Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
Director: Edward Zwick
Talent: Tom Cruise, Cobie Smulders, Aldis Hodge, Danika Jarosh
Release date: 21st October
A private security firm formerly contracted to the U.S. Military is selling arms to insurgents, two American soldiers are found dead in Afghanistan, shot by a service weapon and meanwhile a woman in Virginia with a sixteen-year-old daughter (Yarosh) has filed for paternity against former military policeman-turned-drifter vigilante Jack Reacher (Cruise): but how are these events connected? This second instalment in the franchise, to all intents and purposes, harkens back to a simpler time: Bush’s America. The U.S.’s war in Afghanistan has been going on continuously since 2001, but has since been overtaken in the popular consciousness by newer imperialist projects in Syria and Yemen.
Never Go Back is one for the noughties kids, even if its concerns incorrectly seem somewhat anachronistic. Reacher, as ever, solves everything with a combination of guile, bravery and extreme violence. This time, however, he’s got court martialed Maj. Susan Turner (Smulders) as his partner and equal. So, quite modern after all! An above average thriller worth seeing for the breakneck stunt work alone.
Words: Oisín Murphy-Hall
