Amazon Prime’s Reacher television series premiered on February 4, 2022 to generally favorable reviews. The series is based on a series of books written by Lee Child, about the titular character, a former U.S. Army military policeman who gets embroiled in a criminal conspiracy. Jack Reacher was already featured on the screen, played by Tom Cruise on film, while the television version of the character is played by Alan Ritchson.
The first season consists of eight episodes and is based on the novel Killing Floor, which was published in 1997. After leaving the military, Jack Reacher leads a vagabond lifestyle, moving from town to town. On one such trip, on an impulse, he gets off the bus in the early morning and walks to Margrave – a fictional small town in the state of Georgia.
On the spot, he is going to look for traces of “Blake Blake” – a guitarist who died years ago in this town. During breakfast in one of the local bars, he is arrested and charged with murder. After reading Miranda’s compulsory formula, he is taken to the city headquarters and interrogated there. During the interrogation, it turns out that the police are in the possession of a witness who saw Reacher near the crime scene on the night of the murder. Jack tries to prove that he was not in town when the crime was committed.
Eventually, along with another suspect in the case, he ends up in state prison for the weekend, where an attempted assassination attempt is made on the part of inmates. After spending two days in a prison cell, they are both released by order of the Margrave police. After leaving prison, Jack Reacher returns to town and when he is about to leave the town, things get complicated – not only Reacher’s brother – Joe but also the chief of the local police is murdered.
Getting to know his brother’s killer and the desire for revenge on the torturer make Jack Reacher decide to stay in Margrave longer than he originally intended. In the process of unraveling the puzzles, the seemingly peaceful and sleepy town turns out to be the center of an organization dealing with counterfeiting money on a large, multi-billion scale.
This is the basic outline of the series’ plot, but that is not going to be the topic of this article. In it, we are going to tell you about the main filming locations of the Reacher television series so that you can stop by in case you ever travel to Canada.
Pickering, Ontario, Canada
Pickering’s population is approximately 94,000, (2005). The city is known for its nuclear power plant, and the commemorative OPG7 turbine, adjacent to it. The city also has several other high-tech and manufacturing companies. It borders Toronto and is economically part of the Greater Toronto Area. (GTA).
Pickering’s name comes from “Pickering Township,” which was the name of the geographic and political area until the establishment of the regional government in 1974. At that time, the area (with the exception of what became the city of Ajax, took the name “Town of Pickering”, changing to “City of Pickering” in 2000.
Surprisingly, the community that was known as Pickering before 1974 is now situated in the City of Ajax, and is often referred to as as “Pickering Village” Prior to 1974, suburban areas south of the 401 freeway were commonly known as “Bay Ridges” while areas north as “Dunbarton”. Although much of Pickering is still farmland or forest, it is one of the fastest growing regions in Canada.
Its proximity to the nearby city of Toronto creates a highly desirable market for real estate. Highway 401, the fastest and most congested in Canada, runs along the parallel south of Pickering towards Lake Ontario. Most of the area west of Pickering is part of the Rouge River Park system, the largest urban park in North America. For the year 2010 the start of the construction of the airport of Pickering Airport is foreseen.
As the eastern gateway to the Greater Toronto Area, the city of Pickering is one of the most diverse in Canada. It has been designated by the province of Ontario as an emerging growth center in its Growing Places Act and is expected to lead national growth in businesses and residences over the next 10 to 20 years.
Currently, the City of Pickering and the Province of Ontario are negotiating plans for the development of the Seaton and Cherrywood areas of downtown Pickering. According to the Durham region, Pickering’s population is estimated to reach 215,235 in 2031. On that date, Pickering would become the most populous municipality in the Durham region.
Port Perry, Ontario, Canada
The first settlers came mainly from Great Britain, including the loyalist Reuben Crandell, who built a house on site with his wife in May 1821. The listed building can be visited. It is located on King Street between Prince Albert and Manchester. In November 1821, Lucy Ann Crandell gave birth to her first child on Canadian soil. In 1831, Ruben Crandell and his family moved to another house known as Crandell’s Corners (later Borelia).
In 1867 a group of businessmen planned to connect the township to a rail network so that Port Whitby and Port Perry could be reached by rail. The first train reached Port Perry in 1872. Goods from northern Ontario were brought to Port Perry via the Trent-Severn Waterway and loaded onto freight trains and transported onward.
Port Perry is very popular as a tourist town because of the beautiful old town. There are plenty of clothing stores, cafes, restaurants, galleries and antique shops. Many different festivals take place in Port Perry each summer, attracting many tourists and residents from the surrounding communities. The festivities are called: Mississauga First Nation Pow Wow, the Highland Games, the Dragon Boat Races and the StreetFest. This has been held annually over Labor Day weekend for over 150 years.
Port Perry also has several public and private golf courses. The Great Blue Heron Charity Casino is also in town. In the summer, river cruises are available with Scugog Island Cruises, which call at a variety of attraction destinations. In summer, tourists can pick their own fruit such as strawberries and apples; in winter, anglers like to come to the lake for ice fishing and snowmobilers.
Port Perry has become a popular location for film producers over the years. The community served as a filming location for the film Amy and the Wild Geese. It also served as Maine’s double in the 2004 US film Welcome to Mooseport. All six seasons of the US series The West Wing were filmed there. In 2009, the film Killshot and in 2010 a Burger King commercial were filmed there. The Netflix series Hemlock Grove is also set in Port Perry.
Stratford, Ontario, Canada,
The town was originally a railway junction where furniture making became a big part of the local economy. A strike, started by workers (in 1933) and led by the Communist Worker’s Unity League, marks the last time the military was deployed to end a strike in Canada. The town’s economy took a major turn when the Stratford Festival began in 1953.
The annual festival now attracts hundreds of thousands of people and tourists. Celebrities such as Alec Guinness, Christopher Plummer, and William Shatner performed in one of the plays at the festival. The festival is very famous all over the world. It takes place in four theaters in the city: the Festival Theatre, Avon Theatre, Tom Patterson Theater, and the Studio Theatre. Some celebrities have previously or currently lived in Stratford such as Justin Bieber, Richard Manuel, James Westman, actor Shawn Roberts, and hockey star Howie Morenz.
Kingston Penitentiary, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Kingston Penitentiary was a penitentiary that was in operation from June 1, 1835 to September 30, 2013. Its construction took place from 1833 to 1834. It is located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. A first riot took place on August 14, 1954, after a baseball game, several prisoners attacked the security guards and set fire to several buildings in the yard.
Prison officials requested the assistance of 160 RCMP officers as reinforcements to neutralize approximately nine hundred prisoners. Within two hours, the prisoners caused damage estimated at $2 million. On April 14, 1971, a second riot took place for about 4 days. Several parts of the prison are destroyed and 2 prisoners are killed by the instigators of the riot.
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Toronto is the most populous city in Canada and the capital of the province of Ontario. It is located in southeastern Canada, on the northwest shore of Lake Ontario. The city of Toronto has over 2.9 million inhabitants, making it the fourth most populous city in North America. Greater Toronto (GTA) had more than 7 million inhabitants in 2020.
The megalopolis of the Golden Horseshoe is the heart, more than 9.2 million inhabitants in 2016, i.e., a quarter of the Canadian population. A global city, Toronto is the banking, financial, commercial and artistic center of English-speaking Canada, and one of the most multicultural and cosmopolitan cities in the world.
