Reviewed by Ian Maher

The Sum of All Fears
Director: Phil Alden Robinson (2002)
Distributor: United International Pictures (UK) Ltd.  Certificate: 12

In a climate where warnings abound about the danger of weapons of mass destruction being obtained and used by terrorists, The Sum of All Fears portrays just such a scenario. A shadowy group of European fascists headed by Richard Dressler (Alan Bates) set out to provoke a nuclear exchange between the USA and Russia. To that end, Dressler’s group acquire a nuclear bomb dug up by two local men in the Golan Heights. The weapon had lain beneath the sands since the Israeli jet that carried it was shot down during the Arab Israeli war of 1973.

Aided by three Russian scientists, the bomb is refashioned into a device that is hidden in a cigarette machine and shipped to the US city of Baltimore. The cigarette machine is then installed in the city’s major football stadium ahead of a game to be attended by US President Robert Fowler (James Cromwell).

The bigger political picture against which these events are set is a change of leader in Russia where the moderate President Nemerov (Ciarán Hinds) assumes power. CIA analyst Jack Ryan (Ben Affleck), who has studied the new leader, is taken by CIA Director William Cabot (Morgan Freeman) to Moscow for a meeting with Nemerov and to visit a site where Russian nuclear weapons are being dismantled. During the visit, Ryan discovers that three key scientists are missing from the nuclear facility and also has his suspicions confirmed that Nemerov is having a difficult time keeping his military hawks in check.

However, when Ryan eventually tracks the Baltimore location of Dressler’s nuclear bomb he is too late, though there is just enough time to evacuate President Fowler from the stadium. Thousands die, including Cabot. Convinced that Nemerov was not to blame, Ryan desperately tries to identify the culprit and persuade President Fowler to prevent the seemingly inevitable escalation into all-out nuclear war. Ryan succeeds and the film closes with Fowler and Nemerov signing a nuclear-arms treaty. Dressler and his henchmen are executed by CIA and Russian secret-service agents.

Ben Affleck is a somewhat bland Jack Ryan, especially when considered alongside Harrison Ford’s portrayal of the same character in Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger but there are good performances from Morgan Freeman and James Cromwell as the CIA Director and US President respectively, as well as from Ciarán Hinds as the pressured Russian leader. The film is a little gung-ho in places but there are some plausible and disturbing echoes with the current political reality of the world in which we live.

THROUGH THE LENS OF CHRISTIAN FAITH 

“Blessed are the peacemakers; they shall be called God’s children” (Matthew 5.8).

The Sum of All Fears provided a dramatic presentation of the uncertain times in which we live. The world is an increasingly unsafe place and danger abounds. It would be foolhardy to underestimate the threat of large-scale terrorism, particularly in the light of the September 11 outrage. However, there is danger of adopting a simplistic view of the reasons for terrorism by attaching labels of good and evil to particular groups of people.

Often the root of terrorism is to be found in the injustices perpetrated on the powerless by the powerful. That does not provide justification for acts of violence, but it does give some insight into the reasons behind them. When people are backed into desperate corners it should not surprise us that extreme responses are provoked. Add to the mix the ingredient of religious belief and there is a potent recipe for disaster. The appalling spiral of tit-for-tat killing between Israelis and Palestinians is a striking example of the consequences emerging from oppression and the abusive use of power.

There are no easy answers, and unless issues of global injustice are addressed by those nations with the power to do so it is difficult to see how a more peaceful world is to emerge. The current race towards ‘regime change’ in Iraq through pre-emptive military intervention by the US is likely to have far-reaching consequences. Saddam Hussein may well be a tyrant but he does not exist in isolation. President Bush and those who with him are hankering for war are certainly right in their assumption that US military power would succeed in any conflict with Iraq but it is highly unlikely that the world will be a safer place. The whirlwind that would be reaped from US action may be difficult to foresee, but its arrival is hardly in doubt.

Now is the time for the voices of peacemakers to be heard. Jesus described those who make peace as ‘blessed’ and as children of God (Matthew 5.8). They reflect the life of God in the world in a special way. Jesus spoke of a peace that was not simply about an absence of war but about the encompassing of justice for all. His concern was for the dignity and worth of every woman, man and child to be upheld.

As the drumbeats of war sound ever louder and those intent on starting a war in Iraq increasingly use the media to rationalise their arguments, Christians (and indeed people of all faiths and none) need to be bold in their efforts to be peacemakers. Every opportunity needs to be taken; every channel utilised, to search for another way. It will not be easy or popular, for along with the call for peace goes the challenge for justice ~ and that involves power being released and shared with those who have been oppressed and marginalized. But as the old saying goes, all that is required for evil to triumph is that good people do nothing.

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