Because I’ve read a number of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher mysteries over the years, a pretty clear vision of the wandering savior exists in a deep recess of my brain – the place where we envision what we are reading like if a movie were unfolding in my mind. Now that I’ve finally picked up One Shot, though, I can only picture Tom Cruise in the role, and it’s making me angry. Cruise isn’t my vision of Reacher. Truthfully, I’m still shocked that Cruise is Child’s vision of Reacher. That said, I’m going into Paramount’s Jack Reacher with an open mind, and clips like this are starting to help make me feel optimistic.
Reacher isn’t a funny guy. He’s confident. He knows he’s more than likely the smartest guy in any room, and his raw physicality has him convinced that he’ll survive any encounter, no matter the situation. Cruise seems to be playing him with a tad too much humor in this international clip, which we’re sharing via The Playlist. But the action looks top notch, and Cruise is making Reacher appear to be the mega-badass fans know him to be. Check out this short tease for Christopher McQuarrie’s upcoming film:
(VIDEO NO LONGER AVAILABLE)
While digging around, we also came across a conversation HitFix posted from the film that shows Reacher (Cruise) trading secrets with a small-city police detective named Emerson (David Oyelowo). The dialogue, thankfully, has been lifted right out of Child’s book, and the last line sums up why fans love Reacher. He’s the baddest of the bad, and Cruise seems to have figured that out.
McQuarrie directs this first adaptation of a Reacher novel, and as a fan of the character (and the series), I’m really hoping that Paramount gets the franchise off on a strong foot. There are several amazing stories in Child’s oeuvre that could become fantastic on-screen Reacher movies. But Jack Reacher (based on One Shot) has to lure a large-enough audience to promise sequels. The movie opens in theaters on Dec. 21. Are you planning on seeing it?
