History YMMV / JackReacher

** South Dakota policemen Peterson and Holland, VoiceWithAnInternetConnection Susan Turner, and CoolOldLady Janet Salter from ''61 Hours'' all tend to rate very highly among single book supporting characters and [[spoiler:most fans were not happy that all of them except Turner (who becomes a recurring character) die in the book and that Holland doesn’t get his morally grey moments as TheMole explored more and ends up a full-blown villain.]]

* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments:
** Usually when Reacher knows he's rescued everybody and everyone else is hugging their loved ones.
** Played with when Reacher travels to California in ''Never Go Back'' [[spoiler:to see about a possible teenage daughter he never knew of]]. The brief moments he encounters and chats with teenage girl Sam Dayton about stuff [[spoiler: suggests they might hit it off as father and daughter, except it turns out Sam's not his. There's a hint of regret in the narration when Reacher drives away.]]
** In 'One Shot', Reacher learns that Barr owned a dog which, following Barr's arrest, was put down. Reacher doesn't even attempt to hide his disgust over it, pointing out that the dog didn't do a damn thing, and killing it for Barr's actions was just sick. It's worth noting too that, at this point, [[spoiler: Reacher fully believes Barr is the killer, meaning this wasn't out of concern for Barr's feelings, it was purely and simply because the dog shouldn't have died over its owner's choices.]]
** Reacher's response to Casey Nice and her anxiety medication in ''Personal''. EpiphanyTherapy is totally averted; while Reacher does reassure her that she's great at her job, he doesn't tell her to just get over it, instead saying he thinks she has valid reasons to be anxious and that she should continue with the medication if it's genuinely helping her.

* TearJerker:
** Reacher, when he finds out [[spoiler: both the cop and the witness]] he's befriended in ''61 Hours'' have been murdered. It's one of the preciously rare moments where Reacher genuinely feels despair.
** When Reacher learns that a murder victim was [[spoiler: his brother.]] It's worse since his corpse was found with nearly every bone broken and a very large hole through his eye.
** The brutal murders of several of Reacher's comrades in ''Bad Luck and Trouble.'' Two of them had wives and children, one had a loving girlfriend, and the fourth had a dog (which died of thirst when he didn't come home). Three of them also prominently appeared in a previous novel.
** [[spoiler: Froelich]] dying from TakingTheBullet for the Vice-President in ''Without Fail'', and the subsequent funeral where Reacher meets her parents.
** Reacher finding Dominque Kohl mutilated and murdered in the flashbacks in ''Persuader.''
** The ordeal of [[spoiler: Susan Mark]] in ''Nothing To Lose:'' [[spoiler: her estranged son was held hostage and was to be tortured to death unless she delivered something to a group of terrorists, then she missed that exchange due to bad traffic.]]
** Reacher's meetings with the mothers of the first two victims in ''The Affair,'' [[spoiler: followed by one of them committing suicide after her remaining child is killed by white supremacists.]]

** In 'One Shot', Reacher learns that Barr owned a dog which, following Barr's arrest, was put down. Reacher doesn't even attempt to hide his disgust over it, pointing out that the dog didn't do a damn thing, and killing it for Barr's actions was just sick. It's worth noting too that, at this point, [[spoiler: Reacher fully believes Barr is the killer, meaning this wasn't out of concern for Barr's feelings, it was purely and simply because the dog shouldn't have died over it's owner's choices]]

* SalvagedStory: The [[ImmediateSequel quasi-trilogy]] formed by ''61 Hours'', ''Worth Dying For'' and ''A Wanted Man'' seems designed to address issues fans were having with the series. Reacher's {{Flanderization}} into a superhuman machine is dialed back significantly, as in all three books he makes mistakes, gets injured, expresses more emotion, needs help from others, and even [[spoiler:fails to save someone he swore to protect, which causes an outright HeroicBSOD]]; in general being brought back to a much more human character. The [[RomanticPlotTumor Romantic Plot Tumors]] are also excised completely, as Reacher doesn't hook up with any of the female characters in any of the three books, keeping the plot firmly focused on the mystery and action. And it worked, with ''Worth Dying For'' in particular generally considered one of the best of the whole series.

* WTHCastingAgency:
** Creator/TomCruise was cast as a protagonist known for being a towering mountain of muscle. Not exactly what fans of the books were expecting.
** ''Creator/WernerHerzog'' plays the BigBad? Though that's probably the IntendedAudienceReaction and more or less what the BigBad was going for.

* HesJustHiding: in ''Bad Luck and Trouble'' Sanchez is the only member of Reacher's old unit captured by the BigBad whose body isn't found, with some hope being held out throughout the book, with the possibility of his survival even being used to lure characters into a trap. This becomes AscendedFanon when added into one of the ambiguously cannon ''Hunt For Jack Reacher'' novels by Diane Capri, although it also gives him a FaceHeelTurn and feels very unfaithful to the characters in general.

** Reacher finding Dominque Kuhl mutilated and murdered in the flashbacks in ''Persuader.''

** Lamarr of ''The Visitor'' was unattractive, uncharismatic, and had no attraction or chemistry with Reacher. [[spoiler:She turned out to be a sociopathic antagonist.]] Many readers expressed that they would have rather seen her as an atypical GirlOfTheWeek to Reacher and avoided the typical RomanticPlotTumor that often plagues the book, but instead she's replaced by Lisa Harper, who's not much different or memorable than any other GirlOfTheWeek.

