Sam Hargrave | 2hr 3min
In recent years, the upward trend of Hollywood stuntmen picking up cameras and becoming directors has reinvigorated the action genre with a visceral practicality. While Chad Stahelski and David Leitch have been revolutionising the art of the set piece, Sam Hargrave’s career has been relatively quiet, though this is in part due to his late emergence on the scene. After working as a stunt coordinator for both Marvel and DC Studios, he made his debut on Netflix in 2020 with Extraction, an introduction to black ops mercenary and sullen action hero Tyler Rake whose return in the sequel gives him even more to brood over. Much like the first instalment, Extraction 2’s visuals are as ambitious as its narrative is thin, revealing a confidence behind the camera that thrillingly elevates Joe Russo’s otherwise mediocre screenplay.
Tyler has barely had any time to settle into retirement and rehabilitate from prior injuries when a new job comes knocking at his rural Austrian cabin, drawing him back into the business with mysteriously personal stakes attached. Davit Radiani, co-founder of Georgian drug empire the Nagazi, has been imprisoned with no hope of bribing his way out, and so he has also moved his wife Ketevan and two children in to keep them under his control. Tyler’s task to stealthily infiltrate the jail and rescue the family is straightforward enough, and yet there are three main complications which lengthen Extraction 2’s conflict into a feature-length narrative.
The first is the nature of Tyler’s relationship to Ketevan, having previously been married to her sister Mia. The tragic backstory of their child who passed away from cancer often stops the film’s narrative momentum dead in its tracks, and although Chris Hemsworth carries magnetic star power and a strong physical presence, he plays the emotional beats here without a great deal of variation. Still, the groundwork is laid out for a redemption arc that broadly examines the responsibility fathers have for their children, thereby leading into the second primary complication – kingpin Davit’s relationship with his son Sandro.
Though the teenager is effectively a prisoner within his family, Sandro’s total belief in Davit’s goodness blinds him to his selfish manipulation, and motivates him to follow in his father’s footsteps as a Nagazi. As a reluctant participant in Tyler’s rescue, he is also torn in his wavering loyalties, frequently threatening the safety of his sister and mother as he tries to reach out to their pursuers. Besides the success of the mission, the moral goodness of this young man is also at stake, ultimately testing Tyler’s patience, compassion, and guidance during his temporary substitution as the family’s surrogate father.
Even with all this in mind though, it is clear that Extraction 2’s narrative and character development is not where Hargrave’s passion lies. It is the moment-to-moment development of individual set pieces that becomes the third main source of tension in the film, and which reveals his greatest talent as an action director. The impressive 12-minute take from Extraction that followed Tyler’s rescue of a drug lord’s child is topped here by an even more remarkable 21-minute take through multiple locations, keeping us in the grip of a prison break, riot, and chase that all unfold in real time with heart-pounding urgency.
It matters little that this shot was simulated by stitching together 49 individual cuts – there is no faking Hargrave’s skilful manoeuvring of the camera through frenzied environments, often with extras, searchlights, and falling snow filling the frame with movement. Inside the prison, we navigate several perspective shifts between our heroes and a small force of armed guards confronting rampaging inmates, even briefly entering Tyler’s dazed perspective after his head is smashed with a brick and tethering us to his face in close-up. The spectacle is marvellously paced in waves too, drastically raising the stakes as fences between both sides of the conflict are violently torn down, and yet also pulling back in quiet pauses that allow a moment to breathe between fights.
With no visible edits, this long take makes for the perfect showcase of practical stunt work, carrying a creative yet visceral brutality as loose rocks, shovels, a furnace, and even an arm lit aflame by a Molotov Cocktail become improvised weapons. It is too bad that the handheld camerawork somewhat obscures this at times, lacking the smoothness of Alfonso Cuarón’s direction in Children of Men’s car chase scene which clearly inspired its dextrous weaving in and out of moving windows.
Unlike lesser action filmmakers though, Hargrave’s set pieces in Extraction 2 consistently advance the narrative with great momentum, frequently pushing Tyler to adjust his tactics to new terrains and threats. As he fights off an enemy inside a giant glass tower, his associate’s unconscious body slides down a glass platform just outside, thrilling driving up the tension with added time pressure. The old stone church of dusty scaffolding and angel statues where the Nagazi have set up base similarly makes for a grand climax, seeing Tyler pivot when the immediate danger of their hostage situation comes to light. It is often where the film’s blocking, editing, and camerawork takes a step back that its plot falls back on weak exposition, though fortunately these passing moments are more forgettable than outright awful. Hargrave is a far more talented director than Russo is a writer, and it is through his dynamic set pieces that Extraction 2 pushes its reluctant fathers to confront their paternal responsibility with electrifying tenacity.
Extraction 2 is currently streaming on Netflix.