Harrison Ford stars as the CIA's Jack Ryan in "Clear and Present Danger," an action-thriller from the producers and director of "Patriot Games." Also starring Willem Dafoe, Anne Archer and James Earl Jones, the film is the third to be adapted from bestsellers featuring the Jack Ryan character and brought to the screen by producers Mace Neufeld and Robert Rehme, following the global success of "The Hunt for Red October" and "Patriot Games." "Clear and Present Danger" was directed by Phillip Noyce from a screenplay by Donald Stewart and Steven Zaillian and John Milius, based on the novel by Tom Clancy. Ralph Singleton is the co-producer of the presentation of the Motion Picture Group of Paramount Pictures, part of the entertainment operations of Viacom Inc.

The cast includes Joaquim de Almeida, Henry Czerny, Harris Yulin, Donald Moffat, Miguel Sandoval, Benjamin Bratt, Raymond Cruz, Dean Jones, Thora Birch, Ann Magnuson, Hope Lange, Tom Tammi, Tim Grimm and Belita Moreno.

In "Clear and Present Danger," Jack Ryan is promoted from analyst to deputy director of intelligence for the CIA and finds himself thrust into one of America's most dangerous conflicts - the war on drugs. His discovery of links between a Colombian drug cartel and an influential friend of the President of the United States lead Ryan from the power corridors of Washington, D.C. to the jungles of Colombia and the streets of Bogata. Around him, deceptive alliances, an American covert-action team and the complex hierarchy of the cartel foster a menacing conspiracy where it isn't always apparent who are the enemies.

"I'm interested in action-oriented films with an emotional thread running through them," says Harrison Ford, who has given life to some of the screen's most popular heroes. "The emotional element is key - for me as an actor and for the audience."

Mace Neufeld comments, "The character of Jack Ryan embodies many of the qualities that are admired by Americans: a strong moral and ethical sense, a love of his country, and the ability and desire to take action when necessary."

Observes Phillip Noyce, "In this film, the question of honor, loyalty and trust are explored in the context of an intricate, multinational and multicultural puzzle."

The title derives from the section of U.S. law that prohibits the commitment of American military power except in situations where there exists "a clear and present danger to the national security of the United States."

Published in 1989, Tom Clancy's Clear and Present Danger was a No. 1 bestseller on The New York Times list and has sold well over six million copies in G.P. Putnam and Sons hardcover and Berkley paperback editions. The novel was adapted for the screen by Donald Stewart ("The Hunt for Red October," "Patriot Games," Academy Award winner for "Missing"), Steven Zaillian ("Awakenings," Academy Award winner for "Schindler's List") and John Milius (Academy Award nominee for "Apocalypse Now"). "Patriot Games" and "The Hunt for Red October"- Paramount's previous films with Jack Ryan as protagonist - have a combined worldwide gross surpassing $350 million.

"'Clear and Present Danger' is a film for the new political era," says Phillip Noyce. "In the post-Cold War world, the influence of the President has become even greater as the United States is increasingly called upon to act as a police force to the world. This is a film that asks the question, 'When is it appropriate for this powerful nation to act and what form should that action take?"'

When Jack Ryan is asked by the ailing Admiral James Greer (James Earl Jones) to assume his duties while Greer is hospitalized, Ryan hesitantly accepts the position in allegiance to his friend and mentor. As acting deputy director of Intelligence at the CIA, Ryan becomes an advisor to the President (Donald Moffat.) Ryan earns the chief executive officer's trust and respect, as the murder and subsequent connection of the President's friend with a powerful Colombian drug cartel provides the Oval of fine with striking evidence of the ineffectiveness of America's war on drugs.

As the President calls for decisive action, National Security Advisor James Cutter (Harris Yulin) and CIA Deputy Director of Operations Robert Ritter (Henry Czerny) set into motion a secret plan targeting the cartel headed by Ernesto Escobedo (Miguel Sandoval.) The drug lord who answers to know one has hired Felix Cortez (Joaquim de Almeida), a former high-ranking intelligence figure in Castro's Cuba, to serve his borderless empire.

Willem Dafoe plays Mr. Clark, a CIA field contractor enlisted by Ritter. Mr. Clark employs high technology espionage and down-in-the-trench action to conduct his covert business. He recruits an insertion team of American soldiers with Latino backgrounds to infiltrate the Colombian countryside and strike strategic locations. Mr. Clark's troops include Chavez (Raymond Cruz), an expert sniper; Captain Ramirez (Benjamin Bratt), the field officer; and Sgt. Oso (Jaime Gomez).

"Mr. Clark is somewhat mysterious," comments Willem Dafoe. "One of the things that attracted me to the role was the idea that he is a man with a very rich history, yet a history that's not explained at all. As an actor, you like to play characters you can't necessarily identify with immediately. Mr. Clark has his own set of principles."

Mr. Clark's clandestine mission, however noble its purpose, is nonetheless orchestrated outside of American law, without congressional approval or Jack Ryan's knowledge. When Ryan ultimately discovers what has happened, he must decide what action to take.

