Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
Summary
While the latter had design to return for a sequel , McQuarrie dropped out ofJack Reacher 2and was replaced by Ed Zwick , who antecedently worked with Cruise on 2003’sThe Last Samurai . Zwick is a filmmaker who has dabbled in many genre , from rom - coms to historical epic , but a unbent - in the lead natural process movie was n’t something he ’d really tackled before . lamentably , Jack Reacher : Never Go Back earn bad reviewsand weak box office , with the franchise ultimately being rebootedwith Amazon’sReacher .
Director Edward Zwick open up about Jack Reacher : Never Go Back , address the Tom Cruise moving-picture show ’s poor corner part performance and response .
Ed Zwick’s Jack Reacher 2 Comments Prove He Was The Wrong Director
Never Go Back was a case of a director not understanding the assignment
In 2024 , Zwick ’s memoirsHits , Flops , and Other Illusions : My Fortysomething Years in Hollywoodwere publish , where he embrace his lengthy career in the line of work . Zwick is free-spoken about both his successes and failures , and he place the incrimination forJack Reacher : Never Go Backnot working on his own shoulders .
‘ Jack Reacher : Never Go Back , ’ which Tom Cruise and I made in 2016 , peter out at the box function . I blame myself ( and my willing accomplice , Don Granger ) for opine the audience might enjoy a mash - up of ‘ Jack Reacher ’ and ‘ Paper Moon , ’ when in fact they just want more ruby-red meat .
For context , Paper Moonis a magic 1973 comedy star real - life father and girl Ryan and Tatum O’Neal , about a conman who imprint a adhesiveness with a girl who may or may not be his daughter . Never Go Backwas based on the 18thJack Reacherbook , where the title character has to go on the run with a adolescent who may - or may not - be his girl . It ’s easygoing to see where Zwick drew parallels betweenJack Reacher 2andPaper lunation , but this underlines he was never entirely well-fixed with the genrehe was ferment in .
At their core , the live - actionJack Reacheradaptationsare intense action thrillers , and while there ’s room for offbeat witticism , there ’s slight for whimsy too . Never Go Backmay have pull the father / daughter subplot from minor ’s novel , but for the movie , the portmanteau of family dramatic event and thriller does n’t gelat all . It does n’t serve that Cruise and his onscreen girl Danika Yarosh do n’t share great chemistry either . While Zwick ’s observation that audiences just wanted " red meat " oversimplifies the issue , his film never finds the correct residue between its competing elements , and he feel bored by the pic ’s thriller elements .
Never Go Back Was A Bad Choice For A Jack Reacher Sequel
It wasn’t the right time for the Jack Reacher series to tackle Book 18
In a 2022 podcast interview withLight The Fuse , McQuarrie gave his thought onJack Reacher : Never Go Back . While he stayed away from offering an popular opinion on the quality of the sequel , McQuarrie consider it was too early for theReachermovies to report a story likeNever Go Back . To his judgment , the record book was a route trip that subverted Reacher ’s loner image , but since it was only the second entrance , that persona had n’t been strongly establish in the mind of consultation .
Tom Cruise ’s Jack Reacher Series
Budget
Box Office Gross
Jack Reacher(2012 )
$ 60 Million
Danika Yarosh as Samantha Dayton in Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
$ 218,340,595 Million
Jack Reacher : Never Go Back(2016 )
$ 96 Million
$ 162,146,076 Million
While he thoughtNever Go Backcould work for a third or quaternary entrance , McQuarrie find the ledger was wrong forJack Reacher 2 . The filmmaker has a distributor point , and it might have been better for a direct sequel to adapt a harder - adjoin fib likeTripwireor61 Hoursbefore deconstructing what spend a penny Reacher tick . Never Go Backis a pretty fine thriller novel , but there were otherReachertales that readers would have preferred to see adapted first .
The Jack Reacher Movies Should Have Been R-Rated
Cruise and McQuarrie’s ambitions for Jack Reacher went unfulfilled
With the success of theirMission : Impossiblesequels , Cruise and McQuarrie have tree the market on PG-13 action movies . It also find like thecritical appreciation for the originalJack Reacheronly grows with each passing twelvemonth . That say , the film would have benefit from an radius - rating , before despite the dark of the story , it has to deplumate its punches on occasion . In a 2020 chat withEmpire , McQuarrie revealed he and Cruise wanted to go R - rated forJack Reacher’ssequels .
Tom and I were talking about , had the serial publication continued , to take Reacher to a office where , in the post - Deadpool , post - Joker world , Reacher could have been an R - rated movie and an R - denounce enfranchisement and really fed into the brutality of those rule book . We were fully ready to lean into that .
McQuarrie was thinking of a darker tale for his adaptation ofJack Reacher 2 , likeWorth Dying For , which feature some of the skilful scoundrel of the serial . In a sense , the more minor budget of the film - at least compared to the cost of the averageMission : Impossible- seemed like a in force way to supply to an R - denounce recession . As Amazon’sReacherhas proved , the stories worked better without a filter , andMcQuarrie and his star wanted theirJack Reacherfilms to harken back to the thrillers of the ' 70s .
Danika Yarosh as Samantha Dayton in Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
A sequel with an radius - evaluation could have helped it stand out among a ocean of samey PG-13 blockbuster too . Even so , Paramount insisted on a softer rating , so rather of leaning into the brutality of Child ’s work , Zwick’sNever Go Backtook another step awayfrom them .
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back Killed The Franchise Early
Hopes of a Jack Reacher 3 were quickly dashed
By the timeJack Reacher : Never Go Backarrived in theaters in 2016 , there were over 20 novels in the series . A Tom Cruise - frontedReacherfranchise could have run for class , but the icy reaction to the continuation break off themdead . Not only did it cost more to farm , butNever Go Back’s$162 million consummate ( viaBox Office Mojo ) failed to match the archetype by some gross profit . This signal to Paramount that aJack Reacher 3with Tom Cruisewasn’t deserving pursuing , which prompted the ontogenesis of Amazon ’s show shortly after .
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back Topped Netflix In 2023
The sequel still has its followers
Zwick is too talented of a director to make a picture wholly devoid of merit , so fans of the character should still give his 2016 sequel a snapshot . Never Go Backhas a corking supporting crook by Cobie Smulders , a couple of crunchy fight succession and is at least aiming for a more emotionally engaging story than the average activity thriller . In September 2023,Jack Reacher : Never Go Backtopped the Netflix charts , leave those who missed it in theaters a chance to make up their own minds .
TheJack Reachermovies are currently uncommitted to swarm on Paramount+ .
Source : smash , Flops , and Other Illusions : My Fortysomething Years in Hollywood , Light the Fuse , Empire , Box Office Mojo
Tom Cruise, Aldis Hodge, and Cobie Smulders in Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
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Cast
Jack Reacher : Never Go Back is the subsequence to the 2012 original based on the Novel by Lee Child . at long last strain to meet face to face with his support over the years , Jack heads to Washington to meet Major Susan Turner , only to discover that she has been charge of treason and collar . Jack quickly deduce that she is being frame - and after helping her relief valve , the two squad up to get to the nub of a venomous government conspiracy .
