Tom Cruise has reached that stage in his career where he's sick and tired of bad guys, and he's just ready to beat some ass. Cast him as Jack Reacher? He'll beat your ass. Give him another Mission: Impossible movie? Ass beatings are on the way. The original Jack Reacher movie was a quiet success, earning enough money (and critical praise) to justify a sequel. We saw some footage of it the other day as part of a super-annoying Entertainment Tonight clip reel. Now, we have the full enchilada, and it's totally worth the wait.
In this story, based on the book Never Go Back, Reacher (Tom Cruise) heads back to Virginia -- where he once served as a military investigator -- to help out a woman named Susan (Cobie Smulders) who he really only knows from various phone conversations. Only, there's a serious reason why Reacher left Virginia, and why he continues to wander, and when he goes back to Virginia and Washington, D.C., he opens up several cans of worms that will force he and Susan to take care of some vicious heavy hitters.
There are so many Jack Reacher stories, thanks to the prolific writings of Lee Child, that Tom Cruise could crank out a dozen more of these movies without missing a beat. However, Cruise is 53, so his ass-beating days are likely limited. We know that he's on tap for a sixth Mission: Impossible movie. There are rumors of him teaming up with Christopher McQuarrie for Edge of Tomorrow 2. And that's in addition to the projects Cruise has added to his resume already. Jack Reacher 3 would be a decade away, at least, which means we have to enjoy movies like this while we still can. Refresh your memory on the first Jack Reacher with that film's trailer.
Tom Cruise's Jack Reacher: Never Go Back will be directed by Edward Zwick, who worked with the actor on The Last Samurai. It's a little bit strange that, in choosing to adapt the Reacher books to the big screen, they chose stories that occur in the middle of the man's timeline. There's real history between Jack Reacher and Susan, and this movie may race to make emotional connections that the books had time to develop. We'll see how it all plays out when the movie opens in theaters on October 21. What do you think of this first full trailer? Will you check this one out?
