Ask any good hero and they'll tell you, a proper villain is key to a truly heroic plot. In the first Jack Reacher, intimidating film director Werner Herzog was the heavy to Tom Cruise's titular hero, and that worked pretty damned well. While Patrick Heusinger isn't cut from the same cloth as Herzog before him, he's still a promising addition to Jack Reacher 2's cast.
Variety has reported that Heusinger, an actor previously known for roles in Francis Ha as well as the NBC drama Revolution, has been cast in a role that Variety has heard described as simply "the hunter." While that's not a lot go to on, taking the details on the film's plot can help us begin to decipher just what Heusinger's character will be doing in this film. Whatever that role may entail, we at least know he's got the "character dying a horrible death" angle down, as you can see in this clip from a CSI: Miami appearance that Heusinger made earlier in his career.
Jack Reacher 2's story will apparently involve Cruise's Reacher making his way to Virginia, only to find that his commanding officer is arrested. With only his particular set of skills and a teenage sidekick, the two try to help clear the name of Reacher's CO, and this particular plot point has us thinking. If Patrick Heusinger is a "hunter" in the new Jack Reacher film, could it be that he's the law enforcement / military official who's trying to track down Reacher and his CO? That's one possibility, provided that Heusinger's character isn't a literal hunter. In which case, Jack Reacher might have a bit of a problem staying alive until the final frame, as his nemesis might be as lethal and quick as he is.
In either case, Patrick Heusinger's casting in Jack Reacher 2 will be some much needed exposure for the actor's low key career, and if he can stand out among the other roles to be cast, he'll be on the way to bigger, better roles. Of course, that sort of fate would depend on Jack Reacher 2 making around as much money – if not more – than the 2012 original grossed in its theatrical run. That number, with international grosses included, is a moderate $218.3 million; and judging that the first Jack Reacher has made a name for itself over the past three years, it doesn't look like that number will be hard to reach and/or surpass.
With a little over a year before Jack Reacher 2 makes its way to the big screen, other names are bound to follow Patrick Heusinger's lead and jump onto the Jack Reacher bandwagon while the getting is good. In the meantime it looks like director Edward Zwick is ready to try and replicate the success that he and Cruise enjoyed when they teamed up for 2003's The Last Samurai. While the 2003 film gave Ken Wattanabe his big push into the market, perhaps that bump will visit Heusinger's camp and send him off into the stratosphere.
Jack Reacher 2 kicks ass and takes names in theaters on October 21st, 2016.
