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.[1] 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.[2]
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.
Cast and characters
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.
Tyner Rushing as Liz Riley, a private airline pilot and former U.S. Army Aviation BranchWarrant 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
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), a Marine Raider veteran and security contractor at Talos Tacticals.[citation needed] Jack Carr is The Terminal List's author and executive producer, as well as a former Navy SEAL officer.
Ajay James as Naval Special Warfare Operator “Chief Cortese”, Alpha Platoon’s tactical team leader and advisor to James Reece.
Navy SEAL Lieutenant Commander James Reece and his platoon of fourteen SEALs, along with an informant, execute a mission to move in on Dr. Kahani, a chemical weapons expert, in Syria. However, they are ambushed, and the whole team dies, save for Reece and his friend, Ernest 'Boozer' Vickers. The NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service) interviews Reece about the mission, though he notices that some of the details are displaced, making him question what really happened during the mission. After he's medically cleared, he and Boozer fly home. Reece relays his mission to his best friend, CIA agent and former SEAL Ben Edwards, who seems dismissive of any foul play. Reece arrives home to his wife and daughter, Lauren and Lucy, but they notice his memory loss. The following day, Boozer is found dead in his home, apparently by suicide, but Reece isn't buying it. When he notices that headaches have been irritating him, he goes to a nearby clinic late at night for an MRI Scan, but is attacked by two men, with his own gun that he locked in a safe at home. Fearing for his family, Reece rushes back, only to be met with the devastating reality that Lauren and Lucy are dead.
A grieving Reece painfully mourns Lauren and Lucy's passing, accompanied by his friend from Mexico, Marco del Toro, and another friend, former army pilot Elizabeth 'Liz' Riley. Still broken, and desiring solitude, Reece goes home after they gather around. When investigative journalist Katie Buranek, a woman he met after his mission, tells him that NCIS Agent Josh Holder, the man handling his case, finds no evidence to prove Reece's innocence in the death of his family, Reece takes measures to be careful. He also theorizes that Holder could've been involved in, if not responsible for the death of Lauren and Lucy, leading him to notice that he's involved in a domestic conspiracy. He takes a drawing of Lucy's, portraying his family, and writes Holder's name on the back, thus creating his 'terminal list'. He then surveils Holder before working with Edwards to get information from Holder's computer files. Secretary of Defense Lorraine Hartley meets with Reece in a bar, assuring him that Kahani was killed in another mission, and that he was no longer a threat. Reece now has no leads, but Edwards tells him that Holder pulled his biometrics, implying that Reece's suspicions were probably correct. Reece then sneaks into Holder's apartment, interrogates him, and assassinates him in his bed. After staging it as a suicide, he leaves.
With the second name to add to the terminal list, Capstone Industries Vice President Saul Agnon, Reece meets Buranek to tell him of his suspicions. However, Buranek is dismissive, telling Reece that the clinic he went to had discovered a tumor in his head. Though apprehensive, Reece doesn't dismiss it. He then notices an operator (later identified as Adrian Gordonis) has been following him, and he outsmarts his would-be assassin before killing him and escaping. Buranek is now convinced that Reece isn't entirely crazy, promising to find any connection to his mission and Capstone if there is one. In the meantime, Capstone CEO Steve Horn is training with his bodyguards from Talos Security during lunch. When he gets back to the office, Agnon discloses Gordonis' failed mission. Reece fills Edwards in on Agnon, and his friend goes to study their new target in a golf tournament, where Agnon meets Dr Mike Tedesco, CEO of Nubellum Pharmaceuticals. Reece, in the meanwhile, buys methadone wafers from a strip club, useful for creating a methadone cocktail with carisoprodol and alprazolam. The mixture is capable of inhibiting the brain's respiratory response sensors and suffocates the consumer, easier absorbed by alcohol. After Agnon attends and disbands a party in his home, Reece sneaks in and interrogates him, learning about Horn, a project called RD4895, and a lawyer called Marcus Boykin who hired sicarios to kill Reece's family. With two new names to add to his list, Reece uses the methadone cocktail to kill Agnon quietly before leaving and planning his next series of missions.
