First official image of Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher revealed

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First proper look at Lee Child adaptation

EW.com have revealed the first official image of Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher in, erm, Jack Reacher (formerly One Shot ).

The actor’s casting was greeted with a barrage of criticism when it was announced last year, with many fans considering Tom Cruise incompatible with the Reacher described in Lee Child’s novels.

Admittedly, it’s hard to picture Cruise as the lone, taciturn tough guy, but if he pulls it off it’d be one hell of a career reinvention, not to mention a franchise in the making. There are 16 Reacher novels to draw on, with the 17th set to be published this year.

Speaking to EW , writer-director Christopher McQuarrie said of Reacher, “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.”

EW also quoted Cruise’s video introduction to the footage screened at April’s CinemaCon, when he said: “For those of you who know the books, I’m obviously not 6-foot-5, like Jack Reacher. But Lee felt that I was the right guy to drive fast cars and kick the s**t out of people onscreen.”

Jack Reacher opens in UK cinemas on 28 December 2012, and the trailer is expected to land soon.

Matt Maytum
Matt Maytum
Former Editor of Total Film magazine

Matt Maytum is the former Editor of Total Film magazine. Over the past decade, Matt has worked in various roles for TF online and in print, including at GamesRadar+. Bucket-list-ticking career highlights have included reporting from the set of Tenet and Avengers: Infinity War, as well as covering Comic-Con, TIFF and the Sundance Film Festival.