I remember seeing Liam Neeson’s Taken with my dad back in 2008. As we left the theatre and got into the car, you would be forgiven for thinking that he’d just had his first religious experience. Don’t get me wrong, Taken is awesome, but through my guileless, 14-year-old eyes the film was just that: entertaining and awesome. For him, who has five kids, it represented something else.
Now it goes without saying that it is any parent’s worst nightmare to have their kids kidnapped; however, I would argue that the only fantasy that eclipses that nightmare would being the guy able to rescue their kids from the clutches of evil. Best dad in the world stuff, right there.
Fast forward to 2025, and it seems that we’re in a rather cyclical situation with the Amazon Prime TV series Reacher. Based on Lee Child’s monster-hit ‘Jack Reacher’ book series (more than 100 million copies sold), the TV show follows the roving journey of an ex-US military policeman as he drifts from town-to-town thwarting criminals and ne’er-do-wells by using his skills, intellect and massive physique. He’s like MacGyver, but, at 6’5ft and 250lbs, he’s more like two MacGyvers stacked on top of each other.
The third season of the wildly-enjoyable show is currently underway, and it is little surprise that it has become my dad’s favourite. And probably your dad’s too.
Case in point, the father of a friend of mine is a 75-year-old British former headmaster who looks, and speaks, like the stereotype of an exceedingly posh and well-educated British man in his seventies. When I last spoke to him he was gushing over the series. When asked why, he exclaimed, “He’s a man who is bound to nothing. He doesn’t need help, nor does he ever ask for it. He’ll effortlessly beat the crap out of anyone who gets in the way of doing what’s right.”
Jack Reacher is a muscular giant, he boasts a Sherlock Holmesian level of intellect, and he fears nothing. One could lazily write this off as a sort of internalised, unfulfilled masculinity, but I would argue the opposite. Whereas Chuck Palahniuk’s mid-’90s book Fight Club (turned into a cult-worthy film by David Fincher starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton) tapped into the emasculated frustration of men who felt forgotten, and whose existence had been reduced to a cubicle and IKEA furniture, Reacher instead gives permission for men—particularly older men—to find solace in the ‘tough guy’ trope of old.
The strong, silent badass who lives by a strict moral code, and isn’t afraid to dish out his own form of righteous justice, is a character that is thick in storytelling lore—or, as the internet refers to it as, dad-core.
Dad-core is a nostalgic reminder to an older generation of dads, what they used to be like before their kids came along, tapping into that fantasy of wanting to protect their children from the vampiric fangs of the universe when the moon gets too close.
Yes, masculinity has evolved from the ‘punch a guy and steal a kiss’ trope (for the good reason), but the undeniable popularity of Reacher shows that when it comes to depicting alpha-male characters, popular culture should show caution to throwing the baby out with the bath water (Note: Reacher wouldn’t do this, he would likely catch the baby in one hand and the bath in the other). There is still a requirement for strong men, but they should be built with a progressive moral fibre—one that accepts men’s desire to feel needed and appreciated, but one that brings society’s moral compass closer together rather than ripping it further apart.
Because, as much as we love them, we are not our fathers, we should be a better version of them but ones that they can still recognise, and be proud of.
