Chris Pratt is one of Hollywood’s most bankable, most entertaining A-list actors. He has come such a long way from being the doughy goofball on Parks & Recreation. His status today is a far cry from when he was on Everwood. For the first part of his career, Chris Pratt was just that guy, popping up in small roles in Wanted, Bride Wars, and even Zero Dark Thirty. But no more. Pratt has shed his baby fat, gained acting chops, fine-tuned his funny bone, and reinvented himself. Now, Chris Pratt is headlining some of the biggest franchises in film history. In 2019, he will be starring in Vincent D’Onofrio’s Billy the Kid Western The Kid and the sequel to The Lego Movie. Who knows what lofty heights his career will reach? Here are Chris Pratt’s top five film roles.
Scott Hatteberg in Moneyball (2011)
Bennett Miller’s 2011 film Moneyball is nothing short of miraculous. It is a film about Oakland Athletics’ GM Billy Beane and how he used statistics to field his team. Yes. It is a brilliant, exciting film about sports statistics. That is miraculous. Chris Pratt has a supporting, yet crucial role of the real-life ballplayer, Scott Hatteberg. Hatteberg is a mediocre player and hasn’t quite reached his full major league potential. However, according to Jonah Hill’s Peter Brand’s sabermetrics, Hatteberg becomes Beane’s white whale. His on-base percentage is through the roof, and that is what Beane wants to use to make his team win. Chris Pratt’s inherent vulnerability and Midwest charm make him the heart of the movie.
Jim Preston in Passengers (2016)
For a further testament to the star power of Chris Pratt, take Passengers for example. In Morton Tyldum’s follow up to The Intimidation Game, he tasked Chris Pratt with essentially a futuristic version of Cast Away. The Avalon is a ship on a 120-year journey to the distant planet Homestead II. A meteor collision causes a single passenger to awaken from his hibernation pod 90 years too early. Chris Pratt plays this man, Jim Preston. For the first half of the film, Pratt is tasked with the one-man show of a man dealing with isolation. Then he gets the idea to awaken a woman that he has become infatuated with. So for the second half of the film, Chris Pratt is tasked with acting alongside the biggest actress in the world, Jennifer Lawrence. The moral consequences and emotions that come with Jim’s decision lend such weight to the film that rarely exists in science fiction. By waking up Jennifer Lawrence, he almost immediately assigns her a death sentence. Jim Preston is essentially the villain of Passengers.
Josh Faraday in The Magnificent Seven (2016)
Only a filmmaking pair such as Antoine Fuqua and Denzel Washington would have the audacity to remake a classic western like The Magnificent Seven. Well, that is exactly what they did in 2016, to fantastic results. Denzel plays Sam Chisolm, a US Marshall and the first recruit by a town under the tyrannical thumb of a robber baron. He recruits six more outlaws (obviously) that are all deadly in their own way. However, Josh Faraday may be the most dangerous, the most drunk, and the suavest. Few actors could hold their own playing opposite Denzel in a Fuqua movie, but Chris Pratt does just that. We all knew Chris Pratt can do action and comedy. However, The Magnificent Seven proves he can gunsling in a western as well.
Emmet Brickowski in The Lego Movie (2014)
When Phil Lord and Christopher Miller announced that they were going to make The Lego Movie, there wasn’t a single person alive that though it could work. But through a brilliant screenplay, dazzling animation, and Chris Pratt’s pitch-perfect performance as Emmet Brickowski, it worked amazingly well. The film tells a story about creativity, being yourself, and following your dreams in the best of animation tradition. Pratt brings the absolute perfect amount of vulnerability, humor, and fear to Emmet. It is amazing how much an audience can relate to an animated, yellow, plastic, Lego-man.
Peter Quill/Starlord in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
There is a brilliant piece of casting in the MCU, second only to Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark. That is Chris Pratt as Peter Quill. Pratt took the world by storm in 2014 with Guardians of the Galaxy. It takes a special type of presence to keep a movie with two green aliens, a talking raccoon, and a sentient tree facing grounded. Somehow, it all works brilliantly. From the moment we meet Star Lord, dancing to Come and Get Your Love while punting small creatures, it is obvious we are in for a great ride. But Chris Pratt’s performance as Peter Quill is not all goofiness. In the sequel to Guardians of the Galaxy, he had some deep character development and poignancy when he met his father, Ego. Not only that, but Pratt had some of the most emotional and pivotal scenes in all of The Avengers: Infinity War. It is safe to say that to date, Peter Quill is Chris Pratt’s most iconic role.
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