After the monstrous success of Avengers: Endgame, Chris Hemsworth is back with the action-thriller Extraction. Written by Joe Russo (of Russo brothers, the director duo of Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame), Sam Hargrave has directed the film.
Also starring Rudraksh Jaiswal, Randeep Hooda, Priyanshu Painyuli, Goldshifteh Farahani, Pankaj Tripathi and others in important roles, a major portion of Extraction is set in Dhaka. The film is loosely based on the graphic novel Ciudad by Ande Parks.
Ovi Mahajan (Rudraksh Jaiswal) gets kidnapped and is held hostage by Amir Asif (Priyanshu Painyuli), an Escobar-like Bangladeshi gangster who hires teenage boys as hitmen and has the entire Bangladesh army to protect him. Although Asif’s motives remain unclear, Ovi happens to be the son of jailed Indian gangster Ovi Mahajan Sr. (Pankaj Tripathi).
Ovi’s deputy, Saju (Randeep Hooda) hires Tyler Rake (Hemsworth) via Nik (Goldshifteh Farahani), and the operation seems to be a cakewalk at first, until the interference of the country’s armed forces, coupled by an unexpected double-cross.
What makes Extraction fun is the film’s absolute disregard for characterisation. We see flashes from Rake’s past (a vague image of Rake’s son), which appears to be completely inconsequential to the film’s plot. More focus is shown on the adrenaline factor. The shooting and blocking of action sequences are immersive, with the quality of a video game.
Take for instance, the breathtaking stretch of action involving Ovi’s evacuation by Rake. The fluid camerawork effortlessly shifts perspective, with the handheld style giving you a sense of being there at the moment. Even the plot twist works, as it comes from a character whose presence is muted to a considerable extent.
But post the action sequence, the film takes a predictable route, as we tend to easily guess what happens next. The dull antagonist too does little to add to the thrills. Amir is reduced to a generic caricature who has only one solution for every problem- blow up everything.
The introduction of Gaspar (David Harbour) becomes futile as we know what he is up to. However, the compact plot makes you forgive these one-note characters. At this point, even the overstretched gun-fu becomes tiring. Extraction makes great use of Randeep Hooda’s range, whose character happens to be the most interesting of the lot, with a convincing character arc. Chris Hemsworth looks and lives the part of a hardened mercenary. Extraction leaves you with a well-written parting moment that makes you wish that the film had more of such instances.