Chris Pratt will be adding another terrific character to his list of action heroes, this time as a beleaguered Navy SEAL trying to clear his name in The Terminal List. The series features a stellar cast comprising Constance Wu (Crazy Rich Asians), Taylor Kitsch (Friday Night Lights), Jeanne Tripplehorn (Criminal Minds) and Riley Keough (The Girlfriend Experience). Ahead of its release on Amazon Prime Video on July 1, here is everything you need to know about the series.
Lieutenant Commander James Reese (Pratt) is the sole survivor of an ambush that resulted in the death of his troop during an operation. As he deals with episodes of PTSD, including headaches, confusion, paranoia and what look like visual hallucinations, he is tormented by questions about the mysterious ambush: Who gave his troop bad intel? Who wanted them to fail — or worse, die? "There's evil in this world, the likes of which you can't possibly imagine," he says in a voiceover in the trailer. As Reese takes matters into his own hands, with the help of his friend Ben Edwards (Taylor Kitsch), a former Navy SEAL, he discovers a darker conspiracy, with much larger forces at play. The trailer is replete with guns, explosions and tense shootouts. "It's a psychological action-thriller that leaves you guessing whether or not a person is dealing with reality," said director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, The Equalizer) in an interview with Entertainment Weekly." He has to not only navigate his way through the conspiracy of what's happening to him in real-life, but what's happening in his mind."
The 8-episode action-thriller is based on a novel of the same name by Jack Carr. Despite not being based on a real story, authenticity seems to be a major focus for the series, as 80-90% of its actors used to be real Navy SEALs, revealed Patrick Swarzenegger, who stars as the youngest in the platoon. The trailer's no-holds-barred explosive sequences seem fitting for the big screen, something the creators consciously decided on. "Early on, we made a commitment that we weren't making a TV show. This was really going to be a film in eight chapters and I think that the way we went about doing that was by not even thinking about it, because that's what Antoine does, he makes movies," said writer-showrunner David DiGilio in an interview with Television Business International. According to Deadline, the show's commitment to authenticity meant that half the writing staffers were either veterans themselves or had family members who were veterans.
Not only is The Terminal List based on Carr's original source material, but the bestselling author also serves as executive producer on the show. Carr has led an intriguing life himself — he served the Navy SEALs for 20 years, including as a sniper, before pivoting toward writing. This two-decade-long experience reveals itself in the books Carr writes, which often contain detailed and authentic descriptions of guns and the inner workings of the American Navy.