How the 'Jack Reacher' Car Chase Ensured the Tom Cruise/Christopher McQuarrie Era of "Mission: Impossible'

For the past decade, the "Mission: Impossible" series has been a collaborative effort between Tom Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie, resulting in many of the series' most impressive installments. I love the idea of this influential television series turned blockbuster movie franchise as a filmmaker's anthology. Brian De Palma ("Blow Out"), John Woo ("Hard Boiled"), J.J. Abrams ("Star Wars: The Force Awakens") and Brad Bird ("The Incredibles") imparted their own visual and tonal flourishes to the spy series, which made each film feel unique. But then you watch the Hitchcockian opera house sequence of "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation" and you immediately understand why Cruise wouldn't want to make these without McQuarrie. He's got a penchant for in-camera filmmaking that emboldens the movie star at the heart of the film's most dangerous scenes. The famed partnership originated near the end of the 2000s when McQuarrie developed the script for the WWII action thriller "Valkyrie," which Cruise was set to star in. By this point, McQuarrie had already written and directed "The Way of the Gun," in addition to winning an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay ("The Usual Suspects"). Although McQuarrie wouldn't officially hop aboard the "M:I" train until "Rogue Nation," he performed some uncredited rewrites for "Ghost Protocol." The year before, however, McQuarrie was tasked with writing another Cruise project that would eventually become his second film. Cruise/Wagner Productions had already bought the film rights to Lee Child's Jack Reacher series in 2005, with the intent of adapting the novel "One Shot" for the screen. McQuarrie would not only rewrite the film after a previous draft from "A History of Violence" screenwriter Josh Olson but would ultimately direct it himself. Cruise was set to star in the titular role, which came with its own trepidation from fans on account of the character's vastly different appearance in the book. The excellent television series on Prime Video presents blond behemoth Alan Ritchson as a more book-accurate interpretation of Reacher, but it was clear that this movie was only going to get made if Cruise stepped in. I had no idea who Jack Reacher was when I was brought to this movie by a group of friends back in 2012, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I got wrapped up in its central mystery. After a chilling sequence involving a sniper quietly taking out random targets from a parking garage, Reacher (Cruise) becomes embroiled in a conspiracy in which the inciting incident is not quite what it seems. Cruise plays Reacher as more of a Clint Eastwood type who only needs a few select words (and punches) to get his point across. The trailers attempted to make "Jack Reacher" look like an action movie in which Werner Herzog is facing off against Cruise, but despite some bouts, the film is much more of a procedural thriller that occasionally kicks into high gear when Reacher needs to get results. Part of what makes "Jack Reacher" such a great sophomore feature for McQuarrie is how it presents him as a tactical and observational filmmaker with an affinity for detail. He's able to present tension in scenes that gradually become more dangerous as they transpire, such as when Rosamund Pike's Helen Rodin visits a grieving father of one of the victims, only to have him reveal a pistol without ever explicitly mentioning it. When I went to revisit the film, one sequence stuck out in my eyes as not only the film's greatest achievement but a clear line between this and "Mission: Impossible." There's an eight-minute stretch in which "Jack Reacher" thrusts the audience into a high-speed car chase that plays like a spiritual successor to Peter Yates' "Bullitt." The vehicle of choice is a gorgeous red and black 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle that roars to life whenever it's on screen. What makes the chase so remarkable, aside from it being a three-way battle between Reacher, the police and one of the film's non-Herzog villains, is that Cruise is present in every single shot. Behind that hot rod is a movie star performing every swerve, crash and gas acceleration all in-camera. It's further accentuated by the absence of a score, which allows you to hone in on the real danger involved in this high-speed pursuit. Even if you've never seen a "Mission: Impossible" movie, you're well aware that Cruise is notorious for doing all of his own stunts, whether he's holding onto a plane, performing a Halo jump or scaling the Burj Khalifa. He'd already been performing these dangerous feats in previous "M:I" entries, but here was a filmmaker like McQuarrie who would not only back up his stuntman perseverance but would give the audience an immersive view into its construction. Very rarely does the camera lose focus on Cruise driving the Chevelle like a bat out of hell. Both men are showing off in their own way, and it's clear that they felt comfortable about one another's role in getting it done. In a behind the scenes featurette, McQuarrie talks about how much he admires Cruise as an equal partner in all this. "I don't really think of Tom as a star or as a producer as much as I do a partner in telling a story. Nobody works harder to justify your 10, 12, probably $20 you're spending on a movie ticket and comes to the process with no agenda other than telling the best story and supporting me and supporting the film," says McQuarrie. In the 13 years since "Jack Reacher," the love, admiration and trust between these two has only intensified tenfold. They're not going to tempt Death unless it looks good and can be done practically. Given what McQuarrie and Cruise have been able to pull off in "Rogue Nation," "Fallout" and "Dead Reckoning," I can only imagine what they have in store for us in "The Final Reckoning" this weekend. If you've already watched all of the "Mission: Impossible" movies in anticipation, then throw on "Jack Reacher" to see one of their most exciting creative sparks. "Jack Reacher" is currently streaming on Paramount+.