Is That Jack Reacher?!?

Off Topic
61

[quote]krazylarry wrote:

[quote]DarkNinjaa wrote:
Nah.

I always pictured Reacher as a tall, strong, muscular Aryan looking man. Shit.

I guess Dolf Lundgreen is too old for the role. What about Dwayne Johnson with a wig and contact lenses? Or some unknown scandinavian actor?

Or do they just want Tom Cruise to sprint somewhere?[/quote]
Lundgren would actually be perfect. Reacher is not a young buck. In the novels he was born in 1960, which makes him 42, where as Lundgren is 54, most actors play roles that are ten years younger than they are. [/quote]

Agreed.

Unfortunately, they must have thought that even with shit load of editing, Lundgren wouldn’t have looked good, quick and real enough beating up 6 or more guys as shown in the trailer’s final scene. Tom Cruise does Krav Maga, so it was CRUCIAL for him to show off his self-defence skills.

62

Over the years Tom Cruise has starred in many great, very good, and some just fun to watch movies:

Risky Business, Top Gun, Rain Man, Far and Away, A Few Good Men, Mission Impossible (I,II,III), Jerry Maguire, Vanilla Sky, Minority Report, Valkyrie

There was a time when a Tom Cruise release was highly anticipated and usually did not disappoint

But this is not a good fit at all. Reacher is smart and brutal, and his brutality is partially derived from his shear size and strength. His one on 3,4,5,6 fights are all elbows, knees, and smashing headbutts, no fancy martial arts involved. My mental picture if Reacher is a big rugged guy with a slightly beat up looking Robert Redford face. He also wears cheap clothes that he buys of the rack at whatever local store is available. Tom Cruise does not fit this at all

Also a good portion of the Reacher books are Reacher thinking to himself or long paragraphs of some one else talking followed by “Reacher said nothing” Not sure how this can be pulled of well in a movie. Don’t want to hear Cruise droning on narrating the thoughts that are rolling through his mind

I do have to thank the T-Nation members for introducing me to the Lee Child Jack Reacher
books. I have read them all, but one, and have thoroughly enjoyed.

I do hope they are able to pull it off in the movie and turns out better than expected

63

[quote]Razorslim wrote:
Over the years Tom Cruise has starred in many great, very good, and some just fun to watch movies:

Risky Business, Top Gun, Rain Man, Far and Away, A Few Good Men, Mission Impossible (I,II,III), Jerry Maguire, Vanilla Sky, Minority Report, Valkyrie

There was a time when a Tom Cruise release was highly anticipated and usually did not disappoint

But this is not a good fit at all. Reacher is smart and brutal, and his brutality is partially derived from his shear size and strength. His one on 3,4,5,6 fights are all elbows, knees, and smashing headbutts, no fancy martial arts involved. My mental picture if Reacher is a big rugged guy with a slightly beat up looking Robert Redford face. He also wears cheap clothes that he buys of the rack at whatever local store is available. Tom Cruise does not fit this at all

Also a good portion of the Reacher books are Reacher thinking to himself or long paragraphs of some one else talking followed by “Reacher said nothing” Not sure how this can be pulled of well in a movie. Don’t want to hear Cruise droning on narrating the thoughts that are rolling through his mind

I do have to thank the T-Nation members for introducing me to the Lee Child Jack Reacher
books. I have read them all, but one, and have thoroughly enjoyed.

I do hope they are able to pull it off in the movie and turns out better than expected[/quote]

Well said.

Yeah, on the Lee Child facebook page and on imdb’s page for this movie lots of people defend Cruise saying he’s a good actor (debatable but essentially unimportant as you don’t really need a good actor to play Jack Reacher) and that Tom Cruise has been a tough guy in other movies ( they usually mention Collateral) but that also doesn’t matter because an actor can kick ass in whatever movie they are in simply because the script calls for it.

