Alan Ritchson Proves Tom Cruise Was The Worst Jack Reacher
Did the ground just tremble? Yes, it did. That's from the impact of Alan Ritchson stomping his way into another season of "Reacher," Amazon's fantastic adaptation of Lee Child's beloved hero. The first season turned heads and broke limbs last year, and a huge amount of credit goes to Ritchson himself, who's earning a name for himself that's almost as big as his physical frame.
The first season of "Reacher" earned high praise from critics, and fans were equally as impressed by the TV adaptation of the books. Now, judging by the new trailer for Season 2 of "Reacher," it looks like we're going to get more of the same, with Reacher doing damage in various awesome ways. It's wild, then, to look upon Ritchson kicking in doors in like they're attached to a Fisher-Price children's playhouse, and to remember that there was a time, not long about, when one of the biggest stars in the world was Reacher instead — and he was terrible at it.
Before Ritchson took his first lonely steps down the road as the ex-military policeman with a strict moral code, the iconic Tom Cruise had a crack at it, too. And as we get ready to thrill at another season of Ritchson gracing our screens as the hulking hero, the new trailer only serves as deeper confirmation of just how much Tom Cruise's Reacher was the absolute worst.
Tom Cruise was everything wrong with Jack Reacher (2012)
Look, the last thing we want to do is to throw shade at Tom Cruise. He saved the theater industry, for god's sake. Be that as it may, there was that wild period from 2012 to 2017 where he made some iffy choices.
Along with the Dark Universe-killing "The Mummy," Cruise's turn as Jack Reacher began with a mediocre intro in 2012 and ended in 2016 with the panned sequel, "Jack Reacher: Never Go Back." It was a franchise that had every chance to flourish on the big screen, but it was hindered by its hero being a star who, for better or worse, had become a stereotype unto himself.
That's because Cruise is — no matter the movie — Cruise. He doesn't play characters anymore, just Cruise in different settings. Just like the line was burned away in a sparkly fashion between Ethan Hunt and Tom Cruise, the same thing happened when Cruise dared to go it alone as the wandering hero of a 28-book series. He'd shifted from one franchise where he could seemingly do anything to another where he could tell what time of day it was just by looking at the sun.
That's not Jack Reacher. As creator Lee Child described on Studio 10, Reacher is supposed to be a messy character, not another crystal-cut Cruise action hero. "He's got a lot of faults," Child said, "and that's the only way to do it. You've got to present him warts and all, then the audience can relate to him in a realistic way."
Reacher doesn't fit into the Cruise mold. Reacher's a low-level hero, a subdued but powerful figure, solving small-time cases that shouldn't be outshone by the star playing him. Above all, regardless of the writing, a proper Reacher has to be a character that fills the screen — and we mean that in a quite literal way.
When it comes to Jack Reacher, size matters
Movies can get away with miscasting sometimes (see Keanu Reeves as John Constantine: criminal, from a comics loyalty standpoint, but the film still absolutely slaps). Reacher, though, demands a very specific type of actor. The 2012 film's choice to take Child's 6'5" blond titan in a T-shirt and remake him as the 5'7" Tom Cruise was absolutely bonkers. If anything, they'd have been better looking to his eventual "Mission: Impossible: Fallout" co-star Henry Cavill for the gig and throwing in some hair dye for good luck.
Child did throw down some support for Cruise when he was cast, like a good gentleman, even telling Deadline that "Reacher's size in the books is a metaphor for an unstoppable force, which Cruise portrays in his own way." Well, it didn't translate to the film itself. None of Cruise's punching and kicking could ever get him across as the one-man army that Reacher is in the books. Reacher isn't the kind of "Mission: Impossible" hero that elegantly drops over the wall from cables or does athletic leaps. He's the guy who runs straight through things and breaks them down.
This is why Alan Ritchson is the perfect frame-filling pick for Reacher, and has thus far delivered the exact hero we read about on the page. He's an unassuming unit of a guy that, if crossed, becomes the "unstoppable force" Childs originally mapped out. More importantly, like the solo hero himself, Ritchson has far less baggage behind him than Cruise — which works in his favor here, for this particular role, but also signifies that he has a bright future ahead of him.
Alan Ritchson is a hero in the making, and Reacher is his star-making role
When asked by Metro.co.uk about taking over from Tom Cruise with a new iteration of Jack Reacher, Alan Ritchson admitted, "He's an icon, he's a legend. I don't feel worthy of being mentioned in the same sentence as his name, he's a true film legend."
That might be the case, but after the first season of "Reacher," there really is no question that the replacement was the right guy for the job. Lee Child even said he thinks Ritchson is "perfect" for the role, and the actor really does manage to bring a realistic edge to the character that Cruise's take just didn't have. It's a balancing act that Ritchson has mastered in the first season, comprising both the farcical and the ferocious. It's a blend that allows us to root for him when he is relentlessly pummeling a group of attackers and then being too big to wear handcuffs when he gets arrested for doing so. These moments allow Ritchson to make the character as his own while simultaneously bringing the Reacher of the books to life.
With luck, we have many more seasons of "Reacher" ahead, and with even more luck, this role will pave the way for Ritchson to get even more roles that show off his acting talents. The impact of "Reacher" has already kicked in enough to earn him a part in the "Fast and Furious" franchise, which saw him holding his own with the likes of Jason Momoa and Vin Diesel. Perhaps such appearances will draw more audiences back to "Reacher," and in turn make Ritchson into an icon in his own right. Take that, Tom.