Extraction: A huge build-up…

14 May 2020

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Extraction is directed by Sam Hargrave and stars Chris Hemsworth as a mercenary with nothing to lose, hired to rescue the kidnapped son of an imprisoned crime lord.

WARNING: In this review I will be referring to certain plot-points. I won’t be going into every single detail but this is your official Spoiler Alert, just in case.

Before we start, I’d like to mention that I have always wanted to share my unasked opinions with strangers on the internet via blog or some other form that doesn’t restrict the amount of characters I can use. I have always been equipped with the things you need to do this kind of thing (a love of pop culture, a qualification in film and media communications and very strong opinions), but for one reason or another, I just never got to doing so. My experience with Extraction was the last nail in the coffin, so to speak.

During the last couple of weeks, I’ve seen people raving about the new Hemsworth action movie on Netflix.

“Best movie I’ve seen in a long time.”
“Film of the year!”

These were the kind of comments I saw on social media. People felt strongly enough about Extraction to actually post and tweet about the movie and how much they loved it.
I will admit, I was reluctant at first. When these ‘reviews’ started to pop up on my various social media timelines and feeds, I went and looked up the movie, viewed the trailer, read summaries and still couldn’t get myself excited enough to immediately log into Netflix and actually watch it.

Then the second flood of posts came in.
More praise and here and there rumours about a sequel (and everywhere hope for the movie to turn into a franchise of its own).
“Go watch Extraction NOW!”
“At times I felt like I was watching John Wick….”

When people started comparing it to John Wick (some of THE BEST action movies ever made – fight me), that was when I finally decided that I needed to see it.

I sat for 116 minutes, watching a movie that, what felt like every single stranger on the internet was telling me to watch for the past month.
And to these strangers I would like to say one thing:

“Dudes, you need to watch more movies.”

Now, before I actually get called the C word, I did not HATE Extraction, not by a long shot. With that being said, no, Extraction was not the film of the year and no, it did not feel like I was watching John Wick at times.
It was, for lack of a better word, ‘meh’.

I’ll start with what was good…
Despite my overall review of ‘meh’, the movie had its moments.
The action sequences were good, I will go as far as saying they were great.

This was Hargrave’s directorial debut, but his extensive background in stunt coordination is evident in Extraction (Hargrave was involved in the stunt work for many of the MCU movies among others). The movie didn’t need to use ‘shaky cam’ to cover up shitty stunt work or subpar fight choreography, which is something I really appreciate seeing in action movies (see my above love of John Wick).

I do believe that this movie will be studied for its mind-blowing action sequences by those interested in getting into that side of film-making.

The other thing I cannot take away from Extraction is Chris Hemsworth. He brings his usual charm and charisma to the film. I have never seen a movie in which I disliked Hemsworth’s character (and I’ve watched MIB International and the 2016 Ghostbusters remake).

And now we get to the actual plot of the movie.

Remember when I said that Extraction will be studied for its action sequences? Well, the same cannot be said for its story or characterisation.
It is a very bare plot, if we’re being honest here (Yeah, I know action movies aren’t known for there intricate plots, but hear me out).

We have our three major players:

• Ovi Mahajan, the son of an incarcerated Indian drug lord, who sneaks out of the house late one night to go to a club with his friends, where he is kidnapped by employees of a rival drug lord, Amir Asif.
• Tyler Rake, a black-market mercenary and former Australian soldier, with a bit of a traumatic past involving his son, who is recruited by a fellow mercenary, Nik Khan, to go to Dhaka, Bangladesh and rescue Ovi.
• and Saju Rav, an employee of Ovi’s father, former Indian Special Forces soldier and Ovi’s current caretaker with a wife and small child of his own.

The plan was for Tyler (along with a small team of other super cool fighty-fight people) to rescue Ovi, and get paid once Ovi is safely at the Extraction point. (oh, I get it, ‘Extraction’…well played movie)

After Tyler finds Ovi and kills the men who were holding him (one of the great sequences I mentioned earlier), he takes the boy to the extraction point. But instead of payment, Saju kills all of Tyler’s teammates, to avoid said payment and deliver Ovi himself, like Ovi’s father politely asked Saju to do (by threatening his family).
Even after killing off Tyler’s entire team, Saju still fails to retrieve Ovi (because Tyler is played by Chris Hemsworth).

Meanwhile, Amir orders a shutdown of Dhaka, when he learns of Ovi’s escape. (You remember, Amir, the rival drug lord behind Ovi’s kidnapping – I won’t blame you if you forgot about him, I forgot he existed as I was watching).

