Extraction's Violent Rake Usage Came Straight From The Fans

In 2020, "Extraction" finally answered the question, "What if an action hero was really good at extracting stuff?" And apparently, we were all exhilarated at the prospect of that mystery being solved because the Chris Hemsworth-led actioner became Netflix's most-watched movie, naturally leading the streamer to promptly greenlight "Extraction 2."

But before we see whether this second outing leads to director Sam Hargrave's planned "Extraction" trilogy or not, there's plenty of time to relive some of the highlights from Hemsworth's first go-round as merc-for-hire Tyler Rake. And, depending on how you feel about these kinds of things, the non-stop action of "Extraction" either made for one long highlight reel or a quickly forgettable one-note streaming flick. Either way, you can't fault the expertise that went into crafting the movie's set pieces and combat, which benefited from Hargrave's expertise as a stunt performer and coordinator.

That was perhaps most obvious in the film's 12-minute "one-take" sequence, which saw Rake attempting to pull off the titular extraction by escorting the kidnapped son of an Indian drug lord, Ovi Mahajan (Rudhraksh Jaiswal), through the dangerous streets of Dhaka. And while this sequence represented the pinnacle of Hargrave's vision for his directorial debut, there was plenty of your standard multi-camera fight scenes littered throughout the rest of the film, including one brawl which took its cues not just from the film's director, but from a fan.

In "Extraction," before Tyler Rake can get to Ovi, he has to fight his way through Amir Asif (Priyanshu Painyuli)'s thugs. Asif is the Bangladeshi crime lord that kidnapped Ovi in order to force the boy's father to cede some of his territory. Unfortunately, Asif didn't reckon with Chris Hemsworth's former Australian Army man getting involved. Which he really should have, because his poor foot soldiers get absolutely obliterated by Tyler Rake on his mission to rescue Ovi.

That first fight scene, where Rake battles his way through the house where Ovi is being held, includes a moment that's simultaneously brutal and hilarious. The moment in question sees Rake pick up a literal garden rake and drive it into the neck of one adversary, before forcing another's eyeballs directly onto the spikes of the implement to well and truly finish the fight. Why is there a garden rake in a criminal hideout in central Dhaka? Well, because a fan said so.

In an interview with Men's Health, Sam Hargrave was asked about the gardening tool in question and whether it was originally in the script, explaining:

"That was an addition. There was an early comment online, something like, 'If Tyler Rake uses a rake to kill somebody, I'm going to lose my mind.' So it was actually inspired by a fan of the genre. I thought, 'You know, that's actually kind of brilliant.; If that's the things that fans are looking for, then we should put it in there."

So there you have it. Hargrave was wowed by the brilliance of this suggestion enough to include it in the final movie, and the fan presumably did "lose their mind."

"Extraction" was a big hit when it landed on Netflix. And while the rake scene is kind of tongue-in-cheek, it also serves as a perfect example of why the film as a whole wasn't all that memorable. Joe Russo wrote the script, which he tried to infuse with some genuine emotion. Tyler Rake is revealed to have lost his son to lymphoma before splitting with his wife, and throughout the movie, that harrowing experience is supposed to be part of what motivates the ex-Special Air Service Regiment operator to go the extra mile in protecting Ovi.

Which you would think might have some major emotional resonance, but the film couldn't really decide whether it was a love letter to action choreography in the style of a "John Wick," or a gritty tale of a man haunted by his past and confronting that pain through his latest mission. Obviously, having some moments of comic relief is par for the course, but when the film is already torn between these two conflicting tones, the moment with the rake just kind of serves as a reminder we're watching a ridiculous all-out actioner, thereby undercutting much of the emotional back story.

Which is why it bodes well that Sam Hargrave looks to have chosen a lane with "Extraction 2," ramping up the action with a 21-minute one-take shot that sees Tyler Rake thrown into the middle of a prison brawl, for which Chris Hemsworth was actually set on fire. Once you just let the action take over, you can throw in as many dumb rake kills as you like and it'll fit with the overall tone. With that in mind, I welcome as many garden tool deaths as possible this time around.