Bullet Points: Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse
The latest Tom Clancy property to hit the streamingverse is the Amazon Prime film Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse starring Michael B. Jordan. While Jack Ryan is the most famous Tom Clancy character, John Kelly is probably the next most popular character from the novels and finally gets to be the focus of his own film. Is Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse a worthy addition to the Tom Clancy world of espionage films? Let’s find out.
- Drink Night – Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse is an origin story for John Kelly (Michael B. Jordan) as anyone familiar with Tom Clancy’s work knows that he is a former Navy SEAL turned CIA operative. Without Remorse (I hope you can forgive me for leaving off the Tom Clancy’s part) starts with Kelly and his SEAL team on a covert operation in Syria and we are immediately introduced to the badass that is John Kelly and that he is going to be pretty hard to kill. Three months later when Kelly is back stateside, members of his SEAL team are being murdered, including an attempt on John Kelly that leaves his pregnant wife dead. Hey bad guys, you know you done f’ed up don’t you? You know it, don’t you. You know you done f’ed up.
- Wallace – Michael B. Jordan has come a long way since his stint as Wallace on The Wire. Jordan is the main reason that Without Remorse works. The second reason is the action, but we will get to that later. Jordan is a presence on the screen and is in pretty much every scene in the entire film. The plot and story is related to the novel Without Remorse in name only so don’t go into the movie expecting a faithful retelling. While that might bother the purists, Without Remorse can be enjoyed as its own thing. The one downside of not being an accurate Tom Clancy retelling is that we miss out on the top notch intrigue that his novels provide, but did I mention that Michael B. Jordan owns the role of John Kelly?
- CIA – There is still plenty of political machinations behind much of Without Remorse that see John Kelly go from SEAL to prisoner to felon to CIA operative to hero. The Central Intelligence Agency, or CIA for those in the know, is behind much of the pretty basic East bad, West good plot. There is an over use of shady CIA and politicians that the movie wants you to be unsure about, but Without Remorse fails to provide any surprises on who is who. The biggest surprise for me was that Kelly’s SEAL CO, Lt Cdr Karen Greer is the niece of Jack Ryan staple William Greer. After watching Without Remorse, I thought that CIA stood for the Cliched Intelligence Agency. Comedic rimshot!
- With Action – After Michael B. Jordan, the main reason to check out Without Remorse is for the action. From the opening op in Syria to the finale in Russia, there is a variety of fights, shootouts and action in Without Remorse. Interrogation by tow truck and burning car is awesome. Flooding prison cell fight is awesome (unless you are a fan of prison guards). You like plane crashes? Check. Underwater escapes? How about two underwater escapes. Russian apartment shootouts? With and without snipers. One of the writers of Without Remorse is Taylor Sheridan and that is not surprising because it has the same sort of uneasy tension that fills Sheridan’s Sicario (also it was directed by Sicario: Day of the Soldado helmer Stefano Sollima).
Is Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse worth your time? It all depends on what your expectations are going into the movie. If you are a big fan of the Tom Clancy novels you might want to pass. If you like the Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan series on Amazon Prime you probably will want to take a look. If you are a fan of Michael B. Jordan you will definitely want to watch. There is plenty of intrigue and action I have left out with several familiar faces that you can be on the lookout for if you watch. There is no need to look any more for the Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse Bonus Bullet Points because they are next.
- Rainbow Six – Stick around for the mid-credits scene if you want to see the teaser for a sequel. And yes we get the John Clark shout out towards the end.
- Famous Footsteps – Michael B. Jordan is not the first actor to portray John Kelly/John Clark in film. Willem Defoe was in Clear and Present Danger and Liev Schreiber was in The Sum of All Fears.
- Where is the Horn? – Without Remorse has one of the best man getting run over by a van scenes I have seen in quite some time.
- If You Ever… – Wanted to see Michael B. Jordan eating nuts while lying on the couch in his skivvies then Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse is for you.
