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The Zec standing over Linsky’s body

Always the bullet. I do not understand.

The Hunter holding Samantha hostage

If you don’t let the gun go, I’ll throw her off the roof!

Jack Reacher: With a name like yours, you're gonna feel right at home.
The Zec: Prison? In America? A retirement home. If I go to prison at all.
Jack Reacher: You think you're gonna walk?
The Zec: You are a homeless drifter wanted for murder. Meanwhile, I am an old man in the wrong place at the wrong time. Thanks to you, who is left to say otherwise? Who?
~ The Zec to Jack Reacher.
The Hunter: Reacher.
Jack Reacher: Let's finish this. Just you and me.
The Hunter: I'm gonna have some fun with your pretty little girl.
Jack Reacher: She's not my little girl.
The Hunter: Is that fear I hear you in your voice, Jack?
Jack Reacher: I'm gonna break your arms. I'm gonna break your legs. I'm gonna break your neck. What you hear is excitement.
The Hunter: Nice try, Jack. I found a way to hurt you like you've never hurt before.
~ The Hunter to Jack Reacher.

Okay now, back to long proposals! This time it’s from a franchise that I’m frankly shocked had never been discussed before at least when it comes to Pure Evil. With that being said, let’s get to it!

What’s the Work?[]

Jack Reacher and Jack Reacher: Never Go Back are a duology from 2012 and 2016 respectively based on the highly beloved and popular Jack Reacher books by Lee Child, the plots for both based on One Shot (2005) and Never Go Back (2013).

The first film focuses on Jack Reacher himself (Tom Cruise), a retired major who has to rescue a friend and fellow army man of his named James Barr from execution after he’s suspected of doing a series of assassinations while having his defense attorney, Helen Rodin (Rosamund Pike) uncover the proof that he’s innocent and find out who the perpetrators truly are.

The second movie/sequel has Jack Reacher this time break into a prison to get a relatively young Army major named Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders) when she’s accused of spying on important files and gets the shock of his life when he’s apparently revealed to be the father of a teenager named Samantha Dutton (Danika Yarosh). Reacher finds Samantha and they, alongside Susan try their best dodging not only the authorities, but also a mysterious assassin.

Who are They and What Have They Done?[]

The Zec[]

The Zec (which means "prisoner human being") has his sniper assassinate five targets, including a nanny. The authorities inspect the scene and bodies to track him down. A soldier named James Barr is interrogated by a detective named Calvin Emerson and district attorney Alex Rodin so he responds by telling them to hunt Jack Reacher before being beaten by the inmates and hospitalized. Barr in a flashback is seen gunning people down before being caught by Reacher but was let go when the U.S. Navy discovered that his victims there were having sex with women without their consent. Reacher has the defense attorney’s young daughter, Helen Rodin visit the houses of those killed and talk to their family members about the crimes such as Christie Farrior's father.

The Zec has another henchmen named Linsky spy on Reacher, getting Barr convinced and sent to death row, in which Reacher now has to avoid. Reacher gets into a bar fight outside with an attractive young woman named Sandy Dupree watching before he and the leader are arrested. Reacher recognizes that someone’s trapping him and investigates. Meanwhile, Helen tells Reacher what the rest of the victims (Christie, Rita Coronado, Nancy Holt, Oline Archer, Darren Sawyer) were doing that day. The Zec notices Linsky report his failure to his second-in-command Charlie and explains his backstory as a inmate in Siberia and calmly tells Linsky to bite and chew the fingers for his left hand as punishment. When Linsky refuses, Zec makes a snarky remark on how they always pick the bullet and Charlie shoots Linsky in the head.

