The 10 Most Brutal Moments In Extraction 2, Ranked
This post contains spoilers for "Extraction 2."
One of the biggest movie surprises of 2020 was "Extraction," the Netflix action-thriller starring Chris Hemsworth. Directed by former stuntman Sam Hargrave, the film wound up being Netflix's most-watched original movie of all time, with 99 million people watching in the first four weeks of release.
With numbers like that, it's no wonder a follow-up was greenlit. Mercenary Tyler Rake (Hemsworth) is back in "Extraction 2," which seeks to up the ante of the first film in every imaginable way. It's bigger, bolder, and a whole lot more violent than the already hyper-violent "Extraction." The original movie had a tremendously impressive 12-minute oner, but the sequel nearly doubles that, creating an utterly sensational 21-minute festival of action filmed in a single take.
With so many larger-than-life moments in "Extraction 2," we've combed over every scene to discover which moment is the most astonishing — the times where you sit mouth agape, in complete awe of what these total madmen have come up with. Here are the most brutal moments in "Extraction 2," ranked.
10. Lights Out, Game On
Tyler Rake may have just gotten out of a coma, but merely being dead to the world for months is no reason to get out of the game. In "Extraction 2," Rake has returned and is ready to cause untoward chaos. Towards the film's beginning, Rake is tasked with extracting (get it?) his ex-wife's sister Ketevan (Tinatin Dalakishvili) and her family, who are trapped in a prison. The operation goes smoothly enough at first, but when one of the children steps on a toy, it catches one of the prisoners' attention, and all hell breaks loose.
Rake and company find themselves in a dilapidating room filled with free-roaming prisoners who are clearly put off by Rake's presence. Rake is armed to the teeth, but that doesn't stop some angry inmates from lunging at him. Suddenly, three of them lunge at Rake, who could easily shoot them down. But what's the fun in that?
This moment is Rake's first proper test of his physical abilities after nearly losing his life at the end of "Extraction." Thankfully, it's immediately apparent that Rake is more than up to the task, flexing his superhuman strength. It's a three (and eventually four) on one tussle, and any normal man would be overwhelmed — but as we know, Rake is no normal man. To put it gently, Rake beats the everliving hell out of the prisoners attacking him, and he does it without any of his weapons. Backed up into a corner, Rake places an explosive device on the door, which knocks back the rest of the prisoners, allowing him and the family passage to the next room.
9. A nightmarish car chase
Rake has successfully extracted Ketevan and her children from the prison compound, but things don't end there. They've reunited with Yaz (Adam Bessa) and Nik (Golshifteh Farahani) as they drive away, but their getaway is made a great deal harder by a number of other vehicles and men on motorcycles determined to take Rake and company down. There are plenty of bullets, explosions, and cars flipping over, and the whole thing is beautifully controlled bedlam.
This scene is particularly brutal, not necessarily for the sheer amount of violence — there's plenty of that throughout "Extraction 2" — but because much of the chase scene happens from the perspective of Ketevan's children. It's extremely stressful to watch them huddled in the back of the SUV, terrified for their lives as bullets shower the bulletproof windows — but even those can only handle so many shots. In a particularly heartbreaking moment, Ketevan's daughter is hit by a bullet, which makes all the fear around watching these children cower feel crushingly justified.
8. Isn't that for gardening?
There's a sense of calm when it comes to gardening. It's a beautiful thing to watch something you planted grow to fruition. There is a wide array of tools you can use, and there are endless benefits to having plants in your home, or, if you're lucky enough, your garden. On the other hand, what you might not expect from gardens — or more specifically, a gardening tool — is being a key part of a grisly murder.
But that's what happens when we meet Zurab (Tornike Gogrichiani), a devastatingly intense man who leads the Nagazi, a massive Georgian crime syndicate. Zurab meets with the governor — the man who's extended his brother's prison sentence by another 10 years. In fairness, Zurab's brother, Davit (Tornike Bziava), threw a government agent off of a roof, but family is family, and Zurab wants his brother back home. As Zurab and the governor walk through the farming compound, they stop at a pit — an ominous sign, but it feels innocuous enough.
