Clear and Present Danger

Clear and Present Danger is currently streaming in Australia on BINGE, and in the US on fuboTV and Paramount Plus Premium, and its case-by-case structure never gets in the way of the bigger story. It says what it needs to say in one sitting, no filler. A 7/10 rating says what the writing already makes obvious: this one works. Harrison Ford leads a cast that carries the story without ever feeling mechanical. Start it on BINGE whenever you need something guaranteed to land.

Clear and Present Danger arrived without much fanfare and built its audience the hard way — through word of mouth. The plotting in Clear and Present Danger is tight enough that the twists feel earned rather than assembled. Agent Jack Ryan becomes acting Deputy Director of Intelligence for the CIA when Admiral Greer is diagnosed with cancer. When an American businessman, and friend of the president, is murdered on his yacht, Ryan starts discovering links between the man and drug dealers. As former CIA agent John Clark is sent to Colombia to kill drug cartel kingpins in retaliation, Ryan must fight through multiple cover-ups to figure out what happened and who's responsible. Credit to Harrison Ford and Willem Dafoe for grounding it — this is a cast that earns the twists. It was released in 1994. Clear and Present Danger is at its best in the quiet scenes between the plot beats, where the character work actually happens. It delivers reliably on what it promises, which is more than most of its competition manages.

Viewers who think they have seen every crime drama tend to find Clear and Present Danger proves them wrong. It does not lean on comparisons to make its case. The complete film is available and best experienced without too much prior knowledge of where it goes. Harrison Ford anchors it, but the writing does the real work. If you are going to commit to one crime drama this month, make it this one.