What Makes The Ideal Reacher Storyline, According To Star Alan Ritchson [Exclusive]
This post contains spoilers for the second season premiere of "Reacher."
The Jack Reacher series has had 28 books so far, and every fan's got a personal favorite. At a press day panel for "Reacher" season 2, /Film's own Jacob Hall asked Alan Ritchson, who plays Reacher in the series, what his favorite "Reacher" novel was. His answer was "Die Trying," the second book in the series. It was published in 1998 and follows Reacher as he unexpectedly comes across a kidnapping of a random woman in Chicago in the middle of the day. He tries to help, ends up kidnapped alongside her, and has to figure his way out of the chaotic situation that's been thrust upon him.
It's this style of plot that appeals most to Alan Ritchson. At least, this is the sort of story that best reflects who Reacher is at his core. "Reacher just wants to be left alone," he told /Film. "I don't think Reacher goes into a diner in the middle of the Sierra Nevadas looking for a fight, but it finds him."
Of course, Reacher's claims that he doesn't want any trouble, that he "prefers not to get involved," as he said in the season's premiere, is constantly called into question. The first season alone features Reacher going out of his way to tell off and then beat up a negligent dog owner. Nobody in the audience is likely to have a problem with his actions — by all accounts, the dog owner had it coming — but this is very much the action of someone who has no qualms about inserting himself into other people's business. This central "irony" behind the character, Ritchson explained, is present in the new season's very first scene.
Beating up a stray carjacker
"ATM" opens up with Reacher going to an ATM, only to notice that the woman ahead of him has fresh bruises on her face and is clearly terrified. He deduces that she's a victim of an ongoing carjacking and that her son is being held hostage in the nearby car. So he very quickly punches through the car window and beats the carjacker unconscious. This is a sequence only available in the TV show; in the book this season's based on, "Bad Luck and Trouble," Reacher simply goes to an ATM without any trouble.
When Reacher tells the mother he doesn't like getting involved, Alan Ritchson describes it as feeling like "the biggest lie." Although Reacher's actions are definitely noble, a man who truly didn't like getting involved would've just minded his business the whole time. "It was the weirdest thing," Ritchson said. "I felt so weird saying that after kicking the s**t out of some carjacker, that nobody really asked for his help."
It's a fitting contradiction to start the premiere on, because season 2 is all about blurring the lines between Jack being dragged into a situation vs. him walking into one. One can argue that the season's main arc is one of those "Reacher gets dragged into trouble" storylines that Ritchson loves so much; after all, nobody messes with the Special Investigators, so the moment the first SI is killed, Reacher is honor-bound to get to the bottom of the situation. However, nobody forces Reacher to get involved. Much like the first season, Reacher is given plenty of options to walk away, and he doesn't take them. So does the new season fit the guidelines for an ideal Reacher story, according to Ritchson? This time around, it's not really clear.
The first three episodes of "Reacher" season 2 are now available to stream on Amazon Prime, with new episodes following every Friday.