If there’s one thing audiences know about Jack Reacher, it’s that getting into a fight with him is generally a terrible idea. The enormous former military policeman has spent four seasons of Reacher dispatching criminals with the kind of efficiency that would make most action heroes jealous, but while the Prime Video adaptation has earned plenty of praise for bringing Lee Child‘s bestselling novels to life, some fans aren’t entirely convinced by how the show handles its fight scenes. However, its star is fighting back.
Alan Ritchson has responded to a fan who criticized Reacher for making its fight scenes look too difficult. The exchange took place on Threads, where a viewer praised Ritchson’s performance but argued that the television series had misunderstood one of the fundamental rules of the books. The fan wrote:
“I enjoy Reacher. I like the books way more, but I think Alan Ritchson is a great Reacher. However, if you read the books, you know Reacher never loses a fight. Never comes close to losing a fight. It’s because of the Reacher Rules. So, when they are having fight sequences where someone thought it was a good idea to make it seem like the outcome is in doubt. I can’t abide that.”
Unfortunately for the commenter, Ritchson is clearly a Reacher geek because, rather than simply defending the show’s creative decisions, he went straight to the books and highlighted an incident in which Reacher comes considerably closer to dying than the fan suggested. It’s a terrific example of receipts being dished out.
“In Tripwire (3rd book), during the final fight with ‘Hook’ Hobie, debris from a shotgun blast drives a large nail into Reacher’s skull. He continues fighting unaware and takes a .38 to the chest. Thankfully hobo-ripped… He woke up from a three-week coma after that fight. The idea that he should fight effortlessly or unscathed is cray cray at best and non-canonical at worst.”
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Collider · Action Heroes Which Action Hero Would Be Your Perfect Partner? Ten questions · five legends · one partner
Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive: with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably should not work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back. Choose your channel
Rambo
James Bond
Indiana Jones
John McClane
Ethan Hunt
Partner assignedYour perfect partner is
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Rambo The 1982 original You will never need to ask whether he has your back. You will just know.
Your partner does not talk much, does not need to, and will have counted every threat around you before you finish your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics. He is a force shaped by survival, loyalty and an endurance that no amount of training produces on its own. He does not leave people behind. What you get is the most quietly ferocious partner imaginable, somebody who went through what would have broken anybody else and decided to keep going. Why he is your partner
He reads ground the way other people read a room.
He will stand between you and the worst of it without discussing it.
He says almost nothing, and never the wrong thing.
From the Collider file
The 1982 original came from David Morrell’s 1972 novel, which ends very differently.
Stallone cut most of his own dialogue in the edit to make the character nearly silent.
Five films across thirty-seven years, from 1982 to the fifth in 2019.
Says little Leaves nobody Built to endure
Gold channel locked
James Bond Dr. No, 1962 He has survived things that have no business being survivable, and he does it with style.
Your partner arrives perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story convincing enough that you will need a moment to recall what is true. Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he walks into and the most disarmingly charming, which is the whole point. He works in layers, where nothing is what it looks like and every advantage gets used without apology. You will never be bored. You will occasionally be furious. Why he is your partner
He is better in the room than he is on paper, and he is excellent on paper.
He will not explain the plan, and the plan will work.
He treats charm as a tool, and it is a remarkably effective one.
From the Collider file
Eon has made twenty-five Bond films since Dr. No in 1962, across six actors.
Denis Villeneuve is directing the next one for Amazon MGM, which took creative control in
2025.
The search for the new 007 was still running through 2026, with screen tests under way.
Charm as a tool Always briefed Unbothered
Tan channel locked
Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1981 A scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual pairing and a very effective one.
Your partner knows the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is the most important object in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless and occasionally impossible, and also one of the most genuinely resourceful people you could have beside you. He hates snakes and gets attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It will not matter. Why he is your partner
He has read the thing nobody else thought to read.
He will risk the whole plan for the artifact, and be right about half the time.
He improvises better than most people prepare.
From the Collider file
The Cairo swordsman scene was improvised on the day because Harrison Ford had dysentery.
Raiders was filmed in about 73 days, which was fast even in 1981.
Dial of Destiny in 2023 was Ford’s fifth and last outing, at the age of eighty.
Knows the history Reckless scholar Improviser
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John McClane Die Hard, 1988 His superpower is stubbornness and his contingency plan is improvisation.
Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything resembling the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and a flat refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it plainly is. John McClane is the great accidental hero of action cinema, a man whose capacity to absorb more than anybody should and keep going would be alarming if it were not so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will come through. Why he is your partner
He turns whatever is in the room to his advantage.
He is funniest when things are at their worst.
He has never once agreed that it is over.
From the Collider file
Die Hard came from Roderick Thorp’s novel Nothing Lasts Forever, a sequel to a book
filmed in 1968.
Nakatomi Plaza is Fox Plaza, which was the studio’s own headquarters at the time.
Bruce Willis was a television comedy actor then, and a long way down the casting list.
Pure stubbornness Improvises Complains throughout
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Ethan Hunt Mission: Impossible, 1996 The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
Your partner has run seventeen scenarios before you finished the briefing, and the one he settled on involves at least two things that should not be physically possible. Ethan Hunt works at the outer edge of human capability, technically and physically, and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organizations that should not exist. He is not easy to know and he will never tell you everything. He will carry the weight anyway. Why he is your partner
He takes the risk himself rather than assigning it.
He is three moves ahead and will not say which three.
He treats your survival as the actual objective.
From the Collider file
Cruise hung off the side of an Airbus A400M at a thousand feet for the opening of Rogue
Nation.
The HALO jump in Fallout took 106 takes, filmed at dusk for the light.
The Final Reckoning in 2025 was the eighth film, and was sold as the last.
Takes the risk Never explains Finishes it
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‘Reacher’ Has Never Been Completely Invincible
In Tripwire, published in 1999, Reacher faces Victor “Hook” Hobie (inside the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, no less) and the confrontation leaves him hospitalized. As Ritchson points out, the character ultimately survives, but only after suffering injuries serious enough to leave him unconscious for weeks. In fact, Reacher’s scarring from the incident remains in place for the rest of the series, as did the legacy of him surviving a gunshot wound to the pectorals due to digging swimming pools, which is still the funniest thing.
The recently released fourth season adapts Lee Child’s Gone Tomorrow, the 13th novel in the bestselling series. It begins when Reacher encounters a distraught stranger on a subway, only for the situation to go horribly wrong and pull him into a conspiracy involving enemies occupying some of the highest levels of power. And Reacher gets beaten the hell up, too.
All four seasons of Reacher are streaming on Prime Video, with Season 5 currently in production and Season 6 already confirmed. Stay tuned to Collider for all the latest news and updates on the biggest and best movies and shows heading to your favorite streaming platforms soon.