The Zec has Charlie take care of Barr while Reacher and Helen search the auto parts store for clues and Reacher confronts a remorseful Sandy who reveals that Jeb Oliver ordered the attack and he forgives her before warning her to get out of the city before the Zec’s men murder her. However, Sandy’s life eventually is claimed anyways. Reacher looks through a home, but is nearly beaten to death and shot down before he effortlessly defeats some of the Zec’s goons. Reacher discovers that Jeb is dead and it was made to look like he was going somewhere else. Reacher and Helen converse and they figure out that Barr was free of any wrongdoing. The Zec gets a phone call from Charlie and he angrily frustrates that he’ll do it himself if he has to. Helen discovers much to her horror that four of them were at random and that the real lynchpin is Oline Archer, who had the files for her husband’s construction company.

Reacher is nearly arrested but he now knows that Emerson is secretly in allegiance with The Zec. Reacher works with Martin Cash and finally realizes who the masterminds are. Unfortunately, Helen gets captured and withheld by Charlie. Reacher has to come within 60 minutes otherwise Helen will suffer. The Zec sits idly, tells his motivations of taking what he can and plans to have Helen killed in front of her father as he begs for her life and threatens that she must forget her father and seeing a sniper die will change her life forever. Reacher and Martin nevertheless massacre and slaughter the Zec’s mooks, including Charlie and Emerson. Reacher faces off alone against the Zec, who says his real name is Zec Chelovek before mocking/taunting Reacher he can’t go to jail and that he has already got Reacher where he wanted him before Reacher does his own thing and simply shoots him in the face. Meanwhile, Barr is heavily implied that he’ll be released from the death penalty.

The Hunter[]

The Hunter is first seen taking photos of Jack Reacher and Samantha Dutton. Reacher is approached the next day and is shown files of Sergeant Mikovich and Cibelli, who were shot at close range during a mission in Afghanistan and their bodies dumped near Bagram Air Base: The Hunter having done the crime. Major Susan Turner is implicated and after the trial, she’s going to prison. In truth, the Hunter plots to assassinate her. The Hunter then tortures General Archibald Moorcroft, who gave information to Reacher until he dies by pummeling him while he’s strapped to a chair, bloodied up.

The Hunter searches for Reacher and Turner who escape from jail under orders from General Harkness. Reacher and Turner fight the Hunter in a restaurant and when two police officers intervene, The Hunter guns them both before fleeing the scene. The Hunter reads files on Reacher and Turner but is then briefly criticized by General Harkness for making it more complicated than it needed to be but he doesn’t care as he plots to make it a competition. The Hunter next goes to Samantha’s residence to kill her, shooting her caretakers Beth and Herb dead before Samantha, noticing that he was inside hid inside a cabinet. Reacher and Turner find her crying and take her to safety. The Hunter enters Colonel Sam Morgan’s house and whacks him repeatedly with a telephone for once again selling out evidence to Reacher, killing him.

The Hunter follows the heroes by sending proxies only for Reacher to beat him and then he calls the Hunter, who threatens Reacher to stop his investigation or otherwise Samantha will get hurt. Reacher refuses and so the Hunter chases them but they are outwitted for now. The Hunter has more of his goons get to Reacher when he searches for Daniel Prudhomme, a worker who has deep pockets in major operations. The Hunter then promises to Reacher that he’ll capture Samantha and mocks him that he can’t save her. Prudhomme, when confronted by Reacher and Turner in an abandoned warehouse reveals the truth of what happened that day and that the Hunter was a former military soldier who was in Parasource.

The Hunter was hired by Harkness to eliminate any and all witnesses. The Hunter stands next to him as Harkness sends his squad out to murder Prudhomme and Espin for knowing too much, succeeding in the former before Reacher and Turner get rid of the minions. Espin says that Parasource is tapping wiring payments for weapons containing opium, but The Hunter then drives to the hotel the heroes were staying in after Samantha uses an illegal credit card for room service. Reacher, Turner, and Espin break in to the location to arrest Harkness for the crimes, but the Hunter breaks in, interrogates the owner of the hotel and then kidnaps Samantha after they run through the streets of a crowded Halloween parade.

