Clear and present danger is where your money belongs one of clancys best ryan efforts in print this massive door stop of a book was condensed by veteran scribes steven zallian and john milius hows that for a screen writing combo into a script that retains a lot of the originals moral complexity while making smart concessions to the blockbuster format for a blockbuster is what you have before you and one of the smartest ones out there where art and commerce were . Clear and present danger was a doctrine adopted by the supreme court of the united states to determine under what circumstances limits can be placed on first amendment freedoms of speech press or assembly the test was replaced in 1969 with brandenburg v ohio s imminent lawless action test. Clear and present danger is a 1994 american political action thriller film directed by phillip noyce and based on tom clancys 1989 novel of the same nameit is a direct sequel to patriot games 1992 both movies were preceded by the 1990 film the hunt for red october and all three featured clancys character jack ryan though ford only played the role in the last two