‘The Hunt for Red October’ (1990)

The Villain: It’s unclear and that’s the point.

Who is Jack Ryan? Baldwin plays Ryan as a charismatic, upstart CIA analyst in the most cerebral of the movies. Ryan is called into action by Vice Admiral James Greer (James Earl Jones) after a powerful and undetectable Russian nuclear submarine has seemingly gone rogue.

Directed by John McTiernan, the film is remarkably different from the others, its intrigue derived from a high-stakes chess game, rather than a mash-up of action scenes. One consistent characteristic throughout the movies: Even though Ryan is simply an analyst who sits at a desk, he can handle himself in the field because, we find out at some strategic point, he’s a former Marine.