There are few modern action stars as celebrated as Alan Ritchson, who’s established himself as a dangerous and imposing force on the hit Amazon Prime Video series Reacher. However, there is one other character played by Ritchson that Jack Reacher wouldn’t stand a chance against in a fight, whether in hand-to-hand combat or with weapons on the battlefield.
Released in 2024, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare stars Ritchson and Henry Cavill as special operatives of a real-life top-secret British mission. In the film, Ritchson plays Anders Lᴀssen, a Danish officer renowned for his battlefield heroics. No matter how cool Reacher season 4 may be, it can’t replace Lᴀssen’s bravery, nor could Reacher go toe-to-toe with this formidable commando.
Alan Ritchson’s Anders Lᴀssen From The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare Could Beat Reacher In A Fight
Lᴀssen’s A Wild Card That Reacher Can’t Handle
Alan Ritchson’s take on Anders Lᴀssen is a far cry away from his performance as Jack Reacher—nearly the polar opposite, in fact. Whereas Reacher is a very calculating and precise opponent, Lᴀssen is a bit of a loose cannon, operating with aggressive and often unpredictable tactics that his adversaries are rarely able to counter.
Anders Lᴀssen is famously the only non-Commonwealth recipient of the Victoria Cross in WWII.
Perhaps the greatest example of this comes in the film’s opening scene when Ritchson and co-star Henry Cavill pose as harmless fishermen to their Nazi occupiers—only to unleash an explosive counterattack that’s spearheaded by the ferocious and unrelenting Lᴀssen. Truthfully, Reacher has come into contact with foes even bigger than him before—but never one as unpredictable or violent as Lᴀssen.
The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare Could’ve Given Alan Ritchson Another Big Franchise Like Reacher
We Could’ve Continued To See Ritchson In A Whole New Light
It’s understandable why The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare was intended to be a stand-alone picture. After all, the real-life mission it’s based on was just that—a stand-alone operation. However, the chemistry of Alan Ritchson with Henry Cavill and Alex Pettyfer elevates the Guy Ritchie movie to near-impossible levels of entertainment, making the film’s one-off nature all the more frustrating.
Furthermore, seeing as the film mainly takes place in 1945, it’s certainly possible for a prequel series to emerge covering the past adventures of Lᴀssen and Gus March-Phillipps (Henry Cavill). Plus, it would definitely be a win for fans, as Ritchson’s wildly entertaining Lᴀssen allows audiences to see the actor in a different light that’s equally compelling as Reacher.
Despite not receiving the commercial success it deserves, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare continues to stand as a fresh and exciting take on WWII that—in addition to offering audiences a sensational and stylized action thriller—helped create a character that can rival and even emerge victorious in the face of one of television’s most formidable antiheroes, Jack Reacher. Truly a remarkable feat.
