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Jack Reacher Film Series : All Jack Reacher Movies in Order

Tom Cruise Jack Reacher Movies in Order: Want to enjoy one of the best Crime-Thrilling-Action series based on Lee Child’s novel “One Shot” centering Jack Reacher, a title character and the protagonist of a series, starring Tom Cruise in the lead. After leaving the US Army as a major in its military police at age 36, Reacher roams the United States taking odd jobs and investigating suspicious and frequently dangerous situations. Reacher must uncover the truth behind a major government conspiracy in order to clear his name. On the run as a fugitive from the law, Reacher uncovers a potential secret from his past that could change his life forever. Cruise gives a riveting performance as Jack Reacher, a nomad with a military past who frequently gets involved in solving crimes.

People are fans of Tom Cruise and if you are one of them and wish to watch this Tom Cruise movie i.e Jack Reacher then here is the best guide for you to watch Tom Cruise Jack Reacher Movies in Order and how many Jack Reacher films are there?

Also See: Mission Impossible Movies in Order

Order to Watch Jack Reacher Film Series Movies

1. jack reacher (2012).

Ex-military investigator Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise) leaps off the pages of Lee Child’s bestselling novel and onto the big screen in this explosive thriller. 

In the film, A seemingly purposeless shooting rampage claimed the lives of five people in a typical town one morning. The investigation quickly zeroes in on a single possible suspect, a former military sniper, who is taken into custody without delay. The questioning of the individual results in one statement: Get Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise).

Reacher, a mysterious former Army investigator, is convinced that the authorities have the correct suspect, but he still agrees to work with the sniper’s defense attorney (Rosamund Pike). However, the more Reacher investigates the situation, the less black and white it seems to be.

2. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016)

Jack Reacher returns to enforce his bold brand of justice in the action-packed sequel based on the 2013 novel Never Go Back by Lee Child.

In the films, Jack Reacher, a former soldier and drifter, completes his mission to dismantle a human trafficking organization, he travels to Washington, DC, to meet with his liaison, Major Susan Turner, for dinner. But instead, he runs into her replacement, Colonel Sam Morgan, who tells him that Major Turner has been arrested on espionage charges.

Jack consults with Colonel Bob Moorcroft, her seasoned attorney, who reveals that Major Turner is also under suspicion for the deaths of two American servicemen in Afghanistan. In addition, he informs Jack that a woman has filed a lawsuit against him, claiming that he is the father of her fifteen-year-old daughter, Samantha.

Jack is thrown in jail after being falsely accused of murdering Moorcroft. He realizes that he and Turner are both in the crosshairs of two assassins and that they have been set up. But he comes to her aid, and they make their escape. It doesn’t take long before they figure out that army personnel and a powerful government contractor/arms dealer are involved in a plot.

Additionally, Jack finds out that Samantha is in danger, and he and Turner end up saving her. While they investigate the source of the conspiracy, they decide to keep her safe from the assassin who is after them. What or who can we put our faith in?

How many Jack Reacher movies are there?

The smooth, charismatic performance by Tom Cruise elevates the average crime thriller Jack Reacher to the next level. There are a total of TWO (2) films in the Jack Reacher film series. The ex-military cop that Jack Reacher is following in this thrilling thriller is investigating a sniper accused of five murders, and Reacher finds himself drawn into a dangerous game of cat and mouse. The second half of Jack Reacher: Never Go Back involves Reacher and an Army major who has been falsely accused of espionage going on the run together and uncovering a sinister conspiracy.

All Jack Reacher Movies in Order of Release Date 

Here is the list of Jack Reacher films in order, they were released.

1. Jack Reacher — December 21, 2012

2. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back — October 21, 2016

Where to Watch Jack Reacher Movies?

Want to enjoy one of the best Crime-Thrilling-Action series centering Jack Reacher, a title character and the protagonist of a series. But Where Can I watch Jack Reacher movies in order? You are able to stream Tom Cruise Jack Reacher films in order by renting or purchasing on Amazon Prime because it is pretty much solely available to watch on Amazon Prime.

Are Jack Reacher 1 and 2 connected?

The two Jack Reacher movies with Tom Cruise in the title role are not related, despite sharing the same source material (Lee Child’s crime novel series) and star (Tom Cruise). In the first film, there is a case involving the deaths of five people after a shooting, and there is one clear suspect. When Jack gets involved, however, the investigation takes a more sinister turn, and he learns some unpleasant truths about the underbelly of bureaucracy. In the sequel, Jack and an army major who has been falsely accused of espionage go on the run together and uncover a nefarious government plot. So Jack Reacher 1 and 2 connected are not connected.

Lee Child Jack Reacher Books in Order

Known by his pen name, Lee Child, British author Jim Grant created the character of Jack Reacher for a number of works. Reacher has quit his job as a major in the Military Police and is now working odd jobs across the country. He travels to a new location, helps a stranger in need, eliminates the bad guys, and then leaves on the next bus out of town. Reacher doesn’t actively seek out trouble, but it seems to find him anyway. The Jack Reacher novels are presented here in the order in which they were written, though they can be enjoyed in any order.

Jack Reacher Novels in Order:

• Killing Floor (1997)
• Die Trying (1998)
• Tripwire (1999)
• Running Blind / The Visitor (2000)
• Echo Burning (2001)
• Without Fail (2002)
• Persuader (2003)
• The Enemy (2004)
• One Shot (2005)
• The Hard Way (2006)
• Bad Luck and Trouble (2007)
• Nothing to Lose (2008)
• Gone Tomorrow (2009)
• 61 Hours (2010)
• Worth Dying For (2010)
• The Affair (2011)
• A Wanted Man (2012)
• Never Go Back (2013)
• Personal (2014)
• Make Me (2015)
• Night School (2016)
• The Midnight Line (2017)
• Past Tense (2018)
• Blue Moon (2019)
• The Sentinel (2020)
• Better Off Dead (2021)

Jack Reacher Books in Reading Order(In-story chronology):

Enter the gripping world of Jack Reacher, a wandering ex-military policeman with a penchant for justice and a knack for finding trouble. Follow his adrenaline-fueled adventures in the following reading order, meticulously arranged to delve into his compelling story from the very beginning…

• Second Son (short story, 2011)
• High Heat (novella, 2013)
• Deep Down (short story, 2012)
• Small Wars (short story, 2015)
• James Penney’s New Identity (1999 edited 2006)
• The Visitor – aka Running Blind (2000)
• Guy Walks into a Bar… (2009)
• Knowing you’re Alive (with Morgan Snow) (2011)
• Everyone Talks (2012)
• Not a Drill (2014)
• Good and Valuable Consideration (with Nick Heller) (2014)
• No Room at the Motel (2014)
• The Picture of the Lonely Diner (2015)
• Maybe they Have a Tradition (2016)
• Faking a Murderer (with Temperance Brennan) (2017)
• Too Much Time (2017)
• The Christmas Scorpion (2017)
• The Fourth Man (2018)
• Cleaning the Gold (with Will Trent) (2019)
• Smile (2019)
• The Sentinel (October 2020)
• Better Off Dead (October 2021)

Standing tall amidst the lingering shadows of justice, Jack Reacher, a nomad by choice, continues to roam the highways, seeking redemption and confronting the darkness that lurks in the forgotten corners of society.

