A scene from the television series "Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan" has become a go-to explainer on Venezuela for millions of viewers after U.S. troops captured President Nicolas Maduro and brought him to the United States to face federal drug trafficking charges.

The clip, from a 2019 episode in the show's second season, shows CIA analyst Jack Ryan, played by John Krasinski, addressing what he describes as the world's biggest security threats.

In the scene, Ryan dismisses answers such as China, Russia, and North Korea before pointing to Venezuela, citing its oil reserves, mineral wealth, and a corrupt strongman leader whose mismanagement he says has crippled the economy.

After news broke that Maduro had been taken to the United States to face federal drug trafficking charges, the scene surged across social media platforms.

As The Wall Street Journal noted, one Instagram reel of the clip amassed roughly 40 million views in two days, helping push renewed interest in the Amazon Prime Video series, which ended after four seasons in 2023.

More than a week after the arrest, "Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan" remains among the platform's 10 most-watched shows.

For many viewers, the scene has become a quick way to understand events in Venezuela.

Colorado resident Thalia Toha said she turned to the clip when her teenage daughter asked what had just happened in Venezuela.

"The 'Jack Ryan' clip doesn't just help give the event more color, it also brings nuances, in a matter of minutes, that would've been hard for kids to understand," Toha said. "The reaction from my kids after watching the video was priceless. It was like seeing a lightbulb moment reveal itself on their faces."

The episode casts Venezuela as strategically important because of its resources and location, which viewers said aligns with how the U.S. operation is now being discussed.

Matt Keenan, 24, of Red Bank, New Jersey, said he revisited the season after speaking with his father about Maduro's capture.

"What caught my attention was how the show laid out Venezuela's strategic importance — the oil reserves, the proximity to the U.S., the geopolitical implications — and now those exact talking points are part of the real-world conversation about why this operation happened," Keenan said.

Others acknowledged that the scene blends fact with exaggeration. 

The episode includes unsupported claims about nuclear weapons and mineral reserves and elevates Venezuela to a level of global threat that most analysts do not recognize.

Those inaccuracies have been largely overshadowed by how accessible the clip is and how closely it coincided with the news.

Ashleigh Ewald, a 23-year-old public policy graduate student at Georgia Tech, said the scene took on new meaning when it reappeared in her social media feeds.

"It felt uncanny," Ewald said. "It felt like art resurfacing to help people make sense of the moment."

Carlton Cuse, a showrunner for the series' second season, said the writers aimed to root the story in real-world dynamics. 

Speaking to Deadline after news of Maduro's arrest, Cuse said the goal was to root the story in real-world politics.

"What always surprises you as a storyteller is how often real-world events catch up to fiction," he said. "The goal of that season wasn't prophecy — it was plausibility. When you ground a story in real geopolitical dynamics, reality has a way of making it rhyme."

That approach is why many viewers are turning to a fictional lecture to understand what is happening now.

Daniel Green, who directs Carnegie Mellon University's master's program in entertainment industry management, said shows like "Jack Ryan" rely heavily on expert advisers, including former CIA operatives, to shape how global affairs are portrayed. 

When real-world events line up with those storylines, he said, viewers can use the shows as a way to make sense of complex issues.