Extraction (2020)
Extraction is a 2020 American action thriller film directed by Sam Hargrave (in his feature directorial debut) and written by Joe Russo, based on the graphic novel Ciudad by Ande Parks, Joe Russo, Anthony Russo, Fernando León González, and Eric Skillman. The film’s cast features Chris Hemsworth, Rudhraksh Jaiswal, Randeep Hooda (his international film debut), Golshifteh Farahani, Pankaj Tripathi and David Harbour. The film is about an Australian black ops mercenary whose mission to save an Indian drug lord’s kidnapped son in Dhaka, Bangladesh goes awry when he is double-crossed. Netflix released Extraction on April 24, 2020. The film received generally mixed-to-positive reviews from critics, who praised the performances and action sequences but criticized the story. It became the most-watched original film in Netflix’s history with a reported 99 million households in its first four weeks. A sequel is in development.
Plot.
After a day at school, Ovi Mahajan – son of an incarcerated Indian drug lord – sneaks out of his house to visit a club with his friend. At the party, Ovi and his friend go to the garage to have a smoke, where they encounter corrupt police officers working for rival drug lord Amir Asif, who shoot Ovi’s friend and kidnap him. After discovering this, Saju Rav, a former Para (Special Forces) operator and Ovi’s protector, visits Ovi’s father in prison. Unwilling to pay the ransom as it will hurt his prestige, Ovi’s father orders Saju to retrieve his son, threatening to kill Saju’s own son if he is not willing to do so. Tyler Rake, a former SASR operator turned black-market mercenary, is recruited by his handler Nik Khan, to save Ovi from Dhaka, Bangladesh. Rake and Khan’s team prepare to extract Ovi, with his father’s men set to pay them once Ovi is recovered.
Rake saves Ovi, kills his captors, and takes him to the extraction point, but his father’s men intentionally fail to transfer the funds. Instead, Saju kills Rake’s teammates and tries to kill Rake so he can save Ovi himself. Learning of Ovi’s escape, Asif orders the head of the local police, Colonel Rashid, to initiate an immediate lockdown of Dhaka, securing all bridges and travel points out of the city.
Khan arranges for a helicopter to extract Rake outside the city and tells him to abandon Ovi since the contract has been nullified. He refuses to leave Ovi behind, haunted by memories of his own son, whom Tyler abandoned after he couldn’t stand seeing him suffer from lymphoma any longer. After escaping Saju and the corrupt police & tactical units on Asif’s payroll, Rake fights off a gang of boys led by Farhad, a young criminal eager to impress Asif.
Rake calls his friend Gaspar, a retired squad-mate living in Dhaka, and he and Ovi lay low at Gaspar’s home for the evening. Gaspar reveals Asif has placed a $10 million bounty on Ovi, which he offers to share if Rake allows him to kill Ovi. Rake refuses and fights Gaspar, who gains the upper hand but is fatally shot by Ovi with Gaspar’s own gun.
Rake calls Saju and asks for his help, forcing them to team up to escape Dhaka. Rake draws attention away from a disguised Saju and Ovi as the two make their way through a bridge checkpoint, then follows to cover their escape. Khan and her remaining mercenaries approach from the opposite side of the bridge, as Asif watches from afar with binoculars. In the ensuing firefight,
Saju is shot by Rashid, who is in turn shot by Khan. Wounded, Rake instructs Ovi to run to Khan’s waiting helicopter. As a badly wounded Rake follows, he is shot in the neck by Farhad and, seeing Ovi is safe, falls into the river. Ovi, Khan, and the extraction team escape to Mumbai and safety.
Eight months later, Asif encounters Khan in a restroom, who then promptly shoots him. Ovi jumps into his school’s swimming pool to practice holding his breath, mirroring the scene where Tyler was introduced. He surfaces to see a blurred vision of a man, resembling Tyler, watching him.
Viewership.
Extraction was the top-streamed item in its debut weekend, then fell to sixth place (but third among films) in its second week. Netflix estimated the film would be watched by about 90 million households during its first month of release, the biggest premiere in the service’s history. The film returned to the site’s top-10 during the 4th of July weekend. In July 2020, Netflix revealed the film had in-fact been watched by 99 million households in its first four weeks of release, the most-ever for one of their original films. In November, Variety reported the film was the fourth-most watched straight-to-streaming title of 2020 up to that point.Cast:
- Chris Hemsworth as Tyler Rake
- Rudhraksh Jaiswal as Ovi Mahajan Jr
- Randeep Hooda as Saju Rav
- Golshifteh Farahani as Nik Khan
- Pankaj Tripathi as Ovi Mahajan Sr
- David Harbour as Gaspar
- Bryon and Ryder Lerum as Rake’s son
- Priyanshu Painyuli as Amir Asif
- Sudipto Balav as Shadek
- Adam Bessa as Yaz Khan
- Shataf Figar as Silver Haired
- Suraj Rikame as Farhad
- Neha Mahajan as Neysa Rav
- Sam Hargrave as Gaetan “G”
- Wayne Blairas Koen