Phillip Noyce asks, "Does he keep quiet and not injure the Presidency or the institution he has served for so many years? Or does he do something that will endanger his own career and reputation, endanger the Presidency and plunge the whole country into turmoil akin to Watergate or the Iran Contra affair?"

"Ryan finds himself drawn into this situation that finally only he can resolve," says Harrison Ford. "We all have moral decisions to make in our lives and the nature of them depends on the exact detail of the circumstances. I think Ryan behaves well and admirably, not out of super patriotism or out of national zeal but out of regard for his fellow human beings, out of compassion and intelligence and a sense of responsibility."

"Clear and Present Danger" reveals a contemporary society where profound social dilemmas have left nations' boundaries inconsequential to far-reaching criminal conspiracies. In such a world, the figurative icons of black and white have been replaced by a myriad shades of gray. Jack Ryan is well-prepared to confront the dangers facing his nation from without, yet the dangers from within may be the greatest of all.

Four months of principal photography for "Clear and Present Danger" commenced on November 8,1993. The film's principal locations were found in Los Angeles, Orange and Santa Clarita counties in California; Washington, D.C.; and Cuernavaca, Mexico City, Xalapa, Coatepec, Xico and La Concepcion, Mexico.

In reprising his role of Jack Ryan, Harrison Ford worked with director Phillip Noyce and the stunt and special effects teams to plan and participate in the film's complex, physically-challenging action sequences.

"The reason that I like to do as much of the action as possible is because I want to maintain the emotional relationship between the character and the audience," Ford says. "I dislike seeing in films action for the sake of itself. The only reason that we want to be there and should be there is in pursuit of the story - in a position to observe the behavior of the character."

The realism, excitement and dimension of the film's action sequences were made possible by the work of some of the motion picture industry's most renowned stunt and special effects artists. Special effects coordinators Paul Lombardi and his father, Joe Lombardi, whose career milestones include "Patriot Games" and "The Godfather" films, achieved effects in "Clear and Present Danger" encompassing explosive pyrotechnics, gunfire, flame, wind and smoke. Stunt coordinator Dick Ziker, a 1990 inductee to the Stuntman's Hall of Fame, assembled a group of 20 leading stuntmen, many coordinators in their own right, to accomplish the film's intricate stunts.

In addition to Harrison Ford, cast members reprising the roles they played in "Patriot Games" are Anne Archer as Jack Ryan's wife, Cathy; James Earl Jones, who originated the role of Admiral James Greer in "The Hunt for Red October"; and Thora Birch as the Ryans' daughter, Sally.

Among the filmmakers of "Patriot Games" who reunited for "Clear and Present Danger" are director of photography Donald M. McAlpine, A.S.C., editor Neil Travis, A.C.E., property master Dennis Parrish, set decorator Mickey S. Michaels, supervising location manager Stuart A. Neumann, make-up artist Peter Robb-King, and composer James Horner.

Location scouting was done six months prior to the beginning of principal photography, resulting with the selection of Mexico to provide terrain and architecture for the screenplay's south-of-the-horder settings. In Los Angeles, production designer Terence Marsh found practical locations or created sets for the scenes inside the CIA headquarters, the Oval Office, the FBI, the Ryan home, and various airport and military facilities.

The largest complex of sets built for the film were Interiors for the CIA headquarters. Spanning two large soundstages at Sony Studios in Culver City, the interiors of Ryan's office and Ritter's office were on one stage, while the other stage was filled by the CIA 'Large Room,' bringing together a large collection of state-of-the-art intelligence gathering and analysis technology. Such components as the Storagetek data storage unit, a robotic machine capable of storing information equivalent to 50,000 years of The Wall Street Journal, and the ultra-high resolution Intergraph computer, used in cartography and architecture, were placed prominently amidst an array of video monitors and listening devices. Engineers at the Intergraph computer company worked in concert with associate producer Lis Kern and video graphics expert John Wash of Video Image to reengineer the hardware for these computers to produce a 48 cycle signal (reduced from the standard 60 cycles) so that the display screens would operate in sync with the 24-frame motion picture cameras.

The significance of the equipment seen in "Clear and Present Danger" was substantiated when the cast and crew heard the news of the killing of real-life drug cartel leader Pablo Escobar. On that day, the company was filming a scene with Harrison Ford in the voice analysis section of the CIA large room. Using a device known as a sonograph, recordings of individuals - often intercepted by satellite from cellular phone transmission - are onmnsresl vin computer in much the same fashion that fingerprints are correlated, as described by author Tom Clancy in Clear and Present Danger. While actors Harrison Ford and Vondie Curtis-Hall searched computer files as their characters attempted to identify their subject, news reached the set that this same technique had been employed by the genuine authorities to apprehend Escobar.

Terence Marsh also supervised the building of sets on the Sony lot for the office of National Security Advisor James Cutter and the White House's press briefing room. At Paramount Studios, the filmmakers for a week filmed scenes involving the President in the Oval Office set.

