At the end of the fourth and final season of the political thriller, Jack Ryan(2018- 2023), based on Tom Clancy’s characters, Ryan (John Krasinski) saved the world again, left the CIA and walked into the sunset with his girlfriend, Cathy. 

Alas, there is no rest for the wicked and studio heads will not let a winning franchise go quietly into the night. And so we have Jack Ryan: Ghost War, a perfectly serviceable little thriller, though not a particularly great one.

The film opens with the mandatory action-packed sequence, this time in Dubai. Orders are barked out, and good men are betrayed amid flying bullets and masonry. Ryan is now a civilian working on Wall Street, jogging peacefully, when he is stopped by James Greer (Wendell Pierce), the Deputy Director of the CIA.

Much as Ryan protests, he is a civilian and wants no part of whatever Greer is suggesting, he agrees to meet a man in Dubai, since he is going there anyway for work. Former Venezuela station chief and now CIA contractor, Mike November (Michael Kelly) is going along as backup.

Things naturally go very wrong when Ryan manages to meet the MI6 agent, Nigel Cooke (Douglas Hodge), whose operation was shot to pieces in the opening sequence. This particular can of worms that Ryan uncovers involves rogue MI6 agents, black ops, Greer’s hand in a death by torture, old sins casting long shadows, and Madonna’s Blond Ambition.

With Krasinski contributing to the story and screenplay, one cannot accuse him of being uninvolved. However, while the film is short, does some glitzy location work (Dubai, the UK), has the requisite action sequences with screeching tyres and shattering glass, it still remains only mildly engaging.

The acting is solid, with Krasinski continuing his steady interpretation of Ryan, Pierce providing the gravitas, Kelly the humour, and Max Beesley, as the rogue agent, bringing the danger.

Dubai by night looks like a glittering oasis of light, while jolly England is cute, cosy and green except when bullets are flying or a fleet of black SUVs are thundering by (how they manage this in crowded London is an eternal mystery).

Sienna Miller plays MI6 officer Emma Marlow, and a possible love interest for Ryan, as Cathy is nowhere on the scene. The film ends with Greer recommending Ryan for the post of Deputy Director of the CIA, which in Clancy’s Ryanverse is canon.

As a placeholder, or transition from series to movie format, Jack Ryan: Ghost War is serviceable. One cannot be blamed for wanting more considering the original Ryan movies starred Harrison Ford and were directed by Phillip Noyce.

Jack Ryan: Ghost War is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video