Conclusion:

Jack Reacher Movies in Order present a thrilling journey through gripping crime narratives, with Tom Cruise embodying the enigmatic protagonist in a captivating manner. From his debut as the ex-military drifter in “Jack Reacher” to the relentless pursuit of justice in “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back,” each installment delves deeper into Reacher’s complex world. As fans immerse themselves in his quest to uncover government conspiracies and confront his past, Cruise’s portrayal elevates the tension and excitement with every scene. Whether it’s unraveling mysteries or facing adversaries, the Jack Reacher series delivers pulse-pounding action and intrigue, making it a must-watch for enthusiasts of riveting crime-thrillers.

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Movie Reviews

With a second 'jack reacher,' tom cruise finally exceeds his grasp.

Chris Klimek

Tom Cruise plays Jack Reacher (from left), Judd Lormand plays Local Deputy and Jason Douglas plays Sheriff in Jack Reacher: Never Go Back. Chiabella James/Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions hide caption

Tom Cruise plays Jack Reacher (from left), Judd Lormand plays Local Deputy and Jason Douglas plays Sheriff in Jack Reacher: Never Go Back.

There are 21 novels in British author Lee Child's ongoing Jack Reacher series and they habitually take care to describe their hero as a blond-haired, blue-eyed hulk of an itinerant ex-Army cop, standing 6'5" with a 50-inch chest. Dolph Lundgren might've been perfect for the part, or maybe Anita Ekberg. But producer Tom Cruise was the guy who, after attempts by others, got the Reacher movie franchise going. For the starring role, there was only one name on his list.

It was an inspired choice, frankly. Cruise's mid-career pivot from thrice-Oscar-nominated all-rounder to full-time action star may have been motivated by PR problems and an increasing reliance on international box office, but that doesn't mean he isn't The Best There Is at What He Does. The same unblinking intensity that now makes him impossible to accept playing ordinary, emotionally stable human beings makes him perfect for movies that require him to scale Arabian skyscrapers and cling to the sides of airplanes. And the greatest runner in cinema history has been on an admirable run, what with the latter two Missions: Impossible , Jack Reacher , and Edge of Tomorrow all in the last five years, each a standout specimen of its genre.

Key to all those movies was Christopher McQuarrie, who wrote and directed Reacher and Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation and script-doctored the other two. The presence of a guiding intelligence like McQuarrie howls into the fast-and-furious winds that writing matters , even in action flicks.

It's because of "McQ" that 2012's (barely) franchise-launching Jack Reacher was a gem. It had an enveloping mystery plot, strong location shooting (it was shot in Pittsburgh, and it never looks like it was made in Culver City or Toronto), and a cruel sense of humor. Cruise played the title character as a know-it-all jerk with an infallible memory, which oddly made him more relatable than he's when trying to interface casually with fellow humans. Reacher' s two superb fight scenes, captured in medium shots rather than choppy close-cuts so you could see how hard Cruise trained, were brutal, but also nicely executed bits of slapstick. And its climactic gunfight was the best one since the bank-heist set piece in Heat. (Reacher, naturally, brought a knife.)

Oh, and the movie's final boss, The Zec, was played by Werner Herzog.

Alas, Cruise has retained McQuarrie's services for a rush-ordered sixth Mission, which means that for the lower-profile Reacher follow-up, Never Go Back (they really need to work on the titles of these movies), he had to get who he could. That was Glory director Edward Zwick, an old pro who made The Last Samurai with Cruise . The script is by Zwick, his longtime collaborator Marshall Herskovitz (they created ABC's thirtysomething together, thirty-something years ago), and tough-guy specialist Richard Wenk, whose name was on The Equalizer and the The Magnificent Seven remake.

So: A Zwick and a Wenk for a McQ and a Zec.

It's a lousy trade.

Never Go Back is deeply mediocre, as rote and indistinct as most of the action flicks that've marked Liam Neeson's late-career lull. The offbeat jokes are gone, as is the coterie of interesting character actors and the clean, precise stunt work. There're more chases and fights this time, but they're all underlit and overcut, with none of the snap and polish that McQ and editor Kevin Stitt brought to these confrontations. Never Go Back 's stunt coordinator, Wade Eastwood, also worked on the marvelous Rogue Nation, so the fault must lie with Zwick. (Surely it can't lie with editor Billy Weber, whose credits include Top Gun and The Tree of Life!)

The plot has do with the Reacher drifting his way east to meet Major Susan Turner, commander of his old unit, the 110th Military Police. (They've had a long flirtation-by-payphone—Reacher, like Machete, don't text, or own a cell phone.) He arrives to find her under arrest for treason—and himself accused of being the deadbeat dad of a 15-year-old (Danika Yarosh). Pretty soon he's breaking Turner out of the brig and they're lamming it with Reacher's maybe-kid, trying to avoid the hilariously conspicuous military contractors who want them dead. It's awful thoughtful of these trained covert operatives to dress like Eastern European gangsters, making them much easier to spot in a downtown DC crowd.

DC does not appear to have been allowed to play itself in many scenes, but New Orleans was. That's the site of the Halloween-parade climax that might've been cribbed from any of at least three James Bond flicks, from Thunderball 51 years ago to Spectre last November. The problem isn't that it's familiar. It's that the execution this time is lazy as hell.

One bright spot: Cobie Smulders. She gets more to do in this movie as Maj. Turner than she has in a half-dozen Marvel-universe appearances as a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Maria Hill: Running, kicking ass, showing Yarosh how to disarm someone holding a gun to her back, calling out Reacher on his sexist crap, running some more. As with Emily Blunt in Edge of Tomorrow and Rebecca Ferguson in Rogue Nation , the movie teases a romantic chemistry between Smulders and the 20-years-older Cruise, without daring to push things any further. (There actually was a kiss between Cruise and Rosamund Pike in Jack Reacher — one that McQuarrie and Cruise cut after test audiences balked!)

It makes sense, really. In the final moments of Never Go Back, after they've said their goodbyes, Yarosh runs at Cruise to wrap him in one last teary-eyed bear hug. He doesn't push her away. But he sure does look like he wishes she were the fuselage of an Airbus A400, 5,000 feet above the deck.

Correction Oct. 25, 2016

A previous version of this story mistakenly referred to S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Maria Hill as Mariah Hill.

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Jack Reacher Was the Beginning of a Beautiful Blockbuster Friendship

Here are the things you need to know about the character Jack Reacher: He stands at six feet, five inches tall and weighs roughly 250 pounds. He is an ex-military police officer who now drifts across the country, stumbling across small-town problems (an unsolved murder, a kidnapping). Typically he will do what he can to restore order and pursue justice and one time he survived getting shot directly in the chest because he’s so jacked that his muscles stopped the bullet. Jack Reacher is a sparse man with a sparse wardrobe, largely assembled from Goodwills and community thrift stores, picking up what he needs as he finds himself needing it and discarding it when it has outlived its usefulness to him, and in case you skimmed past the prior sentence I’ll say one more time that Jack Reacher is so big that one time his muscles stopped a bullet.

You could be forgiven for reading this description and not immediately thinking of Tom Cruise, a man famously 5’7” on a good day. And yet Cruise took on the role of that beefcake drifter in 2012, garnering vocal outcry from the Jack Reacher fan community (largely comprised of dads, a group who famously refuse to waver in their opinions on the most trivial of matters like, for example, who should play the fictional character Jack Reacher). “He is a terrible match for the character,” Jack Reacher fans insisted. “There is no way Tom Cruise’s chest could stop a bullet fired at point blank range and also he is very short.”

