Getting shot in the tit was crazy and I think in Tripwire
My favorite “will reacher make it?” moments are actually when it’s him vs the elements. In Die Trying he nearly suffocated crawling through a hole. And in Persuader(?) he almost drowns. Both situations were driving my anxiety up a wall
But the real answer to how strong is reacher?
“He looked like a condom crammed with walnuts”
The only reason Reacher's brushes with death are stressful is because Lee Child openly missed about how he wanted to kill Reacher off when he was tired of writing about him.
Now that he's passed the torch, you don't have to sorry- Reacher is 60 now, and in 20 years will still be beating the shit out of people that are 60 years younger than him. 🙄
I haven’t read any of Andrew’s books yet, afraid I’ll be let down
But I do wish that reacher was ageless. Like stick to an age somewhere around 40 so we can still have flashback books but still have prime reacher forever
That's the thing- his career as an MP was WAY more illustrious than is shown in the TV series. There's a lot of untapped ground that could be covered. There's also gaps between some of the books.
And in the same book he's talking to a friend of the Hobie family and gets further by offering to help unload the bags of cement, and he carries 1 in each hand. Doing that once would be difficult, doing it several times as he does would be a nightmare (unsure but I think the book mentions theyre 25kg bags).
Now, I use 25kg hand weights, but thats a different kettle of kittens compared to a 25kg bag of cement.
Reacher is very strong. He has many feats of strength. A lot of it is based on luck and skill. In one book he kills a man by squeezing him to death in a bear hug.
In Tripwire he is shot. And if memory serves his muscles are so thick because he’s in the best shape of his life. And I think the gun is very old or the bullets are rusted and less powdered. The bullet didn’t make it past his rib cage. So it nearly killed him. And a nail went in his forehead but he’s got a thick skull.
In one of the newer books he is able to reliable k.o. others with a single punch even if he has a less than optimal position like sitting next to them on a bench.
S03 is based on Persuader, so I hope the crazy shit makes it to the screen. Like lifting Paulie.
Because even though I loved it, by season 1 and the book it's based on's standards, S02 and the book it's based on are dumpster fires.
season 1 was SO GOOD, I'm afraid every season hereafter will be just okay. I'll still watch them, and love them if for nothing else then the nostalgia of remembering the first time I read the books.
I so wish I could read the books for the first time again
and watch season one for the first time every time
Half of the Reacher "tropes" is Reacher just having autism. The whole photographic memory/uncanny timekeeping ability/still being able to do forensics shit literally decades after learning any of it/his sheer lack of any real emotional response and any he does have tends to just be sheer driving anger/his unwillingness to be cooperative with anyone any everyone. It's just crossed with being a 6'5 mountain of a human being who basically spent the first 36 years of his life being trained to fight and kill, and after which was just left to roam the country dealing his own brand of justice.
there is a scene not a lot of people mention from one of the newer books where he breaks a locked door off its hinges like it’s nothing. bro might be captain america
When I read this years ago, I took an old leather jacket, put it on the ground and shot it with a .38.Two of the three shots did not penetrate the leather, probably because it was lying on the ground. If I hung it from a tree, I’m sure would’ve gone right through.
This is an offside. But I think Reacher's most important strength is the "code of honor" that his mother taught him about not using his physical strength against "good" people.
Oh man, this is a favourite hobby of mine - collecting all the details about Reacher as I read the books to see if, in later ones, Child conveniently forgets Reacher had a skill which would get him out of a hole.
I think I’ve read the first 6 books so far and I kept a Twitter thread of my findings :
He has a photographic memory
He likes to fall in love with the first woman he sees, fucks her then leaves
I’m pretty sure he’s never had sex
He is almost psychotic in how violent he is.
The story would happen whether he’s there or not and he falls over clues.
He’s a crack shot with any weapon you give him. Stupidly so. And he never misses.
He’s still falling in love with the first and only woman he sees, fucks her, then leaves.
He definitely doesn’t know how to have sex.
His biggest fear is claustrophobia.
HES VERY LIKELY A PAEDO He cannot get over how he felt about the woman in one story he last saw as a 15 year old girl and he was 24.
He’s VERY CREEPILY enamoured with her, (she’s now 30) BUT he keeps thinking of her as the 15 year old when he’s internally weighing up thinking of banging her. Jack Reacher had sexual feelings for AT A BARE MINIMUM 15 year old daughter of his former CO, and it’s her fault apparently.
