Jack Reacher Is a Ghost

When analyzing the movie poster and official trailer of the film Jack Reacher, I came across important aspects that the creators of the poster and trailer used in order to attract a large audience. Looking at the poster I saw many appeals used to draw in a viewer. They make the film seem credible, using the ethos appeal, by making Tom Cruise the focal point of the poster. Tom Cruise is a very well known actor that many people enjoy watching. Another way the creators of the poster add credibility is by adding the also well known producers of the movie, Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions. The creators of the poster also do a very good job of making sure that the audience knows what type of genre the movie Jack Reacher is going to be. By using the logos appeal, it is only logical to realize this is an action film due to the gun in Tom Cruises’ hand, the gash going across his face, the fast car blurred in the foreground behind him, and not to mention the fact that 99% of movies I’ve ever seen featuring Tom Cruise have been action packed. From my point of view, the most used appeal on this poster is the pathos appeal. Not only can the gun categorize as a logical appeal but it appeal to the audience’s emotions by giving them a sense of thrill. When I see a shot gun smack-dab and bolded on the front of a poster it automatically tells me there’s going to be some suspense. What catches my attention the most is that Tom Cruise is not looking directly at the camera but it almost looks like his in the middle of deep thought. This might appeal to the viewers emotions by adding a mystery into wanting to know what he is thinking. The most obvious form of excitement featured on the poster is the quote in the middle, “THE LAW HAS LIMITS. HE DOES NOT.” Once again, I think this attracts the viewers to see the movie because of the suspense that the quote holds. Looking even deeper into that part of the poster, the typography of the quote adds an effect to the poster as well. I learned this in chapter 14 of the book Everything’s An Argument. The font they use on the poster is clean, bold, and has a metallic touch to it. This gives the poster a cooler and intense effect.

The trailer used many appeals to attract the viewers as well. The trailer begins using the logos appeal by showing the rating of the movie and why it was rated in that fashion. The fact that it was rated PG-13 because of violence, language and some drug material sends to audience some clues that this is a movie with action. The content and purpose the makers of the trailer are trying to get through to the audience is to give them a sense of suspense and mystery. They do this by showing scenes with car chases, adding the sound of gun shots in the background, displaying scenes with lots of guns, bullets, and fighting and by portraying a mystery dealing with finding the truth. Therefore, logically analyzing this, I can tell this movie is going to be violent and suspenseful Like the movie poster, the trailer shows credibility through ethos by saying and showing that it features Tom Cruise as the main character. The beginning of the movie trailer shows the Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions’ production company logos which makes the movie credible to the viewers because they are both well known movie production agencies as said before. Like the movie poster, I believe the appeal of pathos is used the most in the production of the trailer. For example, the starting statements say things like “Jack Reacher is a ghost…” which is an emotional appeal to the audience because it adds to the mystery of the movie. They also show scenes with a little bit of comedy such as a crowd of people hiding Jack Reacher from cops after a car chase and many of the scenes with Jack Reacher’s snide, sarcastic (yet humorous) remarks. Everyone loves a suspenseful action movie that’s able to lighten up the mood with a little humor here and there. It also appeals to the audience emotionally because people like to see a good guy who is constantly kicking butt against the bad guys. And this trailer just so happens to show Tom Cruise being a hard-nosed dude in nearly 100% of the scenes shown.

I think the creators of the poster did a good job appealing to the viewers through the three appeals discussed before, but I think I would be much more enticed to see the movie after viewing the trailer. But I feel like appealing to the audience is much easier to do in a moving 2 minutes production rather than a stand still poster. The poster highlighted more of an ethos appeal than the trailer did because the main focal point of it was Tom Cruise. The trailer appealed to the audience in more of an emotional sense through the action, humor and mystery. I’ve seen the movie a good five or six times and after re-watching the trailer, I’m ready to see it again.