Technically a follow-up to _The Hunt for Red October_, though the two have very little connection beyond a title character and a touch of international flavor. Protagonist Jack Ryan has been re-cast as a much older agent: burnt out, retired from the CIA and content in his new life as an instructor at the US Naval Academy. The role has shifted from Alec Baldwin to Harrison Ford between films, and even in the early ‘90s, there was no way to paint the latter as a roguish, physical young specimen. He does get a few moments of exercise, particularly in the events that set the plot in motion, but even here, his limitations are acknowledged and played into the script. Which is awkward, as the two films are set only a few years apart, but here we are.

While in the United Kingdom on a speaking engagement, Ryan finds himself caught in the middle of an IRA assassination / kidnapping attempt. Reflexively, he springs into action, killing one terrorist and wounding another. This earns him a commendation from the target (a distant member of the royal family) and a blood feud with the surviving evildoer (Sean Bean), whose younger brother ate the fatal bullet and is left laying in the street. They dance the expected dance - Bean escaping custody, Ford surviving repeated surprise attacks, a climactic showdown with family in the crosshairs - and it’s all just fine. Very typical action / suspense fare for the era, with an effectively claustrophobic final confrontation in the corridors of a large country house. There’s nothing glaringly bad, but also nothing exceptionally memorable, besides another example of poor Sean Bean’s well-earned reputation for grisly on-screen farewells. A lukewarm potboiler that’s beginning to show its age.