Alter Ego

 

I just watched a movie, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016), starring Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher.  The Reacher character is a good guy, a real good guy, with amazing warrior and martial arts skills.  Beyond that, he has the intellect and deductive powers of Sherlock Holmes.  He is a superhero without superpowers.  Reacher was a major in the Military Police that left the service and dropped off the grid.  He is a nomad always looking to right wrongs and looking into suspicious activities that end up putting Reacher in dangerous situations because he has encroached on the well-funded and nefarious operations of some really bad people.

There are two Jack Reacher movies.   The first was made in 2012 and also stars Tom Cruise.  It is simply and cleverly titled Jack Reacher.  Tom Cruise is perfect for this role.  This fits his “does all his own stunts” style of action hero acting.  There is some buzz about another movie but probably not starring Cruise as one article I read claimed he has probably aged out of the role.  I think he is the Tom Brady of action hero acting.  I wouldn’t have counted him out.  But what do I know, Amazon Prime is launching a series called Reacher which premiers February 4 of this year starring  Alan Ritchson.  I suppose I will be checking it out.

I love these kind of heros.  I want to be one of them.   It is why I read the Tom Clancy and Robert Ludlum books.  Jack Reacher, Jack Ryan, and Jason Bourne are my types of guys.  I enjoy reading about their exploits.  I used to read the Ludlum books on the train into Manhattan, then walking to the office I would have my eyes open and my senses on high alert looking for someone who might be following me or looked a bit out of place.  I was ready to duck or roll and come up shooting or fighting at any given moment.

It is not really an alter ego but more of a desired alter ego.  I was never the ducking and rolling sort at any time in my life.  Now, it is impossible.  In my prime, I would have probably hurt myself.  As for the amazing martial arts skills, we can lump that together with the ducking and rolling.  The closest thing to a sensei I ever had was a couple of amazing bosses that were great leaders, coaches, and mentors.

Given the popularity of these movies and books, I am guessing I am not alone in this.  Though, I have not discussed this with any of my friends, there must be a lot of people who harbor the same desired alter ego.  I guess people keep these fantasy alter egos to themselves.  In my case, I know it is about the mix of desire to be trim and to be faster, quicker, and more agile than I ever imagine.  I suspect others relate in somewhat the same manner.  The beauty of this genre of novels and movies is we get a wee bit of the simulated experience.  For the vast majority of us, that is enough.

This is not the first time I have addressed this topic.  I wrote about it in 2011 in a post called Secret Agent Man.  As I said in that piece, “it is pure Walter Mitty.”

I saw the first Jack Reacher movie a few years ago.  It wasn’t until today that it occurred to me to do an internet search to see if the movies were based on Jack Reacher books.  Well, there are like twenty-two written by Lee Childs (the alter ego of James Dover Grant) that have been around for 25 years and wildly popular.  And to think, I want to be a secret agent…