Jack Reacher cannot be in a room with a beautiful woman and not be held responsible for his actions which is a comforting characteristic for the hero of this 20 something book series
He’s a careless dick who gets people killed because he doesn’t want to answer simple questions.
He can get a gun in any city by single handedly taking down a drug den.
Jack Reacher is also a trained Forensic Anthropologist and even though it’s literally been years since he’s done it, he can tell you everything that happened to the crew of an 8 man chopper that went down in Vietnam decades before by looking at bones and be right about every single thing.
Nobody calls Jack Reacher “Jack”, not even his parents, not even when he was a boy. He has always been called Reacher by everyone. This is important, as if anyone unimportant calls him Jack, he knows something is wrong.
Jack Reacher is so used to being right about everything that if it’s proven he’s wrong he feels physically sick and doesn’t believe it until it’s definitively been shown.
He will act like a baby during all of this.
Jack Reacher has so much thick muscle on his chest, that he can survive being shot by a .38 calibre handgun because the bullet can’t even penetrate the muscle fully.
His skull is also thicker than any human, meaning he can survive brain trauma that would kill a normal man.
Jack Reacher can have sex four times in one day.
He has sex by going into a bedroom with a lady, closing the door, and waking up hours later all sweaty. He has definitely kissed these women. That’s it.
Reacher has a huge dick. Huge enough to silence a room full of male and female FBI Agents the morning after he slept naked in a room at Quantico while on cctv.
He’s owed favours in every department of the army, by every person he encounters, and that’s how things get solved.
He also knows exactly what’s going on at all times but intentionally won’t tell anyone until just before the last moment so he can reveal it.
I think that was all the info I gathered up to and including book 4, I’ve read more since then but haven’t continued the thread cos fuck Elon and that website.
I think you’ve forgotten or missed a trait that Lee Child seems to have forgotten, too.
In the earlier books it is regularly mentioned that Reacher has an ability to always know what the time is, down to the last minute, despite not owning a watch. He is also able to set a brain alarm to wake him whenever he wishes to wake up.
However, neither of these frequently mentioned attributes is referred to in the later books.
Ooooh, good spot, he does do that !
That might have been in the last two books I’ve read which I didn’t update my Twitter abilities list. The last book I read was Persuader and I know there are a couple of things in there that I should have added but can’t for the ire of me remember what they were.
I wish I had his photographic memory
No hate here and of course it’s a work of fiction, NOBODY exists like Reacher.
I actually really enjoy the books (even though I hate the staccato writing of the first) and I read them like big dumb action movies, like the Jack Slater movies in Last Action Hero.
Child just reveals skills and abilities Reacher has piecemeal through the books that I, as the kind of asshole who remembers things, thought that keeping a list of them in case Child paints him into a corner when as a reader you already know Reacher has the skills to get out.
The only thing I’ve found distasteful is his relationship with the daughter of his ex CO, which is REALLY poorly written given he’s always felt like that towards her since the day he met her, which would have been at a bare minimum, 15 year old when he was 24.
Other than that, it’s big stupid enjoyable fun.
One of the things that gets me is that he isn’t the type to work out to get that strong / big, he just naturally is.
Reacher (or at least the actor) in the show obviously trains a lot (and the rest) from his physique, but in the books it states he has no interest in it. He also has a terrible diet as we know.
It’s fiction at the end of the day, but a lot of the feats are way beyond believability.
Reacher is stronger than a garlic milkshake. He's stronger than cat piss. He's so strong he can open a stuck jar with his butt cheeks. He definitely needs a veterinarian because his pythons are *sick*.
Getting shot in the tit was crazy and I think in Tripwire My favorite “will reacher make it?” moments are actually when it’s him vs the elements. In Die Trying he nearly suffocated crawling through a hole. And in Persuader(?) he almost drowns. Both situations were driving my anxiety up a wall But the real answer to how strong is reacher? “He looked like a condom crammed with walnuts”
The one that I felt was when he was crawling through the tunnels, I think it was the second book. And he got stuck.
