The Terminal List
The Terminal List is an American action thriller television series based on Jack Carr's 2018 novel of the same name. 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. The series is scheduled to have a second season, based on the novel True Believer. Prime has also ordered a prequel spin-off series centering on the character of Ben Edwards.
The series follows Lieutenant Commander James Reece (Chris Pratt) after his platoon of Navy SEALs are 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.
This show provides examples of:
- Adaptational Distillation: The show doesn't explain the backstories of Reece's allies, which the book uses to explain why they are so loyal to him. (Reece saved Marco's daughter from a cartel, he rescued Liz from Iraqi Mahdi, insurgents when her helicopter crashed during the battle of Ramadi, and Reece's father extradited Katie's family from Czechoslovakia to save them from the KGB.)
- Adaptational Heroism: In the book, Ben is an active member of the conspiracy and secretly helps to try to assassinate Reece. In the show, he abandons the conspiracy after they murder Reece's family and assists him in killing each of them out of a sense of guilt (though Reece still kills him after learning of his involvement).
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Hartley is far more courteous and kind in the series then her book counterpart, who is noted to be imposing and insensitive and throws her power around to get what she wants.
- Adapted Out:
- Raife Hastings doesn't appear in Season 1, despite playing a critical role in the book's climax (Ben fulfills his role instead.)
- A corrupt Muslim cleric who is a member of the conspiracy in the book is also absent in the show.
- Affably Evil: Hartley is initially presented as empathetic towards Reece's immense loss of his team and family, until she's revealed to be the mastermind behind the entire plot.
- Ambiguous Situation: It's never made completely clear who detonated the tunnel explosives that killed most of Reece's team. Reece initially remembers their SDF guide triggering the tripwire in panic, but the NCIS investigation convinces him that it was one of his own teammates, though the NCIS is deliberately trying to frame the team for their own demise and Reece's memories of the mission become increasingly conflicting due to his brain tumor.
- Anti-Hero: Reece is willing to use questionable methods in order to exact revenge on the people who killed his team and family. He also shows no mercy when his victims cannot fight like putting a bullet on Steve Horn's head, strapping his CO with a bomb when he realizes that he was involved in the ambush that kills his men, and torture a conspirator to death. The only instance he shows any sympathy is when he realizes that Ben was involved in the conspiracy and Mercy Kill him by shooting him in the head.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: Reece is capable of taking down PMCs, Cartels, and FBI agents whether he is with himself or with his fellow soldier Edwards. He is also a Lieutenant Commander in the US Navy, specifically the Navy SEALs.
- Big Bad: Lorraine Hartley. She orders Reece to carry out a covert mission that leads to the deaths of some of Reece's men (through letting them ingest a Fantastic Drug that could possibly cure their PTSD but instead gives them cancer). Although she is only a part of a conspiracy alongside Steve Horn, Mike Tedesco, and ultimately, Ben Edwards.
- Bittersweet Ending: Season 1 ends with Reece uncovering the conspiracy and avenging the deaths of his men and family. But this includes killing his best friend Ben, who was also involved in the conspiracy. Not to mention that Reece is suffering from cancer and presumably has only a few years to live and wander off to parts unknown, with law enforcement still hunting him down.
- Cassandra Truth: Reece suspects foul play in Operation Odin's Sword and Boozer's supposed suicide from the beginning, but due to the deliberate efforts of Secretary Hartley and Admiral Pilsner to cover up the mission, he's branded as an unhinged terrorist.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Steve Horn is the CEO of Capstone Industries and is completely a massive Jerkass.
- Crusading Widower: Reece.
- Dirty Coward: Most of Reece's targets qualify, but none are as dirty as Secretary Hartley. When she realizes that she's next on Reece's list, she reteats to her fortified island to ambush him, while also taking Katie hostage. When Reece manages to corner her anyway, she commits suicide rather than face consequences.
- Disc-One Final Boss: Steve Horn initially shapes up to be the overarching villain, but dies at the end of episode five.
- Fantastic Drug: Reece and his men take an experimental drug that was manufactured by Capstone Industries and designed to prevent PTSD. Instead, however, it gives them cancerous tumors.
- A Father to His Men: Reece was this to his team before they were all killed.
- Miles Gloriosus: Steve Horn fancies himself a soldierly badass, and bolsters this image by getting SEAL tattoos (even though he never actually served) and participating in controlled tactical training for sport. All of that chutzpah quickly disappears once Horn is finally faced with Reece.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Again, Reece.
- Race Lift: Katie Buranek was originally Czechoslovakian in the novel while in the TV series, she is Chinese. Both versions of the character share the same backstory of having escaped an oppressive Communist regime and at one point the TV version of the character mentions that she went into journalism because her father paid the price of standing up against President Deng Xiaoping, implying that he was one of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protestors. Although the race change never explains why the TV character doesn't have a Chinese last name.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: The novel, being released in 2018, set Odin's Sword in Afghanistan before all US forces completely withdrew from the country in August 2021. The series was released in 2022, a year after the withdrawal from Afghanistan, and thus places Odin's Sword in Syria.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After surviving an ambush that was perpetuated by his fellow countrymen, Reece is willing to uncover their dirty secrets by mercilessly killing his enemies.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Reece suffers from PTSD and fatigue from fighting in Afghanistan. That's the reason why he accepts Horn's offer to take up the drug that allegedly cures his PTSD along with his men with encouragement from Ben.
- Villainous Breakdown: When Katie Buranek attempts to publish an expose about The Conspiracy, Senator Hartley invites her to her fortified island to "tell her side of the story" while waiting for Reece. However, Katie doesn't buy Hartley's story and successfully records her confession so Hartley attempts to have her killed, but is interrupted by Reece and Ben's attack. Then when it seems that Katie is succeeding in talking Reece into letting the law deal with her, Hartley opts to commit suicide rather than face any consequences.
- Villains Want Mercy: The vast majority of Reece's revenge targets devolve into begging for mercy once cornered.