I really think that the people that defend Cruise on those boards are Tom Cruise fans that are simply behind it because they’re behind everything Cruise would do.
Hell, even you’re a 45 year-old housewife who happens to love Tom Cruise and also read and love Jack Reacher novels…once you find out Tom Cruise is playing Jack Reacher you still have to say no…that ain’t right.
Hey, I love The Rock. That doesn’t mean I think he should play my favorite fictional character, Captain Kirk.

64

Here’s a great description of Jack Reacher from an imdb.com discussion of the new trailer.

This guy briefly discusses One Shot which is the book the movie is based on.

[b]A sniper wiping out a slew of people in a crowded city courtyard with percision expertise. Victims had no connection to each other. Cops have no clue who the shooter could be.

But Jack Reacher sees the reports on TV From miles away, and he knows exactly who the shooter is… A man he should have put away back in Kuwait, a soldier… An elite Army sniper who snapped and pulled the exact same shit on innocent women & children in a crowded Kuwaiti street. But MP Reacher was forced to clear this murderer, as to not give the US another black eye in an already bitter war.

Now Reacher is a retired MP, the best and baddest of the bunch, bounced out of the Army unceremoniously…having worn out his welcome. Now he must go do what he wanted to do back in Kuwait. Kill that son of a bitch sniper once and for all.

Except when he gets there, he finds out… The guy may have been set up as a patsy by someone even more vile. Reacher has to now clear the man he came to kill, and face a world of shit to bring down the real bad guys.

As much as they feature that car in the trailer, trust me… It’s not Reacher’s. He doesn’t own a car. It’s likely the car of one of the bad guys he beats the shit out of. Reacher doesn’t own a gun. He doesn’t own a home or even any clothes. He wears an outfit til it gets too dirty (or bloody) and he buys a new outfit and throws the old one away. The only item he carries on him is a folding toothbrush. He uses Western Union to access his Army retirement fund. He rides buses or hitchhikes to get where he wants to go.

ONE SHOT was a book where Reacher actively went looking for trouble… In most cases, trouble just finds him. He just wants to see America, something he never got to do as a child of an Army officer, growing up abroad on far flung bases, then serving most of his own career in the Middle East. Yet, somehow, everywhere he goes, he finds someone who needs his help… Some wrong that needs to be righted. Someone powerful trying to oppress the weak.

THAT is the Jack Reacher I wanna see. The guy who truly has nothing to lose and puts his life in jeopardy to protect the abused and innocent victims he encounters on his travels. Without the burden of having to read Miranda Rights… Or play by the rules.

He really is an involuntary vigilante. Imagine Charles Bronson… Only Military trained to kill, more often than not, with his bare hands and bigger than all cattle… A master of most any weapon he takes off bad guys… And sharp as a tack.[/b]

65

[quote]Nards wrote:

[quote]Razorslim wrote:
Over the years Tom Cruise has starred in many great, very good, and some just fun to watch movies:

Risky Business, Top Gun, Rain Man, Far and Away, A Few Good Men, Mission Impossible (I,II,III), Jerry Maguire, Vanilla Sky, Minority Report, Valkyrie

There was a time when a Tom Cruise release was highly anticipated and usually did not disappoint

But this is not a good fit at all. Reacher is smart and brutal, and his brutality is partially derived from his shear size and strength. His one on 3,4,5,6 fights are all elbows, knees, and smashing headbutts, no fancy martial arts involved. My mental picture if Reacher is a big rugged guy with a slightly beat up looking Robert Redford face. He also wears cheap clothes that he buys of the rack at whatever local store is available. Tom Cruise does not fit this at all

Also a good portion of the Reacher books are Reacher thinking to himself or long paragraphs of some one else talking followed by “Reacher said nothing” Not sure how this can be pulled of well in a movie. Don’t want to hear Cruise droning on narrating the thoughts that are rolling through his mind

I do have to thank the T-Nation members for introducing me to the Lee Child Jack Reacher
books. I have read them all, but one, and have thoroughly enjoyed.

