(May Contain Spoilers)
There had been a lot of hype over the Extraction film and being ranked No.2 on Netflix in the UK I was not disappointed. Sam Hargrave’s directing debut showed that he has translated his skills from stuntman to the screen. I thoroughly enjoyed the high action moments and the cinematography with the one continuous shot car chase sequence, this had me screaming with joy from my sofa seat! Whilst some reviews have criticised the script and storyline, I think that there are few action films that have both. Extraction follows the story of Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth), a black-market mercenary, who is recruited for a job to rescue crime lord, Ovi Mahajan Sr’s (Pankaj Tripathi) son, Ovi Mahajan Jr (Rudhraksh Jaiswal) from a Bangladesh drug lord Amir Asif (Priyanshu Painyuli).
Tyler is recruited by Saju (Randeep Hooda), Ovi Sr’s henchmen and ex special forces solider, however double crosses Tyler’s team, killing them and tries to take Ovi Jr back so that he doesn’t have to pay them. When Amir hears that Ovi Jr has been taken back he calls for immediate shutdown of Dhaka, sending multiple henchmen, gang children and police colonel after Tyler and Ovi Jr. Whilst trying to escape, through some amazing action sequences, Tyler and Ovi Jr take refuge in a warehouse office and tend to Tyler’s wounds. However, when trying to escape again they are caught by Amir’s child gang, including head boy, Farhad (Suraj Rikame) and hide in the sewers and call for help. Gaspar (David Harbour), Tyler’s former special ops teammate, rescue the pair and take them to a safehouse in the city.
Tyle and Ovi Jr have a deep chat about why Tyler took on the job and Ovi Jr to get reassurance he will not be left on the street. I felt the writing in this scene pulled me out of the whole film, because it was spoon feeding the audience by using Ovi Jr as a mechanism to ask the obvious questions. ‘How did your son die’ followed by ‘How old was he?’, I could see that the filmmakers were trying to add some emotion to the story, but this scene was too constructed and didn’t work for me. After Tyler and Ovi Jr build up this bond, Gaspar suggests to Tyler to kill the boy and claim the multi million reward, but Tyler refuses and fights with Gaspar. Ovi Jr comes down-stairs and picks up the gun that has been push aside during the fight sequence and shots Gaspar. Later Tyler rings Saju to help get Ovi Jr to safety.
The plan didn’t seem very well thought out and I think some surprise for the audience would have really worked in the final sequence, like Tyler dressing in an enemy army outfit and killing everyone around him. However, the final scene was a lot simpler, Saju tried to get Ovi Jr on the other side of a bridge, where Tyler’s team are waiting to take him home. Saju dresses in rags but is soon discovered by army soldiers who are checking everyone’s face trying to cross the bridge, Saju then guns blazing tries to take out everyone! Saju gets shot, Ovi Jr hides and tries to escape and Tyler arrives on the bridge taking soldiers out, but also gets shot by the gang kid, Farhad and falls off the bridge. Ovi Jr is rescued by the team and flown back home and the final sequence sees him at a swimming pool with a blurred figure in the background which looks like Tyler, which poses the question, did he die, or is he survive?
I felt that the plot was thin, but the action sequences made up for this. The scene between Tyler and Ovi Jr in the bedroom could have been skipped as far as I am concerned, because this emotional moment came off more as the writers trying to explain the story and verbally tell us about the character rather than visually showing it. The ending for some people was frustrating, but I love endings that are up for interpretation. Finally, I dislike films that are so long and could be summed up a lot quicker, so this 1 hr 57min film could have been shorter, but the skill in the action makes this film a worthwhile watch. plus there Chris Hemsworth! Intense, dramatic and thrilling!
Available to stream now on Netflix.
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