Watching Extraction 2 is like constantly being snapped in one direction just to hit the brakes and being thrown into another. Extraction 2 just hit the Netflix movie library at a great time for me. Since Netflix put the kibosh on password sharing, I canceled my subscription but got until the end of the month before it cuts off. Just in time to watch a movie I’ve been rather excited for.
The first Extraction wisely took some cues from the John Wick franchise. John Wick came in at a time when action movies rarely showed the action, just lots of jump cuts. It’s one of the reasons I hate Batman Begins and the trend it set off. John Wick showed the action, centered, in the frame, as clear as day. Sam Hargrave, the director of the original Extraction and Extraction 2 was a stuntman and stunt coordinator, so he knows action, and it shows.
Much like the first film, Extraction 2 is a symphony of violence and chaos. The action is rapid and mostly believable if we accept that Tyler Rake has the cardio endurance of two Olympic athletes combined and excellent pain resistance. It’s a fun rapidly moving action flick and a great popcorn movie. If you like Wick and the first Extraction, you’ll like Extraction 2.
And now we start with the spoilers:
‘Extraction 2’ – Pain does hurt
Extraction 2 picks up right after the first film ends, with a beat-up, cut-up, and shot-up Tyler Rake falling off a bridge. He’s beaten to hell, and I do appreciate that the film gives him more than a year to recover from getting nearly killed in several gunfights and he doesn’t just walk it off.
After recovering, he is quickly recruited for another mission. This time it’s coming from a source in his past… his ex-wife.
The mission is to extract the wife and kids of one-half of a Georgian crime family. This Georgian crime lord is imprisoned, and through corruption, he is able to get his family to live in prison with him. Sounds pretty terrible, and clearly, it’s not a great situation.
Thus Rake is hired to extract them from the prison and get them to safety.
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Rake and team
The first film was largely a solo act and Rake was all by himself for the majority of the movie, but this time he gets a team. However, a lot of the team are faceless and killed in the beginning. No one ever seems to care about acknowledging friendly losses. I understand you can’t cry in a gunfight, but even in moments of clarity, you’d think they’d mention their lost comrades.
Throughout the whole movie, Rake is joined by Nik Khan, his boss from the first film, and her brother Yaz Kahn, who was apparently in the first film, but I don’t remember him even a little bit. Having a team is certainly an interesting way to break up the story and give new fights, perspectives, and scenarios. It also raises the stakes significantly to have allies as well as extractees that need protection.
The first film focused on one environment, the city of Dhaka. The second film gives us a few more sets and environments including the prison, a European city, a train, and an airport. Each adds a new dynamic to the fighting that keeps the movie interesting and intense.
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The action of Extraction
The first Extraction film isn’t exactly what I’d call grounded. However, most of the time, Rake is not superhuman in this series and isn’t doing anything too impossible. In Extraction 2, there are a few scenes where it gets nuts, such as when he handles a minigun in a handheld manner, which would be impossible. He also gets shot in the hand and maintains a grip strong enough to support his weight and the weight of a teammate with a single hand, which is also unrealistic.
Outside of a few eye-rolling events, the action is superb although brutal at times, with improvised weapons being a constant must-have. The action makes the movie a ton of fun, and the film constantly ups the ante. Hemsworth clearly learned how to handle a gun, and it’s clear that the team put a ton of work into the action.
I also loved when the scene when Rake grabbed an M240. As a Marine machine gunner, I adore the M240, and to see it in action was satisfying and harkened back to Rambo and Commando and the old M60 from the hip action scenes.
Popcorn flick
Extraction 2 is a pure fun popcorn flick. The plot is simple and secondary to the action. The movie maintains the stylish appeal of the first film. While the environments are more varied, they are a little less exotic than Bangladesh, which was featured in the first movie, still, I appreciate how the environments affected the action.
Check it out. The movie is a fun and quite entertaining watch and a clever example of stunt work.
Feature Image courtesy of Netflix
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