By Mallory Mattingly
Season 3 of Alan Ritchson’s REACHER just premiered, and a stunt in the final episode left the actor unconscious.
In the final episode, Reacher and Paulie (Olivier Richters) fight head-to-head in a never-ending battle.
Ritchson insisted on filming as many stunts as he possibly could so he could stay true to his character, but this one scene ended up knocking him unconscious.
“The whole point is you just watch Reacher get rag-dolled for five minutes straight,” Ritchson told Entertainment Weekly. “And I was like, ‘This is fun. I like that this is the idea for everybody right now.’ And I get the bright idea to shoot a stunt in a way, because I was like, ‘I want the audience to know that I’m doing this for us. I’m taking one for Reacher and we’re all in this together,’ and so I wanted the camera to come up and just stay on my face the whole time while I get smashed through a table on the barn floor.”
Ritchson and his team fought back and forth, insisting he let the stunt double do the scene.
“Everybody was like, ‘You’re going to get killed and we’re not going to do that because it’s going to hurt you too bad,'” Ritchson explained. “‘And so we’re going to do it with a stuntman and a camera on the floor.’ And I was like, ‘No.'”
“I was like, ‘I’m doing it. We’re doing it,'” he continued. “And I won. Reluctantly, they’re like, ‘You better not die because we said you’re going to die, and we tried to warn you.'”
Ritchson ended up doing the stunt and learned the hard way that his team was right.
“I got picked up and we worked out the camera thing a few times and he slammed me through the table so hard, I went through it into the seventh circle of hell,” he said with a laugh. “And I woke up a day and a half later. When I came to, I had to tell my kids that I felt great, because they were on set, and I didn’t want them to think that like, dad died and was going to not be okay. It was the worst few minutes of my life.”
Prime Video shared a clip from the final episode on their Instagram account. The clip showed Reacher with a bloody and bruised face.
Many fans expressed their praise for the final episode and the fight scene in particular.
“The fight scene with Paulie? Now that’s how two Monsters should fight! Not 3 seconds or a minute! It was perfect! I was soo impressed! Been a long time I watched a movie hype up two guys and put up an epic show! Thank you. The finale was beautiful. Season 3 was beautiful,” one person said.
“Episode 8 was worth the buildup. My favorite season ending so far,” another wrote.
“The Fight scene with Paulie was the best part in the whole season,” one person commented.
Ritchson posted a video on his Instagram account and said, “Best finale of all time?”
“Don’t be dumb and not watch it ten times!” he wrote in the caption.
REACHER Season 3 is available to stream in its entirety on Prime Video and has been renewed for a fourth season.
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