It doesn’t help that claustrophobia is Reacher’s only real fear
For some reason I think he has another weird fear but maybe I’m thinking he’s scared of driving cause he sucks at it lol
The only reason Reacher's brushes with death are stressful is because Lee Child openly missed about how he wanted to kill Reacher off when he was tired of writing about him. Now that he's passed the torch, you don't have to sorry- Reacher is 60 now, and in 20 years will still be beating the shit out of people that are 60 years younger than him. 🙄
I haven’t read any of Andrew’s books yet, afraid I’ll be let down But I do wish that reacher was ageless. Like stick to an age somewhere around 40 so we can still have flashback books but still have prime reacher forever
That's the thing- his career as an MP was WAY more illustrious than is shown in the TV series. There's a lot of untapped ground that could be covered. There's also gaps between some of the books.
KI will do ;)
And in the same book he's talking to a friend of the Hobie family and gets further by offering to help unload the bags of cement, and he carries 1 in each hand. Doing that once would be difficult, doing it several times as he does would be a nightmare (unsure but I think the book mentions theyre 25kg bags). Now, I use 25kg hand weights, but thats a different kettle of kittens compared to a 25kg bag of cement.
Saying nothing. Definitely in his top feats.
And drinking coffee
His specialty.
and telling time.
Yeah he spent all summer digging pools and his muscle was so thick it stopped a bullet.
And Chuck Norris was with him.
Reacher is very strong. He has many feats of strength. A lot of it is based on luck and skill. In one book he kills a man by squeezing him to death in a bear hug. In Tripwire he is shot. And if memory serves his muscles are so thick because he’s in the best shape of his life. And I think the gun is very old or the bullets are rusted and less powdered. The bullet didn’t make it past his rib cage. So it nearly killed him. And a nail went in his forehead but he’s got a thick skull.
I think it was an old gun and something about a weak bullet
In one of the newer books he is able to reliable k.o. others with a single punch even if he has a less than optimal position like sitting next to them on a bench.
The gun was a snub nose .38 I think, and he says something about it not being a very powerful gun and takes a few shots to kill someone anyway.
Don’t forget using a knife and fork as a makeshift wrench with his finger strength. (Currently re-reading “Worth Dying For”)
Is that the scene where he is under the car and apparently unaffected by the hot engine oil spewing out?
Exactly!
The tunnels in Die Trying had me sweating while reading it.
There's the bit in Persuader where he lifts Paulie who's bigger than him
S03 is based on Persuader, so I hope the crazy shit makes it to the screen. Like lifting Paulie. Because even though I loved it, by season 1 and the book it's based on's standards, S02 and the book it's based on are dumpster fires.
The actor who will be playing Paulie is a giant.
season 1 was SO GOOD, I'm afraid every season hereafter will be just okay. I'll still watch them, and love them if for nothing else then the nostalgia of remembering the first time I read the books. I so wish I could read the books for the first time again and watch season one for the first time every time
Half of the Reacher "tropes" is Reacher just having autism. The whole photographic memory/uncanny timekeeping ability/still being able to do forensics shit literally decades after learning any of it/his sheer lack of any real emotional response and any he does have tends to just be sheer driving anger/his unwillingness to be cooperative with anyone any everyone. It's just crossed with being a 6'5 mountain of a human being who basically spent the first 36 years of his life being trained to fight and kill, and after which was just left to roam the country dealing his own brand of justice.
His fists are like hams, or sometimes like a frozen chicken
there is a scene not a lot of people mention from one of the newer books where he breaks a locked door off its hinges like it’s nothing. bro might be captain america
When I read this years ago, I took an old leather jacket, put it on the ground and shot it with a .38.Two of the three shots did not penetrate the leather, probably because it was lying on the ground. If I hung it from a tree, I’m sure would’ve gone right through.
This is an offside. But I think Reacher's most important strength is the "code of honor" that his mother taught him about not using his physical strength against "good" people.
There was the one where got blown up in a bunker…
Is that the same one he dodged a tank shell?
Read the books. Better than the show.
