Jack Reacher: Never Go Back sees Tom Cruise’s title character gain a new friend while also serving his own brand of justice. The second live-action Jack Reacher adventure sees the wandering avenger trying to clear the name of Major Turner (Cobie Smulders), his replacement as commander of the 110th Special Investigations Unit. Turner has been framed for the death of two soldiers, and while investigating her case, Reacher is himself framed for murder by vicious mercenary The Hunter (Patrick Heusinger).

Compounding Reacher’s stress is that a former lover has filed a paternity suit against him, claiming her daughter Sam (Danika Yarosh) is his child. Jack Reacher: Never Goes Back sees Reacher, Turner and Sam all going on the run, and learning that PMO Parasource is behind Turner’s framing. Things later come to a head in New Orleans, with Reacher and Turner exposing Parasource’s crimes, while Reacher rescues Sam from the vengeful Hunter. In the final scenes, Turner’s name is cleared and she returns to her old job, while Reacher hits the road once again.

No, Sam Is Not Reacher’s Daughter

Never Go Back’s biggest subplot still ends on a sweet note

Never Go Back’s big emotional hook revolves around the relationship between eternal loner Reacher and Sam. The two form a close bond while dodging bullets together, but the Ed Zwick-directed sequel leaves the mystery of whether Sam is Reacher’s daughter to the very end. This sees the two in a diner talking about Sam’s mother, and Reacher tells her that if he truly knew her mother, he would recognize her if they met again.

Tom Cruise previously worked with Jack Reacher: Never Go Back director Ed Zwick on 2003’s The Last Samurai .

Sam then reveals the waitress who served them was her mom, meaning Reacher isn’t her father after all. While this probably comes as a small relief to Reacher, he can’t help but seem disappointed by the revelation. His road trip with Turner and Sam is the most he’s connected with people in some time, and he began to recognize some of himself in Sam, including her resourcefulness.

The Meaning Of Sam’s Final Text

Jack Reacher 2 allows Tom Cruise’s hero some growth

One of the useful things about Lee Child’s Jack Reacher books is that they can be read in basically any order. A given novel might reference events or characters from a previous story, but they’re largely self-contained. The books almost always finish with Reacher hitting the road again, catching a bus or hitching a ride to his next unknown destination and misadventure. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back’s ending sticks to this formula – but with a tweak.

Considering Reacher’s nomadic way of life and reluctance to form any emotional bonds, his response to Sam’s text is a small sign of growth.

After their final meeting, Reacher hits the road but then hears a phone buzzing in his pocket. That’s because Samantha slipped a mobile into his jacket, and texted him “Miss me yet???“ Reacher then beams that famous Tom Cruise smile, before sticking out his thumb for a ride. This implies Reacher actually will maintain a connection with Sam. Considering his nomadic way of life and reluctance to form any emotional bonds, his response to Sam’s text is a small sign of growth,

Why Turner Was Framed By Parasource

Parasource learn too late not to mess with the Special Investigators

Amazon’s Reacher season 2 adapted Bad Luck and Trouble, where Alan Ritchson’s hero reunites with the survivors of his former 110th Special Investigators Unit. Their motto was “You do not mess with the Special Investigators,” since Reacher’s team was an elite unit. Turner took over the unit from Reacher when he exited the army, with the two becoming phone buddies as he occasionally helped her with cases. Naturally, the moment Turner is accused of murder in Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, he doesn’t buy it for a moment.

After Reacher breaks Turner out of custody and they go on the run, the trail of dead bodies leads them to Private Military Organization, Parasource. This is fronted by General Harkness (Robert Knepper), who – in addition to framing Turner – has sold military weapons to insurgents in Afghanistan and runs a drug smuggling operation. Of course, the evil General didn’t take Turner’s friendship with Reacher into account before framing her, resulting in his downfall.

Parasource’s Drug Smuggling Operation Explained

Reacher and Turner expose the PMO’s activities

Needless to say, it was Harkness who sent The Hunter after Reacher and Turner too. Much of Jack Reacher: Never Go Back’s second half involves the duo trying to expose Parasource. This comes to a head when Turner confronts Harkness with the aid of some military police at a base, claiming a crate of rocket launchers linked to Parasource will be empty. She believes they have instead been sold to insurgents, but to her shock, all the crates are indeed loaded with weapons.

