As Jurassic World Dominion stomps toward the multiplex for a June 10, 2022 release, all eyes turn to see how Grady, Dearing, Grant, and Stattler will deal with the prehistoric predators ravaging the entire globe. Leading in the charge among the stellar ensemble cast is Chris Pratt, an actor who has become far more popular in the last 10 years than he was during the first half of his career.
Whether it's his iconic roles in the Lego movies, the Jurassic World franchise, or the beloved Guardians of the Galaxy series, the movie lovers at Ranker have spoken loudly about the cinematic highs of Chris Pratt's career to date.
Note: Ranker lists are live and continue to accrue votes, so some rankings may have changed after this publishing.
Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
The year 2012 marked a major turning point for Pratt's career, beginning with his bit role in the award-winning war drama Zero Dark Thirty, a harrowing chronicle of the U.S. 10-year hunt for Osama Bin Laden following the 9/11 attacks. Pratt plays Justin Lenihan, the operator of the SEAL Team 6 who gives key commands to his elite squadron.
While Pratt acquits himself well in the role, the inspiring story of CIA operative Maya Harris (Jessica Chastain) slowly piecing years' worth of minor clues, subtle hints, and contradictory intelligence to find Bin Laden is what makes the story so resonant, especially as it raises the difficult question of whether or not the toll during the search was really worth the result.
Passengers (2016)
Despite taking a critical drubbing, Ranker users feel Passengers is among Pratt's 10 finest films, thus far. Pratt shares combustible chemistry with Jennifer Lawrence as two astronauts in hypersleep who suddenly awake 90 years before they are scheduled to do so. Themes of isolation, cabin fever, autonomy, and romance give way to an unsettling sense of Stockholm Syndrome.
Compared to Titanic set in outer space by some critics, many felt the film did a good job at creating a believable romance between Jim (Pratt) and Aurora (Lawrence), and although the ending felt anticlimactic, the first half is strong enough to carry the story a long way.
The Magnificent Seven (2016)
A remake (of a remake) of Akira Kurosawa's all-time great samurai film, Seven Samurai, Pratt holds his own on the screen with Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke in the macho western-action film about a septet of rough-hewn gunslingers out to protect a village from a ruthless land developer. Pratt plays Josh Faraday, a roguish gambler with a penchant for explosives.
Directed with great energy by Antoine Fuqua, the droll interplay between the seven charismatic men and the stylish shootouts they engage in are visceral, exhilarating, and a ton of fun to behold. While Denzel rightly steals the show, the movie proves Pratt can handle big-budget supporting roles just as deftly as he does a leading character.
The Lego Movie (2014)
Pratt voices the lead character Emmet Brickowski with great humor and heartfelt pathos in the mega-popular Lego Movie franchise. In the highly-acclaimed original, Emmet is an ordinary Lego worker recruited to join the team to lead the resistance against a dictatorial business tycoon from ruining all of the Lego blocks for his own vanity project.
With stunning computer animation, hilarious verbal jokes and sight gags coming by the minute, and a far more involved story than anyone could expect from a movie about a children's toy line, The Lego Movie far surpassed expectations while further proving Pratt's comedic chops.
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (2019)
While most fans feel The Lego Movie: The Second Part is an inferior film to the original, Ranker voters feel the opposite. Pratt reprises her role in the sequel, which finds director Mike Mitchell replacing the authorial voices of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller.
Story-wise, the well-received animated sequel picks up five years after events in the original, when the Legos must deal with an incursion from outer space by Lego Duplo invaders who threaten the plastic toys' entire existence. In addition to playing Emmet again, Pratt has even more fun voicing the role of Rex Dangervest, a mashup of all of Pratt's most iconic movie roles that turns out to be a future version of Emmet himself. More self-aware than in the first film, Pratt shines bright in the dual roles.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)
In Pratt's second time portraying the role of Navy veteran and ethologist Owen Grady in the popular Jurassic World franchise, Fallen Kingdom reunites the character with Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) to save the dinosaurs on Isla Nublar from a newly active volcano previously thought dormant. Despite the scintillating action sequences directed by J.A. Bayona, most felt the film didn't quite live up to its predecessor.
More of a throwback environmental disaster film than the thrilling man-versus-dinosaur template that made the original franchise so special, the film was praised for its epic set pieces, solid action scenes that expand beyond the park, and much darker tone than the earlier films.
Jurassic World (2015)
After 14 long years away from the filmgoing public, Jurassic World marked the exciting return of the beloved blockbuster franchise ushered in by Steven Spielberg from 1993 to 2001. With a riveting plot that introduces the big, bad Indominus Rex, a genetically-engineered apex predator that escapes the newly refurbished park and goes on a kill-crazy rampage, director Colin Trevorrow hit all the right notes that made the original so remarkable.
For his part, Pratt proved he could carry a big-budget blockbuster on his back as a bona fide leading movie star, something he'd only done once prior in Guardians of the Galaxy. With Trevorrow back in the director's chair, here's hoping Jurassic World Dominion is a superior sequel in every sense of the word.
Onward (2020)
After voicing Emmet in The Lego Movie with great emotional range, Pratt was cast to do something similar in Onward, Pixar's touching tale of the brotherly bond between two elves on a quest to visit their deceased father one last time. Aside from the excellent computer animation, the witty and tender interplay between Pratt and costar Tom Holland as the highly relatable Pixar characters Barley and Ian Lightfoot is what makes the movie so memorable.
While Onward lost the Oscar for Best Animated Feature to its Pixar brethren Soul, the movie shows that Pratt need not rely on his physical instrument to give a good performance as a leading man and that his voice acting is just as strong as his live-action roles.
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
In arguably his most iconic movie role to date, Pratt absolutely owns the character of Peter Quill aka Star-Lord in the hyper-kinetic, colorfully dazzling, and ultra-gonzo MCU franchise Guardians of the Galaxy. Seemingly tailor-made for his brand of laid-back laconic sense of humor, Pratt leads a lovable team of eccentric extraterrestrial criminals across the cosmos for various purposes.
In Guardians Vol. 2, Star-Lord is confronted with facing his estranged father Ego (Kurt Russell), a celestial entity with craven goals that must be dealt with before it's too late. Despite lacking the refreshing novelty of the original, the movie was hailed for its sparkling visuals, irreverent humor, and scintillating action scenes.
Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014)
As many might have guessed, Guardians of the Galaxy is the best movie in Chris Pratt's filmography to date, according to Ranker. In addition to becoming his breakout, star-making role as a legitimately bankable Hollywood leading man, the sheer lunacy, mania, and frenetic fun that James Gunn imbued the film with is what big-budget blockbuster entertainment is all about.
Based on the Marvel Comic superhero team of extraterrestrial criminals, the story follows the Guardians on the run from the villainous Ronan The Accuser (Lee Pace) after stealing a powerful ancient artifact sought by many in the galaxy. With hyperkinetic verve, extremely funny characters, impressive visual effects, and a heartfelt story to anchor the proceedings, Pratt's finest hour is a worthy one indeed.