Trivia / Jack Reacher

• Ability over Appearance: Jack Reacher in the novels is 6'5" and muscular. Tom Cruise is 5'7" and slender, but utterly nailed the role, to the approval of author Lee Child.
  Child: With another actor you might get 100% of the height but only 90% of Reacher. With Tom, you'll get 100% of Reacher with 90% of the height.
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Werner Herzog took the role of the Zec because he'd always wanted to play the villain in an action film.

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• Fake American: Brits Rosamund Pike and David Oyelowo, Australian Jai Courtney and Josh Helman and Canadian Alexia Fast all play Americans.
• Missing Trailer Scene:
  • For some reason, the trailer for the movie featured an exploding cliff. Regardless of the exploding cliff having something to do with the movie, not one explosion ever occurred in the movie.
  • The first trailer contains a shot of a woman in lingerie walking in front of Reacher in what is obviously a motel room — also not in the film!
• No Stunt Double: Tom Cruise did all of his own stunt driving.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Werner Herzog plays the villain.
  • Tom Cruise doesn't do any sprinting.
• Throw It In!: When Jack Reacher's car crashes into some barrels, the car accidentally stalled upon the impact, but Tom Cruise was luckily able to restart the car before driving off again. Rather than do a retake, Christopher McQuarrie decided to leave it in the film, as he felt it added to the suspense of the scene.

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• Too Soon: The film's release was delayed by two weeks due to the Sandy Hook massacre.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Nicolas Cage, Jim Carrey, Russell Crowe, Johnny Depp, Cary Elwes, Colin Farrell, Harrison Ford, Jamie Foxx, Mel Gibson, Hugh Jackman, Stephen Lang, Dolph Lundgren, Edward Norton, Ron Perlman, Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves, Kurt Russell, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, John Travolta, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Vince Vaughn, Denzel Washington and Bruce Willis were all considered for Jack Reacher. Dwayne Johnson, a fan of the books, pursued the role around 2007.
  • Hayley Atwell, Brit Marling, and Alexa Davalos screentested for the role of Helen Rodin.
• Working Title: One Shot, which is the name of the original novel.

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