The John Wick film series has changed the action genre. Gone are the awful shaky cam, up close shots, and fast editing style of action scenes. Most action films these days tend to copy their style, heck many studios have tried to find their John Wick franchise. When Netflix released Extraction during the early days of the pandemic, it became a big hit for the streaming giant. Of course, when a film became a hit, a sequel is a must.

Flashing back to the climax of the first film, Tyler (Chris Hemsworth) is near death, rescued by his partner, Nik (Golshifteh Farahani), and sent to a hospital for an extended recovery experience, tasked with getting his strength back. Jumping many months after that event, Tyler is now recovering in a remote cabin somewhere in Austria. One day, he is approached by the mysterious Alcott (Idris Elba), who offers an extraction mission involving Ketevan (Tinatin Dalakishvili), his ex-wife Mia’s (Oleg Kurylenko) sister, who’s trapped in a Georgian prison with her children, including young teen Andro (Andro Japaridze). They’re being held by Davit (Torinke Bziava) the co-leader of the Nagazi crime family, and brother to Zurab (Torinke Gogrichiani). Tyler, Nik, and Yaz (Adam Bessa) manage to rescue Ketevan and her kids but must evade Zurab’s army to find safety.

Joe Russo was credited as the sole screenwriter but shared story credit with his brother Anthony. As far as the plot goes, there’s nothing that we haven’t seen before in this type of film. But the script goes a bit deeper into Tyler’s grief about his deceased son. Still feeling guilty for not being there when his son passed away, Tyler tried to be a father figure to his nephew Andro. We see more interaction between Tyler, Nik, and Yaz since they must work together as a team to survive.

Now, people don’t watch films like Extraction for the intricate plot, they tuned in for the action. Once again, director Sam Hargrave delivered on that front. In the first film, he shot a “one-take” action scene and it was great. He decided up the ante for this one and create 20 minute “one take” action scene that started out with a fight at the Russian prison, then a car chase, and ended with shootouts and fights that involved a moving train and helicopters. It’s quite an impressive sequence and he did it with minimal use of CGI effects.

The performances by the actors were fine. Hemsworth seems to relish his non-superhero role but he’s still kicking butt like a superhero. Farahani received more screen time than the last film and she was involved in most of the action scenes. Gogrichiani’s Zurab is another one-note villain, we got a little background as to how he became a powerful mobster but it’s something that’s been done in other action films.

It appears Hemsworth has found another franchise that will keep him employed for many years to come if/when he decides to leave the MCU. Netflix also found their John Wick and we’ll see more Extraction missions in many years to come. If you’re a fan of the John Wick series, then this is something that will entertain you for two hours.

So have you seen EXTRACTION 2? Well, what did you think?

…