The Terminal List

The Terminal List is an American action thriller television series created by David DiGilio, based on Jack Carr's 2018 novel of the same name. The series tells the story of a Navy SEAL who seeks to avenge the murder of his family. It stars Chris Pratt (who also serves as an executive producer), Constance Wu, Taylor Kitsch, Riley Keough, Arlo Mertz, and Jeanne Tripplehorn.

The Terminal List was released on Amazon Prime Video on July 1, 2022, to mixed reviews. In February 2023, the series was renewed for a second season.

Premise
After his platoon of the US Navy SEALs is ambushed while on a covert mission, Lieutenant Commander Reece returns home to his family with conflicting memories of the event and questions about his culpability. As new evidence emerges, Reece discovers dark forces working against him, endangering not only his life but also the lives of those he loves.

Main

 * Chris Pratt as Lieutenant Commander James Reece, a US Navy SEAL with eight combat deployments, and the Troop Commander of Alpha Platoon, SEAL Team 7, and Task Force Odin's Sword.
 * Constance Wu as Katie Buranek, a seasoned war correspondent for Voltstreem News
 * Taylor Kitsch as Ben Edwards, a CIA Ground Branch operative, who is a former Navy SEAL and James Reece's former teammate and BUD/S classmate.
 * Riley Keough as Lauren Reece, James Reece's wife
 * Arlo Mertz as Lucy Reece, James Reece's daughter
 * Jeanne Tripplehorn as Lorraine Hartley, Secretary of Defense

Recurring

 * Nick Chinlund as Rear Admiral Gerald Pillar, Commander of WARCOM
 * Matthew Rauch as Captain Leonard Howard, Judge Advocate General of WARCOM
 * LaMonica Garrett as Commander Bill Cox, Commander of SEAL Team 7
 * Patrick Schwarzenegger as Special Warfare Operator Second Class Donald "Donny" Mitchell, Alpha Platoon's youngest member
 * Jared Shaw as Special Warfare Operator First Class Ernest "Boozer" Vickers, a member of Alpha Platoon
 * Tyner Rushing as Liz Riley, a private airline pilot and former U.S. Army Aviation Branch Warrant Officer, who was rescued in 2007 by Reece's team when her Kiowa was shot down in Iraq and was Lucy's God-Mother.
 * Arturo Castro as Jordan Groff, Katie's editor at Voltstream News
 * Jai Courtney as Steve Horn, CEO and President of Capstone Industries
 * Paul McCrane as Dr. Mike Tedesco, CEO of Nubellum, a pharmaceutical subsidiary of Capstone Industries
 * Stephen Bishop as Richard Fontana, a Department of Defense official and Hartley's underling
 * J. D. Pardo as Tony Layun, an FBI special agent and head of the Fugitive Task Force for the San Diego field office
 * Christina Vidal as Mackenzie 'Mac' Wilson, a deputy U.S. Marshal and Layun's partner on the Fugitive Task Force
 * Drew Starkey as Junior Alba, a SDPD detective and Layun's subordinate on the Fugitive Task Force
 * Alexis Louder as Nicole Deptul, an FBI special agent and Layun's subordinate on the Fugitive Task Force
 * Hiram A. Murray as Jackson, a security contractor at Steve Horn's Talos Tactical

Guest

 * Warren Kole as NCIS Special Agent Josh Holder
 * Justin Garza as Special Warfare Operator First Class Victor Ramirez, a member of Alpha Platoon
 * Tom Amandes as Vic Campbell, Lauren Reece’s father
 * Catherine Dyer as Rachel Campbell, Lauren Reece’s mother
 * Marco Rodríguez as Marco Del Toro, a Mexican businessman and family friend of the Reeces
 * Sean Gunn as Saul Agnon, Vice President of Capstone Industries
 * Carsten Norgaard as Elias Ryberg, a prospective buyer of Nubellum Pharmaceuticals
 * Geoff Pierson as Senator Joe Pryor, member of Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense
 * Patricia de Leon as Paola Del Toro, Marco’s wife
 * Renata Friedman as Anne Howard, Captain Howard's wife
 * Jack Yang as Brian Buranek, Katie's brother
 * Nicole Steinwedell as Deborah Buranek, Katie's sister-in-law
 * Nate Boyer as Luke Malick, FBI HRT team leader
 * Remi Adeleke as Terrell "Tee" Daniels, FBI HRT operator
 * Derek Phillips as FBI Senior Special Agent Stephen Ramsay
 * Butch Klein as Marcus Boykin, a lawyer and Saul Agnon's associate
 * Jack Carr as Adrian Gordonis (cameo),C a Marine Raider veteran and security contractor at Talos Tacticals. Jack Carr is The Terminal List author and executive producer, as well as a former Navy SEAL officer.
 * Ajay James as Chief Special Warfare Operator Cortese, Alpha Platoon’s Chief, tactical team leader and advisor to LCDR James Reece.

