The fourth season of Prime Video’s Reacher is nearing its finale. The penultimate episode sets the stage for a climactic showdown between Alan Richardson’s hero and his most dangerous foes.
But in addition to sending the characters chasing a ghost, there was a subtle but funny reference to Tom Cruise hidden in the episode.
Spoilers after the trailer.
After Leela and Amisha introduced their sprayable chemical toxin to the world, the villains decided to release it in a public place with the help of one of their subordinates. Reacher, having learned about this, tries to predict the target of the attack and eventually comes to the conclusion that it is about a concert at a local arena.
Reacher and his team, Tamara and Jacob, go to an event where they hear an orchestra playing none other than the theme from Mission: Impossible.
The characters do not react in any way to the iconic composition, but to the audience the reason for its appearance in the frame is obvious. The franchise is led by Tom Cruise, who also starred in two Jack Reacher films – 2012’s Jack Reacher and 2016’s Jack Reacher: Never Go Back. Both films received rather modest ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, and critics agreed that Cruise was not very suitable for the role of the tall and rude hero of Lee Child’s books.
The inclusion of the theme from “The Mission” is also ironic because Reacher himself, on the run from the police, is not nearly as secretive as Cruise’s Agent Ethan Hunt. He prefers to solve problems head on, like a bull in a china shop, and, apparently, the audience likes it that way.
The season four finale of Reacher will premiere on Prime Video on September 16th. The fifth season is already in production and will be released in 2027.
