Editor Note: The following article contains spoilers for Jack Ryan Season 3.Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan has been among the most popular heroes in modern literature and entertainment for over three decades. When Clancy originally created the character for his novels, he may never have expected that they would inspire five films and one of the most popular television shows of the 21st century. While Clancy’s novels have a large and loyal fanbase, moviegoers were first introduced to the whip-smart CIA analyst thanks to Alec Baldwin’s performance in The Hunt For Red October, an intense submarine thriller that sees Ryan trying to prevent a nuclear war. The character, the franchise, and the state of world politics have changed radically over the years, but in the third season finale, the Amazon Prime series Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan took the series back to its roots.

The Hunt For Red October was Clancy’s first “Ryanverse” novel; the themes of a potential nuclear conflict with Russia were particularly timely during the height of the Cold War, and the novel was praised for its detailed depiction of combat and delicacy in handling political topics. It didn’t take long for Hollywood to take an interest in Clancy’s stories. Predator and Die Hard director John McTiernan was tasked with bringing The Hunt For Red October to life. He succeeded in making a taught, intense thriller that balances the various perspectives and emphasizes strategy over spectacle. Although there’s been many films since, most “Ryanverse” fans would still cite The Hunt for Red October as the best film in the franchise.

Amazon’s Jack Ryan has made many bold attempts to modernize the material to fit within the global political context of the 21st century, and John Krasinski’s interpretation of the titular character is quite different from Baldwin’s. If Baldwin leaned into the geeky, behind-the-scenes side of Ryan’s work, Krasinski’s version of Ryan is a bold action hero who is willing to put his life on the line to save innocent people from danger. However, in the Season 3 finale, “Star on the Wall,” Jack finds himself in a place that The Hunt For Red October fans might recognize; he must bridge communications between an American submarine and their Russian counterpart to avoid the start of World War III.

Another Soviet Plot

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Image via Prime Video

In the third season, Jack finds himself working alongside his longtime mentor and friend James Greer (Wendell Pierce) on an undercover mission to investigate a cabal of former Soviet Union radicals that want to reinstate the political tension of the 1980s by pinning attempts at conflict on the United States government. Jack Ryan has certainly evolved past its predecessors in the “Ryanverse” to incorporate a more well-rounded depiction of global politics (particularly in its empathy for international refugees and freedom fighters), and this storyline doesn’t feel like it's simply reiterating familiar beats for the sake of nostalgia. Given everything that has transpired in the past year involving the current Russian regime and the situation in Ukraine, Jack Ryan seems almost tame in comparison.

Similar to The Hunt For Red October, Jack is essentially the only man who is willing to work towards a peaceful solution. Baldwin’s Ryan is the lone CIA agent who believes that Captain Marko Ramius (Sean Connery) is not attempting to start a conflict, but wants to defect. We see a slight parallel in Season 3 of the Amazon series; Ryan reluctantly becomes allies with former Soviet soldier and spy Luca Gorchurov (James Cosmo). While Luca lacks Ramius’ idealism and is certainly more ruthless, he has also seen firsthand what the Soviet spies can do in a position of power. The terse agreement he makes with Jack is only to ensure that the type of violence that he has seen never occurs again.

RELATED: 'Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan' Season 3 Ending Explained: The Cold War Heats Up Again

A Volatile Situation

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Image via Prime Video

Things begin to heat up when Defense Minister Alexei Petrov (Alexej Manvelov) usurps the Russian President and initiates a series of false commands that would initiate the first global strike. Similar to The Hunt For Red October, the tensions between the U.S. and Russia are at an all-time high, and any sign of attack would be the first domino in a large-scale nuclear conflict. Jack is put in the same position in both stories; he’s desperately trying to message two different ships, work with his Russian allies, and leverage any connection he has with the President of the United States to convince cooler heads to prevail.

Similar to The Hunt For Red October, the season finale, “Star on the Wall” is a cat-and-mouse game between two submarines. Although Petrov is executed and his fellow traitors are held accountable for their warmongering, the line of communication hasn’t passed down to the men in the Russian submarine, The Fearless. The USS Roosevelt is in active pursuit; although the technology has obviously changed three decades later, the strategic mapping and tracking techniques feel very much the same.

Jack’s relationship with Luca mirrors his work with Ramius in The Hunt For Red October; Jack manages to take a chopper to the U.S. ship, and Luca attempts to convince the Russian crew to not follow the false orders, as it would only prompt retaliation. In both cases, cooler heads prevail and reason breaks through. It’s interesting, and a little disheartening that the peace between these two nations is just as fragile now as it was when Clancy first conceived of the characters.

Krasinski’s Evolution

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Image via Prime Video

Krasinski’s version of Ryan generally has more in common with Harrison Fords depiction of the character in Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger due to his prominence in action sequences, which highlight his military skills. He also has traces of the youthfulness that had made Chris Pine so endearing in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, with a few elements of Ben Affleck’s womanizing version of the character in The Sum of All Fears. However, Jack’s behavior after the nuclear crisis is averted and feels like an homage to Baldwin in The Hunt For Red October; he has a casual decency to him, and he’s set to begin just another day in the office.

It’s both necessary and exciting to see Jack Ryan take the story in new directions, and reintroduce the material to a younger audience by recontextualizing the themes of the story. However, Jack Ryan Season 3 serves as a tribute to the franchise’s past, and a reminder that The Hunt For Red October is still the “Ryanverse” adventure that started them all.