Production
In early April 2020, it was reported that the series, starring Chris Pratt, was in development, and seeking out a distributor. In early May 2020, it was reported that Amazon Prime Video landed the series and Amazon Studios would be joining the series as production studio and the series was in the process of assembling a writers room. Taylor Kitsch, Constance Wu, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Riley Keough, and Pratt's brother-in-law Patrick Schwarzenegger would join the cast in early 2021. In June 2021, LaMonica Garrett, Alexis Louder, Tom Amandes, J. D. Pardo, Christina Vidal Mitchell, Jared Shaw, Catherine Dyer, and Remi Adeleke joined the cast in recurring roles, while Arlo Mertz was cast as a series regular. In July 2021, Jai Courtney joined in a recurring role.

Pratt had previously portrayed a Navy SEAL in the 2012 film Zero Dark Thirty and had become friends with Navy SEAL Jared Shaw. Shaw knew Jack Carr from their time in the Navy, and shared an early copy of the book with Pratt, who had started a production company and was interested in developing his own projects. Carr said he had Pratt in mind when writing the story, and that he had hoped to get Antoine Fuqua as the director. Pratt got into a bidding war for the rights, only to discover that he was bidding against Fuqua, so instead they partnered on developing the project. On February 1, 2023, Amazon Prime Video renewed the series for a second season.

Principal photography for The Terminal List began on March 9, 2021. Chris Pratt was paid $1.4 million per episode.

Release
The series premiered on July 1, 2022.

Prequel series
In February 2023, it was announced that a prequel series focusing on Ben Edwards had been ordered and set to air on Amazon Prime Video with Taylor Kitsch reprising the role. In January 2024, it was reported that the prequel series will be titled The Terminal List: Dark Wolf with Pratt reprising his role as James Reece.

Audience viewership
The series was the number one show on Amazon Prime's "Top 10" list within two weeks of its premiere.

The Terminal List came in at No. 3 on the Nielsen chart with 1.1 billion minutes viewed across eight episodes.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes the series has a 40% approval rating based on reviews from 58 critics, with an average rating of 5.7/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "While Chris Pratt fully commits himself to The Terminal List's mission, this thriller's unrelenting gruffness is no meat and all potatoes." Metacritic gave it a weighted average score of 40 out of 100 based on reviews from 25 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". CinemaBlend.com summarized the reviews saying critics agree the series was firmly in the "Shows For Dads" genre.

Dave Nemetz of TVLine panned the series, calling it "punishingly grim and hopelessly boneheaded." He criticized the series’s plot and direction, writing, "the action is bloody but not exciting, and the story is bewildering but not interesting. In between, we get saccharine family scenes and a paint-by-numbers conspiracy that gets more complicated but not any more compelling." Daniel D'Addario of Variety called it "a dour, miserable sit, one that would be tough to take as a two-hour film, and has been inexplicably ‘roided up to eight hours." Dan Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter described the series as overcooked, taking "eight hours for a book that easily could have been adapted in two hours".

Liam Mathews of TV Guide rated series 7 out of 10, and compared it to other Amazon Prime Video series Bosch, Reacher and Jack Ryan, saying "These shows aren't chasing Emmys, they just want to entertain with a twisty plot, some thrilling action set pieces, and a mildly complex main character. They're also three of the service's most popular and successful shows. Prime Video's latest series, The Terminal List, fits that dad-friendly bill to a T. By the humble standards of the genre, The Terminal List is a smashing success."

Author Jack Carr responded to the negative critical responses, saying "The 95 percent viewer rating, audience rating [sic], makes it all worth it. We didn't make it for the critics."