If you are planning to watch Extraction, now streaming on Netflix, hoping to see a coming of age tale, or a story of redemption and second chances, you may be disappointed. Directed by Marvel Cinematic Universe action director and stunt coordinator Sam Hargrave, Extraction is an extremely well shot action film that thrills but appeals to no other deeper emotions.
The screenplay by Joe Russo is based on an original graphic novel written by Ande Parks, Joe Russo, Anthony Russo, and illustrated by Fernando Leon Gonzalez. Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth) is a mercenary for hire based in Australia. He comes with a conveniently tragic backstory; dead son estranged wife, basically nothing to lose and ready to bear the white man’s burden of rescuing brown man, or in this case boy.
Ovi Mahajan (Rudraksh Jaiswal) the 14-year-old son of India’s biggest drug lord Ovi Mahajan Sr (Pankaj Tripathi, who should demand to know why the writers couldn't come up an original name for him) gets kidnapped by a Bangladeshi rival Amir Asif ( Priyanshu Painyuli). Ovi Sr’s right-hand man Saju (again a poorly named Randeep Hooda) reaches out to Tyler via Nik (Golshifteh Farahani), Tyler’s partner/assignment coordinator. It’s a potentially suicidal mission but the underwater meditation doing Tyler sets off for Dhaka with a small crew of mercenaries that include Nik.
The body count/ counter starts pretty much as soon as Tyler lands in ‘Dhaka’ and has his first meeting with kidnappers. After that, the violence and bloodshed is almost relentless as Tyler and Saju join hands to get Ovi Jr out, shooting, stabbing and snapping bones by the dozens along the way. Initially Saju and Tyler are also shooting at each other and even indulge in some hand to hand combat and knife fight, all in a breathless, made to look like a single shot sequence that is brilliantly filmed.
The single-shot sequence that continues for almost 12 minutes is the best part of the film, because Sam makes the audience the person holding the camera, watching and following the movements of not just Tyler, but Saju and even the Bangladeshi police.
I loved the part where the camera actually moves out through the shattered back glass of a car, moves to see Saju’s condition before then going up the steps and doing a whole corridor and stairs chase. It may not be at the level of an Avengers Endgame but given the budget restrictions, Sam still manages to make the action sequences shine, keeping things gritty and realistic. There are no slow-motion running sequences or beauty shots of blood splattering like the film 300. The actors pant in exhaustion, they get hurt and pop pills for the pain, they fix their own broken nose and they wheeze for a couple of minutes after being shot before dying.
But as the halfway mark approaches, you realise the emotional depth of these characters is as limited as the life spans of the people they kill. Sam and Joe offer no intriguing backstories, no emotional entanglements, and no personal battles or challenges for Tyler that make this exercise even more risky or difficult. It’s almost as if putting him in a third world country and having to deal with its hot weather is punishment enough. When Tyler is told that it's India’s biggest drug lord versus Bangladesh’s biggest drug lord, he quips, ‘sounds like some mythic shit’. Well, the writing definitely goes down the crapper when no one is being killed and the dialogue is just used to take the actors to the next gun battle.
Screenwriter Joe doesn’t even bother to explain why the two drug lords are at war or mouthing inane lines like ‘izzat ka sawal hain’ (it’s a matter of honour). Thankfully here, the honour is related to a boy, not some young woman. The biggest drawback here is that the villain Amir never really gets into the centre of things at all. He dresses like Bappi Lahiri’s dream child, but maybe weighed down by all that gold, he just sits around barking orders or demanding fingers as a sign of loyalty. He is one of the weakest villains I have seen in a long time, firing no guns, literally or otherwise.
Even Tyler and Nik who speak to each other like they just had a bad breakup are not given anything to play with; no past history, no simmering emotions. The action though executed well, gets tiresome after a while. Chris is excellent as long as he is killing people and jumping out of cars and trucks. It helps that he is a good-looking man with a great physique to match, and it is fun to watch him perform the fight sequences. But the moment the bullets stop flying, you have nothing left to be invested in.
Rudraksh has an endearing on-screen presence and emotes convincingly, but again is limited by a one-note character. Randeep, one of Bollywood’s most underrated actors, is sincere and has obviously worked hard for his first full-fledged action role. I really wish he had been given more to play with, and this perhaps is the problem with the entire film. There just isn’t enough emotional foundation and eventually, things collapse under a pile of dead bodies.
Watch Extraction if you are a Hemsworth fan or love a mindless action flick. Otherwise spend two hours re-watching something from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the series/film. TNM Editorial is independent of any business relationship the organisation may have with producers or any other members of its cast or crew.