Alan Ritchson’s character, Jack Reacher, the towering ex-military beast, knocks hooligans out with one punch. But crushing villainous characters requires more than physicality on screen.
In Reacher Season 3, Ritchson adamantly decided to brave his stunts without any body double, but who would have thought this 6ft tall butch would get himself knocked unconscious.
Reacher Season 3 has finally aired its finale this Thursday, the culmination of Jack Reacher’s search for justice and resolution for now. The finale scene ultimately pits the two giants, Jack Reacher and Paulie, played by Olivier Richters, in a brief “rag-dolled” battle. This is just a reminder for the audience: Paulie is twice Reacher’s size, and those who have watched the series know what his one punch could do to Reacher.
Reacher star Alan Ritchson on getting knocked unconscious
Alan Ritchson was pumped up to do a final one-on-one with Richters’ character Pauli in the season finale. Given the opportunity, he wanted to make the most out of it, ensuring the audience believed he was into his character 100 percent. He fought with the team to perform the fight sequence himself, insisting on making it as accurate as possible.
However, it cost Ritchson his consciousness for a day and a half. During an exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly, the Reacher star talked about getting into a “huge fight” with his team, who warned him that he might get badly hurt in the scene. Ritchson performed the sequence himself, later realizing it was the “worst few minutes” of his life.
He remarked about the whole fight sequence:
I got picked up and we worked out the camera thing a few times and he slammed me through the table so hard, I went through it into the seventh circle of hell. And I woke up a day and a half later. When I came to, I had to tell my kids that I felt great, because they were on set, and I didn’t want them to think that like, dad died and was going to not be okay. It was the worst few minutes of my life.
The Fast X actor also revealed that his kids were on the set while shooting the finale fight scene. He told his kids that he felt “great” while feeling all dizzy and battered up.
Reacher Season 3: A finale worth the pain
The Season 3 finale of Reacher, Unfinished Business, adapts the relentless spirit of Persuader. In it, Reacher infiltrates a criminal empire to rescue a DEA informant and settle a score with Francis Xavier Quinn, the man who killed his protégé years prior. The fight with Paulie, Beck’s towering bodyguard, serves as the physical crescendo to a season steeped in tension and revenge.
Spanning 28 minutes of screen time, the brawl stretches Reacher to his limits, hung, punched, and drowned before he outsmarts his gargantuan foe with a clever gun-barrel trick. Ritchson himself could not quite get a hold of the brawl, calling it a “hoot,” he said:
That was one, three-second beat in 28 minutes of content, just to give you an example of what my life was like for those three weeks. It was a hoot.
The finale sequence might have wrapped Ritchson in a whirlpool of physical strain, but he must be glad that his decision to “take one for the team” paid off beautifully on the screen. Ritchson also rejoiced that his character is no superhero, and getting “somebody that makes you question whether or not he’s gonna live” makes it more fun. (via. Collider)
Reacher Season 3 Finale is streaming on Prime Video now.
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