Lengthy earlier than he turned one in all Hollywood’s most bankable motion stars, main franchises like Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World, Chris Pratt was greatest referred to as the lovable fool from Parks and Recreation. Andy Dwyer was initially conceived of as a supporting character whose accident introduced Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones) into Leslie Knope’s (Amy Poehler) orbit, establishing the friendship on the coronary heart of the sequence. However Pratt proved so effortlessly humorous and likable that Andy developed from Ann’s slacker boyfriend into one of many present’s central characters. Even Andy’s eventual relationship with April Ludgate (Aubrey Plaza) developed organically due to the actors’ chemistry.
Parks and Rec established Pratt as a likable comedic actor, however that success got here with a draw back. Pratt leaned into Andy’s doughy physique and childlike character, which made him even much less becoming for the motion hero roles he dreamed of taking part in. He’s talked about this brazenly prior to now, significantly in an episode of the Scene Stealers podcast launched in January 2026. In that interview, he credit one film specifically as the explanation he went on to develop into Star-Lord — and that film simply landed on Netflix.
Initially launched in 2012, Zero Darkish Thirty chronicles the decade-long manhunt for Osama bin Laden, the chief of the al-Qaeda terrorist group accountable for the assaults 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 within the real-life raid on bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. That’s the place Pratt is available in.
As fictional Navy SEAL Justin Lenihan, Pratt arrives comparatively late within the film as a part of the group assigned to conduct the raid. Even in a job with restricted display screen time, he delivers a memorable efficiency. Joel Edgerton performs the group chief, Patrick Grayston, however Pratt’s Lenihan emerges because the unit’s strongest character. He expresses skepticism in regards to the mission and presses Maya on the legitimacy of the intelligence inserting bin Laden contained in the compound.
“I didn’t even need to use you guys, along with your dip and your Velcro and all of your gear bullshit,” Maya responds. “I needed to drop a bomb.”
Pratt conveys a grizzled frat-boy vitality as Lenihan hops round camp taking part in horseshoes. Whereas most of his teammates stay comparatively quiet, he comes throughout as gregarious and approachable.
Later, because the group rides a helicopter towards its goal, Lenihan listens to one thing via his headphones and jokes that it’s a motivational speech from Tony Robbins. Even simply seeing Pratt sporting wired headphones whereas inside a steel steel car makes the character really feel like a proto-Peter Quill. Not lengthy afterward, Lenihan is sweeping via the compound in full darkness with disciplined precision. And we admire him much more when he pauses to calm and direct some kids the group encounters amid the chaos.
That steadiness was essential. Lenihan retains flashes of Pratt’s heat and humor, however even with just a few wisecracking jokes, he is is a critical character. As Pratt recalled on Scene Stealers, no person watching Zero Darkish Thirty laughed when he appeared onscreen, which he’d gotten used to with Dwyer.
“I used to be promoting and portraying a badass, and other people purchased it,” Pratt stated. “You’re consistently recalibrating how the enterprise sees you and the place you would possibly dwell within the market.”
Zero Darkish Thirty gave Pratt his first actual alternative to alter that notion. It definitely helped that the film was a important and industrial success, grossing greater than $132 million worldwide towards a reported finances of round $40 million and incomes 5 Academy Award nominations.
Pratt had auditioned for a number of Marvel roles over time, however the studio repeatedly handed. When Guardians of the Galaxy got here alongside, he initially resisted auditioning. In response to Pratt, director James Gunn was equally skeptical about casting “the fats man from Parks and Rec.” Casting director Sarah Finn ultimately persuaded them each.
By then, nevertheless, Zero Darkish Thirty had helped Pratt establish the sort of main man he might develop into. He needed to mix the bodily credibility of an motion hero with the comedic instincts he had developed on Parks and Rec. His transformation for the film additionally proved he might look the half. When Pratt later met with Marvel executives, Kevin Feige reportedly produced a shirtless picture taken throughout his Zero Darkish Thirty coaching and requested whether or not he might obtain that physique once more. Seven months later, Pratt turned Star-Lord.
That profession transformation makes Zero Darkish Thirty a captivating time capsule, however Pratt is hardly the one motive to observe Kathryn Bigelow’s gripping thriller. The film belongs primarily to Chastain, whose efficiency transforms Maya’s pursuit of bin Laden into an all-consuming obsession outlined by the painstaking means of gathering intelligence over the course of 10 years. Chastain additionally gained the Golden Globe for Greatest Actress in a Drama for this function.
Zero Darkish Thirty additionally properly doesn’t make a patriotic spectacle of the raid itself. The sequence is darkish and disorienting to emphasise the uneasiness surrounding a shadow-ops mission like this. Pratt suits naturally into that restrained strategy. Lenihan’s easygoing humor humanizes the raid group, however that levity largely disappears as soon as the operation begins. Watching him transfer between these modes now looks like seeing the 2 sides of his future stardom come collectively. It might be a small function, but it surely helped show that the lovable fool from Parks and Rec is also taken critically as a person of motion. For that motive alone, Zero Darkish Thirty is price watching on Netflix.
