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In 2020, the world slammed on the brakes. Streets emptied, movie theaters went dark, and the box office flatlined. There were no crowds, no shared gasps in the dark, no thunder of speakers rattling the seats. Cinema screens went dead quiet and, in the vacuum, streaming kicked in the door and took over. Most of what poured onto our TVs was disposable—90% of it barely more than background noise—but in a bleak, uncertain year, even average distractions became mission-critical. We needed something—anything—to blast us out of our own heads for a couple of hours at home.
Into that void dropped Netflix’s payload: Extraction, the best action movie of that year. Chris Hemsworth stepped out front in his biggest non-hammer role, leaving Thor on the shelf to see if he could carry a grounded, brutal action thriller without the MCU safety net. Could he lead a movie on sheer presence and physicality alone? The answer, as it turned out, was an emphatic yes—he absolutely could.
Hemsworth’s Tyler Rake is a black-ops merc with scars on his body and worse ones buried in his head, a damaged professional whose pain fuels his violence. First-time director Sam Hargrave, a veteran stunt pro and MCU alum, takes the reins behind the camera and immediately proves what action fans have long suspected: the stunt world breeds some of the deadliest directors in the genre. Hargrave understands the rhythm of a fight, the weight of every hit, and the geometry of chaos, building precision-crafted set pieces around blistering, brutal gunfights and hand-to-hand showdowns. The result is a film that comes as close to action-movie perfection as 2020 had to offer—and my pick for the best film of that grim year.
The original Extraction ended on a tactical, tantalizing note of ambiguity. Tyler Rake takes a near-fatal hit during his rescue op, drops into the water, and seems to bleed out, only for the film to close on a single, lingering question mark: a distant silhouette, a maybe, a ghost on the horizon. The numbers were too big for Netflix to ignore, so a follow-up was inevitable, but the mystery lingered. Was Tyler Rake actually alive? Would the next installment be a sequel or a prequel? And, crucially, could anything realistically top the original? The answers arrive locked, loaded, and loud: yes, it’s a sequel, and it’s a resounding HELL TO THE YEAH.
The long-awaited follow-up, Extraction 2, has finally detonated on Netflix, and Hemsworth, Hargrave, and their crew deliver another hard-hitting barrage of explosive cinema. This time out, they crank everything: the action set pieces are more ambitious, the character work digs deeper, and the scope of this black-ops universe expands into something that feels like the foundation of a full-fledged franchise. The story stays lean and mission-focused, zeroing in on another do-or-die extraction with higher stakes and a target that hits far closer to home for Tyler Rake.
This time, Rake is tasked with extracting his former sister-in-law and her children, trapped in a nightmare they can’t escape on their own. Their captor is a vengeful, ruthless man who commands an army and has zero interest in surrendering anything, least of all his family. He would rather burn everything to the ground than let them go, turning the mission into a powder keg where every decision could ignite all-out war.
Before launching into the new mission, Extraction 2 rewinds to show the aftermath of Rake’s fall at the end of the first film. Nik (Golshifteh Farahani) and Yaz (Adam Bessa) drag him back from the brink after he plunges into the water, and the movie puts him through a punishing stretch of recovery—Tyler broken, rebuilding, and barely hanging on. Once he’s patched up enough to walk, he ghosts off to the remote mountain forests of Germany, planning to retire in isolation and disappear from the life that nearly killed him. Of course, retirement doesn’t stick. The mysterious Alcott (Idris Elba)—this franchise’s shadowy M figure—shows up at Rake’s doorstep, not for small talk but with the one mission only Tyler can pull off. Rake learns that his ex-wife Mia (Olga Kurylenko) needs him back in the field: her sister and her children are locked inside a brutal, unforgiving prison, held by her husband, a vile co-leader of a vicious gang known as the Nagazi. Faced with that, Rake does what he does best. He straps up. Retirement is officially over.
Rake grinds his way back into fighting shape with an old-school, 80s-style training stretch built on pain, repetition, and sheer stubborn resolve. When he’s finally ready to move, he reconnects with Nik and Yaz, and together they launch the high-risk prison extraction to free Mia’s sister and her kids. What follows is the film’s first major action showcase, and it’s an absolute monster: a prison riot that erupts from tense standoff to full-scale war zone, a ferocious chase tearing through a forest road, and a full-on assault aboard a moving train roaring through the landscape. Hargrave orchestrates all of this as a sweat-soaked, adrenaline-spiked, roughly twenty-five-minute “one-take” sequence that leaves most modern franchises choking on its dust. It doesn’t just match the original Extraction—it out-muscles it, swinging hard enough to punch The Fast Saga and John Wick straight in the face. You can spot the seams if you’re hunting for them, but it never stops looking cool as hell. By the time Rake is mowing down a helicopter with a mini-gun on top of a moving train, the movie has already announced exactly what kind of spectacular you’re in for.
Extraction 2 lands like an antidote for anyone exhausted by weightless CGI chaos and rubbery, consequence-free mayhem. Hargrave and his team put practical effects and real stunts front and center, with Hemsworth doing the bulk of his own punishing work. That commitment gives the film a bone-crunching, R-rated brutality that feels tactile and immediate, packed with creative kills, improvised weapons, and a sense of impact in every blow. Machine guns, sidearms, knives, grenades, and whatever happens to be lying around—yes, including the proverbial kitchen sink—all become extensions of Rake’s will to survive. And that mini-gun chewing through an attack chopper on top of a speeding train? It’s so spectacular it’s worth calling out twice.
