First Look! Tom Cruise As Jack Reacher

Fans of author Lee Child’s bestselling novel “One Shot” have not taken too kindly to Tom Cruise being cast as the book’s protagonist Jack Reacher. He’s supposed to be 6’5″ and built like a boxer. Which Cruise is decidedly not. Today, Entertainment Weekly and Empire scored an early look at what the star looks like in the role, and so far, the complaints have remained the same. Personally, my complaint is that Tom Cruise looks like, well, Tom Cruise. There’s nothing interesting about him visually in the role, and I think it’s a stupid move to rename the film “Jack Reacher”. Have they learnt nothing from John Carter? Anyway, take a look…

So, there you have it. Cruise is playing a former military policeman turned vigilante drifter, who finds himself drawn into the case of a sniper who randomly targets civilians. I suppose he looks innocuous enough as a drifter. Speaking to EW, director and co-writer McQuarrie described the character like this: “He is free from any sort of anxiety. He is truly not encumbered by all the bullshit that makes up our daily lives. He literally and figuratively has no baggage.”

“He is an extremely pragmatic, matter-of-fact person,” McQuarrie continued. “He’s very solitary, but he can’t walk away from a situation that needs to be made right. His own sense of right and wrong tie into that situation and he can’t leave until it’s been resolved. That’s his Achilles heel.”

“Jack Reacher” also stars Rosamund Pike, David Oyelowo, Richard Jenkins, Alexia Fast, Robert Duvall, Jai Courtney and Werner Herzog. Yes, the filmmaker guy. It premieres 21st December.