I do hope they are able to pull it off in the movie and turns out better than expected[/quote]

Well said.

Yeah, on the Lee Child facebook page and on imdb’s page for this movie lots of people defend Cruise saying he’s a good actor (debatable but essentially unimportant as you don’t really need a good actor to play Jack Reacher) and that Tom Cruise has been a tough guy in other movies ( they usually mention Collateral) but that also doesn’t matter because an actor can kick ass in whatever movie they are in simply because the script calls for it.

I really think that the people that defend Cruise on those boards are Tom Cruise fans that are simply behind it because they’re behind everything Cruise would do.
Hell, even you’re a 45 year-old housewife who happens to love Tom Cruise and also read and love Jack Reacher novels…once you find out Tom Cruise is playing Jack Reacher you still have to say no…that ain’t right.
Hey, I love The Rock. That doesn’t mean I think he should play my favorite fictional character, Captain Kirk.[/quote]

Tom Cruise would make a better Scot Horvath, from Brad Thor’s books, described as a hugely muscular 5’10 160 lbs

66

^^ Yeah…that’s be fine.

One thing about Reacher’s size that people haven’t read the books may not know or care about it is that in some of the books it’s mentioned many times.

I think in 61 Hours Lee Child mentions about 5 or 6 times that Reacher is 250lbs. I mean the size of Reacher is mentioned so many times throughout the books that it becomes very insistent. You can change some characters around from how they are described in their novels if the guy is just supposed to be a generic male in his late 30s of average height…but we’ve had Reacher’s height and weight pounded into us for 17 books or whatever.

And for may of us that size and weight (of course along with his personality) are what make the books fun for us.

I actually think the general plots of most of Child’s books are not very good. They try to be mystery/thrillers but the mystery part is usually of the kind where the reader cannot use his own wits to figure out the answer as Child will give relevant information late in the story, and the books are most always set in rural America with a corrupt sheriff or evil wealthy landowner sort of thing. They almost read like episodes of The A-Team, Knight Rider or The Fugitive in that way.

Reacher needs to do certain things to make it a Reacher story. He needs to walk(or take a bus) into a small town, get coffee, and a big breakfast, in a small-town diner, then get mixed up in some trouble int hat small town…along with him buying new clothes from an outlet shop and easily beating the shit out of stupid locals.

If Child doesn’t mention Reachery-type stuff every 10 pages or so (like at least having him drink 3 cups of black coffee or ordering large amounts of food which we all know here on T Nation can lead to some vicarious admiration) then it does become just another one of those airport novels.
So without Reacher being played by a big, brutish looking guy in clothes fit for a janitor then we just have another Tom Cruise as the cool guy movie.

67

[quote]Nards wrote:
Hell, even you’re a 45 year-old housewife who happens to love Tom Cruise and also read and love Jack Reacher novels…once you find out Tom Cruise is playing Jack Reacher you still have to say no…that ain’t right.
Hey, I love The Rock. That doesn’t mean I think he should play my favorite fictional character, Captain Kirk.[/quote]

I like Tom Cruise, and, especially his crazy antics on Oprah’s sofa. But nope, I’m really fuming that he’s portraying JR. Just so wrong. From his height, his weight to his voice. All fucking wrong.

68

[quote]Nards wrote:
^^ Yeah…that’s be fine.

One thing about Reacher’s size that people haven’t read the books may not know or care about it is that in some of the books it’s mentioned many times.

I think in 61 Hours Lee Child mentions about 5 or 6 times that Reacher is 250lbs. I mean the size of Reacher is mentioned so many times throughout the books that it becomes very insistent. You can change some characters around from how they are described in their novels if the guy is just supposed to be a generic male in his late 30s of average height…but we’ve had Reacher’s height and weight pounded into us for 17 books or whatever.

And for may of us that size and weight (of course along with his personality) are what make the books fun for us.