The Hunter phones Reacher and tells him what’s he’s going to do to her, cruelly noting that Reacher has fear in his voice. The Hunter points his gun at Samantha when Reacher finds his spot at the roof of the hotel. The Hunter warns Reacher that if he doesn’t drop the gun, he’ll toss her to her death and that it doesn’t matter if Harkness got arrested and the plan foiled because he’ll win either way. Samantha then attacks the Hunter though and Reacher tackles him so they’ll both fall. Reacher and the Hunter gets into one last punch and kick battle that results in Reacher snapping his neck after forcing the Hunter to stare at him before casually letting his corpse go further below. Reacher, Turner, and Samantha comfort each other before they leave.

Heinous Standards?[]

I’m not going to compare them to the villains from the novels as this clearly takes place in an alternate universe so I’ll just say the rest of the bad guys in the flicks are either regular old henchmen carrying out their job with no unique crimes to them like Charlie or lay back and do not much of anything despite being the one behind the plot and admonishes their second-in command for their needless brutality like General James Harkness. Reacher gets dirty at times but it’s clear he only does so to those who deserve it so that’s all there is.

First off, The Zec. Zec has four completely innocent civilians slaughtered just to get to his one target Oline who didn’t know any better when she refuses to buy off her husband’s company to him, then frames Barr to ensure that he’ll die, has Charlie dispose of Linsky when he couldn’t do the Zec’s absolutely horrific method of having those who disappointed him bite off their own fingers simply because he did the same, with it being explicitly clear he had done it multiple times in the past, gets rid of Sandy and Jeb to clear all traces, and finally kidnaps Helen to subject her to torture and then death while plotting to have her father Alex witness it and then has his goons attempt to finish off Reacher and Cash before saying that the former will be thrown into a cell when he’s faced with a gun. He has the highest bodycount out of the duology baddies so he easily manages to clear it, at least for the cinematic works.

Secondly, the Hunter. While he has a lower killcount than the Zec, he more than makes up for it in sadistic cruelty. The Hunter goes the extra mile to pick off specific people such as Turner’s own colleagues and then manages to frame her for it while waiting his time until he can end her personally, bashing people to death like Moorcroft and Morgan, the latter of which is working for his and Harkness’ group, creates a mess by massacring two police officers after pretending to give up when caught with a weapon, and claiming the lives of Samantha’s guardians before relentlessly playing cat and mouse with Reacher, Turner, and Samantha: stopping at nothing to taunt the former as he gives out details for what he’s going to do with Samantha and when he gets her in his grasps, he threatens to make her fall to her demise. Overall? He just manages to pass even with the Zec in mind.

Mitigating Factors?[]

The Zec demonstrates that he has no care for his own men when he regularly executes them such as with Linsky and shrugs off those that are killed by Reacher, ultimately just wanting for the latter to get punishment while he waltzes off as a innocent old man. The Zec’s past as a former inmate who had to do certain things to survive (getting a coat and devouring his own fingers before the frostbite damages them further into gangrene) is certainly not a good one, but it isn’t used to portray him as tragic or sympathetic, he realizes that he can justify his twisted ideology of committing vile deeds simply to live on and nothing more, going as far as to have others perish for going against his ideals.

The Hunter meanwhile analogies himself to Reacher as those who can’t fully quit their careers and acts polite to others when need be, but all of this is just a farce to the narcissist he really is underneath. The Hunter otherwise has no problem with torturing or murdering people with a wicked grin on his face, even his own collaborators such as Sam Morgan and his respect for Reacher (note that he even calls him by his first name "Jack") evading him is deconstructed quickly when he makes it his mission to see him broken after Samantha, aka his supposed estranged daughter dies. The Hunter also callously dismisses Harkness as nothing in the end when he’s exposed and jailed, so he has zero respect for even his superior.

Final Verdict?[]

A simple yes to both. Interestingly the Zec was played by the great Werner Herzog… didn’t expect him to play a good villain but he did so kudos!