Lee Child's Reacher (not Tom Cruise's) is predictable and far fetched like a lot of fiction, but the allure of it goes back to an old fashioned notion that explains the affection by many of us for the old Westerns . . . the bad guys always get theirs' in the end and the good guys may come away a bit bruised and battered but generally triumph. Reacher is an idealized character of physical strength and size with an unalterable code of justice reduced to simplistic terms, that form his decision making process without a lot of mental hand wringing. The Tom Cruise version of Reacher is enjoyable in its' parallels only if you've not read the books or can suspend the image of the books and just enjoy the story without dwelling on the obvious physical differences in the character.
I'm a fan of both Child and Clancy and confess to having practically all their books, even the ones that Clancy's stand ins are writing since his demise. I find the new ones obviously different at times and perhaps straying from Clancy's portrayal of some of the character traits, but the obvious knowledge, research and access to folks on the 'inside' of the military and the government that make the plots mostly realistic and chilling are like the old Westerns as well. The good guys generally win though likeable peripheral characters sometimes suffer death as the stories heat up.
The almost super human exploits of those in the Ryan-verse feed the popular fantasies akin to Fleming's Bond but are not quite cartoonish as Bond could be. It satisfies the need for a lot us in our human nature that longs to see things in black and white, good and evil, and the hope and belief that justice will prevail . . . things sadly lacking in the real world.
Yes, it's 'escapism' . . . but enjoyable escapism.
