Rainbow Six
First edition cover
AuthorTom Clancy
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
SeriesJohn Clark
Genre
Set inRyanverse
PublisherG.P. Putnam's Sons
Publication date
August 3, 1998
Media typePrint (Hardcover, Paperback)
Pages740
ISBN0399143904
Preceded byExecutive Orders 
Followed byThe Bear and the Dragon 

Rainbow Six is a techno-thriller novel written by Tom Clancy and released on August 3, 1998. It is the second book to primarily focus on John Clark, one of the recurring characters in the Ryanverse, after Without Remorse (1993); it also features his son-in-law, Domingo "Ding" Chavez. Rainbow Six follows "Rainbow", a secret international counterterrorist organization headed by Clark (codenamed "Rainbow Six"), and the complex apocalyptic conspiracy they unravel after handling multiple seemingly random terrorist attacks.

The novel debuted at number one on The New York Times Best Seller list.[1] It received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the action scenes and suspense but criticized the writing of some characters and its unrealistic plot. It also received some backlash from the environmental movement for its negative depiction of radical environmentalism. The novel's sequel, The Bear and the Dragon, was released in 2000.

Rainbow Six was adapted into a video game, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, which was developed by Red Storm Entertainment in tandem with the novel and released later that August to critical and commercial success, spawning a highly successful series of video games currently owned by Ubisoft. A film adaptation, set to be the sequel to the 2021 film adaptation of Without Remorse, was announced in 2017 and was confirmed to be directed by Chad Stahelski in 2023, with an unannounced release date.

Plot

Formerly state-sponsored terrorist groups go rogue after the end of the Cold War, while international terrorism in general begins to rise. To combat this, CIA operative John Clark forms a top-secret international counterterrorist organization known as Rainbow. Based in Hereford, England, Rainbow consists of two operational squad-sized teams of elite special forces soldiers from NATO countries, supplemented by intelligence and technology experts from the FBI, MI6, and Mossad. Clark serves as Rainbow's commanding officer (callsign "Rainbow Six"), SAS officer Alistair Stanley serves as their second-in-command, and Clark's son-in-law Domingo Chavez leads Team-2.

In their first deployment, Team-2 rescues hostages during a bank robbery in Bern, Switzerland. Several weeks later, they are deployed to Austria, where German left-wing terrorists have taken over the schloss of a wealthy Austrian businessman to obtain (nonexistent) "special access codes" to the international trading markets. They are later deployed to the Worldpark amusement park in Spain, where Basque revolutionaries have taken a group of children hostage and demand that various prisoners, including Carlos the Jackal, be released.

Clark and his colleagues become suspicious about the sudden rise in terrorist attacks. Unbeknownst to them, the attacks are part of an intricate plan to wipe out nearly all of humanity, codenamed "the Project". Dr. John Brightling, a staunch radical environmentalist who heads a biotechnology firm called the Horizon Corporation, ordered the attacks through ex-KGB officer Dmitriy Popov to raise concerns of terrorism, allowing co-conspirator Bill Henriksen's security firm Global Security to land a key contract for the Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. Henriksen would then ensure the release of "Shiva"—a manmade Ebola biological agent more deadly than the one that spread a year prior, developed by Horizon and tested on kidnapped human test subjects—through the fog-cooling system of Stadium Australia, infecting everyone present, who would spread Shiva when they return to their home countries. The resulting pandemic would kill countless people, during which Horizon would distribute a "vaccine"—actually a slow-acting version of Shiva—ensuring the deaths of the rest of the world's population. Brightling's "chosen few", having been provided with the real vaccine, would then inherit the emptied world, justifying their genocidal actions as "saving the world" from the environmentally-destructive nature of humanity.

Popov discovers the existence of Rainbow as he reviews the "police tactical teams" (actually Rainbow in disguise) that responded to his attacks, and brings it to Brightling's attention. Brightling and Henriksen order Popov to orchestrate an attack on Rainbow to prevent them from being deployed to the Sydney Olympics. Popov persuades a drug-dealing Provisional Irish Republican Army splinter group to attack a hospital near Rainbow's base and capture Clark and Chavez's wives, who work there as a nurse and a doctor respectively. When Rainbow arrives, a team of IRA militants ambush them, killing two Team-1 troopers and injuring several others, including Stanley. Despite sustaining their first-ever losses, Rainbow manages to repel the ambush, retake the hospital without further casualties, and capture some of the militants. Using trickery to interrogate the captured militants, Clark and Chavez learn of Popov's involvement, while Brightling evacuates Popov to Horizon's OLYMPUS facility in Kansas.

