Jack Reacher is a mountain of a man, standing at 6-feet 5-inches tall with a 50-inch chest, and weighing between 210 and 250 pounds. So, why is Tom Cruise playing the fictional character from Lee Child’s crime books?

Cruise is all of 5-feet, 7-inches tall, if that. Although he’s got a toned physique, it would be beyond the realm of reality if he body slammed a 7-foot, 400-pound bad guy like super-strong Reacher did in Child’s book “Persuader.”

But while Cruise may be diminutive in size, he’s a giant where it counts–at the box office. His last action/adventure film “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol” grossed more than $600 million.

So, it’s not hard to see why he got the part. A new trailer shows him in the role, but whether he can satisfy fans of the books remains to be seen.

Tom looks manly enough ripping around in a hot ’60’s era muscle car in the opening of the clip. Oddly, though, in the books Reacher admits he’s not the best driver and never had a driver’s license.

But stunt driving is a signature feature of Cruise’s action/adventure flicks, so why not this one? He also seems to lose a little credibility as the character when he’s confronted in the clip by four bad guys. All of them are a head taller than he is.

“Remember, you wanted this,” he says in his boyish, un-Reacher-like voice, before proceeding to whip up on them.

Reacher is the strong-silent type with a stoic outlook on life. After a career as a specially trained and highly decorated military policeman, he leaves the service and becomes a drifter, righting wrong where ever he finds it without rules.

The movie also stars Rosamund Pike, David Oyelowo, Richard Jenkins, Alexia Fast, Robert Duvall, Jai Courtney and Werner Herzog.

Best to stay away from the books to watch this film. On the other hand it might be great sport pointing out all the discrepancies.

“Jack Reacher” hits theaters on Dec. 21. Check out the trailer below.