With respect for the Jack Reacher stans, I would posit this: Cruise’s physique is a valid reason to knock his casting but not a valid reason to dismiss the film outright, which holds tremendous merit even if its lead actor doesn’t have pecs dense enough to serve as Kevlar. There are two reasons for this, one being that Thomas Cruise Mapother IV is one of the great movie stars of all time who can bring things to a performance that no 6’5”, 250-pound beefcake who played Aquaman on Smallville can. The second is that Jack Reacher marks the first director-actor collaboration between Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie, a collaboration that has yielded what the kids might call “bangers only.”

McQuarrie first rose to fame as the writer of The Usual Suspects , though after his disastrous directorial debut, The Way of the Gun (it’s bad, and not even in a fun way), he was put in what he long referred to as “director jail.” He returned to his work as a screenwriter and first crossed paths with Cruise during the making of the 2008 film Valkyrie . The film is one of the great missteps in Cruise’s career and had a notoriously troubled production , though amid that chaos Cruise and McQuarrie seem to have found in one another kindred collaborative spirits.

Cruise’s production company Cruise/Wagner Productions acquired the film rights to Jack Reacher back in 2005. The project lingered in limbo for a few years, finally getting a kickstart when McQuarrie was hired to revise the script, an adaptation of the ninth Reacher novel, One Shot . It went into production at a pivotal moment in Cruise’s career as well as McQuarrie’s. For Cruise, his star power — which had fallen substantially in the years following his couch-jumping, histrionic 2005 (an all-time bad PR year for any celebrity) — no longer guaranteed a movie would be a hit. Cruise rethought his approach to blockbuster filmmaking accordingly for Jack Reacher . No longer able to approach every project with a blank check, he agreed to a scaled-down production budget of $60 million. The lower budget made the project an enticing get for a studio — a Cruise movie still had the potential to be a massive hit and this one came with substantially lower risk. It also allowed Cruise some more freedom in his producer responsibilities, such as putting the film’s creative team together. He used that leverage to break McQuarrie out of director jail and put him behind the camera once again.

It proved a savvy move. Whatever Cruise’s physique prevents him from bringing to the role of Jack Reacher — though his performance is as locked in as ever, all simmering rage and gritted jaws and rarely ever smiling — McQuarrie’s script and directing make up for in spades. Jack Reacher is a down-the-middle adult thriller directed with a Hitchcockian eye, meticulously composed and paced with an attention to detail rare in this sort of film. Like all great mysteries, every answer to the questions the audience will spend the film asking is present in the opening set piece.

Speaking of which, an entire essay could be dedicated to the first 12 minutes alone. The film’s opening is dialogue free, with nearly ten minutes of relative silence as McQuarrie walks us through the film’s inciting incident: a mass shooting carried out by a sniper played by Jai Courtney, a man studios have been insisting for years is America’s sweetheart (he is, to his credit, doing the best work of his career in this movie). From here we see, in a VERY deliberately staged series of shots, the subsequent police investigation leading to the arrest of a man pointedly not played by Jai Courtney. At the 8:20 mark the first lines of dialogue are recited and one minute and 22 seconds later our protagonist’s presence is first made known.

It begins with a note written by a murder suspect on a legal pad (“GET JACK REACHER,” which is an incredibly rad way to introduce a character named Jack Reacher) followed by the district attorney (Richard Jenkins) and the police detective in charge of the case (David Oyewolo) going over every piece of information they can find on this off-the-grid drifter. By the time Cruise makes his entrance at the film’s 12-minute mark, McQuarrie has so deftly established the legend of Jack Reacher it’s irrelevant that the man who walks through the DA’s office door isn’t 6’5” and 250 pounds; it doesn’t matter because the man who walks through that door is Jack Reacher and the viewer now knows exactly who that is.

To recount the film’s plot from here feels unnecessary (though in case it isn’t, the short of it is that Reacher and James Barr, the man set up to take the fall for the shooting, have a shady history and Reacher is begrudgingly charged with figuring out whether or not Barr is responsible — which Reacher spends most of the movie certain he is). It is a well-plotted mystery thriller but nothing extraordinary on its own. What is extraordinary is everything else about it, from DP Caleb Deschanel’s work behind the camera (the way that he stages the aforementioned shooting through the scope of the sniper’s rifle is inspired) to a stacked cast that includes everyone from Werner Herzog to Robert Duvall. Jack Reacher does everything a movie of its kind is supposed to do, only it does it 10 to 20 percent better than necessary.

A couple of months into Jack Reacher ’s production, Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol hit theaters, proving a smash hit and grossing nearly $700 million worldwide. It began the long process of restoring Cruise’s star status to its former glory and, crucially, gave the franchise a second wind (before McQuarrie’s uncredited rewrites on the script, Cruise’s Ethan Hunt was rumored to be phased out in favor of a new star, Jeremy Renner). With a fifth Cruise-fronted M:I now on the table, McQuarrie stepped in as the franchise’s next director and, in an unprecedented turn of events, stuck around for the next three sequels (2018’s Fallout and Dead Reckoning, Parts One and Two, which are currently in production), making him the only director to have helmed more than one film in the franchise.

Cruise and McQuarrie’s partnership has now been going strong for nearly 15 years. The latter is responsible for some of the best work of Cruise’s late-stage career, and the former got McQuarrie what’s now clearly a much-deserved second chance as a director. Neither would be where they are now without the other, or without a 6’5”, 250-pound ex-military drifter whose pecs are so big they have rendered him immune to bullets.

Jack Reacher is streaming on Amazon Prime Video .

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Reacher: Alan Ritchson Shares His Thoughts on Fans Comparing His and Tom Cruise's Jack Reachers

Reacher star Alan Ritchson reveals what he thinks about fans comparing his Jack Reacher to the one Tom Cruise played in the live-action films.

Reacher star Alan Ritchson recently revealed that he will "never tire" of being compared to Tom Cruise, who previously portrayed Jack Reacher in live-action films.

Speaking with Jonatan Blomberg Interviews , Ritchson opened up about fans constantly comparing the film and television versions of Jack Reacher and if he ever got tired of the comparisons. "Never. Being compared to the most legendary actor of all time? The last film star? I would never tire of being compared to somebody of his stature," Ritchson stated. "Look, he did his thing, he brought a lot of eyes to this project that wouldn’t be here otherwise, I think. There’s some great IP, the books are great, a lot of people have read them and enjoy the show because of them, but I think a lot of people enjoy the show because he made them aware of it."

Tom Cruise Defended From Haters by Mission: Impossible 8 Co-Star

Jack Reacher is a series of books written by author Lee Child. The books were first adapted to film by Paramount Pictures with Cruise in the title role. Jack Reacher , adapting the 2005 novel One Shot , was released in 2012. A sequel, based on the 2013 novel Never Go Back , was released in 2016. Both films were minor box-office successes. While Cruise's performance was praised in both adaptations, some fans took issue with Cruise not physically aligning with how Reacher is described in Child's books. Most of the complaints were directed at Cruise's height (5' 7"). In the books, Jack Reacher is described as being 6' 5" tall.

Reacher Has Been a Massive Success for Prime Video

Ritchson, who stands 6' 2" tall, looks more like the Reacher from the source material. The actor, who previously appeared on television series like Smallville , Blue Mountain State and Titans , has earned near-unanimous praise from fans for his portrayal of the titular drifter/former U.S. Army Military Police Major in Prime Video's Reacher . The first season, released in 2022, adapted the first Jack Reacher novel, Killing Floor . The ongoing second season adapted the eleventh novel, Bad Luck and Trouble . The action drama series has been hugely successful for Prime Video, with Reacher ranking as the #1 title on the streamer across all movies and series worldwide for 2023.

