Jack Reacher (film)

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Jack Reacher

Theatrical release poster
Directed byChristopher McQuarrie
Produced byTom Cruise
Paula Wagner
Gary Levinsohn
Dana Goldberg
Screenplay byChristopher McQuarrie
Based onOne Shot 
by Lee Child
StarringTom Cruise
Rosamund Pike
Richard Jenkins
Werner Herzog
David Oyelowo
Robert Duvall
Music byJoe Kraemer
CinematographyCaleb Deschanel
Editing byKevin Stitt
StudioTC Productions
Skydance Productions
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date(s)
  • December 21, 2012 (2012-12-21)
Running time130 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$60,000,000[2]
Box office$216,568,266[2]

Jack Reacher (previously titled One Shot) is a 2012 American thriller film.[3][4] It is an adaptation of Lee Child's 2005 novel One Shot. Written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, the film stars Tom Cruise as the title character. The film entered production in October 2011, and concluded in January 2012. It was filmed entirely on location in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The film's U.S. premiere gala, scheduled for December 15, was delayed after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on December 14. The film was released in North America on December 21, and in the United Kingdom on December 26, 2012.

Contents

  • 1 Plot
  • 2 Cast
  • 3 Production
  • 4 Distribution
    • 4.1 Marketing
    • 4.2 Theatrical release
  • 5 Reception
    • 5.1 Box office
    • 5.2 Critical response
  • 6 References
  • 7 External links

Plot

In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a man drives a van into a parking garage across the Allegheny River from PNC Park and, after dropping a quarter into the meter, readies a sniper rifle. He takes aim and appears to randomly kill five people on the river’s North Shore Trail from long range before fleeing in the van.

The police soon arrive at the scene of the murder, headed by Detective Emerson (David Oyelowo), and they discover a shell casing as well as the coin used to pay for parking. A fingerprint taken from the coin points to James Barr, a former U.S. Army sniper. When the police raid his house, they find the van, equipment for making bullets, the rifle in question, and Barr fast asleep in his bed.

During an interrogation by Emerson and the District Attorney, Alex Rodin (Richard Jenkins), Barr is offered a choice between life in prison in exchange for a full confession or guaranteed death row, as Rodin has never failed to convict. Thinking Barr is going to confess when he takes the notepad, they are bewildered when he instead writes "Get Jack Reacher". Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise) is a drifter and former U.S. Army Military Police Corps officer. Reacher later arrives in Pittsburgh after seeing a news report about Barr and the shooting. Emerson and Rodin deny Reacher’s request to view the evidence but agree to let him see the suspect. Barr, as it turns out, was somehow brutally attacked by fellow inmates while in police transport and is now in a coma. Reacher meets Barr’s defense attorney, counselor Helen Rodin (Rosamund Pike), the District Attorney’s daughter, who's been saddled with the apparently hopeless task of saving Barr from the death penalty.

Helen says she can arrange for Reacher to see the evidence if he will become her lead investigator. Reacher retorts that he is not interested in clearing Barr. He confidentially reveals that Barr had gone on a killing spree during his tour in Iraq but was not prosecuted because the victims were under investigation for major crimes — and the U.S. Army wants them forgotten. Reacher, then vowed that if Barr tried anything like this again, he would take him down.

Reacher agrees to investigate if Helen visits the victims’ families to learn about the people murdered that day. Reacher goes to the crime scene and finds inconsistencies with this location, and thinking a trained shooter would have committed the killings from the cover of the van on the nearby Fort Duquesne Bridge. After Helen reports her findings about the victims to Reacher, he suggests that the owner of a local construction company was the intended victim, with the killing of other random victims intended to cover up that fact.

After a seemingly spurious bar fight, Reacher realizes that someone is attempting to strong-arm him into dropping his investigation. Reacher is later framed for the murder of the young woman who was paid to instigate the barroom brawl, but this only motivates him further. Reacher eventually follows a lead at a shooting range in the neighboring state of Ohio, owned by former U.S. Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant Cash, who will talk only if Reacher is able to demonstrate his U.S. Army sniping skills.

The real perpetrators are members of a Russian gang masquerading as legitimate businessmen. The gang's elderly leader spent much of his life in a Soviet Gulag and is known only as the Zec (prisoner). The gang kidnaps Helen with the aid of Detective Emerson and holds her hostage at a construction site or mining location. Reacher outwits the mob guards, killing them with Cash's help, before confronting the Zec about the conspiracy.

