Jack Reacher

Jack Reacher is the protagonist of a series of crime thriller novels by British author Lee Child, a 2012 film adaptation, its 2016 sequel, and a television series on Amazon Prime Video. In the stories, Jack Reacher was a major in the U.S. Army's military police. After leaving the army, Reacher roamed the United States, taking odd jobs, investigating suspicious and dangerous situations, and resolving them.

As of 31 December 2025, there are 30 novels and short stories in the Reacher series. Five of the novels were adapted for cinema and television. Two of the adaptations are films starring Tom Cruise as Reacher: Jack Reacher (2012) from the ninth novel, One Shot; and Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016) from the eighteenth novel, Never Go Back.

The third adaptation, Reacher, is a television series on Amazon Prime Video, starring Alan Ritchson. The first season, adapted from the first novel, Killing Floor, premiered on 4 February 2022. The second season, from Bad Luck and Trouble, premiered 14 December 2023. The third season, based on the book Persuader, premiered on 20 February 2025.

Character development and perception

Lee Child was unemployed when he wrote Killing Floor after being fired as a union shop steward for Granada Television.

Child says he came up with the character’s name because an old woman remarked on his own physique while asking him to reach for a can of pears in a supermarket. Many have commented on similarities between Child and his fictional character. Child tends to agree with such observations: "I was huge as a kid and Reacher's stature is me translated as a kid." Canadian journalist Malcolm Gladwell wrote in The New Yorker of a difference between the symbolism of the Reacher character and of traditional Western characters: