on Google Preferred Source Google News Link copied to clipboard By Corey Plante Published Aug 4, 2026, 8:00 PM EDT What to Watch Without this movie, there is no Star-Lord
Image: Columbia Pictures Long before he became one of Hollywood’s most bankable action stars, leading franchises like Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World , Chris Pratt was best known as the lovable idiot from Parks and Recreation . Andy Dwyer was initially conceived of as a supporting character whose accident brought Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones) into Leslie Knope’s (Amy Poehler) orbit, establishing the friendship at the heart of the series. But Pratt proved so effortlessly funny and likable that Andy evolved from Ann’s slacker boyfriend into one of the show’s central characters. Even Andy’s eventual relationship with April Ludgate (Aubrey Plaza) developed organically thanks to the actors’ chemistry.
Parks and Rec established Pratt as a likable comedic actor, but that success came with a downside. Pratt leaned into Andy’s doughy physique and childlike personality, which made him even less fitting for the action hero roles he dreamed of playing. He’s talked about this openly in the past, particularly in an episode of the Scene Stealers podcast released in January 2026. In that interview, he credits one movie in particular as the reason he went on to become Star-Lord — and that movie just landed on Netflix.
Originally released in 2012, Zero Dark Thirty chronicles the decade-long manhunt for Osama bin Laden, the leader of the al-Qaeda terrorist organization responsible for the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal, the tense and methodical thriller focuses on Maya (Jessica Chastain), an obsessive CIA analyst whose pursuit of a single lead culminates in the real-life raid on bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. That’s where Pratt comes in.
As fictional Navy SEAL Justin Lenihan, Pratt arrives relatively late in the movie as part of the team assigned to conduct the raid. Even in a role with limited screen time, he delivers a memorable performance. Joel Edgerton plays the team leader, Patrick Grayston, but Pratt’s Lenihan emerges as the unit’s strongest personality. He expresses skepticism about the mission and presses Maya on the legitimacy of the intelligence placing bin Laden inside the compound.
“I didn’t even want to use you guys, with your dip and your Velcro and all your gear bullshit,” Maya responds. “I wanted to drop a bomb.”
Pratt conveys a grizzled frat-boy energy as Lenihan hops around camp playing horseshoes. While most of his teammates remain relatively quiet, he comes across as gregarious and approachable.
Image: Columbia Pictures Later, as the team rides a helicopter toward its target, Lenihan listens to something through his headphones and jokes that it’s a motivational speech from Tony Robbins. Even just seeing Pratt wearing wired headphones while inside a metal metal vehicle makes the character feel like a proto-Peter Quill. Not long afterward, Lenihan is sweeping through the compound in complete darkness with disciplined precision. And we admire him even more when he pauses to calm and direct some children the team encounters amid the chaos.
That balance was crucial. Lenihan retains flashes of Pratt’s warmth and humor, but even with a few wisecracking jokes, he's is a serious character. As Pratt recalled on Scene Stealers, nobody watching Zero Dark Thirty laughed when he appeared onscreen, whi…