Goodbye ‘Reacher,’ Prime Video’s Darker Action Thriller Is So Good, You’ll Finish It in One Weekend
Collier Jennings is an entertainment journalist with extensive experience. Collier, or "CJ" to his friends and family, is a dedicated fan of genre films - particularly science fiction, fantasy, and comic book adaptations, not to mention all forms of animation. This stems from a close bond with his father, who introduced him to these genres via copies of X-Men comics and reruns of the original Ultraman series. With his near-encyclopedic knowledge and bottomless love of genre, he's tackled a wide variety of articles.
In 2022, Prime Video launched one of its biggest series, Reacher. The appeal of watching Alan Ritchson's Jack Reacher travel from place to place and brutally take down criminals can't be overstated, as it's led to four seasons of television with two more on the way — not to mention a highly successful spinoff in Neagley. What most fans forgot is that another gritty military thriller dropped that same year, which also became a major hit and earned its own spinoff series. That other makes for the perfect binge-watch, thanks to its pulse-pounding action and compelling narrative.
That series is The Terminal List, based on Jack Carr's novel of the same name. The Terminal List kicks off when Navy SEAL James Reece (Chris Pratt) returns home after a mission leads to the deaths of his entire platoon. Before Reece can rest, his wife and daughter are killed, and he starts to uncover a conspiracy connected to his last mission. As Reece embarks on a mission to punish the guilty parties, he also struggles with the discovery of a tumor in his brain that causes intense pain.
'The Terminal List' Keeps Audiences Hooked With Brutal Action & Plot Twists Galore
Part of the appeal of The Terminal List is how it frames Reece's quest; due to the tumor in his head, he's making decisions that come off irrational to some and downright psychotic to others. His mission also runs parallel to Katie Buranek (Constance Wu), a reporter who starts uncovering the conspiracy that Reece's platoon was entangled in. It also doesn't hurt that The Terminal List packs some of the most brutal action sequences of any military thriller, with one episode featuring Reece cutting a man open and leaving him to die. While Reacher is pretty brutal, it often pales in comparison to The Terminal List.
The series later repeated this formula in the spin-off The Terminal List: Dark Wolf, which centers on Reece's fellow Navy SEAL and friend Ben Edwards (Taylor Kitsch), who ends up working for the CIA. Dark Wolf lives up to its name, as it's even darker than The Terminal List. Beyond the bloodshed, Dark Wolf dives deep into the toll of war and how it affects men like Edwards. Dark Wolf also dovetails into the events of The Terminal List in a surprising way, adding more depth to the latter series.
'The Terminal List' Finally Made Its Comeback
Despite being panned by critics, The Terminal List was a surprising success, holding the #1 spot on Prime Video's Top 10 for two weeks straight. This led to a second season being green lit, but it would take four years before that season premiered. The wait is worth it, as Season 2 plunges Reece into a new threat, while also exploring the ill effects of his tumor and how it's causing him to contemplate suicide. It also gives Katie a meatier role, as she works with Raife Hastings (Tom Hopper) to uncover a terrorist plot and has to fight for her own life in certain scenes.
While no word has been given about The Terminal List being renewed for Season 3, it still remains a passion project for Chris Pratt. During an interview with The Washington Post, Pratt revealed that he met Jack Carr when filming Zero Dark Thirty and was immediately drawn to The Terminal List's story:
"I read the book and immediately was intrigued. What drew me to the role was I knew that it would be different...I loved the voice. I loved Jack as an author. I think he's got a very authentic and compelling pro‑‑like, the way that he writes, it's‑‑the point of view is authentic because he's a former SEAL himself, and I just loved that this character, Reece, really encompasses everything that I've grown to love about the SEALs' community, and I wanted to put that on screen."
Reacher might have taken the world by storm, but The Terminal List more than matches it in terms of violence and entertainment. If you're looking for your next binge-watch, this is definitely worth checking out.
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