Reacher and Cash flee the scene with confidence that Helen will clear Jack Reacher's name. When Barr awakens from his coma, he tells Helen that he has no recent memory but believes that he must be guilty of the shooting. Barr's mental reconstruction of how he would have committed the shootings confirms that Reacher's theory was correct from the beginning. Still unaware of all these developments, Barr is willing to confess and accept his punishment, fearing that Reacher will mete out justice if the law does not.

Cast

  • Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher
  • Rosamund Pike as Helen Rodin
  • Richard Jenkins as Alex Rodin
  • David Oyelowo as Emerson
  • Werner Herzog as The Zec, the owner of the major German corporation "Lebendauer Enterprises".[5]
  • Jai Courtney as Charlie
  • Vladimir Sizov as Vlad
  • Joseph Sikora as James Barr
  • Michael Raymond-James as Linsky
  • Alexia Fast as Sandy
  • Josh Helman as Jeb
  • Robert Duvall as Cash
  • James Martin Kelly as Rob Farrior
  • Nicole Forester as Nancy Holt

Production

The film was directed by Christopher McQuarrie, who previously worked with Cruise on the 2008 film Valkyrie. Josh Olson worked on the early screenplay and adapted it from Lee Child's original best seller, while McQuarrie worked on the finished script.

In July 2011, Cruise was in negotiations to play the role of Jack Reacher.[6] Author Lee Child said that it would be impossible to find a suitable actor to play the giant Reacher and to recreate the feel of the book onscreen, and that Cruise had the talent to make an effective Reacher.[7] Child also said, "Reacher's size in the books is a metaphor for an unstoppable force, which Cruise portrays in his own way."[8] Of Cruise's relatively small stature, Child said, "With another actor you might get 100% of the height but only 90% of Reacher. With Tom, you'll get 100% of Reacher with 90% of the height."[9]

Production on the film began in October 2011.[10] The film rights were sold to Paramount Pictures. In February 2012, Kevin Messick, one of the film's producers, sued Don Granger and Gary Levinsohn, two other producers, for breach of contract over a Joint Venture Agreement, claiming he had "helped to develop the film, renew Paramount's options for the rights to the book, and participated in the search for a screenwriter" but starting in July 2010, had been left out of meetings with the screenwriter and the studio and not given certain drafts of the screenplay while it was under development.[10] Messick is suing for "unspecified damages, his producer's fees and the right to participate in any upcoming sequels."[10]

Cruise performed all of his own driving stunts during the film's signature car chase sequence.[11] "Action to me is something very fun to shoot. The challenge in most car chases is you're trying to hide the fact that it's not the actor driving," McQuarrie said. "The challenge here was the exact opposite. We were trying to find a way to show that it was always Tom driving. He's literally driving in every stunt sequence." [9]

Distribution

Marketing

The trailer for Jack Reacher was officially released on Cruise's birthday, July 3, 2012.[12]

Theatrical release

Jack Reacher, then titled One Shot, was originally slated to be released in February 2013.[13] In March 2012, the release date was brought forward by Paramount Pictures to December 21, 2012, hoping to capitalize on the box office success of Cruise's Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, which was released at a similar point in 2011.[13] The film's new release date displaced the release of World War Z back six months.[13]

The film was released in North American markets on December 21, 2012, with a premiere initially planned for Pittsburgh's SouthSide Works megaplex on December 15, 2012, which was to be attended by the film's stars, and Mr. Child.[14]

On December 15, 2012, Paramount Pictures announced it was indefinitely postponing the film's premiere screening in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania out of respect for the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that had occurred the day before. The opening scene shows a sniper shooting at people including a woman holding a small child, and one point aiming the cross-hairs directly at her.[15] Writer-director McQuarrie endorsed the decision, saying he and Cruise "insisted upon it. Nobody should be celebrating anything 24 hours after a tragic event like that. We thought long and hard about it. This was not a snap judgment, because we wanted to give back to the city of Pittsburgh [by having the premiere there], because they were so great to us."[16]

The film held its United Kingdom premiere on December 10, 2012 at London's Odeon Leicester Square.[17] It was released on December 26, 2012 in the U.K.