** ''The Killing Floor'' has a witness describ early on how the criminal conspiracy has ten full-time members. This might have provided a clever and intense challenge out of identifying those ten if four of them hadn't been ObviouslyEvil, while four others weren't even named or described that well (two are only seen from a distance briefly, opening and closing a gate, before Reacher fights them).

** Creator/TomCruise for most of the part can put the AbilityOverAppearance but when a receptionist paints him as the guy who can kill a woman with his bare hands while hinting it is obvious by the looks of him, it's kind of ridiculous given Tom Cruise isn't exactly visually a powerhouse.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Often, TheReveal about what's going on doesn't live up to all of Reacher's intense speculation about it throughout the book.

* AcceptableTargets: While it's not always present, Reacher/Child tends to have a fairly dim view of the CIA. Other government agencies, such as the FBI, are generally shown in a better light.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: In the second book, the main FBI character, while telling his boss about two men helping him, lists their not complaining about the FBI salaries as among their best qualities and is jokingly asked if he can clone them. Later, Reacher theorizes there is a corrupt FBI agent and asks Holly which ones don't complain about the salaries, or rather which ones have enough money from potentialy illegals sources that they don't ''need'' to complain about the salaries anymore.

* CriticalResearchFailure: In ''Personal'', Reacher tells us that adding 20% to a body's speed adds 400% to its kinetic energy. That should be 44% - good but not quite as impressive. Particularly jarring as Child consistently portrays Reacher as a [[GoodWithNumbers mental arithmetic whiz]].
** There have been several occasions where Reacher has described probability of anything as "50/50", due to the belief that something either happens or it doesn't. Anyone with a basic understanding of statistics or probability can tell you that this is ''very'' wrong. Maybe Reacher doesn't really have much interest in probability and just wants to consider how many variables he's banking on, but it's still rather jarring.

* TaintedByThePreview: Fans of the books were livid about Creator/TomCruise's casting, as he looks absolutely nothing like the Reacher of the books (most notably, Reacher is huge, and his size is often an important part of his characterization). Some fans did later admit that Cruise at least did a good job, and that even if he doesn't look like him, he does in fact ''feel'' quite a bit like Book!Reacher.

* TaintedByThePreview: Fans of the books were livid about Creator/TomCruise's casting, as he looks absolutely nothing like the Reacher of the books (most notably, Reacher is huge, and his size is often an important part of his characterization).

** The AdultFear ordeal of [[spoiler: Susan Mark]] in ''Nothing To Lose:'' [[spoiler: her estranged son was held hostage and was to be tortured to death unless she delivered something to a group of terrorists, then she missed that exchange due to bad traffic.]]

** There have been several occasions where Reacher has described probability of anything as "50/50", due to the belief that something either happens or it doesn't. Anyone with a basic understanding of statistics or probability can tell you that this is ''very'' wrong.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Lamarr of ''The Visitor'' was unattractive, uncharismatic, and had no attraction or chemistry with Reacher. [[spoiler:She turned out to be a sociopathic antagonist.]] Many readers expressed that they would have rather seen her as an atypical GirlOfTheWeek to Reacher and avoided the typical RomanticPlotTumor that often plagues the book, but instead she's replaced by Lisa Harper, who's not much different or memorable than any other GirlOfTheWeek.

** Might be the only time you'll hear someone in a modern film actually say, with no hint of irony, "I'm not a hero. I'm a drifter with nothing to lose." Although Tom Cruise's delivery [[NarmCharm arguably makes it work.]]

* OneSceneWonder: Robert Duvall as the one guy in the world who can converse on Reacher's level, though technically he appears in at least three scenes.
** Werner Herzog only has a couple of scenes as the main villain but, being Werner Herzog, he makes one hell of an impact.

** As stated above Tom Cruise was cast as a protagonist known for being a towering mountain of muscle. Not exactly what fans of the books were expecting.

** ''Nothing To Lose'' is a major example, with the teasing of multiple factions in the TownWithADarkSecret ultimately not reaching its potential.

* HesJustHiding: in ''Bad Luck an Trouble'' Sanchez is the only member of Reacher's old unit captured by the BigBad whose body isn't found, with some hope being held out throughout the book, with the possibility of his survival even being used to lure characters into a trap. This becomes AscendedFanon when added into one of the ambiguously cannon ''Hunt For Jack Reacher'' novels by Diane Capri, although it also gives him a FaceHeelTurn and feels very unfaithful to the characters in general.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Lamarr of ''The Visitor'' was unattractive, uncharismatic, and had no attraction or chemistry with Reacher. [[spoiler:She turned out to be a sociopathic antagonist.]] Some readers expressed that they would have rather seen her as an atypical GirlOfTheWeek to Reacher and avoided the typical RomanticPlotTumor that often plagues the book, but instead she's replaced by Lisa Harper, who's not much different or memorable than any other GirlOfTheWeek.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Often, TheReveal about what's going on doesn't live up to all of Reacher's intense speculation about it throughout the book, with ''Nothing To Lose'', being a major example, with the teasing of multiple factions in the TownWithADarkSecret ultimately not reaching its potential. ''The Killing Floor'' with a witness describing early on how the criminal conspiracy has ten members nearby might have provided more of a challenge out of identifying those ten if some of them hadn't been ObviouslyEvil, while others weren't even named or described that well (two were only seen from a distance briefly, opening and closing a gate, before Reacher fought them).