The Terminal List

The Terminal List is an American action thriller series made for Prime Video, released on July 1, 2022, and adapted from Jack Carr’s 2018 debut novel of the same name. Chris Pratt stars as Lieutenant Commander James Reece, a Navy SEAL whose platoon is nearly wiped out during a covert mission in Syria. When Reece returns home, his memories of the ambush conflict with the official account, and medical tests reveal a brain tumor that raises doubts about his judgment. The story becomes more personal after his wife, Lauren, and daughter, Lucy, are murdered, pushing him into a campaign against the people he believes engineered the operation and the coverup.

Specific figures in that conspiracy include corporate executive Steve Horn of Capstone Industries, Secretary of Defense Lorraine Hartley, and members of a pharmaceutical and defense network tied to the experimental drug RD4895. The series also builds Reece’s investigation through characters with distinct functions: Taylor Kitsch plays Ben Edwards, Reece’s former SEAL teammate and CIA Ground Branch operative; Constance Wu plays Katie Buranek, a war correspondent following the story; and J. D. Pardo plays Tony Layun, an FBI agent tracking Reece’s killings. Jeanne Tripplehorn portrays Hartley, while Riley Keough appears in flashbacks and early episodes as Lauren Reece.

The show was developed by David DiGilio, with Antoine Fuqua directing the pilot and serving as an executive producer. Pratt was also an executive producer, and Jack Carr, a former Navy SEAL officer, remained closely connected to the adaptation. Its first season contains eight episodes and ends by resolving Reece’s revenge list while leaving his survival and future unsettled. The series is notable for its deliberate military procedural texture: weapons, team language, chain of command, intelligence tradecraft, trauma, and veteran loyalty are presented as central story mechanics, not background decoration.

Critical reception was sharply divided. Many reviewers criticized the show’s grim tone, length, and politics, while audience response on Prime Video and fan platforms was much warmer. That split became part of the show’s public identity. In 2023, Prime Video announced a second season based on Carr’s sequel True Believer and a prequel series focused on Ben Edwards, later titled The Terminal List: Dark Wolf. Together those projects position The Terminal List not as a standalone revenge story but as the start of a screen franchise built around Carr’s novels, Reece’s moral code, and the consequences of covert warfare inside American institutions today.