A clash of opposing worldviews. Countless innocent lives at stake. Dirty street-fighting and a race to save the country from a maniacal, self-indulgent sociopath. Sure, that was Wednesday’s presidential debate – but the new Jack Reacher movie is pretty exciting too.

The new film—with Tom Cruise returning to play the quiet, ruthless ex-Army investigator—teams Reacher up with the current commanding officer of the elite unit that he had founded himself, back in the day. Major Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders) is investigating the murder of two of her agents in Afghanistan, and in the process has made herself some lethal enemies. Chases and bone-crushing fights ensue.

The movie’s subtitle, Never Go Back, is the name of the Lee Child book it’s based on. Child knows why they chose it. For the girl. Not Turner, the tough, razor-sharp, beautiful woman who is Reacher’s ally and love interest. All the books have one of those. Paramount chose it for the other girl, the street-smart, sneering, confident 14-year old girl. The one who might be Jack Reacher’s daughter.

She ups the emotional stakes, Lee Child explains. Reacher has feelings. Confused, tender feelings. We get to see him deal with an angry, know-it-all teen. And she injects an additional wildcard danger into the picture: she’s a vulnerable spot, a threat to be used against him.

“Isn’t she terrific?,” Child says, of Danika Yarosh, who plays Sam, with real grit and a swerving, churning, five-octave emotional range. “I was fascinated to see how that would work out, because obviously as a character, she’s got to stand up to Jack Reacher. But as an actress, that 16-year-old kid had to get up in Cruise’s face and be convincing, telling him to shut up. She did really, really well.”

Lee Child is big. I don’t mean the 6’4” scarecrow stature, the glacier blue eyes staring down from a face so craggy he could split cordwood with his cheekbones. I mean the books. They’re huge. Pick any one from the shelf of 20 – soon to be 21 – and the odds are good that you’re holding not just a bestseller but a No. 1 bestseller.

The books have sold over 100 million copies worldwide, but this is only the second shot at turning one into a film. The first, called simply Jack Reacher, came out two years ago to mixed reviews but made some serious cash for Paramount, bringing in $218 million worldwide on a production budget of $60 million.

The new movie is better in some ways than the first. It’s got more menace and atmosphere than the first one, though both are solid, high-budget action thrillers. You won’t see anybody yawning.

Jack Reacher fans—an audience of literally millions whose annual stampede for the latest Reacher fix has made Lee Child’s series the “strongest brand in publishing,” according to Forbes—will want to know how the movie compares to the book.

The answer, of course, is that they’re different—and Lee Child likes it that way. “A lot of writers worry, ’What are they going to do to my book?’ The point is, they don’t do anything to your book. Your book exists before and afterward, completely unchanged.” The movie “is somebody else’s version, and in a strange way, I would rather not have it follow the book too closely”

Fans and new converts have a few more weeks to wait for the newest Jack Reacher book, Night School, out on November 7. That’s the day before the election, and the new book will provide a blissful distraction from the real-world ugliness and carnage.