Jack Reacher didn't become the long-running franchise Cruise & co. hoped, but there are still quite a few interesting details about the 2012 film.





Before McQuarrie was directing Cruise's Ethan Hunt in later Mission: Impossible movies, the two were collaborating on Jack Reacher's first adventure. However, even before that, McQuarrie and Cruise worked on the underrated 2008 war thriller Valkyrie.


McQuarrie served as co-writer and producer on that film before then helping out with Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol three years later. His big contribution to that film, itself a major turning point for the franchise, was keeping the character of Julia (Michelle Monaghan) alive.In Child's book series, Reacher is a hulking man who can't enter a room without being intimidating. If he punches someone, they go through a wall. But Cruise's physical stature rubbed some fans of the series the wrong way.Jack Reacher wasn't written specifically for Tom Cruise, and he wasn't the only one in the running. One actor in the running, though long before Cruise signed the dotted line, was Dwayne Johnson, who also auditioned to play Jack Reacher.


However, the bulky star of Jungle Cruise was in good spirits about losing the role, saying it was "great motivation for me to always stay hungry." Johnson started starring as Hobbs in the Fast & Furious franchise back in 2011, and it's easy to imagine fans preferring him in that role to Reacher.According to The Huffington Post, several other talented actors were in the running for the role that ultimately went to Oscar nominee Rosamund Pike. Primarily, there were two: Hayley Atwell and Alexa Davalos.


Alexa Davalos has had roles in films like The Mist and The Chronicles of Riddick, but Atwell is an even more recognizable name. This is because she's none other than Peggy Carter of the MCU, and she also happens to be starring in the next big Cruise film, Mission: Impossible 7.Like the best Tom Cruise movies, the actor took the reign of his own stunts in Jack Reacher. As series novelist Child told Yahoo!: "...He was injured from one of the car wrecks. His left hand was swollen up like a football...As a friend, I would've said 'take two days off and go to the hospital.'