The action in Extraction 2 is violent, visceral, and staged inches from your face, the kind of barrage that makes you feel every concussive blast and shattered bone. There’s enough firepower here to fuel two lesser movies, and that’s just in the first massive set piece. Earlier this year, I said every showdown in John Wick: Chapter 4 could’ve been a finale in a weaker film. Hargrave clearly shares that same “always top yourself” philosophy and cranks it to eleven. His directorial attitude plays like a constant challenge to the audience: “Oh, you liked that? You haven’t seen anything yet.” When your hero is literally on fire and still dismantling attackers with ruthless efficiency, you know you’re deep into one hell of an action flick—with no exaggeration necessary.
Beneath all the gunfire, shattered glass, and broken bones, Extraction 2 hits with a heavier emotional payload than its predecessor. The quieter beats land harder this time because Hargrave digs deeper into Rake’s past, especially the death of his son and the way that loss detonated his marriage and warped his entire worldview. Screenwriter Joe Russo refuses to treat Tyler as just another “bloody man on a mission” archetype, instead threading in grief, guilt, and a desperate need for redemption. That emotional undercurrent gives the carnage a beating human heart and makes every risk feel personal, every bruise a piece of penance.
The supporting squad steps up in a big way, turning this from a one-man show into a lethal ensemble. Golshifteh Farahani’s Nik and Adam Bessa’s Yaz both get far more to do this time around, charging straight into the chaos instead of orbiting around it. The three of them move like a well-drilled tactical unit, and it’s genuinely satisfying to watch Rake finally backed by stone-cold professionals who can carry their share of the load. On the opposite side of the barrel, Tornike Gogrichiani’s Zurab—the brother of the man Tyler’s rescuing the family from—emerges as a legit threat, ruthless and relentless enough to stand toe-to-toe with Rake. A villain this dangerous instantly raises the stakes, turning every confrontation into a coin toss and matching Rake’s intensity beat for beat. He’s as formidable as the hero, which is exactly how a great action antagonist should be.
Hargrave also tips his hat to the old-school glory days of action with some canny casting. Daniel Bernhardt shows up in a supporting role, a veteran face genre fans will recognize from the first John Wick. He’s deployed well, radiating that seasoned-killer presence, though his actual showdown with Rake is frustratingly brief. You can feel the potential for a longer, nastier clash, but even in its short form, his appearance adds welcome texture and pedigree to the mayhem.
Sam Hargrave’s debut with Extraction was the kind of first blast most filmmakers can only dream about, and Extraction 2 confirms it was no fluke. Coming from a stunt background, he throws himself into crafting the most immersive action experience possible, shooting as if he’s dragging you into the blast radius with Tyler. At times, it feels almost like strapping on a VR headset and stepping straight into the chaos. He’s the sort of director willing to risk life and limb for the shot—literally strapping himself to a car doing 60 MPH so the audience feels every mile per hour—and that level of commitment is exactly why his future in this business looks so formidable.
Hargrave would be the first to insist this is a team effort, and he’s right. Cinematographer Greg Baldi and editor Alex Rodriguez execute with surgical precision, forming a new go-to strike team for doing modern action the right way. The visual clarity, rhythm, and momentum they generate together are crucial to the film’s impact, and keeping this trio together for future entries should be a priority. With this level of synergy, they can either match this bar again or clear it entirely. They’ve built something special here—a brutal, beautifully orchestrated machine—and if someone starts tearing this movie down come Monday, that might just be your cue to quietly hit unfriend.
Overall, Extraction 2 is the rip-roaring, crowd-pleasing action epic fans were hoping for and then some. Its scale is downright legendary, the kind of muscular spectacle that practically begs for a towering theatrical screen and a wall of sound. There’s something almost criminal about the fact that it’s confined to Netflix instead of rattling multiplex walls worldwide. The streamer’s original films have always been hit or miss, but this one finally feels like the big-budget tentpole franchise they’ve been chasing for years—a flagship action property dropped straight into your living room, ready to blow the doors off your night in.
The finale of Extraction 2 doesn’t just match the first movie—it outguns it, teasing even bigger, nastier missions ahead for Tyler Rake and this emerging universe. Chris Hemsworth officially plants his flag as one of the top action stars working today, a physical, magnetic presence who can anchor a franchise with or without a cape. Dare I say it: move over, Tom Cruise? Forget Thor—the Extraction franchise is shaping up to be Hemsworth’s true signature role. This is top-tier blockbuster material, weaponized and delivered straight to your couch.
The action, the stunts, the violence, the scale, the set pieces—every element here is bigger, louder, and meaner than in the first film, but never at the cost of clarity or momentum. Earlier I floated the idea that this might be the one movie capable of dethroning John Wick as action film of the year. Spoiler alert—from someone who loves Wick: Extraction 2 does exactly that, grabbing the crown with a bloody, gloved hand as 2023’s killer run for action cinema keeps rolling.
VERDICT: 5 Out of 5 Stars – Essential
Extraction 2 is bigger, louder, and badder than the original, and Chris Hemsworth stands tall at the center of it all, an action god among mortals.
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