From the Rental Vault: Jack Reacher (2012)

The casting of Tom Cruise as Lee Child's wandering hero Jack Reacher brought no small amount of consternation and confusion from Childs' fandom, who go by the collective name "Reacher Creatures." The Jack Reacher of the books has about a foot of height on Cruise, often using his physicality to get his way even before he throws a punch. But Childs himself said that the attitude Cruise brought to the role was even more important than getting an actor who matched the size of the character in the books. So Cruise took to the screen in 2012's Jack Reacher, based on Childs' 2005 One Shot novel.

One Shot was a good choice as a basis for the movie, offering a properly twisty plot as Reacher probes what seems to be an open-and-shut case of a former U.S. Army sniper gone bad. James Barr's fingerprints and van put him at the scene of a sniper attack that killed five people. He can't really say one way or the other, because an attack by other inmates left him in a coma. Before that, though, he told investigators one thing: Get Jack Reacher. Because Reacher had investigated an earlier case against Barr, one that got dropped because Barr's victims were themselves criminals and because Reacher himself promised Barr any kind of repeat performance would bring him back for an accounting. Barr's attorney, Helen Rodin (Rosamund Pike), convinces Reacher to help her so that he can get his own questions about Barr answered. With Reacher doing the pulling, the fabric of the case against Barr starts unraveling, which only makes things more dangerous for Rodin and Reacher. Of course, the more dangerous things get for Reacher, the more dangerous things get for those trying to stop him.

Cruise does seem to have a feel for Reacher's relatively uncomplicated view of the world. He spends his life on the road, riding buses, stopping where he wants to stop and only staying as long as he likes. He also sells Reacher's keen observational eye and supreme self-confidence, as well as his ability to move from zero to maximum breakage in an eyeblink. Pike is not simply a shrinking violet female role in an action picture, displaying her own brainpower and guts as called for. Reacher slims down the One Shot plot, excising the character of Barr's sister. Director Christopher McQuarrie takes full advantage of Cruise's desire to work action sequences himself, without stunt doubles, and helps the actor convey the intensity that makes up so much of Reacher's character.

And Cruise does sell the role, even though he's essentially playing a variation on his Mission: Impossible character Ethan Hunt. Or Thomas Anderton of Minority Report. Or Pete "Maverick" Mitchell from Top Gun. Or heck, maybe even Joel Goodson from Risky Business; Cruise has never leaned towards demonstrative roles during his career and especially in his action pictures the main differences have been the supporting cast and the context of the story.

Jack Reacher did decent box office, but not enough to propel the character into the film series the studio wanted. One more Reacher movie hit the screens, 2016's Jack Reacher: Never Go Back. Despite pairing Cruise with the kick-butt charisma of one of the better action-movie actresses working today, Cobie Smulders, it was less successful than the first movie and the studio put any plans for extending the series on hold.