Sidney Owens
 * Ciarán Hinds - President Nemerov