Reacher Almost Got To Punch an Entire Militia Until Somebody Got Elected

Here’s a neat little factoid: An encounter with local militias during my freshman year in college is what sparked my journey from sheltered evangelical weenie-boy to liberal rapscallion weenie-boy. So, when I read an interview with Lee Child where he talked about researching militias for the Jack Reacher novel, Die Trying, I immediately ran out and bought a copy. It is as advertised. Reacher gets scooped up in a kidnapping attempt and finds himself in a mountain camp where he proceeds to wreck a bunch of moron bigots trying to overthrow the government.

Naturally, this particular Reacher story endeared itself to Alan Ritchson, who has not been shy about his thoughts on the current administration. In fact, Ritchson loved Die Trying so much that he lobbied to get it made into a season. And then some things happened.

“Every season of Reacher so far has been great, and I understand that they may be avoiding the earlier novels due to their slightly less standalone nature, but every year I’m sad to learn that next season won’t be the book where he kills his way through a white supremacist militia camp,” a user wrote on Threads.

To which Ritchson replied, “My favorite book. Fun fact: I had it approved until someone got re-elected.”

Would adapting Die Trying have been a cathartic season of Reacher? Uh yeah. 100%. Even though it was written in the ’90s, the militia group and its beliefs are not far off from today’s right-wing weirdos. It would have easily read as Reacher punching an entire MAGA army in the face, and your dad would probably cry about it for at least four-to-five Thanksgivings.

That said, Die Trying is dated in other ways. It’s only the second Reacher book and Child was still finding his feet, but it’s light years better than Killing Floor. Big guy wrecking gun-humping whackadooos is a great hook — it got me in the door — but there are some cliched moments involving the female character. (One of the bad guys tries to you know what her.) One Shot is peak Reacher for my money, but I would not turn down a live-action version of Militia Punchout.

Now, to check the chances of Jeff Bezos making that happen. — *Googles* — Ok, yeah, I would not get your hopes up. We might have to let this one gone.