Early Reactions To Tom Cruise’s One Shot

Early footage from the upcoming Tom Cruise action/thriller One Shot was shown at this week’s CinemaCon and today we’re pleased to bring you a description of the footage as well as reactions to it, courtesy of Cinema Blend.

The film, for those unfamiliar with it, is based on the novel of the same name by Lee Child and revolves around “retired army cop Jack Reacher, who gets called back into action for an investigation into the deaths of five civilians, supposedly killed by a rogue military sniper.”

These early impressions are important for a few reasons. One, because any film with Tom Cruise is usually a big deal but secondly, fans of the novel were up in arms when it was announced that Cruise would play Reacher. No one thought that he could pull it off and a lot of people were upset with the decision. Now that we have reactions to the first footage though, it seems like our worries may be put to rest.

Here’s what CB had to say:

The first part of the show featured Cruise sitting in a bar and getting approached by a young girl who propositions him. In his refusal of her offer, the protagonist intonates that she is a bit of a slut, which isn’t taken too kindly by the five men she is apparently at the bar with. As the scene moves outside, Reacher shows the men his mean reputation.

What I enjoyed most about the scene was its writing and humor, which had writer/director Christopher McQuarrie’s mark all over it. When one of the guys tells the girl, “Shut your cock holster,” I couldn’t help but think back to the opening scene of The Way of the Gun in which Ryan Phillippe exclaims, “Shut that cunt’s mouth before I come over there and fuck start her head.” Cruise even gets to get in on the fun, as the girl says she isn’t afraid of a little blood as the group is heading outside to fight and Reacher quips that it’s because it means she’s not pregnant.

The next sequence shown was all about the action. Beginning with Jack Reacher driving around in his 1970 Chevelle SS, the character runs into David Oyelowo, who plays a detective who is on Reacher’s tail. After a brief stare-down, the scene escalated into a full-blown car chase that had the hero not only escaping the police, but also a mysterious duo driving around in a white Audi. The direction was slick and fun, and featured a fantastic ending that had Reacher disappearing into a crowd of people (though I won’t spoil how).

The last bit shown wasn’t so much a scene as it was a nice little bit. A man comes up behind Reacher with a gun and tells the lead not to move. Responding to this, Reacher says, “I move and you pull the trigger.” Moving like lightning, the hero goes for the gun and while a shot does ring out it’s not nearly in time as the gunman has already been neutralized.

From what we have here, it looks like One Shot will be a hard-R action thriller that is very much a Christopher McQuarrie film, which is definitely a good thing.

It sounds like Cruise is going for an edgier action hero than we’re used to see him playing and it will be nice to see him break out of the PG-13 bubble.

Despite the concern over Cruise’s casting, I’m interested in One Shot and I’m eager to see a trailer so I can judge for myself,

One Shot opens on December 21st, 2012 and co-stars Rosamund Pike, Jai Courtney, David Oyelowo, Robert Duvall, Richard Jenkins, and filmmaker Werner Herzog.