I’m usually not a fanatic when it comes to watching action movies. Just thinking of the word “action” brings up horrible visions of Tom Cruise walking away from giant explosions and techy geeks telling people “get the hell out of there,” and it’s enough to keep me away from the entire genre in most circumstances.

But hey, when you work at a movie theater, you start to run out of movies to watch fairly quickly. So even though I walked into the theater expecting “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit” to just be more of the same, I was instead met with a film that I loved. I was shocked to find a movie with a plot that was well formulated and exciting to try to keep up with while maintaining the parts of action movies that I can actually appreciate: fast-paced action that sends you straight to the edge of your seat. In a genre where everything seems to follow the same exact template, “Jack Ryan” breaks down barriers in a way everybody can enjoy.

This story begins with a young Jack Ryan (Chris Pine) earning his economics degree at the time the twin towers fall. With a surge of patriotism, Ryan enlists in the military where he uses his knowledge and newly learned combat skills to help achieve several military objectives. However, when he is nearly paralyzed in a helicopter crash in the middle of Afghanistan, he is sent home and forced into years of painful and difficult physical therapy. It’s here that Ryan meets the love of his life, Dr. Cathy Muller (Keira Knightly). Soon after his recovery, he is approached by CIA director Thomas Harper (Kevin Costner) and asked to use his knowledge to serve his country once more, but it a different way. Ryan trades in the frontline in the Middle East for the frontline in Wall Street, weeding out corruption and fraud by working within the largest financial institutions in the world. The CIA uses his information to uncover a plot by powerful forces in Russia to destroy the value of the U.S. dollar and send the world into another Great Depression in less than a week, from which Russia would emerge as the only true victor and world’s only superpower. Determined to stop this collapse at any cost, Ryan, backed by the CIA, travels to Moscow to bring down these new threats.

Now, this is one of the most interesting plots I have ever found in an action movie. Sure, in every film in this genre some terrorist has some sinister plot to blow up something important or kill somebody powerful. We’ve all seen it. We’ve all been fed the same stuff over and over again. But this movie takes that concept and turns it into something completely non-traditional; an economic threat the the United States that needs to be stopped immediately. It makes you think. It builds suspense. It has plenty of high-intensity, high-speed scenes that get your adrenaline pumping. It’s the kind of story that you know was well thought out and expertly implemented.

But it’s not just that. The plot was amazing, but there is more to it. The character and story are based on a series of books by Tom Clancy, but the story in the movie is one completely different from anything written in the books. That’s right. The script writers had to implement a character already created into a story that mirrors the style of a respected author and packs the same type of punch as his work. That is no small task, and considering how well it was executed, and the praise that the film received by fans of the books, I’d say that there was major success on this front as well.

The main cast of this movie consists of well-respected actors that have all been around the industry for a while, and I think that clearly shows in their work here. Typically action movies base far less of an “emotional connection” emphasis on the characters than other genres. Why do you need to care about the actor if stuff gets blown up and the villain dies, right? Well, no. It actually works really well here. First I’d like to point out that Pine completely stole the show (as he should have, playing the main character). His mature style of acting fit perfectly with the character of somebody who is young but has had their share of combat experience and bad memories. He and the role work really well in tandem. Keira Knightly and Kevin Costner also contribute much to the performance in supporting roles. While I think that Costner was in his comfort zone throughout the film, playing a role that suits his forte quite well, Knightly definitely was not. I was so happy to see her taking on more of a dominant and aggressive role, instead of the more passive jobs she’s used to. She was taking a leap of faith by trying something new, and it worked very well in combination with the other talent. Overall, the acting was what made such a brilliant story come to life.

I could go on for a while about every individual detail I loved about this movie, but I would much rather you go and see for yourself. With a running time of 106 minutes, and a rating of PG-13, it’s accessible for nearly all audiences. This movie deserves any attention and praise that it gets. And to fully understand why, well, you’re just going to have to go and watch.

by CARSEN VAN DER LINDEN