“I Can Never Fight Like That”: Why Reacher’s Alan Ritchson Worried About The Show’s Action (& How He Nailed It)

The titular character in Amazon’s Reacher fights in a unique way, but star Alan Ritchson was concerned he’d never be able to pull off the character’s particularly brutal style. Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels have been bestsellers for over 20 years, with the books being a unique blend of traditional murder mystery thrillers but starring an ’80s action movie hero. The Reacher of Child’s work sounds a lot like Dolph Lundgren in his heyday, but the difficulty of finding an actor with the right mix of intellect and muscles led to the producers of the Jack Reacher movies giving up on the latter element, and casting Tom Cruise instead.

While there’s plenty to enjoy in the first film, Cruise was fundamentally wrong for the titular role. Amazon’s TV adaptation hit the jackpot with Alan Ritchson, with his take on Reacher practically walking off the page. Reacher season 1 adapted Killing Floor, a logical starting place since this was also the character’s book debut. The show also upped the quota of action and fights, where Reacher’s past as a military policeman came in useful in his battles against various henchmen and assassins.

Alan Ritchson Was Worried About Pulling Off Reacher’s Intense Fighting Style

Fans of the Reacher novels will know the wandering avenger is all about practicality. The only luggage he carries is a toothbrush and his passport, and he buys new clothing from charity shops every few days. This sense of economy translates to fights too; he’ll avoid them if possible but if he can’t, he wants to shut them down quickly. He’s fond of headbutts for this reason, and Reacher’s first season did a great translating the character’s blunt-force fighting style.

The highlight setpiece sees Reacher battling several prisoners in a bathroom, where he’s smashing people with his elbows, inflicting severe kicks to the groin and even using his thumb to gouge eyes. Prior to the show, Ritchson was no stranger to action parts, having appeared in the likes of Titans, but Reacher’s brand of brawling was new to the actor. Speaking with /Film about his training, Ritchson recalled nearly having “a panic attack” over concerns he couldn’t get Reacher’s style right.

How Ritchson’s Reacher Perfectly Nails The Amazon Show’s Action Scenes

Ritchson was required to adjust to a totally different style of choreography for Reacher, but it’s fair to say his hard work paid off. The prison fight is Reacher’s best because Ritchson had the most time to prepare for it. Not only is it an intense, exciting action scene, but it reveals a lot about Reacher as a character. He has no interest in fighting clean or being honorable; he’s outnumbered and knows the only way he’s going to survive is to be as brutal as possible, as quickly as possible.

In the aforementioned interview, Ritchson confesses as the season wore on, he had less and less time to prepare. It got to the stage he was practicing in parking lots the day before, trying to get the moves right. What the later fights lack in finesse, they make up for in blunt impact though. They also walk a fine line between depicting Reacher as a musclebound force of nature that can demolish most targets, while giving his opponents enough of a fighting chance to make these bouts interesting.

What Reacher’s Action Gets Right That Other Adaptations Don’t

The Jack Reacher movies had solid action, but Cruise not being the right choice for the role was always an issue. As depicted in Child’s books, a single punch or headbutt from Reacher is enough to flatten most threats. Amazon’s series took the time to port the character as written to the screen, from his many personality quirks to his steamroller style of combat.

Like the best action sequences, Reacher’s fights are based on character. His use of headbutts, elbows or aiming for weak points is about efficiency, grace be damned. Rather than tweak the character to fight in a more traditional style, the team behind the series and Ritchson themselves took the extra step of bringing Child’s words to life as much as possible, and the success of the show proves they made the right call.