Reacher being Reacher, he knows it can’t be that straightforward, especially since Harkness is so clearly guilty. Digging deeper, Never Go Back’s titular antihero discovers Parasource has been smuggling drugs into the U.S. hidden inside these weapons crates, and the killings have been Harkness’ effort to cover his tracks. That’s the end of the General and his PMO – though The Hunter is still on the loose.

The Hunter Is Reacher’s Evil Mirror Image

The Hunter is who Reacher could have become

The Hunter loves the chase and enjoys killing, to the point where he kidnaps Sam and lures Reacher into a fight despite his boss Harkness having already been arrested.

Just like A.M. in Bad Luck or Trouble, The Hunter could be considered a twisted version of Reacher himself. If the latter had no morals or honor, he could have turned his skillset and talent for violence into a job. Never Go Back’s The Hunter is shown to be a savvy, resourceful killer, but while Reacher tries to be logical and unemotional, his enemy appears to love his job. He loves the chase and enjoys killing, to the point where he kidnaps Sam and lures Reacher into a fight, despite his boss Harkness having already been arrested.

He could walk away and disappear, but his hatred for Reacher and the need to prove himself superior won’t let that happen. Like Jack Reacher: Never Go Back’s main character, The Hunter is something of a ghost; his real name is never revealed, while his military background is thinly sketched.

How Reacher Finally Kills The Hunter

Reacher is a man who keeps his promises

Before Never Go Back’s final battle, Cruise’s hero makes The Hunter a promise. After deciding to hurt Sam just to punish him, Reacher coldly lays out how The Hunter will die.

I’m gonna break your arms. I’m gonna break your legs. I’m gonna break your neck. What you hear is excitement.

They finally come to blows on the rooftops of New Orleans, and while the assassin puts up a robust fight, he’s no challenge for a furious Jack Reacher. Reacher makes good on his threats too, breaking all The Hunter’s limbs while saving the assassin’s neck for last, giving him a moment to register his impending demise. With Parasource’s assassins all defeated, Reacher, Turner and Sam are now safe.

What Book Would Tom Cruise’s Unmade Jack Reacher 3 Have Adapted?

Jack Reacher 3 could have been R-rated

Tom Cruise’s Jack Reacher Series
Release Year
Budget
Box Office Gross

Jack Reacher
2012
$60 Million
$218,340,595

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
2016
$96 Million
$162,146,076

The director of the original Jack Reacher, Christopher McQuarrie, envisioned the films as gritty, R-rated affairs. Sadly, neither entry sported that rating, as Paramount wanted them to play to a broader audience, despite the brutality of Child’s books. Speaking with Empire in 2020, the filmmaker spoke of wanting to move the movie franchise into darker terrority had it continued.

Tom and I were talking about, had the series continued, to take Reacher to a place where, in the post-Deadpool, post-Joker world, Reacher could have been an R-rated movie and an R-rated franchise and really fed into the brutality of those books. We were fully ready to lean into that.

McQuarrie has suggested Worth Dying For would have been his choice for Jack Reacher 2, had he directed it as originally planned. McQuarrie also felt Never Go Back was a bad choice for a sequel, since the relationship with Sam was too big of a subversion so early in the franchise.

Child himself told Empire (via Dark Horizons) way back in 2011 that the rough plan for Jack Reacher 3 was to adapt Bad Luck and Trouble and introduce the fan favorite character of Neagley. The author also suggested that 61 Hours – the 14th in the series – would be adapted for the then-unproduced Jack Reacher 2, before Never Go Back was selected. Bad Luck and Trouble would eventually get adapted for the second series of Amazon’s Reacher.

Amazon’s Reacher season 3 will cover Persuader , the seventh novel.

What Jack Reacher: Never Goes Back Changed From The Book

Jack Reacher 2 made some snips to Lee Child’s work

A movie has less time to play around with than a TV series, so Jack Reacher: Never Go Back had to condense much of the book’s plot. While the Sam subplot is still part of the novel, the movie makes it the emotional backbone, which is not the case with Child’s source material at all. The Hunter himself was created to give Never Go Back a more straightforward antagonist – and somebody for Reacher to have a showdown with.

The sequel dropped some story threads entirely too, including stealing the car of a drug dealer and then drawing the ire of the man’s family. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back is broadly faithful to the novel in terms of characters and plot, but the drug smuggling operation is simplified, with Harkness being a combination of other villains from the original story.

Source: Box Office Mojo, Empire, Dark Horizons