Jack Ryan could be described as an American version of James Bond: a fictional character by Tom Clancy who is a CIA agent and appears in many of his novels and their respective movie adaptations.

Five movies based on Clancy novels featuring Jack Ryan have been produced so far. In the first four movies Ryan was portrayed by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck. Chris Pine is the fourth Jack Ryan in the fifth movie called Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.

Unlike its predecessors, Shadow Recruit is not an adaptation of a particular Clancy novel, but rather an original story. It follows a young Jack as he uncovers a financial terrorist plot in Russia.

I’m a huge fan of James Bond franchise, but in my opinion Jack Ryan movies have been taking themselves way too seriously.

What can we say about product placement: nothing special with one exception by Ducati.

Nokia

Jack Ryan’s phone was Nokia, which could be seen in several scenes. However, his girlfriend (Keira Knightley) was using an iPhone, while the main villain, Russian tycoon Viktor Cherevin (Kenneth Branagh), was using Porsche Design version of BlackBerry.

Nokia in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014, Paramount, screen capture)
Nokia in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014, Paramount, screen capture)

Nokia in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014, Paramount, screen capture)
Nokia in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014, Paramount, screen capture)

iPhone in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014, Paramount, screen capture)
iPhone in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014, Paramount, screen capture)

BlackBerry in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014, Paramount, screen capture)
BlackBerry in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014, Paramount, screen capture)

Dell

Computers used by Ryan’s bosses were Dells.

Dell in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014, Paramount, screen capture)
Dell in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014, Paramount, screen capture)

Hamilton watch

In one scene we could see a close-up of Ryan’s watch. It was a Khaki Field titanium auto watch by Hamilton. The second Hamilton watch was worn by the CIA officer William Harper (Kevin Costner): the Khaki Aviation flight timer.

Hamilton watch in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014, Paramount, screen capture)
Hamilton watch in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014, Paramount, screen capture)

Ducati

And there was Ducati. The whole motorcycle product placement wasn’t special by any means. For me it was just a reference to Oliver Stone’s Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.

In Wall Street 2 we can see the main character a proprietary trader (Shia LaBeouf) and Josh Brolin racing a Ducati Desmosedici RR and a MotoCzysz C1. In Shadow Recruit Jack Ryan is working on Wall Street with a cover job as a compliance officer at a stock brokerage.

Ducati in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010, 20th Century Fox, screen capture)

Jack Ryan’s colleague in the company bought a Ducati and we can see Ryan driving it in the last part of the movie.

Ducati in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014, Paramount, screen capture)
Ducati in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014, Paramount, screen capture)

When I saw the motorcycle a few thoughts came to my mind:

  • Is Ducati really that popular with stock brokers?
  • Was that homage to Oliver Stone?
  • Was that just a coincidence?

I would say that just the third is right. :)

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