the clear and present danger of the title be the danger pose by the influx of drug come into the usa . this third installment of tom clancy jack ryan series be an exciting adventure of intrigue . we pick up ryan a couple of year after patriot game where he be live happily after with his wife cathy ( anne archer ) a successful doctor and and his two kid and sally ( thora birch ) and a new son jack jr. ( alexander lester ) . admiral greer ( james earl jones ) and ryan mentor be suddenly take ill and appoints ryan a his replacement a deputy director of national security . meanwhile and friend of president bennett ( donald moffat ) have be murder and connect to the drug lord of columbia . the president national security adviser and james cutter ( harris yulin ) and his assistant ritter ( henry czerny ) arrange to have a group of u army sniper under the direction of agent john clark ( willem dafoe ) infiltrate columbian territory and disrupt the drug trade by destroy drug shipment . drug lord ernesto escobedo ( miquel sandoval ) become alarmed and assign his security chief felix cortez ( joaquim de almeida ) to find out who be responsible . cortez gain the confidence of the secretary of the fbi director and moira wolfson ( ann magnuson ) and learn that director jacob ( tom tammi ) will be send to columbia on a secret mission by the president . ryan already in columbia and will join the party . cortez and who have ambition of his own and see this a his chance to take over and attack the convoy carry the fbi director and ryan . director jacob and ryan friend and fbi agent dan murray ( tim grimm ) be kill . back in washington and ryan continue his investigation and begin to suspect ritter and cutter . cortez have no further use for moira and murder her the same day that her bos be kill and which alert ryan to his involvement . ryan learn that cortez plan to overthrow escobedo and take over . cutter and ritter panic and close down clark operation trap his men in the columbian jungle . ryan and realizing that he have be set up by the politician and go to columbia once more and enlist clark help to rescue the survivor . a ryan negotiates for their release thing suddenly go wrong and . director philip noyce give u plenty of explosive action among the deceit and double crossing . harrison ford again turn in an excellent performance a ryan and who at time seem to be a fish out of water in his new job . czerny and yulin make slimy villain and moffat a believable president . willem dafoe a the abandon clark have some good moment a well . anne archer have little to do ( pity ) in this one but to be there for jack . watch for benjamin bratt a the chief of the commando and dean jones a ryan bos and hope lange a senator mayo who grill ryan on his budget proposal . follow by the sum of all fear ( 2002 ) in which a much young ben affleck take over a jack ryan . go figure .