Reacher's Alan Ritchson Reveals Which Action Movie Star Most Influences His Performance

Alan ritchson teases reacher season 3.

Production is already underway for Reacher Season 3 . At this time, it is not known which novel is being adapted for the third season, although Ritchson teased that it will be another self-contained story. "I can't say too much about Season 3, but I will say there's a lot of classic Reacher stories which are just adventures that he gets sucked into in a big way," the actor explained. "And we get to enjoy Reacher in a new world. It may not have anything to do with family, with his past, he's just living that adventure out and that's kind of the direction that we've gone and it seems to really be working."

Reacher is streaming on Prime Video with new episodes of Season 2 dropping every Friday until the season finale on Jan. 19, 2024.

Source: Jonatan Blomberg Interviews

The Many Reasons the Jack Reacher Franchise Failed To Return

The unstoppable force seems to have cinematically stopped.

The Big Picture

• Jack Reacher was a solid film, but the sequel fell short, leading to doubts about a third installment in the franchise.
• The films offer a different, darker side to Tom Cruise's action hero persona, with more grounded action and violent combat scenes.
• Despite lukewarm reception, a larger framed actor was cast in the Amazon Prime series, Reacher , which found success with fans and critics.

In the last couple decades, Tom Cruise has cemented himself as one of the most prolific and prestigious action movie leads, with major success in the Mission: Impossible franchise, a Top Gun sequel turned global sensation, and a few beloved one offs like Minority Report and Edge of Tomorrow . But he does have one franchise which seems to have been left behind; Jack Reacher .

The movie was followed by a sequel, this time reuniting Cruise with The Last Samurai director Edward Zwick . Jack Reacher: Never Go Back was a step-down critically and commercially, a disappointing result after a four-year wait. The sequel was released in 2017, and talk of a third movie gradually fell by the wayside as years went by.

Jack Reacher

A homicide investigator digs deeper into a case involving a trained military sniper responsible for a mass shooting.

'Jack Reacher' Solidified the Partnership Between Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise

McQuarrie and Cruise have been creatively inseperable since they first worked together on Valkyrie. McQuarrie was pivotal in retooling Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol into the major success that it was, and has gone on to bring that franchise to unbelievable heights (literally) while also writing and producing nearly everything Cruise has done since 2008.

But the first movie McQuarrie actually directed for Cruise was Jack Reacher , which was released to positive critical reception and a solid box office intake. This first installment follows Reacher being pulled into the criminal investigation and defense of a military sniper who may have perpetrated a mass shooting, eventually finding a much larger conspiracy at play. McQuarrie did not stay on as director for the sequel, but he still maintained a production credit on the film.

'Jack Reacher' Distinguished Itself From Tom Cruise's Other Action Roles

The Jack Reacher films are not often a central point of reference for what Cruise can do as an action hero, but they do offer a different version of Cruise. It would be easy for this team to essentially re-skin Mission: Impossible's Ethan Hunt character into a different world and put little effort into distinguishing the character of Reacher.​ This is not the route they take, as these films are tonally and stylistically different, and Cruise does put in the work to make sure that Reacher doesn't feel like a carbon copy of Ethan Hunt, Maverick, or any of his other iconic roles.

The Jack Reacher series offered Cruise a chance to play a little darker, as these films do not maintain the playful tone of the Mission: Impossible franchise. Reacher is a more world-weary, dejected character. The films feel more violent, with the combat being depicted in a fashion which is more brutal than Cruise's typical register.

I Don't Think You Understand How Big Jack Reacher Actually Is

The tonal difference, and the reliance on more low-stakes, grounded action compared to the massive setpieces Cruise usually dazzles with, stand to make Jack Reacher worth watching, and the story, at least for the first film, is quite gripping . The villain, portrayed in a brilliantly wicked performance by legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog . You also get a great performance from Rosamund Pike as a defense attorney who is unwittingly roped into the plot. With a crew of talented actors working under the guidance of McQuarrie, a gifted action filmmaker, it is hard to go wrong with the first Jack Reacher film.​​​​​​

What Happened After 'Jack Reacher: Never Go Back?'

Despite the first movie going over relatively well, it was not received as warmly by longtime fans of the book series. Some fans took issue with Cruise feeling miscast for the 6'5" tank of a man that Reacher was consistently written as. Child spoke of this around the release of the first film, explaining that "Reacher's size in the books is a metaphor for an unstoppable force, which Cruise portrays in his own way." This speaks to the strength of Cruise's action movie prowess, his ability to sell you on the notion that he really can do anything, but for some fans it still wasn't enough.

Child did eventually relent, agreeing that Reacher should be played by a larger framed actor, and their wishes were fulfilled when Alan Ritchson stepped into the role for the Amazon Prime series, Reacher . The series adaptation has been a hit with fans and critics, and a third season is currently in production . The success of the Ritchson-led series, which McQuarrie is an executive producer on, seems to have filled in the gaps that fans and critics noted in the film adaptation.

When the second film was relatively much less successful, these issues were harder to look past for many Reacher fans. The television series fulfilled what the fanbase wanted out of that story adapted to the screen, and Jack Reacher: Never Go Back remains one of the few unfortunate misfires in Cruise's impressive action resume.

Will There Be a Third 'Jack Reacher' Film?

While McQuarrie spoke of the possibility of a third film in the last few years, it seems to have landed fairly low on their list of priorities. This is not surprising considering McQuarrie and Cruise are in the midst of what may be the final stretch of the Mission: Impossible franchise while also juggling how they might move forward with Maverick after the massive global sensation that was the Top Gun sequel.

Cruise is also rumored to be interested in more auteur driven projects, throwing back to his earlier roles in films like Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia and Stanley Kubrick's final film, Eyes Wide Shut . That speculation is corroborated by the recent news that he will star in the upcoming Alejandro G. Iñárritu film , his first non-franchise role in years. He has also been circling a mysterious project with Doug Liman, and in addition to that, Edge of Tomorrow sequel talks are occurring . Taking all of this into consideration, Cruise may have a busy schedule these next few years, and with the lukewarm response to his outing as Reacher, it feels less likely that he'd return to this character for a third film. So the Cruise-era Reacher fans may have to settle for nothing more than a double feature, but at least there will be no shortage of Tom Cruise or Jack Reacher gracing our screens in the next few years , just not as one entity.

Jack Reacher is available to stream on Paramount Plus in the U.S.

Stream on Paramount+

Alan Ritchson reached out to Tom Cruise over Jack Reacher, but it didn't go the way he planned

His letter never made it to him

Jack Reacher is back on our screens in the second season of Prime Video’s Reacher. Alan Ritchson returns as the tough former military officer as he does what he does best: beat people up and solve crimes.

However, he’s not the only star to take on Lee Child’s beloved character in recent years with Tom Cruise playing the part for two movies. It’s something Fast X star Ritchson was very aware of taking on the part, and he recently explained he sent Cruise a lengthy letter, it just never made it to him.

