Prime Video’s action thriller series Reacher is one of the most popular shows of the 2020s, as evidenced by it just passing the one billion minutes streamed mark. Starring Alan Ritchson as the hulking, quippy special investigator, Reacher has built a massive audience on the back of its charismatic star and a rapid-fire deluge of inventive, well-executed action beats. While the investigative work that Reacher and his allies do certainly plays a role in why the show has been so well-received, it’s at its best when Reacher is beating down baddies with his bare hands—or whatever else he can get his hands on.
The fight scenes in Reacher are at times reminiscent of the John Wick movies in the suddenness and violence of the impacts, made even more noticeable by Alan Ritchson’s massive frame and fists. There are plenty of gun battles in the show, but the best of the best fight scenes involve Reacher using his own body as a weapon, or using everyday items and indeed his surroundings to his advantage. We’ve compiled a list of the 10 best fight scenes throughout Reacher‘s first four seasons, and ranked them based on violence, ingenuity, and quality of opponent.
10
The Hospital Fight (Season 2, Episode 7)
A brief yet extremely bloody ending makes this fight memorable.
Not all the fights in Reacher are long, drawn-out affairs. In fact, some of the most satisfying moments of violence are brief. During season 2, we get one such moment that actually features Maria Sten’s Frances Neagley, a long-time ally of Reacher. As Reacher and Neagley pursue a hitman posing as a doctor through a hospital, Neagley finds herself ambushed by the fake doctor in an operating room, and he comes at her with a small electric bone saw. The hitman has the upper hand and seems poised to slide Neagley open, with the whirring of the tool helping to ratchet up the tension, until Reacher joins the fight. It ends in gruesome fashion, as the fake doctor falls on the saw’s blade, leading to heavy blood flow and unfortunately no information for the investigators.
9
The Construction Site Fight (Season 2, Episode 2)
Reacher lays bricks on a pair of henchmen.
Earlier in season 2, Reacher and his ally Karla Dixon (Serinda Swan) find themselves pursued by a trio of goons in the city, and the ultimately flee to a construction site. As the trio of foes split up to find them, Reacher lays a trap for one and engages in one-on-one combat, eventually parrying his enemy’s knife thrusts with a bricklayer’s trowel. Reacher kills the man by stabbing him with the tool and throwing him off a roof onto a pile of cinder blocks. Dixon uses the second goon as a human bullet shield from the third, and Reacher overpowers the third before drowning him in wet cement. It’s a cleverly-crafted bit of combat that ends in satisfying fashion.
8
Reacher Fights Hitmen in the Forest (Season 3, Episode 6)
The special investigator uses darkness as his ally.
Under fire from pursuers riding ATVs, Reacher flees into the woods for cover and quickly finds himself engaging with three enemies. Totally outgunned and outnumbered, Reacher shoots out the lights on their ATVs and melts into the darkness of the woods, calling upon his commando experience to fight back with stealth. Covering his face in mud to aid in his camouflage, Reacher methodically picks the men off one by one, snapping the first’s neck and stabbing the second before he even knew Reacher was there. The third man suffers a more inventive fate, as Reacher gets the hook and rope from the ATV’s winch wrapped around his neck. A simple push of the button and the winch tightens until the man strangles and chokes on his own blood. Reacher was in full control once the lights went out, leaving this fight light on tension but heavy on entertainment.
7
The Helicopter Fight (Season 2, Episode 8)
Even for Reacher, this one’s over the top.
The finale of season 2 featured Reacher’s vengeance against Robert Patrick’s Shane Langston, a corrupt defense contractor who was behind the murder of two of Reacher’s friends, who he threw from a helicopter. The villain takes off with Reacher’s friends O’Donnell and Dixon strapped to gurneys, intending to kill them in the same fashion. Reacher manages to climb aboard as the chopper is taking off, and dukes it out with Langston and his henchman. At one point the fight jumps the shark a bit, as Reacher manages to somehow hold on to the entire gurney holding Dixon with one arm, which has a knife in it. That doesn’t make the fight any less of a spectacle though, and Reacher tossing Langston out of the helicopter is as satisfying a finish as you’ll get.
6
Reacher Gets Tied Up on the Fire Escape (Season 1, Episode 6)
Reacher uses his environment to kill a merc in devastating fashion.
This fight is one of the greatest examples of Reacher’s ingenuity as a hand-to-hand combatant. Pursued by a single henchman, a shirt-and-tie-wearing Reacher winds up baiting his pursuer down an alley, and their fight shifts up the stairs of a nearby fire escape. The weaponless Reacher grabs a bicycle tire to defend himself from his attacker’s knife, and eventually transitions to using his own tie in the same fashion. To finish the fight, Reacher wraps the tie around his enemy’s throat, and then uses his entire body weight to choke the life out of him by dangling over the edge of the staircase. It’s peak Reacher one-on-one combat.
