‘One Ranger’ Star Thomas Jane and Director Jesse V. Johnson Talk Expectations of Action-Thriller Film (Exclusive)

Thomas Jane has put together a successful career in Hollywood, appearing in movies such as Face/Off, Boogie Nights and The Punisher, and TV shows such as Hung and The Expanse. The 54-year-old actor’s new movie, One Ranger, is out now in select theatres, and the movie is directed by Jesse V. Johnson who is known for his action films. PopCulture.com spoke exclusively to Jane and Johnson to talk about One Ranger, a film where Jane plays the main character, Alex Tyree, who is a Texas Ranger. 

“They’ll meet the man,” Johnson exclusively told PopCulture. “They’ll meet a ranger who just doesn’t know the meaning of the word, the term giving up, and he’ll just keep coming. No matter how hard you try and hit him, shoot him, keep him down, he just keeps on coming and that’s who they’re going to meet. And hopefully, they really dig the adventure.”

Jane added: “That’s what I liked about the script was you get to see the world of … I really bought that this guy was a Texas Ranger, the kind of guy who’s maybe a little anachronistic now, you don’t really meet too often anymore, but that are still out there. Old school values sort of. I like the reality of the guy doing his job, but just been doing it a long time and he knows that perseverance is the better part of valor.”

One Ranger tells the story of Alex taking down a bank robber (Dean Jagger) across the desert, only to discover he’s an international terrorist set on detonating a bomb in London. After Alex’s partner is killed, he teams up with a British intelligence agent (Dominique Tipper) and her boss (John Malkovich) to bring the robber to justice.

“I knew them by reputation only, so I had to go buy a bunch of books, one of them called One Ranger,” Jane said when asked about his knowledge of the Texas Rangers before landing the role. “I particularly liked the books about the history of the guns of the Texas Rangers.”

For Johnson, he loves the history of the Rangers. “I was fascinated by this law enforcement agency that still wore a cowboy hat, a gun belt, cowboy boots, and had to have a specific brand of denim jeans that they had to buy themselves,” he said. “And I thought, in this modern sort of 20th, 21st-century world, to have someone who hearkens back to the clothing of the 1890s, it’s so romantic, but not romantic from a holding hands style, but romantic from a poetic, literal sort of perspective. And the more I dug into the Texas Rangers, the more I realized they’re a fantastic resource for a filmmaker, for a writer to have a character like that. There’s so much you can do with it.”

Jane loved the fact he got to play a character that is part of a well-respected organization. “I felt the obligation to represent the Texas Rangers in the best possible light without sacrificing the integrity of the job,” he stated. “So that was an honor for me.”