Jack Reacher, the monstrous main character of Lee Child’s bestselling series of books, has several unique survival skills. And many of them translate to Reacher, the new Amazon Prime Video show that’s currently available on the streaming service (and is getting decent reviews). Reacher’s usually the smartest person in any room, and his skills serve as “life hacks” for anyone who reads Child’s books… or co-stars in the show. Willa Fitzgerald told me the facts about toothpicks that are used to jam up a hotel door. Malcolm Goodwin learned how to get out of a hotel room when the front door isn’t an option. And as for Alan Ritchson, the man playing Reacher on screen, he took home a lethal skill that he can now apply in real life – if he wants to send someone to the hospital.
It’s worth acknowledging that Alan Ritchson is built like a mountain, mirroring the size and shape of Jack Reacher from the books. As such, Ritchson found himself involved in countless fights over the course of the eight episode season, which wisely adapts Lee Child’s first book, The Killing Floor. And when CinemaBlend asked Reacher star Ritchson a skill he took home from the set, he admitted:
My life hack is, I learned how to fight with elbows and the back of my head. So, if I ever need to punch somebody with the back of my head, I actually know how to do that. And that’s a very dangerous move. I’ve been a fighter for a long time, and I’ve put it to use in a lot of different shows and films, but this was a whole different style of fighting. Having that in the tool kit’s fun.
“Fun,” he says. And yet, the idea of Alan Ritchson using his head to punch me anywhere is the polar opposite of fun. As you can see from our interview clip above, this man is a problem. Which makes him, on the surface, a good choice to play Jack Reacher in a Reacher adaptation. There are moments in the new show where Reacher is being confronted by others who are looking for a fight, and our hero basically warns them against starting anything, because he knows the pain he is about to inflict. Like, in this prison brawl battle:
Reacher takes the plot of Lee Child’s first book and stretches it out over an eight-episode Amazon Prime Video show. In the story, the perpetually wandering Jack Reacher (Alan Ritchson) steps off a bus in rural Georgia and straight into a murder investigation that somehow involves his older brother, and a series of corrupt cops. The entire season is now available on Amazon Prime, so if you already have an Amazon Prime subscription, dive right in.
