Who are you Mister? a young woman asks Jack Reacher Tom Cruise and its a question that recurs not always quite so politely throughout the movie that bears Reachers name.
He may be an elusive individual with a sketchy background ex military no fixed address a single shirt to his name but as an archetype he is easy enough to recognize. He is a cousin of Shane and Caine from the old Kung Fu television series and Clint Eastwoods Man With No Name a paladin without portfolio who travels from town to town dispensing righteous violence and hard boiled aphorisms.
Its just what guys like me do Reacher says wearily at one point though he could say it at just about any point. Guys like him are mythical creatures fantasy figures who dispense rough justice when civic institutions fail. Part comic book superhero part Old West vigilante and wholly preposterous Reacher is far less enigmatic than he or anyone else in the movie thinks he is. And also less interesting.
Written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie and adapted from One Shot the ninth in Lee Childs series of macho best sellers Jack Reacher brings its hero to Pittsburgh where a sniper has just shot down five innocent people including a nanny accompanying a small child in broad daylight. The suspected shooter Joseph Sikora lies in a coma after scrawling Get Jack Reacher on a pad in lieu of a confession with a seemingly airtight case against him. Shell casings fingerprints at the scene security camera video all the usual stuff that disciplined television crime show viewers will recognize as solid circumstantial evidence.
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