WARNING: The following contains SPOILERS for The Terminal List season 1.
Chris Pratt’s James Reece spends The Terminal List gunning down the bad guys, so it would be easy to see him as the story’s hero, but another character really takes this role. Based on Jack Carr’s book series, The Terminal List brings to screen a new Jason-Bourne-style action franchise complete with a super-soldier turned victim of a government scheme. However, this iteration of the classic action thriller boasts an unexpected (and far more interesting) hero.
The Terminal List follows Navy SEAL commander James Reece in the aftermath of a disastrous mission named “Odin’s Sword” during which Reece suffers a severe head injury and most of Reece’s team is killed. Reece remains a target even after he returns home and soon finds himself the prime suspect in the murder of his wife and daughter due to his mental instability. As suspicion of him grows, a reporter (Constance Wu’s Katie Buranek) becomes involved and discovers that all of the men involved in “Odin’s Sword” suffered from brain tumors — including Reece.
Following Katie’s discovery, James Reece begins to find and kill all of those involved in the murders of his family and his men, compiling the names on his terminal list from Katie’s investigative research. However, The Terminal List’s Reece is blinded by vengeance throughout the series, showing little mercy and often killing innocent people to gain his revenge. Katie Buranek, on the other hand, is the story’s true hero, risking her life to reveal the conspiracy and bring those at fault to justice.
Why Constance Wu's Katie Is The Terminal List's Real Hero
While James Reece is certainly a hero for his service to the military, his character in The Terminal List is largely invalidated as the series progresses. When plotting to kill the CEO of Capstone Industries, Steve Horn, Reece specifically talks about how targeted an EFP bomb is, insinuating that no bystanders will be killed in the assassination. However, when Reece takes down Admiral Pillar in The Terminal List episode 7, he sends Captain Howard (another name on his list) to detonate a suicide vest at the naval base. The explosion is extensive and can be assumed to have caused injuries to other innocent navy officers and administrators on-site, though it is not shown. Finally, by the time Reece invades Secretary of Defense Lorraine Hartley’s (played by Jeanne Tripplehorn) private island, he seems to have lost any regard for innocent lives, shooting dozens of her guards (who are just doing their jobs) and hacking his way through her mansion to find her.
Constance Wu’s Katie Buranek, however, spends the course of the Amazon Prime Video show diligently tracking the conspirators. Despite being nearly killed herself by Steve Horn’s private assassins (one of which she kills out of self-defense), being threatened by multiple factions of the government, and nearly being blown up by Reece, Katie persists. It is Katie that discovers in The Terminal List that Reece’s team was used as lab rats and killed to cover it up. It is Katie who puts herself in harm’s way, having no SEAL training to defend herself, to find the truth even though she was not directly affected by it. And it is Katie who writes the story that unveils the government’s treachery — though none of them can be held accountable for their wrongdoings thanks to Reece.
Though some may argue that James Reece was justified in his vengeance, his disregard for innocent lives by the end of The Terminal List negated his character’s viability. Though he may have begun as a hero, he did not end as one. And while James Carr’s source content ensures Reece’s continued storyline in The Terminal List season 2 and beyond, it is Constance Wu’s Katie Buranek — the true hero of The Terminal List — that seems most essential to the series’ continued success.
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All episodes of The Terminal List are available on Amazon Prime.