Speaking on Jimmy Kimmel Live , Ritchson explained: "I wrote him a heartfelt letter. Because here's the thing, I know what you know. He's taken some criticism for the role, because he doesn't aesthetically fit the role of Reacher perfectly, according to the books. This guy still did two movies that grossed over $300 million, and doesn't even fit. He's brought so many eyes to this series. We would not have the success that we have without it. So out of gratitude, I write him a loving, heartfelt letter, a page-long letter, and I give it to Don Granger, a partner of his at Skydance. My boss. Skydance produces the show."

However, things didn’t quite work out how he was hoping after this, as Granger wasn’t keen on the exchange. Ritchson continued, "He said, 'We're not going to give it to him. It's a terrible idea. He's fine with it because he's moved on in life. He's moved on and you need to move on, too.'"

Luckily, Ritchson took the opportunity of a national platform to say what he wanted to say. Addressing the Top Gun: Maverick star, he added to the camera: "I'm super grateful for you passing the baton to me on Reacher and helping it become what it's become with the eyes that you brought to the show. So I just want you to know that that was some version of my letter. There's a few 'I love yous', a couple of pictures together, but we’ll just leave it there." 

Reacher season 2 debuted with a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score on Prime Video, with new episodes releasing weekly. For what else to watch on the streaming platform, check out our guides to the best shows on Amazon Prime Video and the best movies on Amazon Prime Video .

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The Ending Of Jack Reacher Explained

In the 2012 film "Jack Reacher," a horrible crime is committed in Pittsburgh: five people are coldly executed by a sniper. The case seems open and shut when the police discover a man named James Barr (Joseph Sikora), a former U.S. Army sniper with damning evidence in his home and his van. The authorities make a simple offer to Barr: a full confession and life in prison, or a guaranteed death sentence in court. Barr doesn't say a word, but takes a pen and a notepad and writes three words: "Get Jack Reacher."

Reacher ( Tom Cruise ) arrives in Pittsburgh after hearing of Barr's arrest for the murder. Reacher is a wandering drifter and former Army police officer who knows full well what Barr is capable of, but doubts he committed the actual crime. Joining forces with Helen Rodin (Rosamund Pike), Barr's defense attorney, the two realize that the killing spree is actually part of a far more insidious plot.

The full confession of an innocent man

In "Jack Reacher's" final scene, Barr had been attacked in prison and left in a coma, one he awakens from with no memory. However, he believes that he must be guilty of the shootings. While innocent of the crime he was framed for, he talks about how he would have committed the crime exactly as Reacher himself described it during his investigation. Barr then demands to face his punishment. He is eager to own up to this crime because of his previous encounter with Reacher years before, where he had gone on a killing spree during his tour in Iraq but wasn't prosecuted for the crime because his victims were suspected of multiple instances of sexual assault.

As Barr confesses, he breaks down in tears, not of remorse or regret for his crimes, but for the fact that Reacher knows where he is, and if he gets away with this, he will find him and kill him. After all, Reacher doesn't care about the law — he only cares about what's right. As the film ends, we see a man verbally and physically threatening his wife on a bus, and Reacher quietly rises from his seat and starts moving toward him, further reinforcing his personal principles.

The deconstruction of the Action Hero

In "Jack Reacher," we see a take on the implacable, unstoppable action hero that's quite different from other examples within the genre. Cruise's Reacher isn't quick with quips like John McClane or a nearly indestructible powerhouse like Dom Toretto , but a quiet and determined operator who will absolutely, positively kill you dead if you're outside of his definition of right or wrong. The world of "Jack Reacher" isn't one where a person can fly into the windshield of a speeding car and walk it off: the violence is quick, lean, and brutal. Jack Reacher isn't a maverick cop or a charming rogue, but a trained killer who is very, very good at administering pain and executing his opponents quickly and efficiently.

The film illustrates that a man like Reacher, someone so close to what we conceive of as the archetypal action hero, one operating by his own code and acting as the ultimate arbiter of right and wrong, would be a terrifying figure even if he's ostensibly the "good guy."

Reacher Trailer: Meet A Jack Reacher Who Is Much, Much Taller Than Tom Cruise

This one probably won't be considered much of a reach (sorry). After a relatively pint-sized Tom Cruise alternately shot, fought, and ran his way through two previous "Jack Reacher" movies, Amazon Studios' television series adaptation, titled "Reacher," has recruited a much more book accurate-looking lead. The various thriller novels written by Lee Child (the ubiquitously credited pen name of British author Jim Grant) describe the character as "...extremely tall, and extremely broad, and long-armed, and long-legged." This, you may have noticed, doesn't exactly describe the otherwise immensely charismatic Tom Cruise, who led the 2012 and 2016 installments to over $400 million combined at the box office. 

To the delight of fans, that oversight is finally being corrected with the casting of the hulking Alan Ritchson as Jack Reacher for Amazon's streaming series. Check out the new trailer below.

Reacher Trailer

"When I picture Reacher, let's say you're in a bar or restaurant, the door opens, he steps in, and the temperature in the room drops by a degree, because people think, 'What the hell is this?' Even if there's not an immediate threat, there's an impact. That's what I wanted." 

Lee Child's imaginative description of his character to Entertainment Weekly  certainly sets a high bar for any new actor stepping into the shoes of Jack Reacher, and that's exactly what Alan Ritchson is hoping to deliver on. The imposing actor — previously known for his appearances on "Smallville," "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," and especially as Hank Hall/Hawk on DC's "Titans" — leads Amazon's "Reacher" series on Amazon Prime Video.

Apparently, it took all of a few seconds for Child to give his blessing to Ritchson during auditions. In describing the importance of staying true to the original author's vision with this casting decision, showrunner Nick Santora ("Prison Break") told Entertainment Weekly:

"Lee created a beloved character, and I thought trying to help make that character live on TV was a great challenge. I knew I'd always have Lee there to make sure everything about Reacher and the story was exactly how he wanted it. If Lee liked the product, we were doing it right."

According to the report, season 1 of "Reacher" will be based on the very first Child novel released in 1997, "Killing Floor," which Childs describes as "...the foundational story in the Reacher myth. He's learning how to be Jack Reacher." The Entertainment Weekly article includes a whole set of new images of Ritchson in action, as well as several quotes from the actor himself about his excitement for the role and the extensive training and preparation he underwent. "Jack Reacher" premieres on Amazon Prime Video on February 4, 2022.

10 Best 'Jack Reacher' Books, Ranked

• The Jack Reacher series by Lee Child has had mixed success with its adaptations, with Tom Cruise's portrayal receiving criticism.
• The new Reacher series on Prime Video, starring Alan Ritchson, has been a hit and has already been renewed for a third season.
• The below list ranks the top 10 Jack Reacher books, highlighting their compelling plots, character development, and moral dilemmas.

There are 27 books in Lee Child 's ongoing series following the adventures of military investigator turned noble-ish drifter Jack Reacher. Before handing the keys to his Mission: Impossible franchise over to Christopher McQuarrie , Tom Cruise drafted him to write and direct 2012’s Jack Reacher , adapted from Child's ninth book in the series, One Shot . Cruise is no one’s idea of what the six-foot, five-inch, 250-pound Reacher is supposed to look like, but he and McQuarrie turned in a solid action-thriller that accurately caught the book’s tone. The critical drubbing and audience indifference to 2016’s anemic follow-up, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back , effectively killed another Cruise franchise.

