Chris Pratt returns to TV as a haunted Navy SEAL in Prime Video’s ‘The Terminal List’
A mission gone very wrong haunts a Navy SEAL played by movie action star Chris Pratt in a psychological thriller series upcoming on Prime Video.
In “The Terminal List,” an eightepisode series premiering Friday, July 1, Pratt (“The Tomorrow War,” the “Guardians of the Galaxy” films) executive produces and stars as James Reece, a Navy SEAL leading a covert mission in Syria that ended with his platoon being ambushed and many of his men dead.
Back home in the States, Reece grapples with PTSD and conflicting memories that cause him to doubt what he thinks he witnessed that day and question his own culpability. But when new evidence comes to light, he discovers there are actually dark forces working against him that could endanger the lives of him and his family.
Based on the novel series by Jack Carr, the series boasts a talented cast that includes Constance Wu (“Crazy Rich Asians”), Taylor Kitsch (“Friday Night Lights”), Jeanne Tripplehorn (“Mrs. America”) and Riley Keough (“The Girlfriend Experience”). It also has many exservice people in its cast and crew, starting with former Navy SEAL Carr, who is an executive producer here.
“It’s a huge component of the novels, is the military authenticity that Jack Carr brings to his work,” explains showrunner David DiGilio. “And it was something that was foundational for the making of the show. And we were committed to having cast and crew with military backgrounds and we were really excited to, I think, cast over 25 military veteran actors in the show.”
“We literally had the SEALs with us even in final digital effects,” he continues, “pulling out sparks from bullet hits that would not spark in real life. That’s the level of detail that the show went into.”
As for the story, much of it centers on the relationship between Pratt’s Reece and journalist Katie Buranek, played by Wu. He initially distrusts her but as the story progresses he realizes she really wants to help him uncover the conspiracy that threatens his life, and a partnership forms.
“We saw in Constance Wu somebody who was tenacious, intelligent, funny, beautiful – all of these things that embody Katie from the book,” DiGilio says. “She steps into it and, I think, in today’s day and age this kind of notion of truth versus uncertainty really speaks to the world around us.
“And so we have two characters going after that truth through very different means,” he continues. “One guy doling out righteous vengeance, the other looking for righteous accountability in the press. And so they’re both allies at certain points in the series but also sometimes obstacles to each other. And so it creates this incredibly complex partnership that evolves over the course of the season.”