STACK NZ February 2017 Issue 81

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“Iam that guy that sits there
in the movie theatre Friday
night with the popcorn,”
Tom Cruise explains. “I’m like,
‘entertain me’, you know what I
mean? With each different kind of
genre style of film, that’s what I
think about.”
It’s a philosophy that has served
the Hollywood superstar well
over his 30-plus year career and
explains why he had no hesitation
in returning for Jack Reacher: Never
Go Back, the second film to be
adapted from Lee Childs’ best-
selling action series.
This time around, Reacher gets
drawn back into his shadowy
military world to clear his name
and not only uncovers a major
government conspiracy, but a
secret from his past that could
change his life forever.
Reacher is less a lone wolf hero
in Never Go Back and we get to
see another, more sensitive, side to
his character. Consequently, Cruise
believes Edward Zwick – who
directed him in The Last Samurai
– was the perfect filmmaker to
handle both the action and the
film’s more intimate moments.
“Ed Zwick [is] someone who I
greatly admire,” he enthuses. “It
was such a privilege to be able to
work with him again and have this
kind of collaboration. Ed is great
with actors [and] he looks and
finds and mines these wonderful
moments. You look at the movies
that he makes: [they’re] epic films
[but] they’re very personal. He’s a
very personal filmmaker.”
Nevertheless, Never Go Back
doesn’t skimp on the action; Cruise
worked closely with Zwick and the
fight choreographers on the film’s
exhilarating combat sequences.
“I do my own stunts and we
design them for me and really
base it on the character and the
tone of the movie,” he explains.
“Reacher is a close-quarter fighter.
He’s a bull, and I always tell people
when we start approaching it, he’s
just gonna go through you. Each
fight has to be different, it has to
progress the story and character,
so that’s what we’re constantly
looking at.”
Cruise also relished the chance
to face off against an equally lethal
bad guy – the Hunter, played by
Patrick Heusinger. “Each story
needs a different kind of opponent.
You need the obstacles and the
bigger the obstacles, the more
powerful the story is. I think that
with the Hunter, you feel his
physical ability, his intelligence, his
ruthless nature – and they’re polar
opposites.”
At this stage, it’s not known
whether there will be anymore Jack
Reacher movies – Cruise is already
preparing for Mission Impossible
6 – but he clearly is a big fan of
the character.
“What I love about Reacher
is he’s off the grid, he’s a
character that really, really has
his own moral code” Cruise says.
“He’s someone who has a great
sense of what is right and what is
wrong, and gets drawn into these
situations and has to make those
tough decisions that sometimes
other people can’t make.
“When I go to a movie, I
like to get lost in the film, and
I live vicariously through those
characters. Jack Reacher appeals
to such a broad audience [because]
it is a wish fulfillment. When he
beats a guy up, you enjoy the way
that he hands out justice.”
visit DVD&BD FEATURE
AMERICAN
RONIN
Tom Cruise returns as the lethal one-man army
in Jack Reacher: Never Go Back. Words Adam Colby
Magnolia (1999)
He may have won an Oscar
for Born on the Fourth of
July, but his fearless
performance as a
sleazy self help
guru in Paul
Thomas Anderson’s
moving ensemble
drama remains a
career highpoint.
Collateral (2004)
Probably the closest he has
got to playing a villain (albeit
a sympathetic one),
Cruise brought
both charm
and menace
to the role
of a hitman
who embroils
an innocent cab
driver in his latest
assignment.
Tropic Thunder (2008)
With his bald skull cap and
paunch, the Hollywood
heartthrob
was almost
unrecognisable in
this starry comedy,
and almost stole
the show as a
monstrous, hip hop
loving studio exec.
Rock of Ages (2012)
Cruise had a blast as the
debauched, egotistical rock star
Stacee Jaxx – his
versions of
Wanted Dead
or Alive and
I Want to
Know What
Love Is were
pretty damned
good as well.
• Jack
Reacher:
Never Go Back
is out
on Feb 22
AN
ACTION
MAN
NOT JUST
Tom Cruise is best known
for his action roles, but
he occasionally steps
outside his comfort
zone.
08 FEBRUARY 2017