Now, Alan Ritchson ( Smallville ’s former Aquaman ) has taken over the role for the latest adaptation of Child's books, Prime Video's Reacher series . The premiere was an undeniable success for the streamer; the show was renewed for a second season only three days after its launch on Prime Video, and a Season 3 renewal soon followed before Season 2 had even premiered. While Season 1 followed the first book in Child's series, The Killing Floor , and Season 2 was based on the events of the eleventh book in the series, Bad Luck and Trouble , it was recently confirmed that Season 3 would adapt Book 7, Persuader .

Whether you're a longtime fan of the books or brand-new to the franchise thanks to the Prime Video series, you might need to know the best place to start. Here are the 10 best Jack Reacher books, ranked.

When retired Military Police Officer Jack Reacher is arrested for a murder he did not commit, he finds himself in the middle of a deadly conspiracy full of dirty cops, shady businessmen and scheming politicians. With nothing but his wits, he must figure out what is happening in Margrave, Georgia. The first season of Reacher is based on the international bestseller The Killing Floor by Lee Child.

Cast Willa Fitzgerald, Malcolm Goodwin, Alan Ritchson, Maria Sten, Serinda Swan, Robert Patrick

Main Genre Action

Genres Drama

In a typically intricate plot, Lee Child’s third book in the series finds Jack Reacher in Florida, digging pools by shovel during the day, while working as a bouncer by night. When a private eye finds him on behalf of someone he’s never met and is gunned down shortly thereafter, Reacher finds himself drawn into the orbit of a deadly black market moneylender. The daughter of his former mentor enlists his help in tracking down a helicopter pilot thought to have died in Vietnam, leading to a ruthless, hook-handed villain and a bullet in Reacher’s chest. Tripwire makes it into the edge of the top 10 thanks to Child’s shading of Reacher’s character. Usually, Reacher is a constant from the beginning to the end. He doesn’t change much, if at all. However, when he is vulnerable and capable of injury, his facade cracks a bit, making him more human and compelling.

Die Trying opens with Reacher stopping to help a total stranger with her dry cleaning. They’re both held at gunpoint, tossed into a van, and driven across the country. He discovers that the woman is FBI agent Holly Johnson, daughter of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and goddaughter of the President of the United States. The third book in Child's series drags Reacher into a dilemma with far-reaching consequences. Most Reacher books deal with more modest, localized crimes and conspiracies, but Die Trying ’s national scale is an outlier. The plot verges on the absurd (as many others do), but it remains an entertaining read thanks to some blockbuster action sequences. Reacher’s unrequited romantic interest in Holly also adds a bit more dimension to him.

Many of the Reacher books start with simple coincidences, which then snowball into wildly complicated situations. Make Me follows this basic premise, as Reacher gets off a bus in the small Midwestern town of Mother’s Rest just because he likes the name. He meets a private detective named Michelle Chang and throws in with her as she investigates her ex-partner’s disappearance. Make Me delves into another small-town conspiracy plot, but is notable for some continued development of its main character. Child doesn’t go too long without a romantic interest for Reacher, but Michelle Chang is no one-night stand. She and Reacher develop a strong bond and end up together by the end of the book. Make Me ’s overall plot is not quite as compelling as some others, but it offers a significant bit of growth for Reacher. No one expects him to settle down anytime soon, but Child hints that he is at least (in theory) open to change.

In the first Jack Reacher book, the main character is six months out of the Army and very bitter toward that particular institution. Lee Child toggles between first and third-person narrations throughout the series, with The Enemy serving as a prequel in the first-person. Rolling back the clock to when Reacher was a military investigator, The Enemy finds him delving into the scandalous death of a major general. He discovers a bigger scheme to prevent the modernization of the American military via the assassination of top military officials. This look at Reacher on the job offers an intriguing contrast with the bulk of the series, where he is a drifter who prefers anonymity. During The Enemy , Reacher’s mother dies in Paris. Between that loss and Reacher’s discovery that the military will cover up any embarrassing scandals like any other bureaucracy, we find a source for the man’s bitterness.

Without Fail

Reacher’s past finds him again as his former Secret Service agent brother’s colleague and old flame, M.E. Froelich, reaches out with an offer: help her plan to assassinate the Vice President. Without Fail nimbly merges a standout thriller plot with some deeply affecting personal stakes for Reacher. He falls into bed with Froelich, but he and the reader learn how much she still loves Reacher’s older brother in a heartbreaking scene near the end. Without Fail delivers a more interesting storyline than many other Reacher books, as Child again drags Reacher into a plot on a scale that could affect the entire country. The book delivers the kind of incremental character growth we’ve come to expect, which dovetails nicely with stakes that become personal for Reacher by the end.

The fourteenth book in the series finds Child upending much of his successful formula for the previous books. Typically prone to wandering the Southern and Midwestern U.S., this time Reacher finds himself in a snowbound small town in South Dakota. The local police are trying to protect the sole witness to a major methamphetamine operation, but they are contractually bound to come running if there is an emergency at the huge local prison. When the cops discover Reacher’s background, they naturally want his help. Things are not exactly as they seem, as Reacher uncovers a conspiracy within the police department related to surplus World War II equipment, including certain stimulating substances meant for bomber pilots. The cops have linked the meth operation to Plato, a Latin American drug lord and little person. The final sequence takes place in small tunnels beneath an old Air Force facility, where Plato’s size gives him a rare advantage over Reacher. Throughout 61 Hours , Reacher is way outside his usual hyper-competent comfort zone. He makes mistakes, is too late to save a key character, and needs help. 61 Hours introduces Major Susan Turner, Reacher’s replacement in his old division, and their hint of romance carries over through the next few books.

Gone Tomorrow

Gone Tomorrow begins with one of Child’s most ingenious setups. On a New York City subway, Reacher suspects a fellow passenger might be a suicide bomber. Narrated in the first person, Reacher runs down all the tell-tale signs. When he attempts to help her out of the situation, she shoots herself in front of him. Driven by a need to know what happened — and guilt over her suicide — Reacher investigates and promptly drops down a disturbing rabbit hole. The bomber, Susan Mark, was a pawn in a bigger plan involving the dark secrets of a crooked congressman, undercover terrorists, and federal agents willing to neutralize Reacher to keep things covered up. Published in 2009, Gone Tomorrow examines a morally gray post-9/11 world. In different hands, Reacher’s clear moral throughline could come off as jingoistic or insincere. Child keeps us grounded in Reacher’s calm fury as he penetrates layer after layer of lies and betrayal. Reacher usually wipes out the corrupt, hidden garbage people behind the shadowy plot, but Gone Tomorrow ’s ambiguous ending reflects the morally complex world around him.

Worth Dying For

The basic premise of the Jack Reacher books parallels any number of American Westerns: a capable stranger wanders into town, sniffs out some trouble, and mops the floor with the bad guys by the end. Lee Child often takes pains to steer his installments away from obvious Western territory, but in Worth Dying For , he leans right into it. Usually, Reacher is content to mostly stay out of trouble until he can’t, but this time he goes looking for it. Reacher overhears a drunk doctor in a remote Nebraska bar blow off a call from a patient. He drives the doctor to the house of a man named Seth Duncan, whose father and uncles run the county, and who clearly beats his wife. Reacher gives Duncan a piece of his mind (and fist), and becomes embroiled in a conflict with the entire Duncan clan. Reacher is in classic hero mode in Worth Dying For , which contains some of Child’s richest prose and sharply drawn supporting characters. Reacher ably dispatches wave after wave of would-be hitmen, which could become tedious if not for Child’s skillful handling. In Worth Dying For , the Duncans are such odious creatures that keeping Reacher in a superior position makes for a ripping good read.

