Director: Sam Hargrave
Writers: Joe Russo
Stars: Chris Hemsworth, Golshifteh Farahani, Olga Kurylenko
Synopsis: After barely surviving his grievous wounds from his mission in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tyler Rake is back, and his team is ready to take on their next mission.
I didn’t care for the first Extraction. Apart from a sleekly constructed oner that occurred near the film’s beginning, the movie re-treads a dull (and problematic) white savior story shot with the racist piss-yellow filter that I thought Hollywood didn’t use anymore. However, the movie was a COVID-19 hit for Netflix, and a sequel was almost immediately greenlit. I was convinced it would be the same old stuff when Extraction 2 opened with yet another scene with Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth) in Bangladesh, with that yellow filter plastered all over the frame.
But that doesn’t last long, with Rake being rushed to a hospital in Austria and forced to retire after the first film’s events. Rake’s retirement also doesn’t last long, as he is visited by an unnamed man (Idris Elba) who tells him that his ex-wife’s (Olga Kurylenko) sister (Tinatin Dalakishvili) is imprisoned in a Georgian prison cell. Rake arrives with Nik (Golshifteh Farahani) and Yaz (Adam Bessa) to help out, and…it’s not that simple of an extraction. Ketevan’s (Dalakishvili) husband (Tornike Bziava) is waiting for Rake to arrive, whilst her son, Sandro (Andro Japardize), communicates with his uncle (Tornike Gogrichiani), who leads a ruthless criminal organization.
This leads into the film’s first action sequence, which is an unbroken one-take that goes from the prison walls to the prison courtyard, then leads into an insane car chase in the woods with bikers trying to blow up Rake and Nik’s cars, which then finishes on a moving train, with Rake trying to fight off a helicopter with a minigun, while Nik tries to keep the train going but has to face off with enemies of her own. At some point, Rake’s fist catches fire, and he starts punching dudes left and right with it until it extinguishes itself as he punches more people. Yes, some will criticize that it’s not a truly “unbroken” cut and that the digital cuts are quite obvious. However, when the craft is so strong, from its masterful camerawork, which logically follows each respective character and switches to multiple perspectives throughout the scenes naturally, and its staggering stuntwork, there’s no shortage of moments where you’re likely to slap your seat in utter excitement, having witnessed an action sequence for the ages.
In that twenty-one-minute scene, there’s so much your brain can’t process that you will immediately suspend your disbelief and enjoy the ride. Hargrave and cinematographer Greg Baldi pull no punches in crafting a mind-melting, maximalist action setpiece that will surely be in your top five of the year. It’s not an issue that the digital cuts are obvious since it’s likely impossible to craft a setpiece like this in one continuous take. Hargrave understands this and knows the audience understands it too. But he doesn’t care — he makes you believe the impossible is possible and crafts four terrific action scenes in one.
The thrills continue with a sequence inside a cramped apartment room. And while it isn’t as sleek as the film’s main attraction, it has its fair share of moments in which Rake creatively uses the environment around him to defeat a slew of infinite (yet amazingly disposable) villains. Hemsworth is in top form as Rake and will perhaps be remembered as a bigger action star in films of the Extraction franchise than in his tenure as Thor in the MCU. He is a fully-fledged action star, giving his own spin to the “Sad Action Hero canon.” He gives a far deeper performance here than in the original, particularly in scenes where he recalls the last time he saw his late son and with his ex-wife, wonderfully portrayed by Olga Kurylenko.
However, the show-stealer of Extraction 2 is Golshifteh Farahani, whose arc greatly expands from the first and is a major part of the action. Granted, she was heavily involved in the first film’s climax. However, in Extraction 2, she outshines Hemsworth on several occasions, particularly during specific moments in the film’s core action sequences, from the engine car fight to the rooftop shootout and culminating in a John Woo-esque gun duel between Nik and Zurab in a chapel. Farahani is a bonafide action star and is one of the very best parts of the movie.
If Extraction 2 had a compelling plot, it likely would be as good as John Wick: Chapter 4. But the film ultimately fails at crafting a compelling antagonist that isn’t riddled with stereotypes and clichés, just like Sandro’s arc has been done one too many times before not to feel predictable. However, one will seemingly forget its flaws and think they’re minor nitpicks since the audience has clicked on Extraction 2 to see Hemsworth kicking ass in more ways than one. In that regard, the movie delivers and is one of the year’s best and most inventive action pictures. It’s a damn shame that Netflix didn’t release it in every cinema possible, but here’s hoping the third one gets the IMAX treatment. I’ll be there on day one.
