Tom Cruise is back with ‘Jack Reacher’ sequel

SEOUL, Nov. 7 (Yonhap) — Tom Cruise is back in the role of Jack Reacher, an ex-U.S. military cop turned fugitive, in Hollywood’s latest action-thriller sequel.

“I love this character,” Cruise said during a news conference for the film at a Seoul hotel. “He is like a ronin, honestly, a moden day ronin — someone who is very intelligent, very skilled. But he’s someone who lives by his own wits and he goes from town to town — a classic character that I love playing.”

Cruise said he and the movie character have a lot in common, especially their shared passion for travel.

“We both travel around a lot. I obviously travel in better fashion than he does.”

In “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back,” based on author Lee Child’s 18th novel in the best-selling Jack Reacher series “Never Go Back,” Reacher faces a mission to uncover a conspiracy that has framed his colleague, Major Susan Turner, for espionage.

Tom Cruise speaks during a news conference for “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back” in Seoul on Nov. 7, 2016.

The film sees the 54-year-old actor beating up a group of thugs with his bare hands and doing his own car chase scenes without a stunt performer.

“There were a couple of moments, like punching through the glass… obviously that was kind of tricky. I’ve never done that before, punching through glass.”

Also difficult were cage fight scenes, he pointed out.

“There were some moments when we would do the whole fight in one take from different angles. I’m someone who always trains very hard and I work with all the actors and stunt people in the scene. And we train over and over and over again so that we can predict each other’s movements. So I’m very careful because I don’t want to hurt anyone. So that cage fight was really tricky.”

The movie reunites Cruise with director and co-writer Edward Zwick who previously worked with Cruise on the 2003 award-winning film “The Last Samurai.”

“Yeah, I’ve wanted to work with Ed since we did Last Samurai, and it just never happened… The range of films that he has is, you know, his movies are always textual and emotional. They always have very interesting characters. And the stories… I get deeply involved. He’s just a wonderful director.”

Director Edward Zwick (L) and actor Tom Cruise smile during a news conference for “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back” in Seoul on Nov. 7, 2016.

Zwick said he wasted no time in accepting the offer to collaborate with Cruise again, who also took part in the film project as a producer, because he had always enjoyed working with him.

“Well, the reason that I did it is because when we had the first experience, it was so gratifying. It wasn’t just the result, but the process was just so much fun and so exciting.”

“Jack Reacher: Never Go Back” is set to open in South Korean theaters on Nov. 24.