‘Extraction’ Review: Delivers a Heavy Dose of Adrenaline

Chris Hemsworth plays the mercenary with a heart Tyler Rake in the thrilling and action-packed Extraction, with Captain America: Civil War and Avenger: Endgame stunt coordinator Sam Hargrave making his directorial debut from a screenplay written by Joe Russo. It’s fitting that so many Marvel people are involved because the Rake is a nearly unstoppable one man army and while there are no superpowers, he practically is superhuman. While the story itself is nothing special, Extraction delivers a heavy dose of adrenaline with wonderfully choreographed action set pieces.

Tyler Rake (Hemsworth) is a mercenary available for hire to the highest bidder. In this case, it’s an imprisoned drug lord whose son Ovi (Rudhraksh Jaiswal) has been kidnapped by a rival drug lord. What was supposed to be a simple extraction mission for Rake and his team, quickly turns into a citywide manhunt for the kid where everyone is in the drug lord’s pocket and no one can be trusted.

If you’re a fan of action films like John Wick, Atomic Blonde, or The Raid then you’ll be more than pleased with Extraction, which has that one-person-versus-the-world aesthetic to it. While Tyler Rake might not be on the same weapon handling level as John Wick, he’s a step above Rambo with an infinite ammo cheat. Reloading is part of the film, which adds an extra dose of tension as he could run out of bullets at any moment. He can also get pretty creative at times too, leading to some absolutely brutal beatdowns. You can feel every shot and every punch, both being delivered and taken by Tyler. By far the highlight of the film is a nearly 12-minute long sequence that is made to look like it was done in a single take. It sums up the film pretty well as it begins with a car chase and then just builds from there with a shootout, knife fight, and another car chase. It’s ridiculously impressive and sums up the entire film.

Extraction does get a little bogged down by its story, however. Rake has nothing to lose because he already lost the thing he cared about most; his son. That’s the driving force behind his unwillingness to hand Ovi over to anyone. There’s a comical scene where a group of kids working for the drug lord try their best to kill Tyler, and he easily overpowers them but holds back enough as to not kill them, instead slapping them around a bit (literally) to teach them a lesson. He clearly has a soft spot for children following the loss of his son, and I wish the film would have explored that element more. I’m also not a fan of when films open at the end scene and then flashback so we can see how everything went down as I feel that takes a little bit of the wind out of its sails.

Regardless, the story is ancillary to the action, which Extraction more than delivers on. It’s intense and brutal and will leave you wincing on more than one occasion. At one point Chris Hemsworth picks up a guy and uses him to nearly decapitate another. Frankly it doesn’t matter how much sense the film makes when you look at the details. At the end of it all, Extraction is a welcome distraction, providing a momentary extraction from the mind.