Jack Reacher (2012)

A homicide investigator digs deeper into a case involving a trained military sniper who shot five random victims.

Director:

Christopher McQuarrie

Writers:

Christopher McQuarrie (screenplay), Lee Child (based on the book "One Shot" by)

Stars:

Tom Cruise, Rosamund Pike, Richard Jenkins

3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tom Cruise	...	Reacher
Rosamund Pike	...	Helen
Richard Jenkins	...	Rodin
David Oyelowo	...	Emerson
Werner Herzog	...	The Zec
Jai Courtney	...	Charlie
Vladimir Sizov	...	Vlad
Joseph Sikora	...	Barr
Michael Raymond-James	...	Linsky
Alexia Fast	...	Sandy
Josh Helman	...	Jeb
Robert Duvall	...	Cash
James Martin Kelly	...	Rob Farrior
Dylan Kussman	...	Gary
Denver Milord	...	Punk

Storyline

In an innocent heartland city, five are shot dead by an expert sniper. The police quickly identify and arrest the culprit, and build a slam-dunk case. But instead of confessing, the accused man writes the words, "Get Jack Reacher." Reacher himself sees the news report and turns up in the city. The defense is immensely relieved, but Reacher has come to bury the guy. Shocked at the accused's request, Reacher sets out to confirm for himself the absolute certainty of the man's guilt, but comes up with more than he bargained for.

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Plot Keywords:

army | sniper | police | arrest | investigation | 

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Taglines:

The law has limits. He does not.

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for violence, language and some drug material

Details

Official Sites:

Paramount [us]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 December 2012 (USA)

Also Known As:

One Shot

Filming Locations:

Saltsburg, Pennsylvania, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$60,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$15,210,156 (USA) (21 December 2012)

Gross:

$80,033,643 (USA) (15 March 2013)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mutual Film Company, Paramount Pictures, Skydance Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

130 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital Datasat SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Brad Pitt, Hugh Jackman, Vince Vaughn, Jamie Foxx and Will Smith were considered for the role of Jack Reacher before Tom Cruise was cast.

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Goofs

In the same car chase with the changing inspection sticker dates, the front running light on the drivers side goes from off (post-collision) to on and off again during the chase.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Emerson: It's life or death now, James. By that, I mean you're doing one or the other up in Rockview. This here is District Attorney Rodin. Want to know what he's wondering? Whether you're gonna walk like a man or cry like a pussy on your way to the death house. See, the D.A. likes the needle, whereas me, I like to see a man like you live a long life - with all you teeth knocked out. Passed around till a brother can't tell your fart from a yawn.

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Connections

Featured in Maltin on Movies: The Great Gatsby (2013)

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Soundtracks

"Young Americans"
Written and Performed by David Bowie
Courtesy of RZO Music

User Reviews

Good Thriller with a Good Mystery

James Barr (Joseph Sikora), a former military sniper, is in jail for killing 5-people and says he is innocent. He asks for ex-Army MP Officer, Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise). But Reacher knew Barr in Iraq and is out to prove him guilty. Hmmm……should be a slam dunk.

It's not often that we get a good thriller along with a good mystery as well, but that is what we have here. Why would Barr ask for Jack Reacher if Reacher knew what Barr did in Iraq? Also, what was the purpose of Barr killing 5-people who had no connection to each other? Assistant DA Helen (Rosamund Pike) asks Reacher to help prevent Barr from getting the death penalty. But, we also had some good fight scenes and an exciting car chase. Let the games begin.

This gets somewhat talky in the beginning as Helen and Reacher analyze what had happened. But, we hang on every word because we, too, need to know things. All this sounded like the dialogue was dubbed in, but I think the microphones were just too close to the characters and this made it seem as if the dialogue was dubbed in. To be honest it did look like Rosamund Pike had weak knees around Tom Cruise, but the script wouldn't go here. It just looked that way to me.

The supporting cast of bad guys was good as was Detective Emerson (David Oyelowo), assigned to the Barr case. Robert Duvall comes in as a retired USMC Gunnery Sgt, Gunny Cash, who does a masterful job as the owner of a gun range and inserts some humor as he deals with Reacher.

Over all this was very good. But, I did have the feeling something was missing. Maybe it needed a better ending as this one was kind of weak for such a good story.

Maybe Tom Cruise is leaving his Mission Impossible movies behind and is now centering on another action hero: Jack Reacher, who is described as someone who seems to only wear the clothes on his back, doesn't care about the law and is only concerned with one thing: justice, and the way he goes about achieving it may shock you. Hey, Lee Child, the author of the Jack Reacher series wrote about 15-books. See? (8/10)

Violence: Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: Yes, not much