However, this turns out to be a fatal miscalculation: Popov was unaware of the genocidal plans of his employers, but the people at OLYMPUS talk openly about them. Learning the truth about the Project, Popov, appalled by what he had unknowingly assisted, escapes OLYMPUS, and reveals his knowledge to Clark and the FBI, who were already investigating the kidnappings of the Shiva test subjects. Popov's warning comes just in time for Chavez and Team-2, who were deployed to the Olympics to oversee security, to thwart Shiva's release at the last minute.

Their plans in shambles, Brightling and the remaining Project members flee to a smaller Horizon base in the Amazon rainforest near Manaus, Brazil. Clark personally leads Rainbow to the base, where they kill the guards, disable communications, demolish the buildings, and round up the remaining Project members. Knowing there is insufficient evidence to convict them and that they would just restart their plans if freed, Clark instead has the survivors stripped naked and left to fend for themselves in the jungle, taunting them to "reconnect with nature".

Six months later, Chavez reads news articles about Popov (who was pardoned in exchange for his information) discovering a gold deposit on a Project member's former property, and Horizon's revolutionary medical breakthroughs under new management. Chavez asks if the Project members survived; Clark informs him that no human activity has been detected in the area since, and remarks that nature does not distinguish between friends and enemies. Wondering who humanity's natural enemy must be, Chavez determines it must be humanity itself.

Characters

Team Rainbow

Executive and support branches

Team-1

Team-2

Horizon Corporation and the Project

Other characters

Themes

Rainbow Six explores the issue of radical environmentalism. According to Marc Cerasini's essay on the novel, the philosophy of the antagonists are considered as an extreme form of naturalism, based on Jean-Jacques Rousseau's view that society's functions corrupt mankind and that "a natural or primitive state is actually morally superior to civilization". The novel shares elements found in James Bond movies: a biological weapon being used to end or rather cull the human race, mad scientists plotting world domination, and high-tech secret bases hidden from civilization. Clancy makes the plot relevant and morally ambiguous by incorporating motivations similar to those of real-life radical ecocentric environmentalists and deep ecologists, such as Pentti Linkola and Paul R. Ehrlich,[2][3] rather than blanket hunger for power and brash misanthropic resentment.[4][5] In several regards, critics have noted similarities in the population control regard to the later-released Kingsman: The Secret Service and Dan Brown's Inferno, as well as those of Thanos in Marvel's Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.[3][6][7]

Development

The concept of Rainbow Six was conceived from a discussion between Clancy and Doug Littlejohns, a former Royal Navy submarine commander and CEO of Red Storm Entertainment, a video game development company co-founded by Clancy in 1996. Their discussion occurred during a Red Storm company outing in Colonial Williamsburg, when Littlejohns suggested a strategy shooter game based on the FBI Hostage Rescue Team. When Clancy mentioned that he was writing a novel about a hostage rescue team, their conversation led to Littlejohns noting the protracted diplomatic delays in authorizing a foreign counterterrorist unit's deployment overseas, and he suggested the concept of a permanent counterterrorist unit that already had authorization to deploy internationally.[8] The name "Rainbow" came from the term "Rainbow nation", a term coined by Desmond Tutu to describe post-apartheid South Africa under Nelson Mandela's presidency. "Six" came from the American rank code for captain (O-6); though Clark would more accurately be described as a major general (O-8) in the novel, "Rainbow Six" read better than "Rainbow Eight".[8] The strategy shooter game Littlejohns suggested was eventually developed into Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six.[8]

Reception

The book received mixed reviews. Entertainment Weekly praised the novel's "sprawling, Bondesque plot" as well as its action scenes that are "vivid and cinematic—and notably lacking in the clichés and B-movie tone of his dialogue". Publishers Weekly also hailed the scenes as "immensely suspenseful, breathtaking combos of expertly detailed combat and primal emotion".[9]

Criticism focused on flat characters and the implausibility of the plot. A review from Orlando Sentinel stated: "Clancy may have crossed the line into the realm of the unbelievable...I suspect even some of his most rabid fans will shake their heads at parts of this novel."[10] Entertainment Weekly also noted that "some of [Clancy's] secondary characters have a flat, dime-novel feel".[11] Canadian environmentalist Paul Watson condemned the book as "a vicious defamation of the Environmentalist Movement, embodying, amplifying and packaging all the worst stereotypes and prejudices."[12]

