The second part of the Extraction movie is now available on Netflix. I’ve watched it, and here’s what I think of it. It’s a 10/10. The storyline is a 7/10 for me; I’ll explain why. Everything else was excellent. Spoilers ahead. I thought they would continue with the storyline of Extraction Part One, 2020, but to my surprise, they followed a different storyline set in Georgia, Austria, and Dubai. The second part’s storyline was about Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth) being called to another mercenary job, not by his handler, Nik Khan (Golshifteh Farahani), but by Alcott (Idris Elba). Alcott was working on the request of Rake’s ex-wife, Mia (Olga Kurylenko). The mission was to rescue Mia’s sister, Ketevan Radiani, from a prison where her husband had imprisoned her and her two children under the guise of protecting them from an opposing gang group. The mission went well until one of the rescued victims, suffering from Stockholm syndrome, made a phone call.
Magical Cinematography – Pleasing surprise – Teamwork
First off, I must say the transition through fire when Rake and his team bamboozled their way out of the Tkachiri prison was mind-blowing. Another cool detail was using a single camera to capture all the shots in the prison, from the chaotic fight scene in the prison’s common ground to the car chase in the woods and the train fight. Truly magical.
The movie’s start was not what I expected, seeing as Part 1 ended with a mysterious figure resembling Rake standing by the pool as Ovi (Rudhraksh Jaiswal) emerged from the swimming pool after a breath-holding exercise. This scene mirrors Rake’s underwater breath-holding exercise.
It’s remarkable how they gave Rake’s mercenary team more screen time. In the first movie, they weren’t in action much. I felt their presence more in the second part as they took part in the fights, car chases, and shootings. Also, the team was larger in the first part, which is what I expected in the second part, but it turned out that only three people mattered – Rake, Nik, and Yaz (Adam Bessa). I loved how Nik was depicted as not just a handler but also a skilled and dauntless fighter.
Yaz’s Death: Can He Come Back Please?
The sad part was the death of Nik’s brother, Yaz Khan. As the movie continued, I knew one of the protagonists would die, but I wasn’t sure which one. Movie directors often have one of the protagonists die in a film to evoke emotions, and I don’t know why they do it. To annoy viewers or what? Yaz’s death deeply pained me. As much as I look forward to a sequel, Extraction 3, I hope to see Yaz again, even after he was declared dead in the movie. It was done in Fast and Furious, so I trust the movie director to work his magic.
Damages Caused By Daddy Issues
The movie was released on June 16, 2023, two days before Father’s Day, which I believe is not a coincidence because the movie clearly depicts how impactful a father’s training can affect his son. An abusive father raised the antagonists, Zurab Radiani and Davit Radiani, in a hostile, authoritarian, and obsessive way, and they lived with it until they grew up. The antagonist brothers loved each other deeply due to the hardships they endured. However, the older brother was severely brutalized by his father to the point he lost his hearing because Davit (Tornike Bziava), the younger one, was attacked by bullies. Imagine this, both brothers were attacked, but only the older one got beaten by their father. Their father says, “You fight for your brother till your last drop of blood.” The movie reveals that Zurab (Tornike Gogrichiani) could still hear his father screaming in his ears. Zurab and Davit didn’t have a happy childhood. They survived wars together and had to partake in different crimes to survive. Survive, they did, as they built a weapons and drug empire in Kojori, Georgia, and had most of their country’s politicians under their control.
Are Zurab and Davit brothers in real life, you may wonder? Although their names have Tornike in them, Tornike Bziava and Tornike Gogrichiani are not brothers in real life. They’re both Georgian but not biologically related. Let’s continue.
Sandro Got On My Nerves
What upset me the most was Sandro Radiani (Andro Japaridze) childishly calling his uncle, Zurab, after they had painfully but successfully escaped the prison his father, Davit, had them wither in. Sandro was imbibed with a cult-like loyalty to the Nagazi, his father’s and uncle’s gang empire. His abusive father, Davit, slapped his mother, Ketevan Radiani (Tinatin Dalakishvili) when she tried standing up to him against the torturous state they were in prison. Still, Sandro saw that and yet wanted to join his father in the Nagazi. His father died anyway, with Ketevan landing the last hit on him after Rake dealt with him. As annoying as he could be, Sandro was upset with Rake, who was only doing his job. Rake had to choose between killing Sandro’s father or Sandro’s father killing Sandro’s mother. I really hope viewers don’t take it out on Andro Japaridze, who played Sandro when they met him in real life, because Sandro was really that annoying in the movie.
There are a lot more where those embedded tweets came from. ????. Well, that shows that Andro played his part well.
The movie stresses the importance of freeing one from mental slavery and extremist behaviors. To Sandro, he was confused as to which decision to make. Become part of the Nagazi or take care of his remaining family? At the movie’s end, he comes to his senses, disappointing his uncle, who puts a bomb on him and forces him to pull the trigger on Rake.
Redemption For Rake
A son’s view of his father is very important to the father. I saw that in the movie as well. Rake was haunted by leaving his dying child in the hospital, thinking his son saw him as a father who would abandon his son dying of lymphoma on his deathbed. But later in the movie, Mia, Rake’s ex-wife, who hired him for the mercenary gig in this movie, explained to him that his son saw him as a brave father who was going to carry out his soldier duties even in the toughest times. According to Mia, their son said, “I want to be brave like Dad.” On hearing that, Rake felt redeemed, which explains his motive for continuing the mission in Extraction 1 even when the deal went bad.
Sadly, Yaz may not be in the team to carry out later missions as Rake, who was jailed in Graz-Karlau Prison, and Nik, who was jailed at Schwarzau Prison, were both released from prison and offered a job by Alcott, the same man who hired them for the job they did in this second part of the movie, Extraction 2.
I expect the movie to have a third part, but I don’t anticipate it following the current storyline because the first part did not. However, the movie can take any direction, as depicted by the director, Sam Hargrave, and writers Joe Russo, Ande Parks, and Anthony Russo. They could incorporate villain characters such as Farhad (Suraj Rikame) from Extraction 1 in any part of the movie, be it Extraction 4 or 5, or they could write new mercenary jobs for each part of the Extraction series. Farhad is the leader of the young gang members who attacked Rake in Extraction 1 to please their boss.
I have one question for the movie writers: how does a fearless mercenary like Rake enjoy watching a movie with a dog and two chickens? I can’t wrap my head around it.
Images are copyright of Netflix.