-

Jack Reacher is the proverbial lone wolf; a nomadic, anti-authority renegade who lives by his own set of principles. So what happens when he's saddled with two new allies in need of protection? And what happens when those allies become a surrogate family? Such are the questions at the heart of Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, which finds Tom Cruise's steadfast hero pitted against military corruption when Major Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders), the respected officer who commands his former unit, is arrested for espionage. At the same time, Reacher gets hit with a paternity suit claiming he's the father of a 15-year-old, street-smart foster kid, Samantha Dayton (Danika Yarosh). Realizing they're both in danger, Reacher steps in to save the day, teaming up a trio of unlikely allies to stay alive and get to the truth. And because this is a Tom Cruise movie, they obviously also do a lot of running together.

Last weekend, I joined the cast of Jack Reacher in New Orleans, Louisianna, where they shot the film's climactic French Quarter showdown, to speak with Smulders and Yarosh, the duo of actresses working opposite Cruise in the film's central trio. We talked about the trick to perfecting Tom Cruise's signature run, balancing the character drama with the high-paced action, and the unexpected dangers of doing action sequences with long hair. We also chatted about how Never Go Back is secretly a Halloween movie and what it was like to film an action sequence in the midst of a massive holiday parade. Watch what they had to say in the video above and find a breakdown of what we discussed below.

Cobie Smulders and Danika Yarosh:

• What are their tips for perfecting the signature Tom Cruise Run?
• What are the challenges and rewards of a film that infuses so much character drama into the action?
• Talk about the unexpected dangers of shooting action sequences with long hair.
• What was it like filming a climactic sequence in such a technically challenging environment?
• Talk about filming the chase sequence in the actual Krew of Boo Halloween Parade and how many people thought they were genuinely in trouble.

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back arrives in theaters nationwide October 21st.

Here's the official synopsis:

Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise) returns with his particular brand of justice in the highly anticipated sequel JACK REACHER: NEVER GO BACK. When Army Major Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders), who heads Reacher’s old investigative unit, is arrested for Treason, Reacher will stop at nothing to prove her innocence and to uncover the truth behind a major government conspiracy involving soldiers who are being killed. Based upon JACK REACHER: NEVER GO BACK, author Lee Child’s 18th novel in the best-selling Jack Reacher series, that has seen 100 million books sold worldwide.