The Sum of All Fears

Plot hole: The Bedouin who found the unexploded nuke in the desert was supposedly dying of radiation poisoning when Clark questioned him. All he did was dig it out and load it in a truck, while all the shields were in place. If it was emitting THAT much radiation, the 3 scientists who spent DAYS refurbishing it for Dressler would have been made too sick by the radiation to finish the job.

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Suggested correction: The person who found the bomb can be seen in the 'bomb pit' putting his hand under the bomb's damaged shielding. At which point he says "it's still warm." It's reasonable to assume that he touched the radioactive material, leading to poisoning.

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Mistakes

Continuity mistake: In the aircraft scenes after the blast in Baltimore, watch the clocks closely. The times go forward, backward, and everything in between.

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Quotes

Jack Ryan: General, the President is basing his decisions on some really bad information right now. And if you shut me out, your family, and my family, and twenty-five million other families will be dead in thirty minutes.

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Trivia

Trivia: When Bill Cabot meets John Clark at the airport in the rain, it was Liev Schreiber's idea to have Clark waiting without an umbrella.

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Questions

Question: As President Fowler is being escorted from the football stadium, he tells Cabot to "get the people out of here." How did the President know that the bomb was in the building? No one in the scene knew its exact location, so why does he think that if the fans leave the stadium they will be safe?

Answer: The President telling Cabot to "get the people out of here" is just a political life boat. If asked what he did when he found out about the bomb he can "honestly" say he asked for an evacuation.

It's unlikely at such a time of panic that one would consider a 'political life boat'. There's also nothing in the character as presented to suggest that would be his thought process. The president's just been told that there's a bomb in Baltimore (not the building) and says "get those people out of the stadium." He's being evacuated from a location that contains thousands of other people. It's fair to assume he knows all those people are also in danger so wants them evacuated too.

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