By Dawn's Early Light (1990)
Starring: Powers Boothe, Rebecca DeMornay
Director: Jack Sholder
Chillingly realistic techno-thriller paints less rosy picture of how the American government would react to a mysterious nuclear attack.

Clear and Present Danger (1994)
Starring: Harrison Ford, Willem Dafoe
Director: Phillip Noyce
A far older Jack Ryan is caught between Colombian drug lords and ruthless fellow CIA operatives in this spy thriller.

The Hunt for Red October (1990)
Starring: Sean Connery, Alec Baldwin
Director: John McTiernan
Best Ryan outing also looks at a tense confrontation between Russia and American nuclear forces.

Creative Movie Matches

Black Sunday (1977)
Starring: Robert Shaw, Bruce Dern
Director: John Frankenheimer
Dated thriller looks at another, less lethal terrorist attack on the Super Bowl.

The Fourth Protocol (1987)
Starring: Michael Caine, Pierce Brosnan
Director: John MacKenzie
Flawed-but-interesting techno-thriller features an older spy trying to foil a nuclear-bomb plot.

Patriot Games (1992)
Starring: Harrison Ford, Anne Archer
Director: Phillip Noyce
Arguably the least successful of Jack Ryan outings, this thriller sees the CIA agent targeted by the IRA.

Thirteen Days (2000)
Starring: Kevin Costner, Bruce Greenwood
Director: Roger Donaldson
Riveting, shamefully overlooked nail-biter chronicles the tense governmental intrigue during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.