Adaptations

Video game

Main article: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six (video game)

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six was released on August 21, 1998, about two weeks after the release of the novel. It was developed alongside the novel and bases its plot on an early manuscript of the story.[8] The game was developed by Red Storm Entertainment (which was co-founded by Clancy in 1996) based on their preexisting concept of the FBI Hostage Rescue Team in an international setting.[13] Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six was a commercial success for Red Storm and spawned a number of sequels, now developed by Ubisoft. It revolutionized the first-person shooter genre by forcing the player to think tactically and realistically in every mission, unlike the arcade-style shooters of the time.[14][15]

Film adaptation

In July 2017, Paramount Pictures announced plans to make a film adaptation of the novel with Akiva Goldsman as producer.[16] Ryan Reynolds was reported to be in early talks to play John Clark.[17] In September 2018, Michael B. Jordan was announced to be playing John Clark in a two-part film series, with Rainbow Six as the intended sequel to Without Remorse.[18] In January 2023, the Rainbow Six film was confirmed to be directed by Chad Stahelski, with Michael B. Jordan reprising his role as Clark.[19][20]

Release details

References

  1. ^ "The New York Times bestseller list for August 23, 1998" (PDF). Retrieved September 22, 2018.
  2. ^ "Pentti Linkola: "Humanflood"". www.penttilinkola.com. Retrieved January 23, 2023.
  3. ^ a b Persson, Mathias (June 3, 2019). "Radikalare än Thanos". Smålandsposten (in Swedish). Retrieved January 23, 2023.
  4. ^ Greenberg, Martin H. The Tom Clancy Companion (Revised ed.). pp. 36–38.
  5. ^ "Luonnonsuojelija Pentti Linkola on kuollut – Elämäkerturi: "Hänellä oli ymmärrystä ja herkkyyttä kuunnella toista ihmistä"". Yle Uutiset (in Finnish). April 5, 2020. Retrieved January 23, 2023.
  6. ^ "Review 'Inferno' Another Preposterous Dan Brown Yawn". Monkeys Fighting Robots. Retrieved January 23, 2023.
  7. ^ Chamary, J. V. "The Science Of 'Avengers: Endgame' Proves Thanos Did Nothing Wrong". Forbes. Retrieved January 23, 2023.
  8. ^ a b c d Tucker, Jake (December 4, 2015). "The agony and ecstasy behind the first Rainbow Six". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved June 17, 2022.
  9. ^ "Fiction Book Review: Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved October 6, 2018.
  10. ^ Skoneki, Mark. "TOM CLANCY GOES BEYOND FANTASTIC INTO FANTASY". The Chicago Tribune. Retrieved October 6, 2018.
  11. ^ Kennedy, Dana. "Book Review: 'Rainbow Six'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved October 6, 2018.
  12. ^ Paul G. Watson, "Propaganda, Lies and Vicious Lies", in The Rainbow Quarterly, Autumn 2001
  13. ^ "Postmortem: Redstorm's Rainbow Six". Gamasutra. January 21, 2000. Archived from the original on August 4, 2001. Retrieved October 6, 2018.
  14. ^ "The History of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six". Xbox Wire. March 31, 2015. Retrieved October 6, 2018.
  15. ^ Packwood, Lewis. "The bizarre tale of how Tom Clancy sold his name to videogames". PCGamesN. Retrieved October 6, 2018.
  16. ^ Fleming, Mike Jr. (July 11, 2017). "Akiva Goldsman Moves To Paramount; 'Rainbow Six,' 'Ologies' & 'Avengelyne' On Menu". Deadline. Retrieved July 12, 2017.
  17. ^ Gurwin, Gabe (July 13, 2017). "'Rainbow Six' Film In Development, Could Star Ryan Reynolds". Digital Trends. Retrieved October 6, 2018.
  18. ^ Kroll, Justin (September 20, 2018). "Michael B. Jordan to Play Tom Clancy Character John Clark". Variety. Retrieved October 6, 2018.
  19. ^ Kit, Borys (January 17, 2023). "Chad Stahelski to Direct Michael B. Jordan in Paramount's 'Rainbow Six' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 19, 2023.
  20. ^ "Rainbow Six Film In Works From John Wick Director And Michael B. Jordan". Kotaku. January 17, 2023. Retrieved July 19, 2023.

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