One Hundred Names

Jack Reacher The Movie – Jack Reacher towers over most people as he is six-foot-five-inch (196 cm) giant. He is not much of a talker, has an impressive 50-inch (127 cm) chest, ice blue eyes and dirty blond hair. He is a former military man who stays off the grid and wanders alone around America carrying nothing much more than cash and a foldable toothbrush. He has never possessed a driver's license. He doesn’t stay very long in one place; he is constantly on the move. Since leaving the army, Reacher has been a drifter and after the real life of 2001 terror attacks on 9/11; with an expired passport on him, he wanders across the United States mainly by hitching rides with strangers and inevitably comes across crimes that need his expertise in solving. The reason for doing so is because he felt he never get to know his own country, having spent much of his youth living overseas on military bases and at the military school West Point. He was born on a military base. He wanders throughout the United States because he was accustomed to being told where to go, when to go and what to do for every day of his life from military childhood to military adulthood. Reacher drink lots of coffee, sleeps fully dressed, never carries spare clothes (he just wears what he has on until they’re dirty, then throws them away and buys a new – always very cheap outfit). Reacher is unemotional and has a fascination with mathematics – he calculates his fight moves mathematically in his head. This man is also able to break a man’s neck with one hand, should the circumstances require him to do so.

Jack Reacher is also a popular fictional character, the central figure in the 17 Jack Reacher novels written so far by British author Jim Grant, better known by his pen name – Lee Child.

But in the first Jack Reacher movie, simply call Jack Reacher and schedule to open worldwide on December 21st – the protagonist is played by the dark haired and rather smaller than the book character – Tom Cruise! :( This casting choice seems more than a little unorthodox. It is like casting Oprah Winfrey to play Karen Carpenter. I have not watched the movie yet. Perhaps, the movie will be better than the book…who knows. But Tom Cruise? Why of all people. He is of a much smaller frame, too clean, too polished to play Reacher. Reacher has excess baggage, rugged, a silent & moody charisma personality, low profile while Cruise is loud and such a show-off. However, Child is convinced that Tom Cruise is the best man for the job – saying that the actor nails it. I've got to watched it and judge for myself.

When I first started reading the Jack Reacher series back in 2006 – I thought Brad Pitt or Keanu Reeves were a better choice. I have read 4 books thus far – The Enemy, One Shot, Without Fail & Killing Floor. What’s appealing about the book is the human story with characters and situations that is well recognized. Jack Reacher is a well loved hero; the book has plenty of actions and incidents. I love his thoughts, his tastes, his quirky reactions, his deductive instincts. Reacher is a universal myth – the noble loner, the mysterious stranger, the knight errant. Every culture and every period of history has stories about men just like him. And every part of the world has tough cities and bad guys.

'Hope for the best, plan for the worst’ – Jack Reacher

'Never volunteer for anything. Soldier’s basic rule’ – Jack Reacher