I actually think the general plots of most of Child’s books are not very good. They try to be mystery/thrillers but the mystery part is usually of the kind where the reader cannot use his own wits to figure out the answer as Child will give relevant information late in the story, and the books are most always set in rural America with a corrupt sheriff or evil wealthy landowner sort of thing. They almost read like episodes of The A-Team, Knight Rider or The Fugitive in that way.

Reacher needs to do certain things to make it a Reacher story. He needs to walk(or take a bus) into a small town, get coffee, and a big breakfast, in a small-town diner, then get mixed up in some trouble int hat small town…along with him buying new clothes from an outlet shop and easily beating the shit out of stupid locals.

If Child doesn’t mention Reachery-type stuff every 10 pages or so (like at least having him drink 3 cups of black coffee or ordering large amounts of food which we all know here on T Nation can lead to some vicarious admiration) then it does become just another one of those airport novels.
So without Reacher being played by a big, brutish looking guy in clothes fit for a janitor then we just have another Tom Cruise as the cool guy movie.[/quote]

I don’t recall if I mentioned this in the first Reacher thread, but Lee Child defended Cruise’s self-casting by stating that Reacher’s size was meant to be metaphorical. Definitely some reaching going on there.

Oh, and it’s been confirmed that Reacher’s internal clock will not feature in the movie.

69

[quote]roybot wrote:

[quote]Nards wrote:
^^ Yeah…that’s be fine.

One thing about Reacher’s size that people haven’t read the books may not know or care about it is that in some of the books it’s mentioned many times.

I think in 61 Hours Lee Child mentions about 5 or 6 times that Reacher is 250lbs. I mean the size of Reacher is mentioned so many times throughout the books that it becomes very insistent. You can change some characters around from how they are described in their novels if the guy is just supposed to be a generic male in his late 30s of average height…but we’ve had Reacher’s height and weight pounded into us for 17 books or whatever.

And for may of us that size and weight (of course along with his personality) are what make the books fun for us.

I actually think the general plots of most of Child’s books are not very good. They try to be mystery/thrillers but the mystery part is usually of the kind where the reader cannot use his own wits to figure out the answer as Child will give relevant information late in the story, and the books are most always set in rural America with a corrupt sheriff or evil wealthy landowner sort of thing. They almost read like episodes of The A-Team, Knight Rider or The Fugitive in that way.

Reacher needs to do certain things to make it a Reacher story. He needs to walk(or take a bus) into a small town, get coffee, and a big breakfast, in a small-town diner, then get mixed up in some trouble int hat small town…along with him buying new clothes from an outlet shop and easily beating the shit out of stupid locals.

If Child doesn’t mention Reachery-type stuff every 10 pages or so (like at least having him drink 3 cups of black coffee or ordering large amounts of food which we all know here on T Nation can lead to some vicarious admiration) then it does become just another one of those airport novels.
So without Reacher being played by a big, brutish looking guy in clothes fit for a janitor then we just have another Tom Cruise as the cool guy movie.[/quote]

I don’t recall if I mentioned this in the first Reacher thread, but Lee Child defended Cruise’s self-casting by stating that Reacher’s size was meant to be metaphorical. Definitely some reaching going on there.

Oh, and it’s been confirmed that Reacher’s internal clock will not feature in the movie. [/quote]

Ha ha! That internal clock thing made no sense. I really have no idea why it was stressed so many times int e books. I mean once or twice you let us know that Reacher has a good sense for time…OK…but mentioning that he can be unconscious and then come about and know it’s 17:13 is silly.

Yeah…I read that thing where Lee Child said that Reacher’s physicality was metaphorical.
I think he was just being diplomatic for the movie’s sake.

If not…may as well just say that Superman isn’t really a guy from Krypton who can fly and shrug off bullets like mosquitoes but is just a guy who protects the innocent and the USS Enterprise is really just a minivan with a smart kid in it.

