Reacher Season 2's Big Villain Is A Clear Homage To A James Cameron Classic
This post contains spoilers for episode one of "Reacher" season 2.
After a long wait, Alan Ritchson's Reacher is finally back for more punching-bad-guys-really-hard in the face action. This time, there's one particular bad guy who is surely heading for one of the most epic "Reacher" beatings yet.
Prior to the second season's debut, it was announced that Robert Patrick had replaced Rory Cochrane in the role of Shane Langston, a former NYPD detective who now heads up security for a private defense contractor. While Langston doesn't appear in "Bad Luck and Trouble," the book on which "Reacher" season 2 is based, he seems to be a version of the character Allen Lamaison, an ex-LAPD officer who, in the novel, became the director of the defense contractor New Age. Either way, it's obvious from the inaugural episode of season 2 that Langston has something to do with the insidious plot to kill off members of Reacher's former military police unit.
Formed during Reacher's time as a Major in the Army's military police, the "Special Investigators," as they refer to themselves, were a squad assembled by the titular hero to, well, investigate stuff. Now, following Reacher and his compatriots' departure from the Army, members of the original squad have started showing up dead, and episode one strongly hints at the individual behind those deaths: that individual being Shane Langston.
While we only get a brief introduction to Patrick's villain in the first episode, it's a memorable one nonetheless — mainly because it pays homage to the actor's most significant role as one of cinema's great villains, while simultaneously pointing to Langston as perhaps an even more ruthless antagonist.
Patrick's dark turn in Reacher
For "Reacher" season 1, showrunner Nick Santora made a concerted effort to adhere to Lee Child's original novel, "Killing Floor." Not only did we get the most familiar, book-accurate version of Jack Reacher as a result, but the season's plot largely followed the book's. This time around, things have been switched up a bit more. Rather than being set in L.A. like "Bad Luck and Trouble," season 2 is set in New York City. What's more, not only have Santora and his writing team conceived of the Shane Langston character specifically for the show, they've made sure to sneak in a nice little homage to Robert Patrick's past, too.
Patrick is, of course, best known for playing the T-1000 in "Terminator 2," — and in a surprising amount of other things. In James Cameron's 1991 action classic, Patrick's liquid metal killer robot is on the hunt for Edward Furlong's John Connor, the future leader of the human resistance. Unfortunately, the T-1000 didn't reckon with the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger's T-800 Terminator or Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor, John's mom and all-around badass. By the end, John, Sarah, and the Terminator destroy Patrick's villain in a vat of molten steel.
Fittingly, then, when Langston is first introduced in "Reacher," there's an immediate homage to "T2." The moment comes when one of the security boss's lackeys calls to reveal that Reacher and his comrade Neagley (Maria Sten) checked into their hotel under the names Sarah Connor and Starling Castro. Langston explains that the latter "played for the Yankees six or seven years ago." But when asked about the name "Sarah Connor," he dismisses the inquiry with a curt "I don't give a s**t."
This ain't the T-2000
By throwing in the Sarah Connor reference, Nick Santora and co. simultaneously pay homage to Robert Patrick's famous "Terminator 2" role while also subtly letting us know that this is a whole different ball game. By way of comparison, in "Casino Royale" — still the best Bond movie ever made — Daniel Craig's James Bond is asked whether he wants his martini shaken or stirred and replies with, "Do I look like I give a damn." That one line signaled to the audience back in 2006 that we were witnessing the arrival of a whole new, much more rugged and realistic Bond — one that isn't concerned with the trivialities of 007 trademarks.
Similarly, Patrick's "I don't give a s**t" seems to signal to the audience that while the writers are fully aware of the star's history, this new villain is very much only focused on taking out Reacher and his former Army unit, and certainly isn't going to be a rehash of any previous Patrick performance. That five-word line tells us all we need to know about Langston.
Still, crafting a villain even more terrifying than the T-1000 is going to be a heck of a challenge for Patrick and the writers. The "T2" baddie is one of the most iconic and imposing villains in cinema history, so it will be interesting to see how Langston proves his bad guy bonafides throughout the rest of "Reacher" season 2.
Is there another T2 reference in Reacher?
Though it seems the "Sarah Connor" line is the one and only "T2" reference we'll be getting, especially since it's so quickly dismissed by Robert Patrick's character, there might just be one more "Terminator" callback contained within the first episode of "Reacher" season 2.
Late in the episode, A.M. — a mysterious and sinister figure played by Ferdinand Kingsley — meets two counterfeiters in an L.A. freeway underpass. After picking up his fake passports, A.M. kills both associates — one of whom is wearing an L.A. Lakers jersey — and departs, with the camera focusing on his feet as he calmly leaves the scene of the crime.
While this might seem like a stretch, the whole scene feels vaguely reminiscent of the T-1000's arrival in "T2." That particular sequence was shot under Los Angeles' Sixth Street Viaduct — an environment evoked by A.M.'s freeway underpass meeting in "Reacher" — and sees Patrick's cyborg kill a police officer in a similarly calm fashion. The scene even includes a post-murder shot of the T-1000's feet walking away, much like the shot from "Reacher."
Can this really be thought of as another "Terminator 2" callback? It's unclear at this point, but there are several other things about this scene that make it stand out. First of all, the L.A. setting is out of context in "Reacher" season 2, most obviously because the writers made a concerted effort to shift the California setting of the novel to New York City in the show. Nick Santora and co. could have had A.M. meet the counterfeiters anywhere, but they chose L.A. and made a point of highlighting that fact with the Lakers jersey. And while A.M. himself is obviously not Robert Patrick's character, perhaps the writers just generally got the "T2" bug once Patrick was cast.
Reacher vs the T-1000
The cool thing about Robert Patrick playing the bad guy in "Reacher" is not just that he brings some action movie gravitas and a distinguished on-screen legacy to the whole thing, but that his T-1000 character oddly has a lot in common with Alan Ritchson's Jack Reacher. Throughout his books, author Lee Child made a point of conveying just how taciturn Reacher is, writing the character as a calm and calculating individual who's always surveying his surroundings with a cool insouciance. That's pretty much the perfect description of the T-1000, except that what animated Patrick's intense yet subdued performance was the fact that he was playing a soulless killing machine rather than an ex-military officer whose quiet confidence came from years of experience.
All of which is to say that Patrick was the perfect choice to play the villain in "Reacher" season 2, and it will be a blast to see Ritchson's calm and collected hero face off against Shane Langston when the inevitable face-off arrives. The "Reacher" season 2 trailer has already promised plenty of bad-guys-getting-effed-up action with this new run of episodes, and considering one of the highlights of the first season was the intense fight scenes, Langston is sure to be in for a whopping even the T-1000 would be proud of.
New episodes of "Reacher" premiere every Friday on Amazon Prime.