Locations in the Los Angeles area included the downtown Water Grill, which doubled for a Washington, D.C. restaurant; the Chase Building, for scenes in a DEA field office in Colombia and a conference room at the FBI; the Westwood VA hospital; Los Alamitos Armed Forces Reserve Center; the U.S. Coast Guard station at San Pedro; John Wayne, Van Nuys and Los Angeles international airports; and an elegant Hancock Park residence that was selected as the Ryans' family home.

In Washington, D.C., the company filmed during one of the coldest weeks experienced in the area for a century. Locations included Arlington National Cemetery, Andrews Force Base, the exterior of the White House, the Northumberland apartment building, a country cabin in the Virginia countryside, and the banks of the Potomac.

To show Jack Ryan driving onto White House grounds, the filmmakers circumvented security restrictions via special visual effects. Visual effects supervisor Robert Grasmere coordinated a computer-generated special effect combining separately-shot elements into one composite shot showing Ryan driving his Ford Taurus past the guard gate.

The largest set used during production was built in Mexico City and required eight weeks of work by carpenters, plasterers, painters and other craftsmen and women. Known as 'The Kill Zone,' a street nearly the length of two football fields was a recreation of actual blocks in Bogata, Colombia. There, Ryan, FBI Director Jacobs (Tom Tammi), Ambassador Ferris (Victor Palmieri) and FBI agent Murray (Tim Grimm) are caught, in the words of Phillip Noyce, "like rats in a trap." Speeding cars, rocket and gunfire add to the excitement yet also created the need for a carefully controlled environment. The scene was so complex to film that co-producer Ralph Singleton employed cutting edge technology to have a computer-generated, fully animated storyboard created by Steve Katz in order to bring Noyce an advance look at how the scene might be edited. Based on the computer simulation, the director was able to make adjustments in his shooting plan for maximum effect before filming began for the sequence.

Three grand haciendas: Vista Hermosa, San Gabriel and the Posada Tepoztlan, all within a 30-minute radius of Cuernavaca, are amalgamated on screen to be seen as Escobedo's lavish 'finca.' Both Vista Hermosa and San Gabriel were established in the 16th Century. In the 1940s and 'SOs, Vista Hermosa became a popular get-away spot for celebrities and other well-to-do Americans visiting Cuernavaca. San Gabriel, which was originally built by Cortez, was used as a headquarters for Pancho Villa during the Mexican revolution. A gallows erected by his troops is still visible on the property. The Posada Tepoztlan offers a commanding view of one of Mexico's foremost and picturesque artistic communities.

For the film's climactic setting of a coffee processing factory, the location was Coatapec's water-powered Murietta Coffee Factory. Terence Marsh and his construction coordinator Sebastian Molitto built a helipad and added coffee sacks with Colombian markings for the sequence filmed at the plant that has been in operation for more than a century.

For the scene where an American 'smart bomb' destroys a hacienda belonging to a drug cartel member, the filmmakers opted to blow-up an authentic house instead of a set or miniature when a suitable concrete and rock modernistic structure with a willing owner was found. Joe and Paul Lombardi coordinated the explosion with months of planning and three weeks of actual preparation of the house preceding the wiring of detonators and placement of nine cameras to create and record the massive explosion. To insure safety, the production set up an elaborate security cordon around the house and prepared local residents for the blast, which was conducted on the last day of principal photography, March 14, 1994.

During filming as well as the pre-production period, the cast and filmmakers benefitted from interaction with government agencies and the military. Harrison Ford, who visited the CIA during preparations for "Patriot Games," additionally had access to members of the DEA, FBI and State Department for "Clear and Present Danger." Harris Yulin, who plays National Security Advisor Cutter, met with Brent Scowcroft, national security advisor to three Presidents. Willem Dafoe and the other actors playing members of the insertion team were trained in jungle stealth maneuvers by technical advisor Jared Chandler, with Raymond Cruz, who plays the sharpshooter Chavez, receiving additional training with the Marines at Camp Pendleton. Cooperation with the Department of Defense enabled the filmmakers to utilize authentic military locations and equipment. With production designer Terence Marsh and set decorator Mickey Michaels working closely with their agency contacts, the company filmed at such military bases as Andrews Air Force base, Arlington National Cemetery, Los Alamitos Reserve Center, and the U.S. Coast Guard station at San Pedro.

The production also filmed aboard the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk and in the skies above Nellis Air Force base. The DOD also made it possible for Noyce to film with three U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopters piloted by a special forces unit that specializes in the stealthy delivery of men and materials.

For a funeral scene, the filmmakers arranged to use Arlington and the Military Honor Guard to preserve such authentic details as the way the American flag is folded. Also appearing in the film are three of the military's premiere instrumental units: The Marine Corps Band, the Air Force Band and the Navy Band.

Mace Neufeld believes that government and military cooperation adds verisimilitude that otherwise couldn't be achieved: "It adds to the reality of our story. There is something to using the people who do these things everyday that cannot be substituted."