After a few decades in which he took on a more varied lineup of roles, Tom Cruise has settled into mainly appearing in action movies as his career has progressed. This era of his career has been incredibly fruitful as Cruise has performed some of the most elaborate stunts in movie history for the Mission: Impossible franchise, but those are not the only movies he’s made during his action era.
In addition to that franchise, Cruise also made two Jack Reacher movies in 2012 and 2016. The movies, which are adapted from a series of novels about the character that also inspired the hit Amazon Prime Video action show Reacher, are a little more grounded than his movies about the Impossible Mission Force. Now, one of those movies, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, is on Netflix and is already the streamer’s most popular movie right now. The action sequel follows Reacher, an ex-Army investigator, as he looks into the case of an Army major who has been accused of treason before he goes on the lam himself. Here are four reasons you should check it out.
It features Cruise at his low-key best
Part of the reason Cruise has been so focused on making action movies throughout his career to date is that there are few actors who are better at it than he is, and that talent is on full display in Never Go Back. It’s not just that Cruise knows exactly how to handle the movie’s action beats, it’s also that he has a firm handle on the character.
He’s a brilliant investigator with a strong sense of right and wrong, but he can also be totally charming. Few actors can pull off that combination as well as Cruise is able to here, and he proves to be the anchor that makes everything else in this movie work.
The sterling supporting cast does great work
It certainly helps that Cruise is surrounded by great supporting actors. Secret Invasion‘s Cobie Smulders is the second star, proving that she has been underserved throughout her career. Aside from Smulders, the cast also includes great work from Aldis Hodge (Hawkman from Black Adam), Holt McCallany (The Iron Claw), and Robert Knepper, among others.
A great Jack Reacher movie should be, among other things, filled with people who can credibly play army and police officers, and Never Go Back is filled with precisely that kind of character actor. What’s more, a number of the actors in this movie went on to even bigger success in the years after it was released.
It tells an involving story
If you make an action movie with Tom Cruise, you have to understand that, at least to some extent, Cruise is going to be involved in the way the story is told. Few actors are better at understanding both how to tell a good story and how they read on the screen. Never Go Back has the kind of propulsive momentum that drives many of Cruise’s best movies.
Even though it’s telling a relatively simple and and familiar story, Never Go Back is nonetheless a brilliant example of how to tell stories in a way that keeps driving toward the next scene, and that’s in large part because of Cruise’s immense talents in front of and behind the camera.
Its formulaic nature is comforting
The Jack Reachernovels are popular for a relatively simple reason: They’re comforting and formulaic. Reacher may find himself on the wrong side of the law, but there’s never any real doubt that he’s going to set everything straight in the end.
That kind of formula can be boring and repetitive if you’ve seen it hundreds of times, but there’s a reason these tropes endure. The formula for Jack Reacher and its sequel is not something new, but it really doesn’t need to be. It’s exactly what many people need it to be.
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back is streaming on Netflix.