Tyler and Ovi go into hiding and Nik tells Tyler that she has arranged for a helicopter outside Dhaka to extract (Ha!) him, but he will have to leave Ovi behind, with all that nonsense of not being paid.
Tyler, because of his own son (and this strong bond he has developed with Ovi over the last 5 milliseconds), refuses to abandon the boy.

So then the movie movies on for a while until Tyler reaches out to Saju for help to get Ovi to the new Extraction point, to which he agrees.

WARNING…AGAIN: I am about to discuss the ending of Extraction. So if you haven’t seen it, and don’t want the ending spoiled, DO NOT READ FURTHER.

Saju dies while trying to get Ovi across the bridge and outside city walls to the extraction point where Nik is waiting for Tyler (and Ovi, despite the fact that Tyler was told to leave him behind).
Tyler and Ovi make it to where Nik is waiting, but before they can completely escape, they are confronted by one of Amir’s men (it’s actually more of a boy that works for Amir than an actual man).
Tyler is shot in the neck by the teenager and with one last look at Ovi (to make sure he is safe, I guess?), he falls from the bridge, into the river below.

Ovi and Nik escape, but not before Ovi tries to run crying and screaming towards Tyler and needs to be dragged back to the helicopter in slow-motion (no such theatrics after Saju, Ovi’s caretaker he’s probably known for a while, dies, unfortunately).

Eight months later, we see Nik going into a men’s restroom, stand next to Amir at the urinal and puts a bullet in his head.
Cut to Ovi, at a swimming pool, safe and sound. In the distance a man can be seen (presumably a not-so-dead Tyler), watching Ovi.

I honestly think that if it wasn’t for this ending, I would not be describing the movie as ‘meh’, but rather with a more excitable, ‘mkay…fun’.

I get the whole Tyler dying thing, almost agree with it. He is after all described as a mercenary ‘with nothing to lose’.
There is a moment near the beginning of the film when Nik goes to recruit Tyler. She sees him drinking and taking drugs, instantly regrets her decision, and almost retracts her offer. Tyler asks her where she’ll find someone else crazy enough for this mission if not him. She asks him the reason behind him constantly accepting these ‘crazy’ missions and he tells her that he needs the money (along with a chuckle-worthy joke about chickens). To this, Nik intensely stares into Tyler’s eyes and replies: “You’re hoping if you spin the chamber enough times, you’re going to catch a bullet.”

Him dying would’ve made sense. He lost his son at a young age, he is no longer a soldier but rather a drunk who does mercenary work on weekends. He really does not have anything to live for.
But instead of leaving Tyler to die in that river, the filmmakers threw in this crappy quote about not drowning because of falling into a river, but drowning because of staying submerged (real subtle stuff, guys), and end with a blurry shot of what is obviously Chris Hemsworth in the distance.

Extraction wanted to have its cake and eat it too.

“Okay guys, we are going to let our oh-so-tragic main character die at the end, to give the movie real substance. But just in case, let’s get that unfocused shot of Chris, repeat the drowning quote a few times, and BAM, we are ready if the opportunity comes up to squeeze a little bit more money out of this basic story. But we will still have the impactful ending in case the sequel opportunity falls flat.”

(Sorry, Extraction, only the Slasher genre can get away with that resurrect the character, resurrect the series bullshit.)

But if I am being honest, I did not actually care enough about any of the characters to be bothered if they lived or died (but choose one, and stick to it, dammit).

I didn’t get to know the characters, so I couldn’t really root for any of these people. And no, one flashback, one 5 minute conversation and a addiction problem that disappears as quickly as it appeared, does not a fleshed-out character make.

For me, putting all these people, that I do not care about, into these very dangerous situations equals up to no suspense and very low stakes.

And don’t even get me started on low stakes and the movie’s main antagonist, Amir. With all the power he had, corrupt police officers on his side, people willing to do unspeakable things for him, Amir Asif could do everything as a villain, except strike fear in the heart of the viewer.

I also saw some people uploading stills of Nik with Amir (just before she kills him) with captions like, “the most satisfying movie scene” . And this makes me want to reiterate my initial point, “Dudes, you need to watch more movies.”

Let’s be honest, if this movie was written by someone who was still trying to get into business of film-making, it would never have been made. It would be thrown back into the person’s face and told that this is some straight to DVD crap you’ll find at the bottom of the bargain bin at your nearest We-Sell-Everything type store.

Extraction has great action sequences and the very likable Chris Hemsworth, but other than that, there was nothing really else the film had to offer. The movie, in my opinion, wasn’t dreadful, but did not deserve all the acclaim and praise it got from viewers.

If I feel like watching a fun, ultra-violent action movie, I’d rather put on John Wick or even less-acclaimed action-thriller, The Equalizer.