When you take the reality of Tom Cruise’s off-screen history and life views out of the equation, what you’re left with is an actor that delivers entertaining performances time and time again, which he’ll undoubtedly do again in Jack Reacher: Never Go Back. It follows on from the original 2012 movie in what is looking likely to be an ongoing series from Cruise and this time Jack needs to bail out a friend facing false accusations as his past catches up with him.
It is once again an adaptation of a Lee Childs novel – Never Go Back – featuring the lawless vigilante investigator taking on the might of the establishment in his own no-nonsense style. If it’s as effective as the opening movie then it should be an enjoyable action thriller with a dark sentiment. Check out the trailer below to see how it’s shaping.
Release date
The sequel has been confirmed for a UK release date of Friday the 21st October 2016, coinciding with the US and North American release on the same date. It’ll be a 2D only screening with less emphasis on flashy visuals with its grim realism style.
Story
The story picks up with Jack Reacher (Cruise) on his return to the HQ of his former military unit, but this is far from a happy trip down mayhem memory lane for the one-man fighting force. A former colleague has been arrested with men in her squad dead and the whiff of a conspiracy in the air. As you’d expect from the plot progression of the opening Jack Reacher film, there’s a much bigger mystery behind it all and as it starts to piece together, he finds himself in deeper than ever.
Things get even more messed up when he’s charged with a crime committed twenty years ago and discovers that he may have a secret daughter to boot. It sounds like it’s going to be an odd journey of discovery for him that could see him ending the film as a family man. If you’ve read the book already, you probably know how all this shakes out, but for everyone else there’s going to be at least a few surprises in Never Go Back.
Cast
Tom Cruise (Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation) has been joined on the new-look cast by Cobie Smulders (Avengers: Age Of Ultron) as the leading-lady, military-grade co-star, playing Major Turner, who has been wrongly arrested. Aldis Hodge (A Good Day To Die Hard) has also been cast in the film, but with no equivalents to Robert Duvall, Werner Herzog and Jai Courtney, it seems like Cruise and Smulders will be carrying the show.
Production
The film has been directed by Edward Zwick, who previously worked with Cruise on The Last Samurai. The screenplay was written by Zwick, Richard Wenk and Marshall Herskovitz. Tom Cruise, Don Granger and Christopher McQuarrie have produced the film and Oliver Wood was the director of photography.
First impressions
The Jack Reacher: Never Go Back trailer (below) is good, but it’s not amazing, but then that was sort of the case with the first movie and that went on to be a solid release worldwide. It looks like it’s holding a lot back from the film, featuring just a few scenes in a fair amount of detail, so we’re expecting there to be a few surprises to look forward to when it arrives on the big screen in October.
