An Iconic Morgan Freeman Movie Is Now Available On Netflix

Though a mid-month acquisition by a streamer isn’t wholly common, Netflix has managed to nab a fan favorite movie starring Morgan Freeman, 2002’s The Sum of All Fears. Based on the novel by Tom Clancy, the film stars Freeman as Bill Cabot, the Director of the CIA, starring opposite Ben Affleck as the recurring Clancy character Jack Ryan. The film also starred Bridget Moynahan, James Cromwell, Liev Schreiber, Colm Feore, and Ciarán Hinds. Though The Sum of All Fears had a mixed critical response upon its release, it would gross over $193 million at the global box office (arriving right around the time Ben Affleck’s star power was at one of its peaks).

The film marked yet another attempt to revive the Clancy property for the big screen, Affleck taking over the part after Alec Baldwin played him in The Hunt for Red October (not streaming) and Harrison Ford took over the part for Patriot Games (streaming on Peacock) and Clear and Present Danger (streaming on Paramount+). Over a decade after The Sum of All Fears another rebooted attempt of making Jack Ryan a franchise happened with Chris Pine taking on the part with 2014’s Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. Just for years after that came a TV reboot of the character and property with John Krasinski playing the role in Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan on Amazon Prime.

“The day I received the offer to play Jack Ryan, I was filming a Pearl Harbor scene with Alec Baldwin. He was very sweet and said I should do it,” Affleck said in an interview at the time about getting the part. “I wouldn’t have done the movie without talking to Harrison Ford first. He gave me his blessing. That’s what I needed to hear.”

The Sum of All Fears isn’t the only movie starring Morgan Freeman streaming on Netflix either, with four other titles available as well including 5 Flights Up. Million Dollar Baby (for which he won an Academy Award), and Olympus Has Fallen & Angel Has Fallen (London Has Fallen is somehow missing).

One of the biggest changes from the book to the movie of The Sum of All Fears is in its antagonists. Clancy’s original novel focused on Arab nationalists attempting to start a nuclear war between America and Russia, but were changed to an “Austrian Neo-Nazi” group for the feature film. With The Sum of All Fears released just nine months after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks it was believed by some that the change was made in response to that, however filming on The Sum of All Fears was completed in the summer of 2001.