While the Mission Impossible franchise gets most of the credit for catapulting Tom Cruise into action-hero stardom, it wasn’t just Ethan Hunt who was responsible for that. There was also a certain Jack Reacher, who had two outings with Cruise before Alan Ritchson took up the mantle in 2022 for the Prime original series in 2022.
The action-thriller Jack Reacher, released in 2012, was based on Lee Child’s novel One Shot. Directed and written by Christopher McQuarrie, it starred Cruise as the titular character, a former military police major investigating a sniper case. Some criticised the departure from the character’s physical description in the books. Despite this, it spawned a sequel, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, in 2016.
Reacher was always meant to be a formidable figure with dialogues that are so punchy that a Bollywood fan would call it ‘total masala’. From the iconic “The law has limits. I don’t,” to the stone-cold delivery of “Remember you wanted this” before he beats up a punk clearly too inept to win against Reacher, the entire movie is dotted with masala dialogues.
Here are just a few more of Tom Cruise’s best punchlines from Jack Reacher, from the batshit to the wittiest:
The la loca Jack Reacher
“You think I’m a hero? I am not a hero…I mean to beat you to death and drink your blood from a boot.”
The sassy Jack Reacher
Jeb: “Hey. Outside.”
Jack Reacher: “Pay your check first.”
Jeb: “I’ll pay later.”
Jack Reacher: “You won’t be able to.”
The sassier Jack Reacher
Gary: “I’m gonna need to see some ID.”
Jack Reacher: “Go get Sandy.”
Gary: “Well, I need to see something.”
Jack Reacher: “How about the inside of an ambulance?”
The insightful Jack Reacher
“There are three things cops never do. They don’t vote Democrat, they don’t drive Cadillacs, and they never use personal vehicles.”
The philosophical Jack Reacher
“Imagine you’ve spent your whole life in other parts of the world being told every day you’re defending freedom. And finally, you decide you’ve had enough. Time to see what you’ve given up your whole life for.”
Jack Reacher and Jack Reacher: Never Go Back are available to stream on Netflix in a limited number of countries. You can catch some more of Tom Cruise’s iconic lines as Jack Reacher here:
