Netflix Hopes Chris Hemsworth’s ‘Extraction’ Sequel Breaks Out the Way First Movie Did
Brawny Aussie is back as black ops mercenary with a tricky task
Chris Hemsworth film Extraction 2 debuts on Netflix June 16, a week after it was released in theaters. Hemsworth plays Tyler Rake, who is back as the Australian black ops mercenary, tasked with another frightful mission — rescuing the battered family of a Georgian gangster from the prison where they are being held.
Sam Hargrave directed the movie. Joe and Anthony Russo’s AGBO produced it, with Joe Russo the writer.
Golshifteh Farahani, Adam Bessa, Olga Kurylenko, Daniel Bernhardt and Tinatin Dalakishvili are also in the cast.
The first Extraction movie, based on the graphic novel Ciudad by Ande Parks, came out in April 2020. Featuring a single-shot action sequence that lasted for 12 minutes, it opened as the most popular Netflix original movie of all time, attracting 99 million viewers in its first four weeks on the platform.
The sequel has another action sequence edited to look like a single shot, this one going for about 21 minutes.
Reviews for the sequel have been mixed. The New York Times said, “Extraction 2, a drab, brawny sequel starring Chris Hemsworth as an Australian mercenary, offers a turgid shadow of the type of crowd-pleasing escapism that action blockbusters used to provide.”
An IndieWire review said: “The high energy of the film’s action sequences also helps paper over some of its less thrilling elements, including frequent exposition, a thinly drawn antagonist, and hammy flashbacks to Tyler’s previous pains that are mostly unnecessary. But when this thing moves — and, wow, does it ever — it offers one of the best examples yet of what Netflix bucks can buy.”
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Rated R, Extraction 2 is produced by Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, Mike Larocca, Angela Russo-Otstot, Chris Hemsworth, Patrick Newall and Sam Hargrave, with Jake Aust, Benjamin Grayson, Steven Scavelli, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely the executive producers.
An Australian, Hemsworth’s movie work includes Thor, Star Trek, Ghostbusters and The Cabin in the Woods.
Michael Malone is content director at B+C and Multichannel News. He joined B+C in 2005 and has covered network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television, including writing the "Local News Close-Up" market profiles. He also hosted the podcasts "Busted Pilot" and "Series Business." His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The L.A. Times, The Boston Globe and New York magazine.