Though I enjoyed the first two or three seasons of Amazon Prime’s Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan series (2018-2023), I did not watch the fourth.  I am not sure I can pinpoint a reason for my flagging interest, but I think it pertains to it becoming a bland action show with some espionage thrown in for good measure.  To be clear, it is not the spy craft that was the deal breaker.  It is rather that I crave something original from the entertainment I consume.  This might seem a contradictory stance for a person who practices Catholicism, a Faith considered by the uninformed to be repetitive in its worship style.  Even if we do some of the same things every Sunday, there is a point to going to Mass beyond mere titillation.  When I watch a movie or a program, I can complain about the quality of the product.  My theory is that Amazon came to roughly the same conclusion and decided to cap off their secret agent thriller with one last movie, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War.

There are plenty of gun-toting secret agents at the beginning of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War, but none of them would be familiar if you are a fan of the show.  They are all in Dubai, and one MI6 agent, Nigel Cooke (Douglas Hodge), is trying to upload something, while another MI6 operative, Liam Crown (Max Beesley), seeks to stop this from happening.  It is not clear who is bad or good or why any of this happens, but it is apparent that Liam and his team are successful.  We then cut to New York City where former Central intelligence Agency (CIA) officer Jack Ryan (John Krasinski) is out jogging.  Because of his training, he is suspicious when a group of black sport utility vehicles (SUV) start following him.  While he evades for a while, it is soon revealed that they belong to his one-time colleague and now friend, James Greer (Wendell Pierce), who is now the deputy director of the CIA.  Even though their feelings for one another are warm, Jack immediately says that whatever mission is being given to the current civilian, he is not interested.  James does not deny the errand, but he says it is only to be a courier, asking Jack to meet Nigel in Dubai and obtain whatever information the Englishman is providing.  To sweeten the deal, Jack’s other compatriot from back in the day, Mike November (Michael Kelly), will also be coming.  At first, Jack continues to deny involvement, claiming that he is only going to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to conduct his private business.  Yet, once that is concluded, Mike finds him and they go to rendezvous with Nigel.  As so often happens in these stories, it is a trap to lure Nigel into the open, who is assassinated.  In trying to capture the accomplices, Jack and Mike are interrupted by yet another MI6 agent, Emma Marlow (Sienna Miller).  With a gun on Jack and Mike, she takes them to a safe house where she can ascertain their involvement in Nigel’s death.  As she and Jack converse, she elaborates on a clandestine program from twenty years ago that had been initiated by James and Liam called Starling.  It was a brutal counter-terrorism initiative that saw James taking part in some of the more heinous acts of his career, which changed when he met Jack.  The revelation brings Jack and Mike to London where the former has arranged to have a face-to-face with James.  While the British intelligence agency listens, James discloses his connection to these sordid affairs and come to the conclusion that Liam is trying to reactivate the project the deputy director ended decades ago.  In doing some more sleuthing, Jack uses his analyst skills and determines where in London an operative could be hiding with designs on blowing up Tower Bridge.  Meanwhile, James calls the director of the CIA, Elizabeth Wright (Betty Gabriel), to come to England in order to vouch for James.  With Emma, Jack, and Mike going after the potential bomber, Elizabeth and James meet with their British counterparts.  When their tête-a-tête is concluded, Jack phones to say that the explosives have been located, but the captive is apparently clueless.  That is when they realize that Jack’s quest had been a ruse to distract them from the real target: James.  Unfortunately, it is Elizabeth who pays the price, getting into a car that detonates second later with her in it.  Though this means that James is now the director, he goes after Liam, who had been watching all this unfold.  James has to be saved by Emma, Jack, and Mike, but the attack proves to Jack that Liam wants to show people in power that Starling is still an important endeavor.  Liam also demands that James return any information gleaned from Nigel, which the newly promoted CIA man denies having.  Jack interjects here, saying he has it, although it is simply a pack of cigarettes Nigel dropped.  The lie gives James and company the opportunity to coordinate an operation to complete Nigel’s work, getting the information he had been trying to broadcast to the world about Starling from the deceased’s private computer.  Emma and Jack carry out this task, and doing so outs Andrew Spear (JJ Field) as being in league with Liam.  As such, it is back to Dubai where they return to the site of the opening gun battle, though they anticipate Liam’s people coming after them at this location.  With some help from the CIA, Emma and Jack get the information out and James arrives with some extra help to stop Liam and company.  With the job done, Jack travels with James back to Washington where the former has been tapped to be the new deputy director of the CIA.

It is not entirely clear at the end of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War as to whether Jack has accepted being the deputy director of the CIA, or even if he is aware of the appointment.  One might say that he is in the dark, or could be.  I use such figurative language because there is a lot of exploration throughout the movie of themes of light and dark.  It is the kind of theming that appeals to a practicing Catholic like myself, even if I was not all that entertained by what amounts to another action film.  When it comes to spy movies, one of my oft used Catholic analyses is that being involved in espionage often means existing in a world of compromised morals.  This is supposed to be the dynamic between Jack and James.  For many years, James had no problem doing whatever needed to be done in order to protect the interests of the United States.  As we hear in the movie, this included torture and outright murder.  The Church teaches that neither of these are acceptable under any conditions, which makes it hard to call James a hero from a Catholic perspective.  Jack operates more in line with Catholicism’s principles, but he is still involved in a great deal of violence.  One could say that it is a morally gray area, since he only ever seems to shoot at people when they are shooting at him.  Then again, there is a moment after Liam has been stopped and is bleeding on the ground that Jack puts a bullet through the terrorist’s skull.  To be fair, Liam had been reaching for a gun, but it is still something that probably could have been avoided.  While even the Catechism will support legitimate self-defense, it is meant to be a last resort.  Further, the ends do not justify the means.  After all, Mark 8:36 is clear that while one might accomplish a great thing, it means nothing if the process it took to achieve it was marked by sin.

I would not go so far as to say watching Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War is a sin.  The violence is why it has an “R” rating, but it is rather tame, and bland, as these things go.  Indeed, it is far too unremarkable to be recommendable.