The teaser trailer for “Extraction 2” dropped on Monday, and Chris Hemsworth is on fire, literally on fire. The teaser includes the following: A scene with Chris Hemsworth in the middle of the frame fighting hordes of bad guys; another potential scene of him shooting down a helicopter while on top of a train. That’s it. Oh yes, he is also trying to protect a woman in the first one. So we can presume that she will be Ovi Mahajan Jr.’s (“Extraction”) replacement, whom Tyler will be extracting. We do not get anything else as a hint for the story. But the one thing we can be sure of is that it will live up to the standard set by its predecessor, at least in terms of action.
Director Sam Hargrave and producers Russo Brothers are back with yet another quintessential oner [a very long, uninterrupted camera shot] in the new teaser trailer of “Extraction 2”. We have a 12-minute long opener in “Extraction” that involves long fight scenes, including gunfights, complex stunts, and car chase sequences. And it is really cool. The one in the teaser trailer looks cool too. However, there is a catch. Over time, one-liners have earned the reputation of being boring. This is because people now know that a scene is just a bunch of scenes conjoined by invisible cuts. So the secret is out. A oner isn’t really a oner but is shown to be one. Films like “1917” and “Birdman” are completely composed of invisible cuts positioned ideally to give the impression that almost the whole film is an oner. Then there are films like “Gravity,” “Nomadland,” “Kingsman: The Secret Service,” “Pieces of a Woman,” and even “Fight Club” and “Goodfellas,” all of which have long takes or openers. The basic point with an opener is how to keep the audience engrossed and decide when to end it. “Extraction” almost put our patience to the test with its opener, and we can only hope that the makers don’t repeat it in the sequel. Russo Brothers, if you have taken care of this in “Extraction 2”, thank you. If not, please take care of it in “Extraction 3”.
In the teaser trailer, we see black-ops merc Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth) in a prison where he asks Ketevan (Tinatin Dalakishvili), the woman inside the cell, to apparently take cover because he is about to blow a hole. This is followed by him fighting off men who try to take Ketevan away. There are also people fighting other people. We do not have any references for this, but it might be the prisoners fighting the guards. The whole brawl is taking place inside what seems to be a prison yard, hence the high barbed-wire fences at the far back. We are shown a glimpse of his wife and their baby. So we will also find out more about them in the film. Tyler’s arm catches fire at one point, but he continues to fight. The fire seems real but is enhanced using CG, which means Chris Hemsworth has lowered his guard a bit this time for the sake of true action and stunt work. Finally, we see him firing at a chopper with a machine gun while standing atop a moving train —another example of quintessential Hollywood action. All this proves that action will be a core aspect of the film. The Russo Brothers’ last venture, “The Gray Man,” was action-packed, although they did overdo the CG stuff. Hopefully, we won’t be bombarded with CG in this film more than needed. Considering the shooting location was changed from Australia to the Czech Republic due to the COVID lockdown in the former, we will have a lot of winter, snow, and ice. This is in direct contrast to “Extraction,” which was shot in hot and humid Bangladesh.
Coming to the story, “Extraction 2” is written by Joe Russo, who also wrote the first installment. This one, too, will be based on the graphic novel “Cuidad” [by the Russo brothers, Ande Parks, Eric Skillman, and Fernando Leon Gonzalez], like the first one. “Extraction” ended with Tyler falling into the river after a bullet went across his neck. But the last shot shows Ovi Mahajan Jr. in a swimming pool and staring at a man wearing a cap. The person is out of focus, but one can tell that it is Tyler. So we know he survived the fall. “Extraction 2” will reveal how he survived it and will give him his next mission, i.e., to extract a Georgian ganglord’s abused family from prison. As for the train-and-helicopter sequence, it might be that the family Tyler is extracting is inside the train, and the chopper has been sent by the antagonist to kill them and Tyler. That’s all we can conjecture from the teaser.
It is great to see Chris Hemsworth in this avatar after his over-the-top portrayal of Thor in “Thor: Love and Thunder.” No offense, but Taika Waititi has turned the character into its own clichéd caricature. Anyway, we are positive that Chris will redeem himself in this film and give us some great moments to awe at.
“Extraction 2” will bring back Golshifteh Farahani [Nik Khan] and Adam Bessa [Yaz Khan]. Along with them, we have Tinatin Dalakishvili, Olga Kurylenko, and Daniel Bernhardt. The film will be released exclusively on Netflix on 16th June 2023.