Based on the best-selling novel by real-life former Navy Seal, Jack Carr, The Terminal List follows Seal Team 7 leader, and general bad-ass, James Reece (Chris Pratt) as he deals with **SPOILER WARNING** the ambush and loss of his team and investigates the murder of his wife and daughter. Along the way, Reece’s mission ceases to be an investigation and becomes one of vengeance.

The Terminal List

Due to, what is believed to be a concussion, Pratt’s Reece is an unreliable narrator who, via copious flashbacks, finds himself repeatedly thrust back into moments, or versions of moments, of his past, often at the most inconvenient of times. However, where flashbacks in film can often be a cover for inexperienced writers or uninspired storytelling, Reece’s flashbacks are contextually relevant, and engaging, and serve to move the story forward. They also help to build the tension because there’s no way of knowing if Reece has drawn the right conclusion based on his memories.

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While the timeline for the B-Story (Reece’s headaches and flashbacks) is disjointed, the main story is linear and pretty standard. Reece discovers a clue that leads him to the next person or clue. Reece exacts revenge. Reece finds another clue. Rinse and repeat. Fortunately, Pratt delivers his best performance to date and is captivating. He’s intense and vulnerable, driven and broken, and he owns the screen. If I have one criticism about his performance, it is that he has distractingly horrendous trigger discipline in the first few episodes. I’m an admitted weekend warrior with no military experience, so I spent some time trying to find out if elite warriors, like the seals, are trained to keep their finger on the trigger while engaged. I thought perhaps that they were so well trained that they might eschew relative safety in lieu of an extra millisecond, but found nothing. All of my own experience, research, and training suggest that the elite practice the same trigger discipline that I do, and that the close-ups of Pratt thumbing the trigger should be as cringe-inducing as I found them. However, from his haunted eyes to the precision and intensity he exudes while clearing a room, everything else about Pratt’s physical performance is crisp and engaging.

The supporting cast is comprised of faces both familiar and new. Jeanne Tripplehorn, who is probably best known for playing alongside Tom Cruise as his character’s wife in 1993’s The Firm, turns in a nuanced performance as Secretary of Defense, Lorraine Hartley. One wonders how casting directors have all but forgotten her between then and now. She manages the rare feat in today’s program offerings, of portraying a strong woman that doesn’t feel like the cartoon version of what some blue-haired feminist thinks that a man is. I don’t have enough good things to say about Tripplehorn’s performance. It makes me angry that she hasn’t been cast in more things throughout the years.

Constance Wu (Crazy Rich Asians) plays war correspondent Katie Buranek. She’s a self-serving journalist (so, journalist) who cares about the truth as much as she cares about getting the story. Like Tripplehorn, Wu also gives us a strong female character who is still female and realistic. Buranek isn’t someone I’d want to sit and have a beer with but she’s driven and determined, and, even though she’s frightened beyond belief, she sticks to her principles.

Black ops CIA agent and one-time seal team member, Ben Edwards, played by Taylor Kitsch of Friday Night Lights fame, is Reece’s best friend and coconspirator throughout the series. Kitsch is probably the weakest link of the main cast but I think that’s mostly due to the material that he’s given. Edwards shows up when Reece needs to deliver an exposition dump, and when he needs backup or tech and ammo. There’s not much for him to work with. Plus he’s a hardened warrior who’s seen some $h!t, so stoicism seems appropriate. Kitsch, now 41, who made a name for himself as a ripped bad boy is beginning to look pretty rough. Fortunately, it works for him in this role. It’s regrettable that his character wasn’t more compelling because I think that it would have helped the finale feel more satisfying.

An ex-Army helicopter pilot, another friend from Reece’s military past is Mac Wilson. Played by Christina Vidal of Training Day (the TV series) fame, Mac is a character of convenience. Her only purpose is to provide Reece with a private airplane that shuttles him to and from locals. It’s a shame because Vidal nails the role.

Finally, let’s talk about Jai Courtney. Remember when studios were trying to make him a thing? Just think back to 2013 through 2015, when he starred, or co-starred in A Good Day To Die Hard, Divergent, and Terminator: Genesys. Wait. You can’t remember him in those?…exactly. Then came the dumpster fire that was 2016’s Suicide Squad. Those who choose to remember that movie, or can’t forget it, will remember that it only had two redeeming qualities: Margot Robbie’s hotpants and Jai Courtney’s Captain Boomerang. Well, I think that Jai has finally found his niche playing arrogant pricks. In The Terminal List, Courtney plays Steve Horn, a corporate douchebag and wannabe badass with unearned military tattoos and an ego bigger than the massive melon that sits atop Jai’s head. Throughout the series, Horn is a pretty two-dimensional character but Jai plays him with such conviction that it completely pays off when he shows his third and true dimension at the end of the series.

WOKE ELEMENTS

Even though the program has been praised, and rightly so, by those on the Right for being a well-done series that embraces “conservative” values and institutions, it was still produced by the people who brought us the woke $h!tshow that was The Rings of Power, and managed to turn one of literature’s ultimate mensches, Jack Ryan, into a politically correct beta male. So too, there is some wokeness in The Terminal List but fear not, it’s not even in the same universe as She-Hulk.

First off, the character of Katie Buranek is described as middle European in the book but was played by an Asian actress. Fortunately, Wu knocks it out of the park, and only those looking for something to complain about (sup) will notice.

Next, Jeanne Tripplehorn’s character is an amalgam of two characters from the book, one of which was a man. You’ve got to believe that someone mandated that any character that could be a woman or BIPOC, or both, should be changed. However, Loraine Hartley does play a larger role in the book. So, this one feels more like a wash.

The only glaring element of wokeness is the addition of Mac Wilson. Mac does not appear in the book and her character feels like it was carved out of Kitsch’s Edwards. Vidal is of Puerto Rican heritage (check off that intersectional box) and, of course, a woman (check two); even though only around 2.4 percent of Army helicopter pilots were women at the time that her character would have been in the Army, and only a fraction of that fraction were Latinas. With that being said, Vidal is great in the role, and the character is written like a woman, not a man being played by a woman. So, it’s another instance in which only nitpickers would notice.

FINAL SAY

With excellent performances, solid direction, and a compelling story, The Terminal List is definitely worth your time.