Yahoo Movies Netflix's Extraction 2 delivers even more impressive action with a commanding Chris Hemsworth
Chris Hemsworth’s Tyler Rake is nothing short of a superhero in Extraction 2, an impressive action-packed sequel where there’s barely time to rest. The skilled mercenary is back, and now he’s forced to face his past as he takes on another dangerous mission.
It’s been more than three years since the release of Extraction, which was a huge success for Netflix and a new team-up for the Russo brothers and Hemsworth after crossing paths in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. The connections with Marvel even extend to both films' director, Sam Hargrave, who has previously worked as a stunt coordinator for the superhero franchise.
Based on the graphic novel Ciudad by the Russo brothers, Ande Parks and artist Fernando Leon Gonzalez, Extraction 2 starts where we left things at the end of the first film. As we already found out in the trailers, Tyler Rake is indeed still alive. However, his epic battle through the streets of Dhaka has left him in a pretty bad shape and has forced him into retirement.
After nine months of recovery, Rake receives a new mission – delivered by an unnamed agent played by Idris Elba – that he cannot refuse: his ex wife, Mia, asks him to extract her sister from a Georgian prison where her convicted husband, Davit Radiani – a notorious mob boss who runs a billion-dollar criminal empire with his brother, Zurab – is forcing her and their children to live.
The quiet days of ice fishing and watching Dancing with the Stars with his dog and his chicken are finished. Tyler Rake has to get in shape once again.
What follows is a spectacular display of action that raises the bar for the franchise, with one particular sequence that arguably puts Extraction’s famous 12-minute 'one-shot' (actually a cleverly edited sequence of several shots) scene to shame: starting with a tense prison break and following with a jaw-dropping car and train chase through snowy landscapes, the sequence offers over 20 minutes of relentless adrenaline with no apparent cuts – though it’s highly unlikely it was shot on one take – and top-class fight choreography.
As immersive as a videogame, as brutal as a John Wick instalment, the action is what makes Extraction 2 worth your time. It’s a real shame not being able to watch it on the big screen.
There is also some major character development, as we see Tyler Rake dealing with a consuming guilt related to the death of his son years ago. The hero’s past becomes crucial in this sequel, so does his journey to redemption. After all, the climax of the story is set in a church, where the ultimate absolution takes place and sins are forgiven.
The attempt at building an emotional core for the character is not as strong as the more energetic scenes, but it certainly provides some layers for Hemsworth to play with.
Otherwise, there’s no denying this is as generic as you can get: an ex soldier dealing with family trauma, a badass mercenary as his romantic interest, a bunch of Eastern European criminals with a lot of guns and little humanity, innocents caught in the line of fire to remind the protagonist of what he has lost, American intervention bordering on a white-saviour complex… Typical tropes for the genre, and for Extraction’s growing saga.
At the end of the day, the action is why you tune in: to see Chris Hemsworth splitting a guy’s hand in two, taking down a helicopter and fighting multiple criminals simultaneously while carrying a wounded kid through a battlefield. If Netflix continues down this route, as the ending of the film suggests, there’s much more yet to see from Tyler Rake.
Extraction 2 is released in Netflix on June 16.
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