70

Someone must have dumped a bucket load of money into Childs’ bank account to have him sign off letting Tom Cruise portray Reacher…

For some reason I cannot access the movie trailer here @ work but is there a scene where he drinks gallons of coffee? There is a scene in every book where it seems Reacher downs cup after cup.

I wonder how they are going to incorporate the drifter aspect of Reacher’s persona and the MP origin/backstory (Reacher had lots of MP/ex-military connections he can call on) buys shirts & clothing instead of washing them, etc.

Another example of serious mis-casting and trying to buy into star power.

Sad, it could have been good. Might grab a ripped DVD at the flea market if it’s cheap, but that’s it.

71

[quote]Nards wrote:

[quote]roybot wrote:

[quote]Nards wrote:
^^ Yeah…that’s be fine.

One thing about Reacher’s size that people haven’t read the books may not know or care about it is that in some of the books it’s mentioned many times.

I think in 61 Hours Lee Child mentions about 5 or 6 times that Reacher is 250lbs. I mean the size of Reacher is mentioned so many times throughout the books that it becomes very insistent. You can change some characters around from how they are described in their novels if the guy is just supposed to be a generic male in his late 30s of average height…but we’ve had Reacher’s height and weight pounded into us for 17 books or whatever.

And for may of us that size and weight (of course along with his personality) are what make the books fun for us.

I actually think the general plots of most of Child’s books are not very good. They try to be mystery/thrillers but the mystery part is usually of the kind where the reader cannot use his own wits to figure out the answer as Child will give relevant information late in the story, and the books are most always set in rural America with a corrupt sheriff or evil wealthy landowner sort of thing. They almost read like episodes of The A-Team, Knight Rider or The Fugitive in that way.

Reacher needs to do certain things to make it a Reacher story. He needs to walk(or take a bus) into a small town, get coffee, and a big breakfast, in a small-town diner, then get mixed up in some trouble int hat small town…along with him buying new clothes from an outlet shop and easily beating the shit out of stupid locals.

If Child doesn’t mention Reachery-type stuff every 10 pages or so (like at least having him drink 3 cups of black coffee or ordering large amounts of food which we all know here on T Nation can lead to some vicarious admiration) then it does become just another one of those airport novels.
So without Reacher being played by a big, brutish looking guy in clothes fit for a janitor then we just have another Tom Cruise as the cool guy movie.[/quote]

I don’t recall if I mentioned this in the first Reacher thread, but Lee Child defended Cruise’s self-casting by stating that Reacher’s size was meant to be metaphorical. Definitely some reaching going on there.

Oh, and it’s been confirmed that Reacher’s internal clock will not feature in the movie. [/quote]

Ha ha! That internal clock thing made no sense. I really have no idea why it was stressed so many times int e books. I mean once or twice you let us know that Reacher has a good sense for time…OK…but mentioning that he can be unconscious and then come about and know it’s 17:13 is silly.

Yeah…I read that thing where Lee Child said that Reacher’s physicality was metaphorical.
I think he was just being diplomatic for the movie’s sake.

If not…may as well just say that Superman isn’t really a guy from Krypton who can fly and shrug off bullets like mosquitoes but is just a guy who protects the innocent and the USS Enterprise is really just a minivan with a smart kid in it.
[/quote]

Yeah, I agree he was being diplomatic. Reacher is his brain baby and it’s his prerogative if he wants to sell the movie rights… still , what irks me is Cruise buying the rights to develop it as a star vehicle. I’d like to know what made him think he could play Reacher in the first place? Why not just produce or play the villain? Tremendous hubris there, and not a single soul involved will speak out because he has them by the collective balls.

72

[quote]jaybvee wrote:
Someone must have dumped a bucket load of money into Childs’ bank account to have him sign off letting Tom Cruise portray Reacher…
[/quote]

That would be Tom Cruise.

73

[quote]krazylarry wrote:

[quote]DarkNinjaa wrote:
Nah.

I always pictured Reacher as a tall, strong, muscular Aryan looking man. Shit.