The 2012 Jack Reacher movie adapted One Shot as a kickoff to the would-be franchise, which was a wise decision. McQuarrie and Cruise stay quite faithful to the source novel, which arguably features Child’s most engaging plot. A shooter seemingly kills five random people with six shots. One missed shot conveniently leaves a bullet behind. This evidence leads directly to a former Army sniper named James Barr, who will only tell the police that he’s the wrong guy, and to find Jack Reacher. They don’t have to, since Reacher sees a CNN report about the killings and immediately heads that way. He’s not there to defend Barr, but to help put him away. Barr is counting on Reacher’s clear moral purpose, but he’s beaten so badly that he can’t remember anything about the day of the shootings. Reacher must piece together what happened, and in the process picks apart the prosecution’s case. One Shot presents one of the best moral dilemmas for Reacher. While in the Army, Barr committed an unsanctioned mass murder at long range. Army politics allowed Barr to walk free, but Reacher promised that if he ever stepped out of line, he’d be there to bury the sniper in prison. One Shot gives Reacher perhaps the closest thing to a Bond villain he’s ever faced in the sinister Russian mob boss known only as the Zec, played by the unforgettable Werner Herzog in the film. One Shot presents Child’s writing at his peak, gradually tightening the Swiss watch of a plot as Reacher balances his hatred of Barr with the morality of railroading an “innocent” man.

Killing Floor

The Reacher series started at the beginning , adapting Child’s first Reacher book, Killing Floor . While Child would go on to craft more sophisticated action-mystery plots for Jack Reacher to unravel, this character’s debut is unmissable for the fresh approach Child brings to this genre. Written in the first person, Killing Floor remains his most compelling adventure as it introduces readers to this remarkable character, who is both an unstoppable force and an immovable object. Six months out of the Army after 13 years of service, Reacher drifts across the United States. He finds himself in Margrave, Georgia, simply because his brother once told him that blues legend Blind Blake somehow died there. The opening chapter tells us everything we need to know about Reacher. As the local police herd him out of a diner with shotguns, he narrates calmly, assesses the situation, and decides not to break their arms and take their guns. We understand that he absolutely can, but chooses not to, even though he’s done nothing wrong. As he is clearly railroaded for a murder he couldn’t possibly have committed, Reacher uncovers the first of many small-town conspiracies he will come across. This Reacher is bitter, rather cold-hearted, and has a much bigger chip on his shoulder than he will in later installments. In a morally gray universe, Reacher’s unflagging sense of justice is already fully formed in Killing Floor .

Both seasons of Reacher are currently available to watch on Prime Video in the U.S., with Season 3 to premiere at a date yet to be announced.

Watch on Prime Video

This article may contain affiliate links that Microsoft and/or the publisher may receive a commission from if you buy a product or service through those links.

• Males (real life)
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He has received several accolades for his work, including three Golden Globe Awards and nominations for three Academy Awards. Cruise is one of the best-paid actors in the world, and his films have grossed over $4 billion in North America and over $10.1 billion worldwide, making him one of the highest-grossing box-office stars of all time.

• 1 Biography
• 2 Filmography

Biography [ ]

Cruise began acting in the early 1980s and made his breakthrough with leading roles in the comedy Risky Business (1983) and the action drama Top Gun (1986). Critical acclaim came with his roles in the dramas The Color of Money (1986), Rain Man (1988), and Born on the Fourth of July (1989). For portraying Ron Kovic in the latter, he won a Golden Globe Award and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. As a leading Hollywood star in the 1990s, Cruise starred in several commercially successful films, including the drama A Few Good Men (1992), the thriller The Firm (1993), the horror film Interview with the Vampire (1994), and the romance Jerry Maguire (1996), for which he won another Golden Globe and received his second Oscar nomination. His performance as a motivational speaker in the 1999 drama Magnolia earned him a third Golden Globe and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. As an action star, Cruise has played Ethan Hunt in six films of the M ission: Impossible film series from 1996 to 2018. He also continued to feature in several science fiction and action films, including Vanilla Sky (2001), Minority Report (2002), The Last Samurai (2003), Collateral (2004), War of the Worlds (2005), Knight and Day (2010), Jack Reacher (2012), Oblivion (2013), and Edge of Tomorrow (2014).

Filmography [ ]

This page uses Creative Commons licensed content from Wikipedia ( view authors ).

• 1 Roscoe Conklin
• 2 U.S. Army 110th MP Special Investigations Unit
• 3 Jack Reacher (Alan Ritchson)

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Jack Reacher – La prova decisiva, Italia 1 ore 21.20/ Trama del film con Tom Cruise, oggi 28 aprile 2024

Jack reacher - la prova decisiva, di christopher mcquarrie, già regista di alcuni film della saga mission: impossible, è un thriller di grande azione con tom cruise e andrà in onda oggi..

Jack Reacher – La prova decisiva, diretto da Christopher McQuarrie

"Io e Franco Di Mare nel mirino di un cecchino nei Balcani"/ Montatore dei servizi Rai: "Diventammo fratelli"

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Screen Rant

Reacher's new look fixes the worst tom cruise casting mistake.

The 2012 adaptation of Lee Child's novel series Jack Reacher made the mistake of casting Tom Cruise. Amazon Prime's new series Reacher fixes this.

The new Reacher series on Amazon Prime finally fixes one of the worst casting mistakes for Tom Cruise . Jack Reacher is, of course, the 2012 film based on the character of Lee Child’s novel series starring Cruise as the titular character. The film has garnered relative success, enough to warrant a sequel in 2016, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back . Unfortunately, the second run for Cruise’s version of the character failed to achieve any significant traction, and his time as the character came to an end, but for some Reacher fans, that couldn't come soon enough.

Jack Reacher , the series by Child, is about an ex-military officer who now spends his time as essentially a nomad, meeting all kinds of trouble in each big city and small village he wanders into. The film with Cruise adapts One Shot , the ninth novel of the series.  Reacher , which is Amazon's television reboot , has plans of adapting one book per season, a considerable feat with the fact that there are a total of twenty-seven books so far in the series. This first season adapts the events of Killing Floor .

Related: Tom Cruise's Jack Reacher Was Way More Book Accurate Than You Realized

Other than the release format and pacing of the series, there’s one significant difference in this new version, which fixes a big mistake in the casting of Cruise as Reacher . The character is supposed to be a physically impressive, imposing figure that embodies the military stoicism of his experiences and his current nomadic lifestyle. However, Cruise’s Reacher was unfortunately always too short to exude the intimidation that is needed for the character. That was also something Jack Reacher writer Lee Child himself admitted to. His size is a big aspect of the Reacher character, as is his general aesthetic, and Cruise’s version was simply too polished for someone who describes themselves as a “hobo”. This casting blunder is one of the main reasons why the original films fail to capture the success of the novels.

The new series stars Titans ’ Alan Ritchson in the lead role who, thankfully, is far closer to the novel’s description of Reacher. Based on Ritchson’s previous works, he also has the charisma to pull off this unnerving but very captivating character. In the Reacher trailer so far , he already proves that he fits this role well by exuding a lot of the rough edges and silent threat that is typical of the novels. Ritchson is also still quite young, and there’s a lot of potential for his version of the character to go all the way. Cruise’s age is another mistake in his previous casting that this new series rectifies. With Ritchson being closer to Reacher’s age in the actual novels, the actor can grow alongside the series as it moves on from one book to the next.

