Alan Ritchson Officially Leaves ‘Reacher' Behind in Just 3 Days

Few stars have had a bigger year in 2026 than Alan Ritchson, who was mostly known for his role as Reacher coming into the year. Ritchson proceeded to break out of his Jack Reacher mold by starring in one of the biggest movies of the entire year with War Machine, the big-budget sci-fi thriller that earned over 135 million views. War Machine did well enough that it earned a spot in the Netflix top 10, and the streamer has already confirmed that a sequel to the film, titled War Machines, is officially in the works. Earlier this year, Ritchson starred in the virtually silent action thriller, Motor City, alongside recent Emmy-winner Shailene Woodley, who took home the award for her performance in Paradise. The film is now available to watch on VOD after grossing a few million at the global box office. Ritchson is booked and busy with several new projects on his plate, but coming later this week on September 11 is his next action movie, Runner. The film hails from director Scott Waugh and writers Miles Hubley and Tommy White, and it co-stars Owen Wilson, who is best known for his roles in Wedding Crashers and The Royal Tenenbaums. Ritchson was once just known as a streaming TV star, but he's quietly blossoming into one of the biggest action movie stars in the world with each new film he stars in. These movies may not be pulling hundreds of millions at the box office, but fans are still turning up to see them, even those who aren't familiar with his work in Reacher. Rodrigo Santoro, Leila George, and Kate Box have also been tapped for key roles in Runner. COLLIDER . Collider · Quiz Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz Which Action Hero Would Be Your Perfect Partner? Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn't work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back. 🎖️ Rambo 🍸 James Bond 🏺 Indiana Jones 🔧 John McClane 🎭 Ethan Hunt FIND YOUR PARTNER → QUESTION 1 / 10 THE MISSION 01 You're dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you. A Someone who already has three contingency plans running and is calmly working through all of them. B Someone who reads the terrain instinctively and knows exactly how to use it against the enemy. C Someone who keeps their nerve and their sense of humour when everything is falling apart. D Someone who knows the history of wherever we are and what we're walking into. E Someone with the right contact, the right cover identity, and the right exit already arranged. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 2 / 10 TRAVEL STYLE 02 You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission. A On foot through terrain no one else would attempt — I move where vehicles can't follow. B On a motorcycle, a cargo plane, or anything else that gets me there before I think too hard about it. C In something that belongs to someone else — borrowed, stolen, or improvised under fire. D First class, with a cover identity and a gadget that does something I won't explain until it's needed. E By whatever means are available — I've driven, flown, and once arrived by camel. The destination matters, not the method. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 3 / 10 UNDER FIRE 03 You're pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of. A Disappears into the environment, flanks them silently, and ends it before I've reloaded. B Cracks a one-liner, grabs a fire extinguisher or a chair, and improvises something that somehow works. C Produces a gadget specifically designed for this exact scenario and uses it with infuriating precision. D Pulls out a whip, a pistol, and an archaeological insight that somehow gets us out alive. E Neutralises the threat with maximum efficiency and minimum words — they were already three moves ahead. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 4 / 10 DOWNTIME 04 The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are. A A bar with terrible lighting, cold beer, and absolutely no questions about feelings. B The finest restaurant in the city, a bottle of something expensive, and a conversation that is equal parts brilliant and exhausting. C A local dig site, a museum after hours, or a long story about why that particular artefact matters to human civilisation. D Pizza. Bad TV. Falling asleep halfway through a movie neither of you were watching anyway. E A debrief that turns into three hours of contingency planning that somehow becomes the most fun you've had all week. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 5 / 10 COMMUNICATION 05 How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability. A Precise and minimal — tell me what I need to know and nothing else. Every word has a cost. B Deadpan and dry — keeping it light keeps me sharp, even when everything is on fire. C Enthusiastic and slightly chaotic — but always with useful information buried somewhere in the noise. D Calm and controlled through an earpiece, with a plan that covers every variable I haven't thought of yet. E Barely at all — silence is a language and they speak it fluently. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 6 / 10 THE VILLAIN 06 Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership. A Infiltrate their inner circle, learn everything, and dismantle them from inside out before they know we're there. B Study the historical pattern — every villain of this type has a weakness written somewhere in the past. C Get them talking. The more they monologue, the more time I have to figure out how to beat them. D Go through them. Directly. With as much force as the terrain allows. E Find the one thing they haven't accounted for — there's always one thing — and make sure we're holding it. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 7 / 10 LOYALTY 07 Things go badly wrong and you're captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters. A Come in alone, quietly, and get me out before anyone knows they were there. B Have already been working on the extraction since the moment I disappeared — the plan is already running. C Come in loud, come in fast, and worry about the collateral damage later — I'd do the same for them. D Use every resource, every contact, and bend every rule until I'm out — they don't leave people behind. E Charm their way in somehow, bluff through the hard part, and still manage to look good doing it. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 8 / 10 TOOLKIT 08 What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn't replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn't know you had. A Technology that shouldn't exist yet and the training to use it under any conditions. B Survival instinct so refined it borders on supernatural — and the scars to prove it's been tested. C Knowledge of history, language, and culture that makes them invaluable in places where force is useless. D The ability to walk into any room in the world and immediately become the most trusted person in it. E Stubbornness that refuses to accept a situation is hopeless — and the improvisational skill to back it up. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 9 / 10 THE COST 09 Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together. A A partner who never fully switches off — always watching exits, always calculating threats, even at dinner. B A partner who gets the job done brilliantly but has the emotional availability of a locked filing cabinet. C A partner who makes everything ten times more complicated than it needs to be — but who always comes through. D A partner who gets personally attached to every relic, ruin, and artefact we encounter, which slows everything down. E A partner who was not built for this and knows it — but shows up anyway, every time, without being asked. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 10 / 10 THE LAST STAND 10 It's the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one. A One line. Absolutely dry. Delivered like the world isn't ending. Then we move. B Nothing said at all — just a look that means we both already know what has to happen. C A plan I don't fully understand that somehow accounts for everything, delivered in thirty seconds flat. D A piece of historical context that reframes the entire situation and tells us exactly what to do next. E Someone who steps forward instead of back — because that's who they've always been. REVEAL MY PARTNER → Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is… Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse. YOUR PARTNER Rambo Your partner doesn't talk much, doesn't need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you've finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You'll never need to ask if he has your back. You'll just know. YOUR PARTNER James Bond Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it'll take you a moment to remember what's actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You'll never be bored. You'll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing. YOUR PARTNER Indiana Jones Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar's eye and a brawler's instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn't matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you'll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them. YOUR PARTNER John McClane Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren't so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay. YOUR PARTNER Ethan Hunt Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you've finished reading the briefing, and the plan he's settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn't exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ What Is 'Runner' About? The official synopsis for Runner, which debuted with a poor 57% score from critics on the aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, reads as follows: 'A former soldier (Alan Ritchson) is thrown into a brutal race against time when a critical medical delivery makes him and his unlikely partner (Owen Wilson) the targets of a ruthless cartel. As the mission spirals into a deadly manhunt, every detour, delay, and bullet pushes them closer to failure. With betrayal closing in from every side, they must survive the chase and deliver their cargo to save the life of a little girl.' Those who aren't the biggest fan of Runner don't have to wait long to see Ritchson in another action movie — he's teaming up with Arnold Schwarzenegger for the new Christmas action movie, The Man with the Bag, which hits theaters on December 2. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates and coverage of Runner, which lands in theaters everywhere this weekend.