History Film / JackReacher

* DoesntLikeGuns: Averted. Despite the plot of the movie being largely focused on the aftermath of a mass shooting and the author of the Jack Reacher novels Lee Child admittedly being anti-gun (with his views on guns being alluded to in his works), there is surprisingly very little discussion among the characters in the film regarding gun politics in the United States. The sole exception being one scene where Jack Reacher goes to a shooting range in search of information regarding the suspect James Barr, the owner of the range Martin Cash initially didn't want to cooperate with Reacher out of fear that the other gun club members would see the disclosure of information regarding a fellow member as a violation of their constitutional rights. Beyond this scene none of the character's views on gun ownership are alluded to, besides Barr and Cash being heavily implied to be pro-gun.

** Emerson seems taken aback by Reacher asking why Barr would pay for parking in the garage when he's about to murder five people. Emerson seems to simply think it's just an odd thing to focus on. [[spoiler: Emerson knew to look for the quarter, despite having no reason to do so, because he was in on the frame-up.]]

* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: Helen's expression when, in the middle of a tense phone call about the criminal conspiracy, Reacher admits that he stole her car.

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: When Reacher observes that "There are three things cops never do. They don't vote Democrat, they don't drive Cadillacs, and they never use personal vehicles" to Detective Emerson, the latter looks over to the uniformed officer with him, who shrugs and has an expression of "Alright, fair enough."

* MrFanservice: Reacher, being Tom Cruise, gets a WalkingShirtlessScene for the ladies in the audience.

** Before killing Charlie, Reacher breaks his fingers.

* GrievousHarmWithABody: Downplayed, but no less effective; in the bathroom fight scene, Reacher knocks down one guy onto another and smashes the top guy's head into the bottom guy's until both are out.

* OutOfCharacterAlert: What makes the OrgyOfEvidence so suspicious is that an important part of sniper training isn't just aiming and firing, but choosing where to shoot ''from''; the optimal firing position wouldn't have left ''any'' evidence, and someone with Barr's training would know better (and did, back when Reacher caught him the first time) than to leave any.[[note]]In the parking garage, the shooter had the sun in his eyes, and his targets were moving left and right. But a nearby highway bridge was an obvious alternate position where the sun would have been behind him, with his targets straight ahead, single file - one where he could have made the shots without leaving his van, meaning no shell casings would have been left for the police to find, he wouldn't have been caught on camera, and he could have just driven away with no-one the wiser. Thus, the parking garage was chosen to match the type of location Barr chose for his actual shooting spree in Afghanistan, ''and'' to leave as much manufactured evidence as possible, not for tactical reasons.[[/note]]

* PintSizedPowerhouse: Reacher. He's TheBigGuy in the books, but Cruise is far from sizeable.

* CombatPragmatist: Reacher will do anything to win a fight. In hand-to-hand fighting, his opponent's testicles tend to be his primary target.

** Actual fights are far less flashy and impressive than in films with all of Reacher's battles consisting mainly of straightforward moves and his opponents realistically reacting in pain or getting winded from exhaustion.