While Cruise’s Jack Reacher  was far from terrible, there is a lot of things missing there to truly capture the essence of the character. Reacher is the second try at adapting the novel series to screen, so there’s a lot of pressure to get this version right, especially if Ritchson has to live up to someone like  Tom Cruise, synonymous with stunts and action . Fortunately, there is promise in his portrayal so far, which bodes well for the future of the series.

Next: Top Gun 2's Original Movie Differences Show How Tom Cruise Has Changed

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"Jack Reacher" (con Tom Cruise) e "Le regole della casa del sidro" stasera in tv

Jack Reacher - La prova decisiva è il film con Tom Cruise che ha subito un ritardo nella programmazione a causa di una delle peggiori stragi avvenute all'interno di una scuola elementare. Ma quello con Tom Cruise non è l'unico film disponibile stasera in tv

Jack Reacher - La prova decisiva, la trama

• La strage che ha ritardato l'uscita del film

Le regole della casa del sidro

Uscito in Italia nel 2013 e disponibile stasera in tv alle 21.15 su Italia 1, Jack Reacher - La prova decisiva è il thriller tratto dal romanzo La prova decisiva scritto da Lee Child e diretto da Christopher McQuarrie, regista diventato un collaboratore ricorrente del divo Tom Cruise, che in questo lungometraggio ricopre il ruolo di protagonista.

Jack Reacher ( Tom Cruise ) è un militare in pensione che sembra essere svanito nel nulla, irrintracciabile persino dal corpo di polizia in cui ha servito per tanti anni. Tuttavia l'uomo viene richiamato in prima linea quando cinque omicidi scuotono la tranquilla vita di Pittsburgh. Il cecchino accusato di aver perpetrato la strage, però, si dichiara innocente e "invoca" l'aiuto di Jack Reacher, che potrebbe essere l'unico in grado di dimostrare la non colpevolezza dell'uomo. Per ottenere questo risultato, Reacher chiede l'aiuto del'avvocato Helen Rodin ( Rosamund Pike ), ma le sue indagini lo porteranno a confrontarsi con il mondo sotterraneo della criminalità e, in particolar modo, a fronteggiare una banda criminale che è guidata da un brutale uomo di origini russe ( Werner Herzog ), un criminale senza scrupoli che non si fermerà davanti a niente e nessuno. Quando anche la vita di Helen viene messa a repentaglio, per Jack Reacher inizia una "prova decisiva" che lo porterà a fare una corsa contro il tempo.

La strage che ha ritardato l'uscita del film

Jack Reacher - La prova decisiva è un film che mette in scena un mondo estremamente violento, dove nessuno può dirsi davvero al sicuro. Una tematica che ben si sposa col genere thriller e che ha moltissimi esempi sia sul grande schermo che tra le pagine dei romanzi appartenenti a questo genere specifico. L'aspetto più spaventoso, però, è che a volte la crudeltà e la violenza descritti nelle opere di finzione non sono nulla se paragonati ai fatti che, purtroppo, rientrano nelle cronache nere. Jack Reacher - La prova decisiva che, va ricordato, inizia con una strage, è stato infatti investito dalle conseguenze di un vero atto criminale violento. Come si legge su Coming Soon , il lungometraggoi con protagonista Tom Cruise è stato girato tra l'ottobre 2011 e il gennaio 2012 a Pittsburgh, città che è anche al centro del racconto interno alla pellicola. Non sorprese, dunque, che per l'anteprima mondiale del film, la produzione avesse scelto un multisala della città. Secondo il sito dell' Internet Movie Data Base , la scelta era caduta sul Southside Works, uno dei cinema più grandi della città. La premiere ufficiale - che, quindi, includeva anche la presenza del cast del film - era stata programmata per il 15 dicembre 2012, una settimana prima dell'uscita in sala nei cinema degli Stati Uniti. Tuttavia la premiere non poté avere luogo come era stato previsto, a causa di una strage in una scuola elementare. Il 14 dicembre 2012, infatti, nella Sandy Hook Elementary di Newtown, in Connecticut, un ventenne si presentò armato e aprì il fuoco su bambini e insegnanti, causando uno dei massacri scolastici con il maggior numero di morti nella storia - tutt'altro che rosea - degli Stati Uniti. Il responsabile del massacro era Adam Lanza, un ragazzo che, come scrive il New York Times , viveva in una casa piena di armi, regolarmente detenute dalla madre, Nancy Lanza. Quest'ultima, che negli anni aveva confessato che temeva che suo figlio fosse vittima di bullismo, fu la prima vittima di Adam Lanza. Il ragazzo uccise la madre all'interno della propria abitazione, prima di guidare verso la scuola elementare che lui stesso aveva frequentato quando era bambino. In meno di cinque minuti, con un fucile semiautomatico e 154 colpi, Lanza uccise venti bambini e sei educatori per poi togliersi la vita prima dell'arrivo delle forze dell'ordine. La strage colpì davvero molto l'opinione pubblica statunitense (e non solo), riaprendo il dibattito sulla legittimità o meno di poter ottenere un porto d'armi in modo tanto semplice. In questo clima organizzare una premiere cinematografica sarebbe stato irrispettoso e complicato e per questo l'anteprima del film con Tom Cruise venne rimandata.

Per coloro che non sono particolarmente amanti del genere thriller, il palinsesto dei canali in chiaro offre anche alcune alternative. Tra queste c'è Le regole della casa del sidro, straziante lungometraggio che va in onda alle 21.15 su La7. Film del 1999 - ma uscito in Italia nella primavera del 2000 - Le regole della casa del sidro è tratto dall'omonimo romanzo di John Irving che si occupò anche della sceneggiatura del film diretto da Lasse Hallström. La storia è ambientata negli anni Quaranta del Novecente e prende il via in un orfanotrofio del Maine, dove il dottor Wilbur Larch ( Michael Caine ) si prende cura con amore degli orfani che accoglie nella struttura. Soprattutto, però, il dottor Larch è un medico che pratica l'aborto a donne che non vogliono avere figli o, al contrario, le fa partorire in sicurezza per poi assicurare una casa ai bambini. Nonostante l'aborto sia illegale, il medico sa che per le donne potrebbe essere rischioso affidarsi a dilettanti e ciarlatani e il suo cuore buono lo spinge a percorrere la strada che reputa più adatta alla sua morale. Tra gli orfani della struttura c'è Homer Wells ( Tobey Maguire ), un ragazzo brillante e intelligente a cui Larch vorrebbe passare il testimone. Tuttavia Homer è molto contrario all'aborto e vuole vedere il mondo invece di "appassire" tra le pareti della casa. Così quando la coppia composta da Wally ( Paul Rudd ) e Candy ( Charlize Theron ) si presenta all'orfanotrofio per porre fine a una gravidanza non desiderata, Homer coglie la palla al balzo e lascia la sua casa per trasferirsi in quella di Wally, nel cui frutteto vive un gruppo di braccianti stagionali guidato da Arthur Rose ( Delroy Lindo ) con il compito di produrre sidro. La realtà del frutteto e l'amore per Candy saranno due elementi che spingeranno Homer a fare i conti con le sue idee e con ciò che è giusto.

• dal lunedì al venerdì dalle ore 10:00 alle ore 20:00
• sabato , domenica e festivi dalle ore 10:00 alle ore 18:00 .

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