A thrilling thriller

Rating: 8/10 (29 June 2014)

A sniper kills 5 random people. Fingerprints lead the police to the shooter, some army guy who doesn't say anything when interrogated but requests someone named Jack Reacher. And surprise surprise Jack shows up. He tells the guy's public defender that he knows the sniper who committed crimes while deployed, killing an armed forces team that engaged in serial rape. Reacher himself was also armed forces but went off grid when he returned.
During transport the suspect is beaten into a coma and can't sat anything. Jack starts investigating. At a bar he's approached by a girl and her brothers threaten him. He beats them all up. Jack knows that the girl was planted and that the goal was to take him out. Jack is also being followed wherever he goes. Meanwhile we learn a bit about the villains and the main guy, some former Siberian prisoner who chewed his frost bitten fingers off to avoid gangrene.
Jack's only lead is the girl and through her he finds some other guys who try to kill him. Then the girl is killed. Jack and the defender realize there's someone on the inside tipping off the bad guys and that the suspect is innocent after all. The defender looks into the victims and realizes they're not that random after all. Jack of course reached the same conclusion somehow. He looks and finds one of the suspect's friends. It all ends in a confrontation in an office near a mine.
I haven't read the book so I can't compare the movie to it. The movie is very good, the story intriguing and interesting. Jack as an investigator seems to have sixth sense for things. And he's also physically unbeatable. Yet played by Cruise he doesn't want him to appear invincible or invulnerable. Cruise also plays some things for laughs and you can almost see him grinning on the inside. He creates a good chemistry with his leading ladies and it's no different here with Pike. As with most complex and mysterious stories, there are some potholes and unanswered questions. Still the resolution is satisfying albeit unnecessarily physical. Some interesting things are said about war but the movie doesn't go deeper. Jack Reacher is a thrilling movie that has strong franchise potential.