I guess Dolf Lundgreen is too old for the role. What about Dwayne Johnson with a wig and contact lenses? Or some unknown scandinavian actor?

Or do they just want Tom Cruise to sprint somewhere?[/quote]
Lundgren would actually be perfect. Reacher is not a young buck. In the novels he was born in 1960, which makes him 42, where as Lundgren is 54, most actors play roles that are ten years younger than they are. [/quote]

Not 42, 52 so Lundgren would have been perfect. Not the best actor though…

74

I can’t believe people are actually so against the casting of this character that they would spend time writing essay like comments on why Cruise won’t work and who ‘should’ have been cast instead. First of all, these people haven’t even seen the film yet. There have been numerous films based on books that were different to the source material yet highly critically and universally acclaimed. Take LOTR or the Bourne series for example (with the the latter being more related to the character).

Secondly, the Lee Child books aren’t even that good. Jack Reacher is just one fictionalised character in a plethora of ‘pretty popular’ characters borne from ‘pretty popular’ books. The fact people can get so nerdy over stuff like this is disgusting.

I’m like a half-way sadist when it comes to enjoying the pathetic disgruntled pandering of comic book nerds.

75

[quote]Gettnitdone wrote:
I can’t believe people are actually so against the casting of this character that they would spend time writing essay like comments on why Cruise won’t work and who ‘should’ have been cast instead. First of all, these people haven’t even seen the film yet. There have been numerous films based on books that were different to the source material yet highly critically and universally acclaimed. Take LOTR or the Bourne series for example (with the the latter being more related to the character).

Secondly, the Lee Child books aren’t even that good. Jack Reacher is just one fictionalised character in a plethora of ‘pretty popular’ characters borne from ‘pretty popular’ books. The fact people can get so nerdy over stuff like this is disgusting.

I’m like a half-way sadist when it comes to enjoying the pathetic disgruntled pandering of comic book nerds.[/quote]

Tom Cruise nearly played Tony Stark. The negotiations fell through because Marvel wouldn’t allow him the degree of control that he wanted. If they’d acceded to his wishes , the Iron Man movies (and indeed the rest of the Avengers tie-in movies) would have been completely different. So… the obvious problem with Cruise casting himself as Reacher is that Cruise is incapable of even hinting at the physicality of the character.

His only recourse is to play to his own strengths, which takes it even further away from the character’s roots: expect lots of driving, running, scaling tall shit (it’s really him, you know!), and at least one shot (he he) where a moderate–to -large explosion throws him towards the screen like a rag doll.

So yeah, lots to look forward to there.

76

[quote]Gettnitdone wrote:
I can’t believe people are actually so against the casting of this character that they would spend time writing essay like comments on why Cruise won’t work and who ‘should’ have been cast instead. First of all, these people haven’t even seen the film yet. There have been numerous films based on books that were different to the source material yet highly critically and universally acclaimed. Take LOTR or the Bourne series for example (with the the latter being more related to the character).

Secondly, the Lee Child books aren’t even that good. Jack Reacher is just one fictionalised character in a plethora of ‘pretty popular’ characters borne from ‘pretty popular’ books. The fact people can get so nerdy over stuff like this is disgusting.

I’m like a half-way sadist when it comes to enjoying the pathetic disgruntled pandering of comic book nerds.[/quote]

You obviously don’t read anything other than shaved trannies in leather, go back to sucking dick in the NBA thread.

77

Where’s your God now, book readers! HA HA HA!

78

[quote]WolBarret wrote:
Where’s your God now, book readers! HA HA HA![/quote]

Shut up.

:slight_smile:

79

[quote]WolBarret wrote:
Where’s your God now, book readers! HA HA HA![/quote]

Probably on vacation at the same time they cast the Highlander remake.

80

Never read the book but I havent seen any suggestions on who should be casted. Well,I did see Dolph Lundgren but hes kinda old isnt he? What star today would be equalization to him?