8 Biggest Changes Jack Reacher: Never Go Back Makes To The Lee Child's Book

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back wasn’t exactly the most book-accurate film, with quite a number of elements differing entirely from the source material. The sequel to 2012’s Jack Reacher, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back adapted another novel in Lee Child’s critically-acclaimed book series simply titled Never Go Back. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back wasn’t a success, commercially or artistically, and much of its failures could be owed to the many deviations it makes from the source material.

Never Go Back had quite the complicated plot to adapt, which becomes clear when comparing the narratives of the book and the film. Not only that, but the movie quizzically decided to entirely upend the order of characters in the Jack Reacher series, heavily altering some while altogether removing others entirely. The film also added its own original elements to the story, further complicating matters. At the end of the day, the film released by director Edward Zwick might as well be a different story entirely, sharing only the name of Child’s book.

8

Jack Reacher’s Description Differs From Cruise

The film adaptation’s most jarring difference in both movies

One of the most immediately obvious and striking changes from the Jack Reacher novels to the Tom Cruise film adaptations is the casting of Cruise himself. The books make it clear that Jack Reacher is a behemoth of a man, at 6’5″ tall and 250 pounds, an unsubtle wall of muscle. Meanwhile, Tom Cruise is famously short, standing at 5’7″ with dashing good looks that aren’t attributed to Lee Child’s original character. Cruise also plays Reacher in a more suave, Bond-like manner that clashes with his book personality.

To correct this, the highly-regarded Reacher TV series cast Alan Ritchson as Jack Reacher, a much more book-accurate portrayal helped by Ritchson’s massive, muscular 6’3″ frame. That being said, the Cruise movies got some things right about Reacher, as evidenced by series author Lee Childs himself making a cameo appearance as a security guard that waves Cruise’s version through, meta-contextually giving his blessing to the portrayal. But Reacher’s size and behavior is still a jarring difference from the book in the second film.

7

The Paternity Plotline Resolves Differently

The film puts more importance on Reacher’s daughter

As if the espionage story of false accusation and dangerous smuggling operations weren’t enough, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back also juggles a poignant plotline revolving around Samantha, a teen girl claiming to be Reacher’s long-lost daughter. In both the book and the film, Reacher is hit by her claims of parentage early on in the story, but the film places far more importance on this aspect of the narrative. In the novel, Samantha is a distant sub-plot that bookends the rising action of the more dangerous main story.

The film ties both plotlines together much more closely, getting Samantha caught up in the chaos of Reacher’s life while placing far more importance on the question of whether or not Reacher is truly her father. The scene in the book that answers this question is far more unceremonious, with Reacher simply uncovering a false birth certificate undermining the false parentage claim. In the film, Reacher instead takes the time to have a face-to-face meeting with Sam, who genuinely believes Reacher could be her father.

6

Jack Is More Familiar With Major Turner

The military commander has a lengthier history with movie Reacher

One character other than Reacher himself that is adapted from the novel in Jack Reacher: Never Go Back is the determined Major Susan Turner. Commander of the 110th Military Police Special Investigations Unit, Turner is one of Reacher’s few allies in both versions of the story, the two helping each other clear their names as they’re both falsely accused of crimes they didn’t commit. In the book, the events of Never Go Back are the first time Reacher canonically meets Major Turner, only working with her for as long as is necessary.

This sits in stark contrast to the film, in which Reacher and Major Turner are revealed to have a lengthy history. The movie version of Turner, played by Cobie Smulders of How I Met Your Mother fame, is explained to have been working with Reacher for some time, remotely coordinating the bust of a human trafficking ring with Reacher in the opening scene. The two continue to work closely together throughout the events of the story, and even promise to keep in touch once the dust has settled.

5

Reacher Is Less Of A Loner

Tom Cruise’s Reacher is much more friendly

It isn’t just mere details of the plot that Jack Reacher: Never Go Back made changes to when adapting Lee Child’s original story. The very tone of the story is also heavily impacted in the translation to screen, thanks in large part to Reacher’s change in demeanor as channeled through Tom Cruise’s characterization. In the books, Reacher is famously a lone wolf, eschewing help from others in many instances and preferring to fight his own battles as a drifter hopping from case to case.

