VetFamily: Chris Pratt

“We have the greatest armed forces the world has ever seen,” movie star Chris Pratt wrote on Instagram.

Pratt’s latest film, “The Tomorrow War” is being released on Amazon this week. He plays a family man who is drafted to fight in a future war where the fate of humanity relies on his ability to confront the past. Though he’s known for playing action heroes, Pratt’s older brother has experienced some real life action: Daniel “Cully” Pratt is an Army veteran who served more than 8 years.

The brothers grew up in Virginia, Minnesota. Their mom, Kathleen Louise, worked at a Safeway supermarket, and their dad, Daniel Clifton Pratt, worked in mining and remodeling houses. When Chris was seven years old, the family moved to Lake Stevens, Washington.

“Growing up, we wrestled for hours every day and smashed every bit of furniture in the house but never actually fought,” Chris wrote for Veterans Day. “He taught me everything. I always wanted to be exactly like him. He’s always led with love. The more we can look at our veterans for who they are, actual people, with siblings and parents, with children and funny pasts,  the more we can approach our relationship with them with compassion and understanding.”

Cully spent 8.5 years in the U.S. Army from 1995-2003, serving as an infantryman, Military Police Officer and an Army Recruiter and Retention Officer, according to the Solona County Sheriff's Office. He is now the sheriff's deputy.

“I set out to be a Marine, ended up being in the Army infantry — two years turned into four, four turned into six,” Cully told CBN News. “ I ended up doing just under nine years in the Army from infantry, military police and recruiting out in the Bay Area.” 

“My brother didn’t join the Army to be Rambo,” read Chris’ instagram post. “He joined because it was an opportunity for a hard nosed kid who couldn’t afford college, somebody who wanted to get the hell out of his small town.” 

Small Beginnings
Chris himself dropped out of community college and moved to Maui as a late teen, where he was homeless for a while. At age 19 while waiting tables to survive, actress and director Rae Dawn Chong cast him in his first film: “Cursed Part 3.” From there he garnered a few small television roles in Los Angeles, but his big break came with the NBC comedy series “Parks and Recreation.” He played Andy Dwyer for seven seasons from 2009-2015.

He went on to bigger roles in films like “Moneyball,” “Zero Dark Thirty,” and “The Lego Movie.” Then he starred in big franchise films like “Guardians of Galaxy,” “Avengers,” and “Jurassic World,” for which he won an MTV Movie Award for Best Action Performance. In 2015, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Besides “The Tomorrow War,” he has two other movies coming out in the next year.

"My favorite part of this life that I've been blessed to be able to live and lead is to be able to openly show support for our men and women in uniform. You mean the world to me, I mean that. I understand that the life I live inside of a bubble of protection that you provide for me," he told military families in a virtual screening of “The Tomorrow War.”

"Just know, I do not take it for granted. I'm living my dream and I know you're making that possible. Thank you," he said.

Chris Pratt photo courtesy of Amazon Studios press.