The film escalates into a confrontation between two world superpowers and the climax is a series of events whereby Ryan is desperately attempting to break through all sorts of bureaucratic red tape to get through to the right people tell them it's nothing but a setup.

Affleck's less than impressive showing as Ryan notwithstanding, the movie is still well worth watching. Director Phil Alden Robinson does an excellent job of weaving the suspense and action with several doses of humor (usually at the expense of Ryan). He doesn't lecture the audience on the evils of nuclear weapons. He just allows it to be part of the story.

The DVD

The DVD features some of the more basic extras, such as trailers and character bios. But it also has quite a few goodies considering it is a single disc.

There are two full length feature commentaries. One features Director Phil Alden Robinson and cinematographer John Lindlay. I normally do not care for the director commentaries because they spend more time talking about the development of the characters and the script than describing what is happening on screen. The addition of Lindlay keeps the focus on the movie and we learn quite a bit about the set ups, design, lighting and ideas brought forth by the actors.

The second commentary features Robinson and author Tom Clancy. I remember seeing Tom Clancy on celebrity Jeopardy one time and he just beat the hell out of his opponents. It's obvious listening to this commentary why he did so well. The man has a photographic memory and his attention to detail plus his uncanny knowledge of military tactics and the intelligence community makes for an enjoyable commentary. Clancy from time to time complains how his work was twisted around but Robinson explains how sometimes the transition from paper to screen has to be altered somewhat.

There is a feature called 'A Cautionary Tale' which has the cast and crew discussing the making of the movie. It was interesting, even if there were too many 'Ben Affleck is great' comments from the rest of the cast, in what appears to be an attempt to justify his taking over the role.

The 'Visual Effects' feature explains in detail how three distinct scenes during the bomb sequence were filmed. It's an amazing education and a testimony to how seriously special effects people take their work.

The movie is fun to watch, despite its dark undertones and the extras presented on the DVD make it worth the purchase.