Jack Reacher is based on the ninth Reacher novel, which finds the ex-military policeman-turned drifter drawn into the investigation of five inexplicable sniper murders.  The primary suspect, a former associate of Reacher's, insists he's the innocent victim of a far-ranging conspiracy, leading out hero down the rabbit hole.  Last month, we learned that the studio is changing the title from the novel's One Shot to a franchise-establishing eponymous hero.

This first image from the film showed up at Entertainment Weekly.  Christopher McQuarrie, whose writing credits include The Usual Suspects and Valkyrie, both writes and directs.  He shared this nugget of insight on Reacher with the magazine, saying, “Someone asks him at one point in the story about the difference between a military policeman and a regular cop.  Reacher points out that [for military police], every suspect is a trained killer.”  "He is free from any sort of anxiety. He is truly not encumbered by all the bulls–t that makes up our daily lives.  He literally and figuratively has no baggage.”

As you can see, no visual effects are being employed to turn Cruise into the 6' 5" brick shithouse from the novels, but he does look suitably ready to relentlessly beat the hell out of somebody.  Reacher's a simple guy who ordinarily just wanders the Earth like Kane on Kung-Fu, but in the film he stumbles into temporary possession of the red 1970 Chevelle Super Sport.  Because the leather jacket wasn't cool enough already.

McQuarrie, who previously directed the ridiculously underrated The Way of the Gun, has assembled an ensemble around Cruise that is eclectic, to say the very least.  Rosamund Pike plays the female lead, while director/documentarian Werner Herzog shows up as the arch-villain, The Zeck.  Newly-minted Jack McClane Jr. Jai Courtney plays a supporting role, as do Richard Jenkins, David Oyelowo, and Robert Duvall.

Jack Reacher arrives in theaters on December 21st of this year.