What you need to know
A clip from Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan in which the main character, played by John Krasinski, gives a moving speech about the geopolitical situation in Venezuela has gone viral, with social media users calling the moment “prophetic” amid the recent arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by the United States.
In a clip from the second season of the Amazon Prime Video show that aired in 2019, Krasinski’s character poses a question to a group of CIA employees. “What do you think is the greatest threat to the World State?” he asked.
“Definitely Russia,” one person answered, to which fictional CIA analyst Jack Ryan asked, “Who else?”
“China. Don’t yell at me, but China is a good answer…Venezuela? Anyone? Is everyone in favor of Venezuela? No threat? Okay. Where can claim the largest oil reserves on the planet? More than Saudi Arabia, more than Iran. Wow,” he said, pointing to a chart showing Venezuela’s vast natural resources.
Krasinski’s character goes on to say, in a clip from a Jack Ryan episode that’s now making the rounds online, “What do you do with something like gold? More than all the mines in Africa combined? Venezuela is by far the single largest source of oil on the planet. So why is this country in the midst of the biggest humanitarian crisis in modern history? On the world stage, they would call it a failed state. Examples of failed states in recent history are Yemen, Iraq, and Syria.
“And if that’s not bad news enough for you, Venezuela is also the only location for N-generation nuclear missiles within 30 minutes of the United States. You don’t hear about this in the news because the biggest players on the world stage don’t want you to. Russia and China can never be the biggest threats until countries like Venezuela leave the door open to our own backyard,” he concludes.
After the video began circulating on social media, many users described the clip as “prophetic,” CNN reported.
On January 3, President Donald Trump announced that he had launched a military offensive against Venezuela, aiming to overthrow the Maduro regime (63).
President Trump, 79, who has accused the Venezuelan president of drug-related crimes, confirmed in a statement in Truth Social magazine on January 3 that he had ordered a “massive strike” in the region and the detention of President Maduro, 63.
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The political thriller is based on the Tom Clancy novel series that began with 1984’s The Hunt for Red October. Clancy, who died in 2013, published the final book in the series, Command Authority, co-written with Mark Greaney, the same year. Other authors continue to publish books in the series, including Greaney, Mark Cameron, Brian Andrews, and Jeffrey Wilson. This action-packed series features a number of fictional geopolitical crises.
Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan modernizes Clancy’s 1980s novel for modern readers. In an interview with Deadline, series co-creator Carlton Cuse reflected on the speech’s newfound relevance.
“What always surprises me as a storyteller is how often real-world events catch up with fiction,” Cuse told the magazine. “The goal for that season was plausibility, not prophecy. When you base a story on real geopolitical dynamics, reality has a way of rhyming.”
“Graham Rowland and I weren’t making a statement. We were telling a fictional character-driven thriller rooted in Venezuela’s long-standing strategic relevance,” Cuse said, referring to Rowland, the show’s co-creator. “Our job was to lend a sense of credibility to the situation. We approached Venezuela as a country where democratic ideals, economic realities and geopolitical interests have long been in tension, and where the choices are never easy.”
Cuse added, “This season was born not from imagining the outcome, but from our desire to tell a fictional story about the forces at play.”
On January 3, President Trump spoke at his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida, and said the United States was about to “run” Venezuela.
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“What the United States was able to do in capturing President Maduro in the middle of the night, no other country in the world has been able to do,” Trump said. “We’re going to let the oil flow the way it should… We’re going to run it properly. We’re going to make sure the Venezuelan people are taken care of.”
