- Chris Pratt thinks every dad has a fantasy of what they would do if someone messed with their kids.
- He told Men's Journal that's why "Taken" and his own Prime Video series "resonate so strongly with fathers."
Chris Pratt said that he thinks every dad has a "secret" fantasy of what they would do if someone messed with their kids — and shared his own.
While discussing his latest television venture, "The Terminal List," in which he plays a Navy SEAL with post-traumatic stress disorder, whose family is murdered, Pratt said he'd probably react similarly to his character, James Reece, if he was in a similar situation.
"I think every dad secretly fantasizes about what they would do if someone ever fucked with their kids," he said in a new interview with Men's Journal.
The 43-year-old actor shares a 10-year-old son, Jack, with his ex-wife Anna Faris, as well as daughters Lyla, 2, and Eloise, 1, with his second wife Katherine Schwarzenegger.
"Whenever you're put in a position, or even imagine a position, where those kids are in danger, your mind goes to wild places," he said. "I think that's why those storylines resonate so strongly with fathers."
The actor said that he "would probably do the same fucking thing" as his character on the show, which is to seek cold-blooded revenge on everyone even tangentially to blame.
"Your partner sees you staring off into the distance and says, 'Honey, what are you thinking about?' And you say, 'Oh, nothing.' But what you're really thinking is, 'Where's the duct tape and how deep is the trunk?'"
"I think that's most dads," he continued. "Or maybe that's just me and I'm revealing something here."
"But as someone who's talked to a lot of dads, I think we all ask ourselves what we would do," Pratt added.
The actor pointed to the Liam Neeson-starring thriller "Taken," which he said was "such a hit" because "us dads are just like, 'Yes! Get 'em! Use that special set of skills.'"
In the 2008 movie, which grossed almost $230 million worldwide, Neeson played a divorced, retired US government agent who ends up having to track down his teenage daughter after she is kidnapped by a gang of human traffickers while visiting Paris, France.
In one of the most-quoted moments in the movie, Neeson's character warns his daughter's abductors over the phone that he has a "very particular set of skills" from his time working for the government.
Meanwhile, in "The Terminal List," which was released on Prime Video in July 2022 and was renewed for a second season earlier this year, Pratt's character Lieutenant Commander James Reece goes on a similar violent rampage when he finds his wife and 9-year-old daughter have been murdered as part of an elaborate government conspiracy.
Pratt noted that some critics dubbed it an "unhinged revenge fantasy," and said, "That's exactly what it is in a way."