Long before he was the A-list superstar he ultimately became, or even the widely-recognizable Andy Dwyer in Parks and Recreation, Chris Pratt was just another actor bravely trying to gain a foothold in Hollywood.
In one of his first substantial big screen roles, the future Marvel Cinematic Stalwart and headliner of the multi-billion dollar Jurassic World trilogy summarily had his face smashed in by James McAvoy in Timur Bekmambetov’s deranged action movie Wanted, and the GIFs have been getting used against him ever since.
A somewhat controversial and polarizing presence for a number of reasons since making it big, Pratt was in a surprisingly upbeat mood when he took to social media and reflected on 15 whole years having passed since he was brutally bashed square in the chops with a keyboard by McAvoy’s rage-fueled office drone Wesley Gibson.
It wasn’t quite his big break – the extent that people watching Wanted for the first time will no doubt still be recreating the Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme and asking “is that Chris Pratt???,” but his slimy performance as Barry was about most punchable thing in the entire film, which is saying something when you consider the sheer volume of bodies that get dropped from beginning to end, never mind the exceedingly rare sight of Morgan Freeman channeling Samuel L. Jackson to drop a casual “motherf*cker.”
Wanted had a sequel in development for a while before it was quietly abandoned, but Pratt hasn’t clearly forgotten about it despite the success he’s achieved in the decade and a half since.