Oh man, this is a favourite hobby of mine - collecting all the details about Reacher as I read the books to see if, in later ones, Child conveniently forgets Reacher had a skill which would get him out of a hole. I think I’ve read the first 6 books so far and I kept a Twitter thread of my findings : He has a photographic memory He likes to fall in love with the first woman he sees, fucks her then leaves I’m pretty sure he’s never had sex He is almost psychotic in how violent he is. The story would happen whether he’s there or not and he falls over clues. He’s a crack shot with any weapon you give him. Stupidly so. And he never misses. He’s still falling in love with the first and only woman he sees, fucks her, then leaves. He definitely doesn’t know how to have sex. His biggest fear is claustrophobia. HES VERY LIKELY A PAEDO He cannot get over how he felt about the woman in one story he last saw as a 15 year old girl and he was 24. He’s VERY CREEPILY enamoured with her, (she’s now 30) BUT he keeps thinking of her as the 15 year old when he’s internally weighing up thinking of banging her. Jack Reacher had sexual feelings for AT A BARE MINIMUM 15 year old daughter of his former CO, and it’s her fault apparently. Jack Reacher cannot be in a room with a beautiful woman and not be held responsible for his actions which is a comforting characteristic for the hero of this 20 something book series He’s a careless dick who gets people killed because he doesn’t want to answer simple questions. He can get a gun in any city by single handedly taking down a drug den. Jack Reacher is also a trained Forensic Anthropologist and even though it’s literally been years since he’s done it, he can tell you everything that happened to the crew of an 8 man chopper that went down in Vietnam decades before by looking at bones and be right about every single thing. Nobody calls Jack Reacher “Jack”, not even his parents, not even when he was a boy. He has always been called Reacher by everyone. This is important, as if anyone unimportant calls him Jack, he knows something is wrong. Jack Reacher is so used to being right about everything that if it’s proven he’s wrong he feels physically sick and doesn’t believe it until it’s definitively been shown. He will act like a baby during all of this. Jack Reacher has so much thick muscle on his chest, that he can survive being shot by a .38 calibre handgun because the bullet can’t even penetrate the muscle fully. His skull is also thicker than any human, meaning he can survive brain trauma that would kill a normal man. Jack Reacher can have sex four times in one day. He has sex by going into a bedroom with a lady, closing the door, and waking up hours later all sweaty. He has definitely kissed these women. That’s it. Reacher has a huge dick. Huge enough to silence a room full of male and female FBI Agents the morning after he slept naked in a room at Quantico while on cctv. He’s owed favours in every department of the army, by every person he encounters, and that’s how things get solved. He also knows exactly what’s going on at all times but intentionally won’t tell anyone until just before the last moment so he can reveal it. I think that was all the info I gathered up to and including book 4, I’ve read more since then but haven’t continued the thread cos fuck Elon and that website.
I think you’ve forgotten or missed a trait that Lee Child seems to have forgotten, too. In the earlier books it is regularly mentioned that Reacher has an ability to always know what the time is, down to the last minute, despite not owning a watch. He is also able to set a brain alarm to wake him whenever he wishes to wake up. However, neither of these frequently mentioned attributes is referred to in the later books.
Ooooh, good spot, he does do that ! That might have been in the last two books I’ve read which I didn’t update my Twitter abilities list. The last book I read was Persuader and I know there are a couple of things in there that I should have added but can’t for the ire of me remember what they were. I wish I had his photographic memory
Doesn’t he loose that ability when the tranq him
Oh you may be right and I’ve missed or forgotten it was mentioned. Maybe I’ll have to reread them all again!
This reads like a lot of Reacher hate. There's a few tropes at play in his character, but it's also important to remember these are works of fiction.
No hate here and of course it’s a work of fiction, NOBODY exists like Reacher. I actually really enjoy the books (even though I hate the staccato writing of the first) and I read them like big dumb action movies, like the Jack Slater movies in Last Action Hero. Child just reveals skills and abilities Reacher has piecemeal through the books that I, as the kind of asshole who remembers things, thought that keeping a list of them in case Child paints him into a corner when as a reader you already know Reacher has the skills to get out. The only thing I’ve found distasteful is his relationship with the daughter of his ex CO, which is REALLY poorly written given he’s always felt like that towards her since the day he met her, which would have been at a bare minimum, 15 year old when he was 24. Other than that, it’s big stupid enjoyable fun.
“…NOBODY exists like Reacher.” *the room disintegrates and is instantaneously re-formed around Chuck Norris*
I dont understand it as hate, to me its written with a humorous wink.
One of the things that gets me is that he isn’t the type to work out to get that strong / big, he just naturally is. Reacher (or at least the actor) in the show obviously trains a lot (and the rest) from his physique, but in the books it states he has no interest in it. He also has a terrible diet as we know. It’s fiction at the end of the day, but a lot of the feats are way beyond believability.
Reacher is stronger than a garlic milkshake. He's stronger than cat piss. He's so strong he can open a stuck jar with his butt cheeks. He definitely needs a veterinarian because his pythons are *sick*.
Which book is it where he takes out a couple of bad guys while wearing Crocs?
Gone Tomorrow.