Reece treks up a mountain in Wyoming Backcounty to set up a sniper shot, killing Boykin in his car and copying data from his phone to send to Edwards. Reece's tumor symptoms, including headaches and memory confusion, have given him random visions of Lauren and Lucy, but he holds himself in control. Coronado's FBI branch gets to work the case on capturing Reece, leading Tony Layun, Mackenzie 'Mac' Wilson, Junior Alba and Nicole Deptul to find Katie hidden in her brother, Brian's beach house. They try to interrogate her, but she remains stubborn, fearful that she can't trust anyone. She also theorizes that Reece's deceased platoon may have also had tumors. Horn and Tedesco are at odds, due to Horn wanting to sell Tedesco's company, and Tedesco unwilling to let it go without any concrete understanding. Edwards tracks the Sicario group responsible for the death of Reece's family. When Reece and Marco's best soldier discuss a mission, Reece is stubborn because he wants to get close. Edwards tries to reason with him but fails. The group then learn about Reece's tumor, which he tried to hide from them. He gets medicine to control the symptoms but still wants to go through with the mission to kill the fifth name on the list, Navajas. After successfully killing Navajas' crew, Reece subdues the man, disembowels him, and leaves him to die. He then heads back home.
Reece and Riley are using a hangar to plan a capture mission for Horn. The easiest way would be to break through the FBI, who Reece has discovered is onto him and Buranek, in the middle of the financial district, at Capstone's headquarters no less. The tensions between Horn and Tedesco grow stronger, though they put up appearances displaying otherwise. Buranek confronts Tedesco about RD4895, who theorizes that this could be why Horn wants to sell his company. He then gives information about RD4895 to Buranek, explaining that it's an experimental drug that was supposed to solve PTSD by stopping the encoding of trauma on the brain. However, Horn suddenly stopped the project, making him theorize that the Capstone CEO illegally tested it on Reece's troop. Horn, aware of Tedesco's snooping, sends Talos agents to kill both Tedesco and Buranek. Tedesco dies, but Buranek survives after killing one before being saved by Reece, who she tells her findings to. Reece also learns that there were shell company owners who were involved, and when Buranek tries to withhold the information out of confusion and fear, Reece steals it before threatening her. The following day, he learns from Edwards, who he shares the info with, that his Admiral, Gerald Pillar, his captain, Leonard Howard, and his commander, Bill Cox, were also involved. Reece, angry and betrayed, creates an explosively formed projectile and uses it to ambush Horn at Capstone Industries, endangering many lives, including Buranek's, but leaves no civilian casualties while killing Horn and his bodyguards before running.
Two weeks prior to the current day, Reece had visited his parents in law about seeking revenge for their daughter and granddaughter. Now he's on the run from the police and the FBI. Riley starts worrying about Reece's mental state, but Edwards assures her that he'll be fine. Reece manages to get some distance from the FBI, but he's bleeding from a gunshot wound in his arm, and he's forgotten the medicine that helped control his symptoms. The FBI get desperate, bringing HRT, SWAT and all available tactical personnel to deal with Reece, but his training and his head start help him maintain distance. With five names down and three more written, Reece reminisces over a training session by the beach, where his memory confusion leads him to think about how he was betrayed. He continues with his game of cat and mouse with the FBI, stealing a bag of explosives from them and sparing Layun's life after having a headshot on him. When they discover that he's been listening to the radio communications, Layun tries to play mind games with him, hoping to break him, but Reece's anger and grief as a father and a widower keep him steeled. He threatens Layun to stay out of his way. The FBI continues chasing him anyway and manage to catch him, but he's planted the explosives in an ambush. After threatening Wilson, who refuses to listen to his demands, he causes a mudslide, burying them both. He makes it out and saves Wilson from being buried alive before he escapes. He apologizes to Riley for his behavior, who now encourages him to keep going. Then he meets Edwards at a beach in California before they plan their next series of missions.