5
Reacher Introduces Himself to His Fellow Prisoners (Season 1, Episode 1)
Our first glimpse at Reacher’s no-holds-barred fighting style remains brilliantly brutal.
The audience’s first real introduction to Reacher remains among the best fight scenes in the entire show. Locked up in a prison with the general population, Reacher finds himself confronted by a gang of criminals in the prison bathroom, which he swiftly turns to his advantage. Reacher showcases his entire fighting style in the span of a couple minutes, using “dirty” moves like eye-gouges and crotch-shots, turning the surrounding environment into a weapon, and completely overpowering multiple foes at once with his stunning size and strength. It’s a grandiose, bloody spectacle that in many ways sets the tone for the entire series.
4
The Hubble House Massacre (Season 1, Episode 7)
Reacher goes full commando on a handful of unlucky goons.
While the impromptu combat is Reacher’s specialty, he’s just as capable when it comes to invoking his skills as an Army special operative. Late in season 1, Reacher sets a trap for a group of assassins by turning the Hubble house into his own personal fortress, and in full camouflage and battle gear, he sets about killing them in efficient fashion. This fight is somewhat unique, because the final hitman nearly kills Reacher with the help of a crowbar. The fight also takes an interesting visual turn, as it ends up with the two men fighting in a pool, giving us some cool underwater shots. Reacher eventually triumphs, of course, but for a minute it certainly looked like it could have been the end for him.
3
Reacher vs. Lila & Amisha (Season 4, Episode 8)
Reacher has to survive two ultra-deadly opponents at once.
Season 4 provided a new type of villain for Reacher in the deadly duo of Lila and Amisha, a pair of Indonesian assassins with their own special brand of lethal skills. The two women wield a weapon known as a karambit, a special hooked knife that allows for deadly close-contact slicing. After fighting his way up through the warehouse the two women are hiding out in, a bloodied Reacher finds himself surrounded by the two women, who circle him like a pair of lionesses going in for the kill.
When the fight begins, Reacher seems completely outmatched, and both women cut him repeatedly until his shirt is a shredded, bloody mess. However, they eventually get close enough for his immense size and strength to make a difference, and several massive blows put Lila on the ground and Amisha out a window. The fight isn’t over there, as both women and Reacher survive, but the rest of the finale never reaches the highs of that bloody two-on-one matchup.
2
Reacher Gets Nailed By Amisha’s Goons (Season 4, Episode 8)
Reacher goes through hell before he can even get to the final bosses.
Before Reacher gets to Lila and Amisha, he needs to fight his way through their gang of trained and deadly mercenaries. He draws their attention in explosive fashion (literally) and then the fight is on. Reacher gets another good stairwell fight in, notably using a heavy metal door as both a shield and a weapon, before the action transitions into a room and hallway where one of the mercs grabs a nail gun. Reacher has his hand stapled to a wall and then the floor, but that only serves to elevate Reacher’s rage and lethality. With the nails still sticking through his hand, Reacher’s palm strikes suddenly become far more dangerous as he slap/stabs his way through his foes. Reacher takes a ton of punishment on his way to Lila and Amisha, but it’s the most exciting fight of season 4.
1
Reacher vs. Paulie (Season 3, Episode 8)
Reacher is on the ropes against his largest opponent yet.
Given that each season of Reacher is based on one of Lee Child’s novels, die-hard fans knew this fight was coming before the season even started. In the season finale, Reacher finds himself going one-on-one in a fight to the death with the bodyguard Paulie van Hoven, played by Oliver Richters (a real bodybuilder known as “the Dutch Giant”). The man is far larger than even Reacher, and the final fight proves how entertaining it is to see Reacher have to battle as the weaker man for the first time.
The action is incredible, as both men spend the entire battle throwing bone-crunching haymakers with their fists and anything else they can find in the garage the fight starts in. Paulie hangs Reacher by a chain, Reacher drowns Paulie in the ocean (the fight involves an uncontrolled fall down a hill into the sea), and the two men work their way back to a light machine gun hanging in a guard shack. The fight ends in a completely unexpected fashion, with Paulie’s throat being blown out by the machine gun he attempted to kill Reacher with thanks to some tampering on Reacher’s part. The fight truly lives up to the incredible hype surrounding it, and both Alan Ritchson and Oliver Richters deliver in spades.
- Release Date
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February 3, 2022
- Network
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Prime Video
- Showrunner
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Nick Santora