Reception

Box office

As of March 21, 2013, Jack Reacher has grossed $80,070,736 in North America and $136,497,530 in other countries for a worldwide total of $216,568,266,[2] which is one of the lowest grossing Tom Cruise movies of the past decade and a third of the $694,713,380 his previous movie Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol grossed.[18]

In North America, the film opened in 3,352 cinemas.[19] CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade filmgoers gave the film was an "A-" on an A+ to F scale.[20] Jack Reacher went on to gross $5.1 million on its opening day in the U.S. and Canada,[19] and $15.6 million in its opening weekend.[21] The film held well in its second weekend, dropping only 10.2% to a total of $14.1 million and ranking at No. 5.[22]

Upon its opening five-day international start, making $5.5 million in the UK and $4.4 million in France, the film grossed a total of $18.1 million from 32 international markets.[23] Throughout the following weeks, the film expanded to additional international markets and grossed a foreign total of $136,497,530.[24]

Critical response

Jack Reacher has received mixed to positive reviews from critics. The film has a rating of 62% on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 159 reviews, with a rating average of 6.2 out of 10.[25] The site's summary is that, "Jack Reacher is an above-average crime thriller with a smoothly charismatic performance from Tom Cruise." Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 49 based on 34 reviews.[26]

References

  1. ^ "'Jack Reacher' (12A)". British Board of Film Classification. November 13, 2012. Retrieved November 13, 2012. 
  2. ^ a b c "Jack Reacher (2012)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved January 22, 2013. 
  3. ^ "Jack Reacher's chilling scenes dismay". The Australian. December 29, 2012. Retrieved January 4, 2013. 
  4. ^ "Jack Reacher (2012)". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved January 4, 2013. 
  5. ^ Translated from German, "Leben(s)dauer" means "lifespan".
  6. ^ "Tom Cruise Mulling Offer to Take on Jack Reacher in 'One Shot". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 23, 2011. 
  7. ^ "Author Lee Child wins top crime award". British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). July 22, 2011. Retrieved July 23, 2011. 
  8. ^ Fleming, Mike. "Tom Cruise Locked To Play Jack Reacher In 'One Shot' For Paramount And Skydance". Deadline.com. Retrieved July 20, 2012. 
  9. ^ a b Oney, Steve (A Tough Guy's Tough Road to the Screen). "A Tough Guy's Tough Road to the Screen". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on December 9, 2012. Retrieved December 9, 2012. 
  10. ^ a b c "Tom Cruise film producers sued". BBC News. February 7, 2012. Retrieved February 7, 2012. 
  11. ^ Parfitt, Orlando (December 12, 2012). "Exclusive: How on set accident proved Tom Cruise was perfect Jack Reacher". Yahoo! Movies. Retrieved December 23, 2012. 
  12. ^ Matt Goldberg (July 3, 2012). "New Trailer and Images for 'Jack Reacher' Starring Tom Cruise". Retrieved July 19, 2012. 
  13. ^ a b c McClintock, Pamela (March 13, 2012). "Paramount Release Shakeup: Tom Cruise's 'One Shot' to Christmas; Brad Pitt's 'World War Z' to Summer". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved March 14, 2012. 
  14. ^ Vancheri, Barbara, "Tom Cruise returning for 'Jack Reacher' premiere: Movie filmed in city; mid-December event first here in decades", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 25, 2012
  15. ^ Alexander, Bryan (December 15, 2012). "'Jack Reacher' premiere postponed following shooting". USA Today. Retrieved December 15, 2012. 
  16. ^ Lang, Brent (December 17, 2012). "'Jack Reacher' Director on Canceling Premiere After Newtown Shootings: Nobody Should Be Celebrating". TheWrap.com. Archived from the original on December 17, 2012. Retrieved December 17, 2012. 
  17. ^ Plumb, Ali (December 11, 2012). "Photos: Jack Reacher UK Premiere". Empire. Retrieved December 23, 2012. 
  18. ^ Box Office Mojo Mission:Impossible - Ghost Protocol
  19. ^ a b "Daily Box Office for Friday, December 21, 2012". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved December 23, 2012. 
  20. ^ Bahr, Lindsey (December 23, 2012). "Box Office Report: 'The Hobbit' holds number one spot, 'Jack Reacher' and 'This is 40' disappoint". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved December 23, 2012. 
  21. ^ "Weekend Box Office Results for December 21-23, 2012". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved December 23, 2012. 
  22. ^ "Weekend Box Office Results for December 28-30, 2012". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved December 30, 2012. 
  23. ^ Subers, Ray (31 December 2012). "Around-the-World Roundup: 'Hobbit' Huge Again, Bond Becomes Billionaire". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 19 January 2013. 
  24. ^ "Jack Reacher (2012) - International Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 21 March 2013. 
  25. ^ "Jack Reacher – Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved December 23, 2012. 
  26. ^ "Jack Reacher". Metacritic. Retrieved January 12, 2012. 

External links

  • Official website
  • Jack Reacher at the Internet Movie Database
  • Jack Reacher at AllRovi
  • Jack Reacher at Rotten Tomatoes
  • Jack Reacher at Metacritic
  • Jack Reacher at Box Office Mojo