Even without having read the Jack Reacher novels, I know that Tom Cruise is much smaller than the character is in real life, because every fan of the novels made sure to mention it during the buildup to the first Jack Reacher film. Apparently, Reacher is supposed to be built more like Dwayne Johnson, Ben(ch) Affleck or, I dunno, Rob Gronkowski instead of the diminutive Cruise. The difficulty with casting Reacher according size, however, is that the character is also super-confident, super-competent and nigh-invincible in a fist fight. So having him be built like an uber-fit UFC heavyweight would push him into 80’s action movie star territory, and this is the era of the Jason Bourne action hero; the guy who at least looks like he could lose a fight, even if he never does.
Long explanation truncated, Cruise is a decent enough Jack Reacher for the 21st century, and people responded to his turn well enough to warrant a sequel. I didn’t realize that the first movie made that much money, but it did better than triple its budget, so here we are with Jack Reacher: Never Go Back.
This trailer shows Jack immediately violating the film’s title by going back to catch up with / help out an old military friend who’s being set up to take a fall, so obviously we can’t trust anything about this title anymore. The movie’s ending twist will reveal that his name wasn’t even Jack Reacher all this time, but Jac Creature, at which point he’ll werewolf out and give book fans one more thing to be upset about.
Jack Recher: Never Go Back hits theaters October 21st.
