海军陆战队员杰克·帕特里克·赖恩（克里斯·派恩 Chris Pine 饰）是一个拥有强烈爱国情怀的热血男儿，在阿富汗执行任务期间，他所乘坐的直升机遭到敌人的炮火攻击，杰克也身受重伤，几乎殒命。康复期间，他与善良美丽的医学院学生凯茜·穆勒（凯拉·奈特莉 Keira Knightley 饰）相知相恋，与此同时他还被CIA官员托马斯·哈柏（凯文·科斯特纳 Kevin Costner 饰），伤愈后潜入华尔街，以分析师的身份监控每一个可能危害到国家安全地资金源。身份和任务极度机密的杰克对女友也要三缄其口，为此不得不承受各种莫名的质疑和猜测。 　　某天，杰克发现俄罗斯可能正利用金融向美国发动潜在的恐怖袭击。为了查明真相， 他只身前往俄罗斯，谁曾想却置身于最危险的境地……This new version of the saga of CIA analyst Jack Ryan begins as Jack attends the London School of Economics. 9/11 happens. He subsequently enlists in the Marines, sustaining severe injuries when the chopper deploying him to Afghanistan is shot down. While in intense rehab, he grabs the attention of Harper, a man who works for the CIA and who would like Jack to finish his studies, get a job on Wall Street, and seek out terrorist plots through their financial transactions. Ten years pass. Jack finds anomalies in the accounts of a Russian named Cherevin and thinks he should go to Russia to check out what's going on. He's told not to tell anyone who he is, including his girlfriend Cathy, which makes her doubt him when she catches him in some lies. In Russia, Cherevin assigns someone to assist Jack, but when the two are alone, the man tries to kill Jack instead, so Jack kills him. Obviously, Cherevin is hiding something. Jack goes to meet him and says he'll bring his fiancée along, but when Cathy shows up, Jack has to tell her the truth. Harper says Cathy has to go with Jack when she meets Cherevin. Jack doesn't want her to but Cathy says she's going, so the action begins that leads to the climax.