Is Jack Reacher autistic? A look at Amazon's series protagonist

Reacher often behaves in eccentric ways. For this reason, fans of Amazon's production began to wonder whether the hero from Lee Child's books is autistic.

movie & TV series trivia

Mateusz Libera20 December 2023

Source: Reacher, Nick Santora, Amazon Prime Video, 2022

The first three episodes of the second season of Reacher, a popular Amazon Prime Video production, had their release on the platform on December 15, 2023. We will receive the next two episodes even before the new year, on December 22 and 29 respectively. The series, which turned out to be an unexpected major hit is an adaptation of books written by Lee Child, starring Jack Reacher, a former military police major of United States Army as the main character. The newly released initial episodes of Season 2 provoked heated discussion and sprung wild theories, as evidenced by new threads on Reddit emerging all over the related subreddits. These focus not only on the series' plot and the source material regularly delivered by Lee Child, but also the psychological profile of the main hero which is based on our time spent with the character in novels and TV adaptations.

Some of the most interesting speculations about the character portrayed by Alan Ritchson are those relating to the disposition, moral code and behavior of Jack Reacher. Some fans deduced that the hero may be on the autism spectrum, which has some truth to it if we take under advisement some of his traits and his approach to and behavior in individual situations. On the other hand, the showrunners haven't really confirmed these speculations to be correct.

The first mentions of this theory appeared two years ago, which means they were based rather on books and eventually films starring Tom Cruise .

“From his description it said he has a "fascination with numbers." He uses the amount of money deposited to him by Neagley as a means to contact him. He can time when he wants to wake up and he times how long he wins in a fight to make sure he wins fast as possible. Autists are very well known to be fascinated with numbers,” wrote drivenmadnow.

Someone else noted that in the first season we were subjected to some flashback scenes, and the events which took place in them also point to this. There was also a person who suffers from similar disorders (Asperger's syndrome), and decided to share their thoughts:

“His one word honest (to a fault) even when he seems unaware how his honesty will negatively impact the others in the conversation. His lazer honed ability to concentrate on one task at a time rather than multi-task. His very definite definitions of honour, chivalry, sense of duty, right and wrong are not only definite but black and white, Reacher is oblivious to grey. As has been noted from the books, anti-social and awkward speech patterns especially in less serious conversations. I could go on...” explained redditor neolestat_photo.

However, neither the series nor Child's books directly confirm these hypotheses.

Amazon Prime reinterprets Jack Reacher

It may seem, as indicated by comments on Reddit, that the creators of the series want us to think that Jack Reacher is on the autism spectrum. This is achieved through flashbacks, which build the image of a young person who is eccentric and somehow different than the rest, which translates into a kind of uniqueness in his adulthood .

“Episode 7, 2:48 seconds in. He is younger, mostly non verbal. And his mother said, you have the strength of 3 boys your age. Emotions are mostly pointless, good with numbers, reading rooms, assessing situations. Dudes gotta be autistic,” writes EnoughCardiologist26.

For the purpose of this theory, the most interesting are, of course, the opinions of people on the autism spectrum . Most of them confirm what the rest of the fans think .

“As someone on the autism spectrum, having just watched the first episode it certainly seemed like it to me.

Reacher's intense focus, his perfectionism and excellence in his chosen profession, his atypical social interactions, his complete honesty unless he has a clear reason to lie, his individual moral code, his generally flat affect, unusual mannerisms, and his complete IDGAF about other people's opinions of him are all indicative of what they used to call Asperger's, now known as high-functioning or low-support autism,” reports redditor keerawa.

The show's creators and Lee Child himself have not addressed these hypotheses, although there may not have been a situation yet in which they are clearly subjected to them and have to answer this question. However, judging by the fact that the people with similar disorders noticed this , Jack Reacher may actually have some type of autism.

This is why we will observe Jack Reacher closely during Season 2. Further episodes are scheduled to air before the end of this year and well into 2024. Moreover, it has been confirmed that season 3 of the series is in early development.

More:Reacher Season 2 Ending Hints Book They'll Adapt for Season 3

Mateusz Libera

He began his writing adventure by creating stories, later he followed the humanities path, choosing studies in journalism and social communication. He published his first texts on his personal blog and for contests. At the beginning of 2023, he joined the film department of GRYOnline.pl, where he started working as an author of articles about movies. He is interested in fantasy, history, RPG games, and strategies. He is also a long-time player of League of Legends - he has been playing since the second season. Additionally, he writes adventure and fantasy books, but in this field he is still a novice. Currently, he has published one collection of stories.

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