(Credit: Netflix)

Fast closing in on the 40th anniversary of his initial crowning as an A-list megastar, Tom Cruise remains as popular as ever, so it was almost inevitable that the addition of a movie from his back catalogue to the Netflix library was going to make a dash straight to the top end of the charts.

One of the most impressive things about Cruise’s longevity is that he’s managed to hold onto his position as a bankable box office draw by very rarely making detours into franchise territory. The ongoing Mission: Impossible saga is the obvious exception to the rule, but gratuitous sequels have never been his bag.

To underline his aversion to role reprisals, Cruise made his screen debut in 1981, and it wouldn’t be until 2016 that he played a character not named Ethan Hunt for a second time. When he did, though, the results were incredibly disappointing, all things considered.

Christopher McQuarrie’s refreshingly old-fashioned action thriller Jack Reacher became a solid hit, despite protestations from fans of Lee Child’s source material that the diminutive action star was roughly a foot too short to play the part. Inspired by the 1970s heyday of gritty revenge stories, the fact that there are so many books in the Reacher series indicated that the chances of a follow-up were high.

It may have taken four years to come together, but the prospect of Cruise reuniting with The Last Samurai director Edward Zwick was another reason to get excited, only for the results to fall flat. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back was a workmanlike, formulaic, and thoroughly uneventful meat-and-potatoes actioner, which made it a notable misfire when that’s not what audiences expected to see from the leading man.

The wandering investigator is drawn back into the fray when Cobie Smulders’ military major is accused of treason, but Reacher isn’t buying it. Instead, he sets out to discover who would frame his former commanding officer and what the larger game is. Conspiracies are there to be unravelled, and the title character does exactly that with not a single surprise or shock to be found.

Never Go Back earned much less money than its predecessor and fared worse among critics, but Cruise’s lure is too strong for Netflix subscribers to resist regardless of whether or not it hails from the upper tiers of his filmography. As a result, the second and final chapter in the franchise is currently the sixth most-watched movie on the platform worldwide.

When Cruise opted to head down the sequel rabbit hole for only the second non-Mission: Impossible time ever, it would be an understatement to say Top Gun: Maverick did a much better job of justifying its existence than Jack Reacher: Never Go Back ever could.