SECDEF Lorraine Hartley classifies Reece as a domestic terrorist and the Coronado branch of the FBI begins to get desperate. However, a fearful Buranek gives them the lead they need to find out Reece's motives. They get access to a capitalization table, an accounting record of everyone who made money from the successful Nubellum sale. They discover the shell companies involved, and learn that Pillar, Howard and Cox are Reece's next targets, setting a new plan in motion to capture him. Meanwhile, Reece and Edwards are forming a plan of their own to kill all three. Reece creates a suicide vest, lined with two claymore mines for one of his targets. Pillar realizes that Hartley is conducting a sham investigation on him to cover herself, but defends his position about the mission that killed Reece's dead troop. When he tries to reach Howard for more legal trump cards, Howard tries to run, but is kidnapped by Edwards, along with his wife Ann and son TJ. Reece finds Cox outside a bar, subdues him, and interrogates him for more information before drowning him in the Pacific Ocean. Reece then threatens Howard with his family, telling him that either he dies alone or they die too. Howard does as he's told, wearing the suicide vest and getting blown up alongside Pillar, who first tries to beg Reece for his life. Layun learns that the Department of Defense, and in turn, Hartley, authorized RD4895, making the experiment legal despite no approval from the FDA, and discloses this to Buranek, who plans on releasing a story surrounding this revelation. Reece escapes from Layun who tries to capture him again, and Hartley kidnaps Buranek under pretense.
8
"Reclamation"
Sylvain White
Lisa Long & Hennah Sekander
July 1, 2022 (2022-07-01)
After learning that Hartley ordered the ambush mission, and approved of RD4895, Reece has the ninth name to add to his list, travelling with Edwards to get to her, while learning that Buranek has also been kidnapped. They make it through the LA branch of the FBI, who've taken the case from the Coronado Branch. Layun and Wilson, still looking to even the score with Reece, get HRT to work with them to capture Reece and Hartley so both can face justice. Reece's last remaining friend, a Southern African man called Raife Hastings, supplies Reece with a boat and some gear, leaving a note telling him that he's repaid a favor he previously owed, and that they're now even. Reece and Edwards then kill many Talos operatives, who Hartley hired after dumping CID to kill Reece for her own agenda, before Reece enters her mansion and kills his way to her saferoom. Buranek begs Reece to spare Hartley, but he's too hungry for revenge. Hartley commits suicide, and Reece leaves after Layun, who knows that Reece was betrayed, wrongfully pursued, and practically dead, lets him go. Unfortunately for Reece, he discovers that there's a tenth name to add to his list, and with Buranek's help, he's heartbroken to discover that it's Edwards, who admits to being involved in the mission, but tearfully denies being involved in Lauren and Lucy's deaths, claiming that he helped Reece out of repentance. Edwards then lets Reece kill him. Reece then thinks back to a moment when he and his family had a heart to heart conversation about his possible death, a flashback that was confused multiple times before, but he now remembers clearly. He then remorselessly looks at the terminal list one last time, before turning it around to see Lucy's family drawing, mourning his losses once more. He commits the drawing to heart and memory before letting the wind blow it into the ocean, setting sail for Mozambique, setting up events for True Believer, Jack Carr's next book in the series.
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.[16] On February 1, 2023, Amazon Prime Video renewed the series for a second season.[2]
Principal photography for The Terminal List began on March 9, 2021.[17] Chris Pratt was paid $1.4 million per episode.[18]
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.[2][20] 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.[21]
Reception
Audience viewership
The series was the number one show on Amazon Prime's "Top 10" list within two weeks of its premiere.[22]
The Terminal List came in at No. 3 on the Nielsen chart with 1.1 billion minutes viewed across eight episodes.[23][24]
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."[25]Metacritic gave it a weighted average score of 40 out of 100 based on reviews from 25 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[26] CinemaBlend.com summarized the reviews saying critics agree the series was firmly in the "Shows For Dads" genre.[27]
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."[28] 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."[29] 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".[30]
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."[31]
Author Jack Carr responded to the negative critical responses, saying "The 95 percent viewer rating, audience rating, makes it all worth it. We didn't make it for the critics."[32]
