Ben Affleck’s Forgotten Action Thriller Drops on Netflix

Ben Affleck has a ton of great movies in his film catalog, and one of his more forgotten action thrillers recently dropped on Netflix. Among its new July additions, Netflix included 2002’s The Sum of All Fears, as first noted by We Got This Covered. The movie is based on a Tom Clancy novel by the same name, and it co-starred Morgan Freeman, James Cromwell, and Liev Schreiber.

In The Sum of All Fears, Affleck plays CIA analyst Jack Ryan, who has to track down an Austrian Neo-Nazi that is planning to spark a nuclear war between the United States and Russia. The film is not bad at all, it just came early in Affleck’s leading-man career, landing the year after Pearl Harbor was released and the years before Daredevil debuted. The Sum of All Fears was directed by Phil Alden Robinson (Field of Dreams) and earned $193 million on a budget of less than $70 million.

Affleck was the third actor to portray Jack Ryan, Clancy’s beloved novel-hero-turned-blockbuster-movie-star. The character was first portrayed on the big screen by Alec Baldwin in The Hunt for Red October (1990). He was then most famously played by legendary actor Harrison Ford in both Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and Present Danger (1994).

After Affleck played Jack Ryan in 2002, the character took a break for more than a decade. Eventually, he popped back up in 2014’s Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, portrayed by Chris Pine. Most recently John Krasinski became the fifth actor to play the character, portraying him in Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan on Amazon Prime Video.

For those who just want more Affleck than one movie, Netflix has you covered. Fans can also stream the 2009 political-thriller State of Play, which co-stars Russell Crowe and Rachel McAdams. There is also a newer film, titled The Last Thing He Wanted, which features Affleck, Anne Hathaway, and Willem Dafoe. That film was also based on a book of the same name, and was directed by Oscar-nominee Dee Rees.

If an action-based Affleck flick is more your speed, then Triple Frontier is something you should add to your queue. The film stars Affleck, Charlie Hunnam, Oscar Isaac, Garrett Hedlund, and Pedro Pascal. It is co-written and directed by J. C. Chandor, who is most well-known for helming films such as A Most Violent Year and All Is Lost.

Triple Frontier is about “a group of former Special Forces operatives [who] reunite to plan a heist in a sparsely populated multi-border zone of South America. For the first time in their prestigious careers these unsung heroes undertake this dangerous mission for self instead of country. But when events take an unexpected turn and threaten to spiral out of control, their skills, their loyalties and their morals are pushed to a breaking point in an epic battle for survival.”