This is only the second instance where Tom Cruise has committed to a sequel, and presumably it’s with eyes on a long-running franchise. Next time it would be wise to choose one of the better-plotted books - Killing Floor or Bad Luck And Trouble perhaps.Īnd it looks likely there will be a next time. But the murky machinations of the arms-dealing still can’t compete with the purity of the original’s sniper mystery.

Some necessary (the book fizzles out whereas this builds to a final showdown), some just different - no LA, as soon as the trio leave DC they head to party town New Orleans, where the finale just happens to coincide with the annual Hallowe’en parade. Recognising that, much here has been changed from the source material. One Shot, the book the first film is based on, boasted one of the best (if not the best) of the entire series. Cue familial-style bickering between the three.īut where Never Goes Back does fall short in comparison with Jack Reacher, despite the lower stakes, is the central mystery. Plus there’s an added wrinkle: 15-year-old Samantha (Danika Yarosh), a girl Reacher’s only just found out about, who may or may not be his daughter, is also caught in the firing line. She’s been accused of espionage, but Reacher senses something’s afoot (which his arrest proves), so he breaks them both out of prison and they go on the run, closely followed by hitmen determined to stop them. The stakes are higher here than in Jack Reacher - he’s framed for murder after poking around in the arrest of Turner (Smulders), the major who’s doing his old job in the Military Police. We’re not in the same territory in terms of stylistic differences as Mission: Impossible and its immediate sequel - there are no slo-mo doves here - but it’s still a noticeably different beast. The opening scene, which sees police arrive at a diner with four bodies writhing in agony on the car park floor, and Reacher calmly sitting inside drinking his coffee, is a perfect example - an Indiana Jones-style end-of-the-last-adventure vignette that immediately sets the scene for this grittier vision.

(At least, not that we’re shown.) In fact, he’s usually in the passenger seat. Zwick here takes Reacher closer to the books - tougher, gruffer and no longer boasting the skills of a stunt-car driver.

And (despite all that running) there is good news.

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