Reviews by:
@thefilmobservatory
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3.5/5
Action/Thriller
Experienced and unflinching mercenary Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth) takes on the task of rescuing a drug lord’s kidnapped son, Ovi Mahajan (Rudhraksh Jaiswal), from his father’s dangerous rival.
The plot of Extraction doesn’t really venture beyond that single sentence… but that’s okay. Releasing onto Netflix in April 2020, in a world already in lockdown, this reunion of writer Joe Russo with the lead actor Chris Hemsworth, after the success of the MCU, provided some albeit gritty escapism for those who like high-octane, ultraviolent action romps. I’m not usually particularly into films that aren’t bothered with having a coherent storyline, and I may have not enjoyed Extraction if it didn’t have one. That isn’t to say it’s a complex portrait of three-dimensional characters, involving heart-wrenching betrayal, powerful messaging, and relevant social commentary. It’s just a narratively simple action film that effectively applies to the genre conventions and understands what it’s meant to be, and I had a great time watching it with my best friend.
Hemsworth’s main role is a sufficiently interesting protagonist, with an admittedly cliché backstory, but they don’t lean on this too much, it’s just there to offer some context to his motives and feelings about the mission, so it works fine. The established Aussie actor claimed that Extraction was “probably the most exhausting shoot” that he’s ever completed, and it shows. Stunt double and coordinator Sam Hargrave’s directorial debut demonstrates the crew’s collective understanding of how to choreograph action and make it feel gritty. Extraction is pretty violent but it never feels unrealistic; Hemsworth’s Tyler Rake takes a beating in this film, avoiding the action movie trope of the central protagonist essentially being invincible. Not to say he doesn’t pull off many impressive feats amidst the ongoing savagery in Bangladesh, including a brutal kill with a literal rake!
A highlight of the film is a single take sequence, that lasted over 10 minutes, intensely spanning through car chases, melee combat sequences, and gunfights. The lack of any noticeable cuts meant that stunt doubles weren’t a particularly viable option so Hemsworth’s training and physicality come in to shine here. Randeep Hooda is especially good here, as Saju, the right-hand man of Ovi Mahajan Sr. (Pankaj Tripathi). He joins the fray as a third party going after Ovi and comes head-to-head with Rake in a nail-biting knife fight, adding an effective element of chaos and overwhelming odds to the overall sequence, as the audience tries to discern why one of the kidnapped boy’s father’s men is fighting Rake. The sequence was impressive enough, before I found out that Hargrave strapped himself to a car to film at least a part of it, because he deemed it too dangerous for the camera crew: Hargrave’s prior experience led to a very hands-on shoot, and it feels as authentic as most action movies can come. Note: he also had a small role as a sniper assisting Rake. Conclusion: Sam Hargrave is pretty awesome.
Hooda is brilliant in the film, bursting onto the scene and being a worthy (initial) antagonist to foil Hemsworth. He got a little welcome backstory and development to understand his motives but he mainly shined in the large, explosive set-pieces, and his character massively grew on me throughout the film. As for other good performances, Jaiswal is pretty solid as the likable and sympathetic Ovi. Playing one of the main characters of the film, Jaiswal was only 16 when the film released so props to him for already demonstrating good acting talent. The timid teenager clearly isn’t suited to the life he has to live as the son of a drug lord, but he’s fully aware of how dangerous his father is, and we get a sense of how fed up he is with being treated as cargo because of his status for the criminal underworld. Ovi and Rake begin to form a sweet father-son bond, which is admittedly underdeveloped but adds some heart to the movie.
Another notable child actor was Suraj Rikame, as child soldier Farhad, who holds his own when he actually comes up directly against Rake himself at one point. He plays an intentionally unlikable character, but the audience can sympathise with the difficulty of the situation he’s in, as he’s at the mercy of the violent Bangladeshi crime lord Amir Asif (Priyanshu Painyuli). As for Painyuli in this film, he’s fine. The kidnapper of Ovi completely lacks any backstory or development but he demonstrates enough of a threat to our protagonists to be an intimidating villain in the movie. It was fun to see David Harbour outside of Stranger Things, and his role as an old friend of Rake, Gaspar, wasn’t complicated but added a nice touch to our main protagonist’s backstory and past connections. Finally, Golshifteh Farahani was pretty good as Rake’s employer Nik. While she spends the majority of the film over comms to Rake, helping him with the mission from afar, an especially good bridge battle towards the end allowed her to get in on the action, with a quite literally explosive entrance, and she absolutely didn’t disappoint. The reason for my descriptions of the cast being so short is that there isn’t too much to say about them because Extraction’s strong points really are the ones involving the kinetic and gruesome action.
Atmosphere is built well in this movie. It seems to have been predominantly, if not fully, filmed on location, so the energy of the bustling city feels realistic and functions nicely as a backdrop for the chases and conflict. I can’t actually remember the score (from usually great composer Henry Jackman, and Alex Belcher) which demonstrates that either the music was pretty forgettable or it just faded very well into the rest of the movie. Either way, it wasn’t particularly memorable, however, the rest of the sound design was good, with convincing sounds for anything from rattling guns to ferocious explosions to stifled yelps of pain. Something I found annoying was the fact that the movie does that classic thing where if it’s set in a foreign country that isn’t European or American, there’s use of massively exaggerated saturation, which can be a bit jarring to watch but, fortunately, it wasn’t frustrating to the point of ruining enjoyment.
The aforementioned bridge battle is another highlight of the movie. Involving a helicopter, snipers, and a video-game level of kills for Rake and Saju, it was Hargrave indulging in all his zeal that had built up throughout the movie and it was a lot of fun. While the single take sequence was the technically more impressive part, the bridge fight was an excellent climax for the film and perfectly embodied the style, tone, and choreography previously established. It wasn’t really necessary for a film of this niche but there was actually a decent emotional climax too, which I can appreciate.
Overall, Extraction is made by people with passion for and experience with the action genre. It possesses a fairly lacklustre story but it utilises the consequently free runtime to positively entertaining effect. The choreography is top-notch and this movie was highly enjoyable, especially because I had the opportunity to watch it with my best friend. I recommend it to those who like watching action movies, thrillers, and Chris Hemsworth taking out more men than Nathan Drake.
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