Tom Cruise’s Jack Reacher movie didn’t use the character’s wildest kill from the novel it adapted, but Alan Ritchson’s Amazon show still can
The original Jack Reacher movie had to drop the character’s most outrageous kill, but the Alan Ritchson Amazon series should definitely do it. The Reacher of Lee Child’s novels is a hulking, impossibly strong avenger of wrongs. Naturally, the casting of Tom Cruise as Reacher created a disconnect with readers and remains a controversial point to this day. Having one of the most popular actors in the world play the part brought more attention to the Reacher books, but – as Child himself would later confess – Cruise was just wrong for the character described in the novels.
Cruise retained Reacher’s intelligence, detective skills and strange quirks, but a key part of the character’s appeal is his physique. Amazon’s Reacher series realized this, with Alan Ritchson’s titular character feeling like he walked right out of the pages of the first novel Killing Floor and the fight sequences were far more convincing as a result. The show is unlikely to adapt One Shot anytime soon, as the original Cruise Jack Reacher movie was based on that novel. What it can do is borrow the outlandish kill that Reacher performs that just wouldn’t have looked convincing with Cruise performing it.
One Shot Saw Reacher Bear Hug A Man To Death
In this passage of the One Shot novel, Reacher is employing stealth to sneak into the villain’s fortress. He comes to a room with two Russian henchmen, but since he can’t risk making much noise, he gets creative. He throws a knife into the neck of one and rushes to another named Vladimir. Rather than a drag-out fight, Reacher quickly wraps his arms around the equally hulking Russian, lifts him off the ground and proceeds to quite literally crush him. In essence, he kills Vlad by bear-hugging him to death.
This was the best tactic to Reacher’s – who some readers pictured as Dolph Lundgren – mind, as once he was lifted into the air, Vlad would be unable to shout or scream, and the more he struggled the less oxygen he’d take in. Not only is it One Shot’s wildest kill, but it’s also one of the most outrageous of all the Reacher novels. It’s easy to see why the film opted not to use it, as the sight of Cruise lifting a mammoth Russian bad guy into the air and slowly squeezing the life out of him doesn’t sound too plausible.
Amazon’s Reacher Needs To Recycle The Bear Hug Kill
Amazon’s Reacher show perfectly understood the tone of Child’s books, feeling one part murder/mystery and one part ’80s action movie. The bear hug death wouldn’t have landed in Cruise’s movie, but with the hands (and arms) of Ritchson, it would be equally horrifying and hilarious. The addition of Maria Sten’s Neagley to Reacher season 1 – where she didn’t appear in Killing Floor – shows a willingness to swap around elements from the novels. Since One Shot might be off the table – at least for now – there’s no reason the bear hug kill couldn’t be recycle to dispatch a particularly nasty antagonist.
