Prime Video’s Reacher is one of the most compelling and addictive additions to the crime thriller genre. However, there are times when the Prime Video detective series stretches the suspension of disbelief a little too far and becomes almost nonsensical. The show’s inability to make sense all the time often adds to its appeal in more ways than one.
For instance, if it wasn’t for Jack Reacher’s near-superhuman strength, he would hardly stand out among other renowned on-screen detective characters. Prime Video’s Reacher is also jam-packed with many coincidences that ensure the Alan Ritchson character somehow always ends up in the middle of a brewing conspiracy. In one scene from season 2, Reacher even deploys a car’s airbag just by kicking its bonnet.
This, too, benefits the story because it highlights how trouble always manages to find Reacher, even though he is dead-set upon keeping himself invisible. Sometimes, though, specific details and developments in the series are so bizarre and ridiculous that it is hard not to question the internal logic holding it all together.
Like the original Jack Reacher books, even the show is supposed to be about a big, muscular man beating up bad guys and serving justice. However, there are times when it is almost impossible to overlook the show’s nonsensical aspects.
Reacher Walks Through A Hospital “In Disguise”
Reacher’s disguise in season 2’s final moments is even worse than Clark Kent’s. His entire physical description of being a broad, muscular, and 6 feet 5 inches man ensures that he cannot easily blend in with the crowd. It is almost impossible for him to be “invisible” in broad daylight, even if he ends up wearing a hospital staff uniform and hides his face with a mask.
Yet, Reacher walks in and out of a hospital in season 2 with ease just by hiding his identity with a nurse’s uniform and a mask. He even ruthlessly manages to kill many bad guys in the hospital without raising an alarm. The most unrealistic aspect of this sequence is that he finds a hospital staff uniform that actually ends up fitting him perfectly.
Since hospitals have high security and an unusually large man like Reacher would rarely go unnoticed inside them, it is hilarious that no one even suspects he is in the building until it is too late.
The Driver Carrying Missiles Stopping To Help Another Vehicle
One of the most ridiculous moments in Reacher season 2 is when a truck driver, transporting destructive missiles, gets the sudden urge to become a Good Samaritan. Instead of ensuring that his cargo reaches its destination with no interruptions, he breaks protocol and abandons his truck altogether only to help someone on the road.
Someone transporting military-grade weapons would be trained to never stop for an unverified roadside situation, especially one that screams potential ambush. The fact that his truck is not being escorted by other security professionals also makes little sense.
Xavier Quinn Somehow Survives
Image via Prime Video
As Reacher season 3’s flashbacks reveal, Jack Reacher shot Quinn before he fell into a ravine. There was almost no way for him to survive the incident. Yet, years later, Reacher discovers that the man is still alive and well and is back to continuing his illegal operations. Quinn seems to have taken no permanent damage from his first encounter with Reacher and only, quite conveniently, ends up losing his memory of the incident.
Hilariously, when Jack Reacher points his gun at him in Reacher season 3’s ending moments, Quinn’s memories magically return moments before he is killed. Many such plot conveniences define Reacher and Quinn’s rivalry in season 3. In a lot of ways, these bizarre story threads somehow make the show even more entertaining.
Security Cameras In Zachary Beck’s Home Never Capture Reacher
Image via Prime Video
The Prime Video show specifically points out that all security cameras in Zachary Beck’s home point towards the main gate. This allows Reacher to easily roam around the mansion at night and sneak back in whenever necessary. Given the high stakes of the illegal operations being carried out in the mansion, it would have made sense for Beck and Quinn’s security team to keep an eye on things inside the gate as well.
In Reacher season 3, Beck also later learns about a mole who was pretending to be one of the maids in his mansion. This is when he should have realized that some security cameras need to be recording what is happening inside. Yet, this never changes, allowing Reacher to sneak in and out without any issues.
Reacher Looks Like A Professional Bodybuilder & Even Gets Bigger
Jack Reacher only carries a toothbrush with him, that, too, a foldable one. A man like him, who chooses to live an extremely frugal life, would never take some time off to get a gym membership and workout. Yet, Jack Reacher only gets bigger with each season. And instead of merely being a big man, he seems to have a single-digit body fat percentage whenever viewers see him shirtless.
Here is a comparison between Alan Ritchson’s height and weight against the original books’ Jack Reacher:
|
Name |
Alan Ritchson |
Jack Reacher (in the books) |
|
Height |
6’3″ |
6’5″ |
|
Weight |
235–240 lbs (106–108 kg) |
220–250 lbs (100–113 kg) |
The kind of physique he carries himself with would require regular visits to the gym with a calculated diet. Jack Reacher apparently does none of that. This is probably one of the many aspects that make him nearly superhuman.
Hilariously, the books push this narrative even further. In Tripwire, Jack Reacher spends the summer digging swimming pools. This makes his pectoral muscles so thick and dense that even a bullet stops dead when it hits his chest.
Reacher’s Trail Of Blood Goes Unnoticed Even In The Smallest Towns
Jack Reacher ruthlessly kills bad guys and shows no mercy towards wrong doers. He is supposed to be an invisible force who does his job, serves justice and leaves before law enforcement can catch up with him. However, given how he has already killed over a dozen people in three seasons, it is hard to believe his vigilantism has gone unnoticed.
Even in the books, no one seems to notice Reacher’s killing streak as he goes from one town to another solving crimes and punishing wrongdoers. Interestingly, though, a spin-off book series, written by Diane Capri, follows the journey of FBI agents who try to track down Jack Reacher by following his trail of blood.
Serving as an unofficial spin-off to Lee Child’s original book series, Capri’s Hunt For Reacher books explore how Jack Reacher’s vigilantism does not go unnoticed by law enforcement.
Dominique Kohl’s Death Was Easily Avoidable
Despite understanding how big of a threat someone like Quinn can be, Reacher surprisingly sends only two people to get him arrested. Even if Reacher had sent an entire team of armored professionals to take Quinn down, Dominique Kohl could have led the mission and taken credit for it. Yet, he makes the dumb move of sending only one other person with her, believing that he was helping her gain more credibility.
Jack Reacher is supposed to have the same level of intelligence as iconic detective characters like Shelock Holmes. In fact, Sherlock was also one of the key inspirations for Lee Child when he first wrote the Jack Reacher books. Owing to this, it seems a little implausible that Reacher would underestimate a threat like Xavier Quinn and let Kohl handle him all by herself.
Prime Video’s Reacher Forgot One Shot’s Events Have Already Happened
When Reacher reunites with Neagley in season 2’s early moments, he recalls how he ran into James Barr a year prior. This reference to Barr establishes that the events of Lee Child’s One Shot have happened off-screen, between seasons 1 and 2. It also subtly gives away that the show will not adapt One Shot, likely because it was already covered in one of the two Tom Cruise Jack Reacher movies.
Prime Video’s Reacher, so far, has dropped no references to the events of Lee Child’s Never Go Back, which was adapted by the second movie in Tom Cruise’s Jack Reacher series.
Surprisingly, in season 2 itself, the show explicitly contradicts this. When a senator’s right-hand man runs Reacher’s past record, he only mentions Jack Reacher’s history in Margrave from season 1. The record clearly suggests that Jack Reacher “fell off the map” after he retired from the military. Given how high-profile James Barr’s case was in One Shot, it does not make sense for it to go completely unnoticed.
After this development, it is unknown whether One Shot‘s events have happened in the Prime Video show or not. While it still seems unlikely that Prime Video’s Reacher will adapt the books covered in the movies, it is clear that it does not always conform to its own established lore.
