Although he is best known for creating the Jack Ryan character and series, Tom Clancy wrote several other espionage and military action novels centered around other characters in the “Ryanverse.” Among the most popular heroes that he came up with is John Kelly, a former Navy SEAL that became a C.I.A. agent and went on several dangerous missions around the globe, eventually taking on the identity “Clark.” While Willem Dafoe first portrayed Clark in the Jack Ryan film The Hunt For Red October, Michael B. Jordan was cast as a new version of the character in the origin story Without Remorse, which Taylor Sheridan adapted from Clancy’s novel of the same name. While it is certainly one of the most ruthless revenge thrillers in years, Without Remorse makes more than a few key changes from the source material.
‘Without Remorse’ Changes the Book’s Time Period

Both the book and film version of Without Remorse feature Kelly becoming a vigilante in order to avenge the death of a woman that he cared about. In the novel, Kelly loses his pregnant wife Patricia in a car accident, and subsequently falls in love with the hitchhiker Pamela Madden while he is on his way home to Chesapeake Bay. Pam is revealed to actually be a drug mule and prostitute, and is executed by her pimps, who Kelly proceeds to take out in self-defense. The film offers a far more simplified version of events; Kelly’s wife, Pam (Lauren London), is executed in their home after Russian FSB officers break in. After killing the Russians in self-defense, Kelly discovers that the identities of several Navy SEALs were leaked. Although he is arrested, Kelly works out a deal with Secretary Clay (Guy Pearce) to team up with Lt. Commander Karen Greer (Jodie Turner-Smith) in order to recover the Russian operative Victor Rykov (Brett Gelman), who is being held in Murmansk, Russia.

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The Without Remorse film changes the timeline of the novel, which took place in 1970 in the midst of the Vietnam War. This changes the inciting incident that makes Kelly a target. In the book, Kelly and his team of Navy SEALs extract Air Force Colonel Robin Zacharias from Vietnam due to the secret information that he knows about, but the mission fails when he is executed by a Soviet colonel. In the film, Kelly’s SEAL Team rescues a CIA operative from what they believe to be a pro-Assad military group in Aleppo, but end up realizing they are actually part of Russian paramilitary forces. Without Remorse does not make any specific references to the time that it supposedly takes place in, but context clues would suggest that it is set within an alternate version of modern day, as the friction between the United States and Russia is at an all-time high.
The Conspiracy Is Much Different in the ‘Without Remorse’ Movie

The novel of Without Remorse involves the unveiling of a corrupt United States military lieutenant named Mark Charon, who is involved in a smuggling operation to ship heroin out of Vietnam. Pam’s death is the result of Charon trying to cover his tracks, but Kelly realizes that he faked evidence to point to different suspects. However, the film unveils a greater political conspiracy, in which Clay is trying to stoke tensions between the U.S. and Russia in order to initiate a new Cold War. Although Kelly at first suspects that his friend Robert Ritter (Jamie Bell) may be involved in the cover-up, he ends up finding out that Clay was behind the intelligence leaks.
There are also many character changes in Without Remorse, as the novel introduces a love interest to Kelly named Sandra O’Toole, who does not appear in the film. Although Greer fulfills many of the same functions in the film that O’Toole does in the book, her relationship with Kelly is not necessarily a romantic one. The novel also features a brief appearance by the Baltimore Police Department Lieutenant Emmet Ryan, who is Jack’s father. Although the changes are significant enough to distinguish Sheridan’s Without Remorse as a standalone entity, it is possible that the upcoming adaptation of Rainbow Six may be more faithful to the original source material.
Without Remorse is streaming on Prime Video in the United States.
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Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse

Release Date

April 29, 2021

Cast

Jamie Bell
, Michael B. Jordan
, Guy Pearce
, Jodie Turner-Smith
, Lauren London
, Brett Gelman
, Jacob Scipio
, Jack Kesy
, Colman Domingo
, Todd Lasance
, Cam Gigandet
, Luke Mitchell
, Stephanie McIntyre
, Adrian Rawlins
, Lucy Russell
, Robert Maaser
, Gina Jun
, Rae Lim
, Merab Ninidze
, George Asprey
, Mel Fair
, Reza Brojerdi
, Tom Colley
, Rich Graff
, Artjom Gilz

Runtime

109 minutes

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