Reel Beach: Filmed in many Toronto and area locations, Reacher is a big hit around the world

By BERNIE FLETCHER

Lights! Camera! Action! Some action-packed thrillers filmed in the east end of Toronto are popular around the world, including Reacher, Fubar, Cross, The Madness and The Handmaid’s Tale.

If you want to see a hulking hero beat up nasty villains, try watching Reacher (Prime Video) which is now filming its fourth season in Toronto until June 20.

You might spot Alan Ritchson around Leslieville in his tough guy role as ex-military policeman Jack Reacher. Trouble always seems to find the drifter wherever he goes.

In these chaotic times, everybody loves a hero. Even the CBC’s 22 Minutes got into the act by photo-shopping P.M. Mark Carney onto a Reacher poster: “He owns nothing and he’s here to help. He’s Canada’s Reacher.”

Ritchson has a big appetite for food and realism. He insisted on doing most of his own stunts and was knocked unconscious in an epic fight scene. An assistant brought him some treats from Craig’s Cookies (908 Queen St. E.) to help him recover. The actor loved the cookies so much the owner named one after him (“the Alan”) and sold it to raise money for charity.

“Alan was born to play Reacher.”

Lee Child

Each eight-episode season of Reacher is based on a different one of Lee Child’s novels.

The name came to the author when an elderly woman asked him to reach a product on a high shelf. His wife joked that if his writing didn’t pan out, Child could always be a “reacher” in a supermarket.

Though set in the U.S., the series is filmed mostly around the GTA. The first season found Reacher in small town “Georgia”.

Due to COVID a replica village set was built in a farmer’s field in Pickering. For season three a mansion in Caledon (with a CGI ocean) stood in for Maine.

Leslieville is a popular location because of its proximity to the Studio District. Scenes were filmed around Jones Avenue, Gerrard Street East, Greenwood Avenue and Leslie Street as well as on St. Clair Avenue East and Kennedy Road in Scarborough. A funeral scene was shot in St. James’ Cemetery.

Reacher spends a lot of time in motels and diners. Do you remember when Kingston Road had a thriving motel district? Some scenes were shot at the Maple Leaf Motel near Morningside Avenue and Moodie’s Motor Inn between Pickering and Ajax. Diners included Ted’s Restaurant in Highland Creek, the Lakeview Lunch, George St. Diner, the Cabana Pool Bar and the Black Dog Pub near Rouge Park.

On The Late Show, Alan Ritchson explained why his character resonates with viewers: “It’s wish fulfillment. He’s righting wrongs right away. I love that! I want to be that person in the world so I see myself in Reacher. We see what we want to see in the world through the lens of Reacher. We want to see justice righted immediately. We all want to kill bad guys, don’t we?”

Another very popular streaming series is The Madness on Netflix, a fresh take on the conspiracy thriller.

You might guess The Madness is about the clown circus in Washington D.C. that is slapping tariffs on penguins, but the series is set in Pennsylvania and filmed mostly around Toronto. (No word on whether the penguins are slapping back. The evidence of madness is right there in black and white.)

Colman Domingo plays media pundit Muncie Daniels who stumbles upon a dead body in a cabin deep in the woods and becomes a murder suspect.

Muncie uses his brain more than his brawn. It’s like a modern day The Fugitive, an innocent man on the run.

Director Clement Virgo grew up in Regent Park and attended Danforth C.I. Scenes were filmed around the east end, including the Ritz Restaurant on Donlands Avenue in East York, Pinkerton’s Snack Bar on Gerrard Street East, Moodie’s Motor Inn, Winter Garden Theatre, Parkwood Estate in Oshawa, the Comrade Bar on Queen Street East and U of T Scarborough.
You may spot another big actor biking around Toronto. Arnold Schwarzenegger is back as a spy in Fubar 2.

Boat scenes in the first season were filmed near the Cathedral Bluffs Yacht Club.

The action thriller genre is mostly a “boys’ club”, but a new Reacher spin-off stars Maria Sten as Frances Neagley, a Chicago P.I.

Also watch for Elisabeth Moss to return this month (10 episodes on Tuesdays) as June in the sixth and final season of The Handmaid’s Tale which is a little too close to home these days given the loss of rights south of the border.

June fled Gilead for Canada with past echoes of slaves escaping on the Underground Railroad. Now June and Serena are on board a train headed into danger. Let’s hope all the oppressed women find safety and freedom here in the true north strong and free!

Moss has said, “Our story is coming to a close” but we can’t get rid of Aunt Lydia. We’re back in dystopian Gilead with Margaret Atwood’s novel The Testaments. An adaptation is filming in Toronto with events 15 years after the original series.

It’s fictional, right? Good defeats evil? We can only hope. Praise be.