Jack Reacher books or Prime Video’s massively popular “Reacher” series, you’ve no doubt wondered at times how the character manages to get himself caught up in so many debacles, conspiracies, and general precarious situations. On the literary side, there are now 29 Jack Reacher novels as well as a collection of short stories, which means the titular character has managed to get himself caught up in bad luck and trouble — to use the title of the 11th book in the series — literally dozens of times.
With three seasons of “Reacher,” we’ve also seen the ex-military policeman embroiled in some sort of nefarious scheme three times in a row, thwarting a small-town conspiracy, killing the man responsible for offing his former squad members, and bringing down an international arms dealer. With season 3 of “Reacher” breaking a huge Prime Video viewing record, there will surely be much more to come, and “Reacher” season 4 has already been greenlit, so we’ll definitely see star Alan Ritchson come back for at least one more round.
But the question remains: how on Earth does Reacher keep getting himself into these sorts of situations? Well, part of it has to do with his size, which is a defining feature of the character both in print and on-screen. A man with “a six-pack like a cobbled city street, a chest like a suit of NFL armor, biceps like basketballs, and subcutaneous fat like a Kleenex tissue,” as he’s described in the books, is always going to attract attention. But another part of the answer comes down to his peripatetic lifestyle, which sees him constantly moving from town to town, encountering all-new opportunities for trouble in each new stop on his never-ending nomadic odyssey.
For author Lee Child, this aspect wasn’t always the most obviously attractive element of the character, but it turns out more people than you’d think aspire to be as free and off-the-grid as Jack Reacher.
