Studios have been clamouring to find the next John Wick. Netflix thought it struck a chord in 2020 by releasing the audience-hit Extraction, a mindless action flick that clearly scratched a pandemic-induced itch for more carefully constructed fight choreography and visceral violence. It saturated the Mumbai streets with more yellow than its pollution-filled metaphor could keep up with, but people were obviously taken with Hemsworth’s take on a rugged soldier.
Gone is the insistently yellow colour grading, but not gone is Chris Hemsworth’s former Australian SAS operator with a heart turned black ops mercenary, Tyler Rake. Extraction 2 picks up immediately after its predecessor, a severely injured Rake washing up on the Mumbai riverbank, a result of dramatically falling into the river. When he is airlifted to Dubai where he is treated for his wounds, he promptly retires to Austria, living the quiet life in a small cabin on the outskirts of Vienna – all that’s left of his belongings remain in a mere shoe box.
With a dog to pat, some beers to down, and a tv to watch, Rake’s domestic retirement is cut short when a mysterious man appears on his front porch (Idris Elba), recruiting him on a mission to rescue ex-sister-in-law Ketevan (Tinatin Dalakishvili) from a Georgian prison. Ketevan and her children are imprisoned on the orders of her mobster husband Davit Radiani (Tordike Bziava), younger brother of crime syndicate leader Zurab (Tordike Gogrichiani). Despite still recovering from the events in Mumbai, Tyler signs himself up for another round of extraction, a calling to make amends for abandoning his own son when he was diagnosed with lymphoma. With private mercenary siblings Nik (Golshifteh Farahani) and Yaz (Adam Bessa) partnering up with Tyler, so begins a gauntlet of bullets, slashings and crowd-pleasing heart-pumping action.
Chris Hemsworth is admirably suited to the role, his deep Australian accent and brawny physique well in tune with a tortured soldier. While the first Extraction suffered in the way of barely giving Tyler a personality beyond a nihilistic ex-pat with a death wish, Extraction 2 benefits from making the stakes and the motivations more personal. The audience has more of a chance to sympathise with our leading man because this time it’s about extracting his family and making up for past mistakes – not saving the child of an Indian drug lord with whom Rake has little time to form a bond. Golshifteh Farahani gets to have a lot more to do in the field than last time as well, the Khan siblings making for an interesting sub-spotlight where private mercenaries fight in quippy unison.
The biggest draw card to this franchise has been and always will be the work of stuntman turned director Sam Hargrave, where passion for the bloodthirsty and the lethal make for an entertaining concoction. When the action hits, it really hits. During the first hour, there is a sequence that dances around the 20-minute mark, all to look as if it is one take. The camera moves from a prison riot to an industrial complex, a snowy road chase, and even a moving freight train. Men are killed with rakes, knives, guns, lifting weights, and even inflamed fists – Hargrave has clearly taken massive inspiration from the John Wick /The Raid bag of tricks, throwing anything at the wall that Hemsworth can rampantly stick, and inevitably splatter with. It is a thrilling advantage the film has to offer, making action set pieces that feel grounded but also dancing on the verge of unbelievable. The camera sometimes jolts and swerves a little too frequently, but ultimately it gives Tyler’s burly and striking physical presence the grittiness it needs to see him dispatch his enemies in style.
When not shooting, stabbing, or falling off rooftops, the film, like its predecessor, has a more muted response to its more quiet and emotive moments. With a screenplay by Joe Russo (most recently known for the painfully contrived 2022 Netflix film The Gray Man), the script here once again falls behind the direction, holding the final product back. While Tyler has time to reconcile with the loss of his son, his ex-wife (Olga Kurylenko) and his extended family, the dialogue remains stunted and lacks a human touch. Any attempt for the subtext of the tortured Afghanistan soldier is lost here, but it’s not entirely a criticism when it commits so well to being a pulpy action romp filled with technical flare.
The final act loses steam toward the end, resulting in action cliches that don’t offer anything new for those well-versed in the beats of an actioner. It’s serviceable enough that a third entry is rapidly on the way, but overall Extraction 2 is an adrenaline-filled improvement on the original. With whiz-bang camera tracking on truly well-orchestrated action, a more layered character in Hemsworth’s muscular commando Tyler Rake, a rusty script does not stop this from being a blockbuster hit of breathtaking violent spectacle.
Extraction 2 is streaming now on Netflix.
