Becoming The Muse

Extraction 2 is a 2023 American action thriller film directed by Sam Hargrave and written by Joe Russo. Extraction 2 was released by Netflix on 16 June 2023 and is a sequel to the 2020 film Extraction.

The story continues immediately from the ambiguous ending of the previous movie where the lead character, played by Chris Hemsworth, had been left for dead.. Tyler Rake is back, and ready for the next Extraction.

The Good

Chris Hemsworth is up to the challenge of portraying Tyler Rake, a die hard-no-nonsense sort of sad-last-action-hero mercenary who will save your life against all the odds.

The cinematography delivers some fascinating perspectives, notably in the form of the one-take action sequence in the first act of the film. A 21 minute action montage with prison chaos, a forest chase scene and a train under attack by helicopters, all stitched together to look like one take.

The camerawork gives a first-person-shooter view making you up close and personal with the brutal action unravelling on the screen.

Compared to the first film they tried to give the main character a bit more character development and the first act of the movie is a poignant rediscovery of the mercenary’s reason to live and he also tries to come to terms with his failed marriage and how he became a soldier of fortune.

The Bad

Lets face it… it’s a basically an orgy of violence with an ultra-thin veneer of underlying drama to give it a resemblance of character development, while futiley hiding that it is a showcase of how many ways Tyler Rake can kill and maim the bad guys with guns, knives, bare knuckle fights and anything he can get his hands on like John Wick.

For the most part Tyler Rake’s character development seems basically to be solemnly squinting off into the distance… yeah that’s enough development, lets go do some heroic stuff and save lives while leaving a pile of dead bodies.

The other characters are also rather one-dimensional for example Nik Khan and Yaz Khan are on the screen a lot and yet we never get to fully connect with them.

The Ugly

Its Rated R for violence and the brutality can get rather brutal.. I flinched a couple of times watching some of the action sequences like wooooah that was not necessary.

 They wanted to go bigger and better and in these things go that means more and longer, with a running time of over 2 hours one can get tired of the mayhem and just wish they could wrap it up.

Perhaps I should have a re-watched the previous movie because I felt I may have forgotten crucial details… for example was Tyler Rake’s ex-wife and marriage explored in the first movie and how does one bank roll Tyler Rake and his team which sometimes seems to be only 3 people and other times a whole army???? I know they are mercenaries, but how does it all tie in together?

Final Thoughts

If you enjoyed the first one, then you know what you will be getting into with this… its just more of that broody sad action hero trope with an enormous capacity to take a beating, multiple stabbings, gunshots and not die! Suspend disbelief…

Fun Fact: According to director Sam Hargrave, the twenty minute single take action sequence took 4-5 months to rehearse and 29 days to shoot.

At the Netflix Tudum festival in June it was announced that Extraction 3 is in development and Chris Hemsworth would be reprising his role.

Have you watched Extraction ? Is it something you would watch?