Meanwhile, the Jack Reacher: Never Go Back has Reacher enlisting all the help he can find, forming a tight-knit team with Major Turner, Captain Espin (Who is only a Warrant Officer in the book), and a horde of military police officials. This sits in stark contrast to Reacher’s loner attitude from the original novels, which is best exemplified by the way both versions of the story end. Whereas the book has Reacher throwing his cell phone away and hitting the road by himself, the film ends with him texting his Samantha with a smile on his face.

4

The Opening Scene Is Completely New

The movie missed out on translating the tense book opener

The best movie opening scenes immediately characterize where the protagonist is at the start of the story or reveals something about their personality, and the Jack Reacher duology tried its best to do both. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back opens with its titular hero conducting a sting of arrests alongside the 110th US Army CID Military Police, busting an Oklahoma Sheriff for running a human trafficking ring out of his precinct. While doing so, he was apparently coordinating with Major Turner, though Turner is quickly indisposed shortly thereafter.

In contrast, the book opens with Jack Reacher being confronted by two Army men who recognize him outside a run-down motel in Washington, D.C. The two call out Reacher for bringing disgrace to their unit before attacking them, being brutally beaten back by the powerful Reacher in a 2 versus 1 fist fight. The stark difference between these two scenes emphasizes just how different the book and movie Reacher are from each other. Whereas movie Reacher works with the authorities to arrest bad guys, book Reacher solemnly defends himself against his fellow veterans.

3

The Hunter Is A Movie Creation

The movie struggled to fill the role of a singular bad guy

Jack Reacher has no shortage of intimidating enemies in any of his novels, but the film struggled to give the character a single overarching villain to face off against. In the Child’s novel, Reacher battles criminals, mysterious assailants, and even his fellow soldiers, but he never meets a dangerous single opponent that provides more than a match for him. In effort to give him one, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back invents the character known as “The Hunter”, an infamous mercenary who orchestrates Reacher’s framing.

Creating a single mysterious ex-Special Forces character to give the protagonist a supervillain audiences can identify against isn’t unique to Jack Reacher: Never Go Back. Fellow espionage-thriller adaptation American Assassin differed from its book similarly the next year, inventing the operative known as “Ghost” to do battle against Mitch. It seems as though Hollywood is uneasy to adapt action novels without creating an antagonist that’s just as physically capable as the hero, giving them a single recognizable face to fight in a final showdown.

2

The Movie Leaves Out Claughton

Reacher’s drug dealer encounters aren’t included in the film

There are minor antagonists that exist in Never Go Back that aren’t present in the film adaptation, namely the relatives of the drug dealer, Claughton. During his time on the run, Reacher steals the car of the dead meth dealer, prompting the late criminal’s family to go after him. Claughton’s relatives have a tense confrontation with Reacher outside of his and Turner’s motel, but the terrifying drifter manages to get them to back away through sheer presence alone. Not only that, but Reacher further embarrasses them by stealing an additional vehicle, this time a truck.

Claughton and his family aren’t present in the film adaptation, and it’s easy to see why. Admittedly, the vignette of Reacher scaring off the seasoned criminals is mostly just filler, existing to give the character another scene in the book in which his intimidating aura can be felt. Of all the changes Jack Reacher: Never Go Back makes to its source material, it’s easy to see the admission of this beat as one of the most sensible, being a better fit for the Reacher TV show’s extended run time.

1

The Smuggling Operation Is Totally Different

From major players to what is being smuggled, the film differs heavily from the book

Concerning the plot, the most comprehensive changes from Never Go Back to its movie adaptation is the very nature of the smuggling conspiracy that Reacher and Turner thwart. In the book, the operation is run by Fort Bragg Chiefs of Staff Crew Scully and Gabriel Montague, who work with a mysterious Afghan elder named Emal Zadran to smuggle opium into the United States. Reacher and Turner track the pair down in a nightclub outside of Washington, D.C., only for both men to kill themselves rather than be captured.

The ending of Jack Reacher: Never Go Back instead combines both conspirators into General James Harkness, who is smuggling dangerous anti-tank weapons into the country alongside the opium. The climax of the film is far more bombastic, featuring a vicious tear-down fight with The Hunter and his men. It could be unsubtle changes such as this that contributed to Jack Reacher: Never Go Back ultimately causing the Jack Reacher film series to end before it even truly began.