The Terminal List, Prime Video's dark new military drama, premieres on July 1. In it, Navy SEAL James Reese (Chris Pratt, perhaps best known for playing the goofy yet powerful Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy) takes it upon himself to dispense some vengeance and justice after a military cover-up. Based on the novel by Jack Carr, the series also stars Taylor Kitsch (Friday Night Lights) as Reese's best friend and an ex-SEAL himself.
The Terminal List features a star-studded cast that extends beyond Kitsch and Pratt, however. Also heavily involved in the story are Constance Wu, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Riley Keough, Patrick Schwarzenegger, and Arlo Mertz. The ensemble cast engages in plenty action sequences, requiring intense training, and it's clear that the creative team behind the project wanted to make the military experience come across as authentically as possible.
Screen Rant spoke to Kitsch and Pratt about which parts of training for The Terminal List most surprised them, and which project of the other's is their favorite so far.
Screen Rant: I'm so excited to talk to you guys. Every role requires some level of new research or new training. What is the most unique training or research that you did going into this series? Chris, is there something that pops out for you?
Chris Pratt: Gosh, probably comes down to the weapon handling, and trying to create authentic movements with these weapon platforms that the Navy SEALs use. Working closely with Ray Mendoza, who was our military adviser; Jared Shaw, and the various Navy SEALs that we employed and partnered up with on this.
Just all of that was pretty interesting and unlike anything I'd done before. I'd used weapons before, but they're very specific as to how to use them properly in a way that reflects authenticity for their community. I'd speak to that probably.
You had Navy SEALs around you, right? There's probably a point where you're like, "I'm doing this right, right?"
Chris Pratt: Exactly, yeah. They're watching the monitors. And then they would say, in their graceful and amazing way that they do it, "Hey, we're gonna do this again. Make sure you keep your thumbs down on that pistol, or make sure when you're doing that press check..." Various different things.
It was really important to us to try to make this right; I hope that we did. I'm sure there gonna be some people online who are like, "Why was that plate carrier a half-inch low?" And that's fine, but we did our best to try to mitigate that type of thing.
Taylor, how about for you?
Taylor Kitsch: Honestly, I thought I was pretty good with a rifle and a hand gun. And then in this, it's a shotgun that I had to go to work with. Ray would drop the shotgun off, and I'd use obviously dummy rounds. I'm walking around the house doing changes and combat reloads, so there's like 60 to 80 shells around the floor of my house. Then I would send him a video, like, "Do you think I'm doing well?" And he would just be like, "Keep going."
It's pretty grounding, so you have to be seamless and unconscious with it. But we ended up getting it thanks to Ray and his patience.
Not to put you guys on the spot, but I love seeing this pairing together. Do you two have a favorite role of the other person?
Chris Pratt: Whoo. Oh, man. I mean, I'm a huge fan. I mean, we named our daughter Lyla. We love Friday Night Lights in our house. So, I gotta say that or Mike Murphy in Lone Survivor - that's also pretty fantastic. [Taylor was] also fantastic as David Koresh. If I had to limit it to three, I'd pick those.
Taylor Kitsch: I would say honestly a big reason why I signed on to this was to see you do this. So, I would tip the hat to this role - and not to plug the show, it's an honest answer. Probably this. It was great to see him take a deep swing and to be firsthand on set watching it unfold. So, I'd say this one.
The Terminal List follows James Reece (Chris Pratt) after his entire platoon of Navy SEALs is ambushed while on a covert mission. Reece returns home to his family with conflicting memories of the event and questions about his culpability. As new evidence comes to light, Reece discovers dark forces working against him, endangering not only his life but the lives of those he loves.
Check back soon for our interviews with the rest of the cast and crew of The Terminal List.
The Terminal List will be available to stream July 1 on Prime Video.