Actor Chris Pratt says the success of “The Terminal List” comes from giving audiences a kind of story he believes Hollywood has been neglecting: straightforward, patriotic action.
Speaking with Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show,” Pratt explained the thinking behind the show’s first season. “It connected with an audience that … we kind of look at it as it’s a bit of an underserved audience. We just wanted to make an unapologetic, patriotic, kick-ass action show and the audience really turned up,” he said.
Pratt, who plays a Navy SEAL in the series, acknowledged he has no personal combat background. “Everything I learned about combat, I learned from watching movies and stuff. I have never been to Fallujah or anything like that,” he said.
To make up for that, Pratt said the production leaned heavily on veterans and former special operators, who he credits with giving the show its realism. “These guys have a real eye for combat based on their experience and it’s really authentic … Veterans will come up and say, ‘You know, I served. I did a couple deployments and the action, the behavior, the tactics, the jargon, the decorum, all of it is really authentic,’ and I think that’s why people like it,” he said.
The show is adapted from a book series centered on a Navy SEAL, and Pratt said the production brought on a large number of military veterans in various roles. “We have 17 veterans on our production … Two or three special operators that are executive producers,” he said. “We just have Navy SEALS all over the place, it’s really cool.”
Pratt also described how the story shifts in its second season. The first season, he said, was “this dark psychological thriller about a Navy SEAL who gets vengeance on these people who are responsible for a conspiracy that, you know, wiped out his platoon and killed his family and gave him a tumor in his brain.” That arc ends, he said, “with him basically getting vengeance on everybody on his list and sailing away.”
The new season takes the story in a different direction. “So, the second [season] based on the book becomes more of like a globe-trotting global spy thriller. It’s like — it’s about espionage. It’s international,” Pratt said.
Season 2 of “The Terminal List” premiered on Prime on Oct. 21.