But when the governor says there's nothing he can do about Davit's prison sentence, Zurab looks into a pile of dirt and finds a garden rake. In one swift move, Zurab picks it up and plunges it directly into the governor's throat with remarkable precision. In seconds, the governor is dead, and when Zurab pulls the rake out, he falls into the pit — ideal for an easy burial. It's the perfect scene to set up the film's villain, and it's clear that taking down Zurab will be no easy task.
7. Free Weights are Flying
Is there anything scarier than hanging for dear life from a skyscraper? According to "Extraction 2," the answer is going to the gym. In a stunningly vicious fight in the building's gym, Rake finds some truly eye-popping ways to use gym machinery, of all things, to dispatch his enemies.
Sure, Rake initially uses his pistol to kill a few foes, but when he's up against the ropes, he decides to get creative. In what might be the film's single most disgusting kill, Rake — while tussling with another enemy — kicks a lever, sending a dumbbell bar loaded with heavy weights crashing down on a man, killing him instantly.
That would be more than enough for this moment to earn its place here, but the motto of "Extraction 2" is that there's always time for more violence. And Rake more than delivers, using a treadmill in an ingenious way. He sets it to max speed before grinding an enemy's face on it, which launches him off of the machine, through the glass, and onto the next floor. I wouldn't be surprised if you never went to the gym again after this.
6. Gunfire In The Prison Yard
While Ketevan's children were rescued in the coal chutes, both she and Rake are too large to get through the chute, so their escape route comes through the prison yard. At this point in the mission, the prison has broken into complete madness, with prisoners assaulting guards in a cacophony of screams. Ketevan is armed with a mere shovel, but in the prison yard, we get to see Rake's vaunted gunplay for the first time.
With hundreds of men trying to take down Rake, guns are a necessity to stay alive. First, Rake brandishes his assault rifle, mowing down a row of enemies in one swift movement. There's a remarkable effortlessness to everything Rake does, and it's simply glorious to watch him switch to a pistol to take out more foes with the ease of an average person taking a single step.
Rake eliminates dozens of men, as Ketevan provides vital assistance with her shovel. In one nerve-shredding moment, Rake has his pistol knocked out of his hand, and Ketevan scrambles with another man to get it back. Rake swoops in with his handy blade, slicing down the man, as well as countless more enemies, as the pair fight for their lives. It's absolutely thrilling stuff and the sound of metal and gunfire crushing bones is enough to keep you up at night.
5. Getting Out Of The Building
After escaping the prison in suitably epic fashion, there's some time for Rake and his friends to recuperate. But that time is cut short when Ketevan's son informs his uncle Zurab (who is furious over his brother's death) of their location. This means our heroes are going to have to escape yet again — this time, from a high-rise building. That's easier said than done.
The epic scene is set up brilliantly, with a large number of armed soldiers placed outside, ready for Rake's appearance. Police vehicles are gunned down as civilians run away screaming, fearing for their lives. If the chaos wasn't enough, Ketevan's son Sandro (Andro Japaridze) runs away, hoping to rejoin his uncle. A rocket launcher sends Nik's vehicle soaring, but her incredible toughness means she's back in the fight in no time. The fight is a thrilling one, happening outside, in a parking garage, and on the city streets all at once.
There's a lot to process here, but it's shot expertly, so it never feels difficult to follow. There are some especially nasty moments, with close-quarters gunfighting, many shots to the head, and some exceptionally ghastly grenade explosions. We also get to see Zurab in action. He takes down a helicopter with relative ease, knocking it out with just one shot from an RPG ... which in turn has the helicopter hurtling straight at Rake.
4. The Coal Chutes
Desperate for an escape route from the prison, Yaz instructs Rake to take the family through the coal chutes. The other way, Yaz warns, is too hot.
That seems like good advice at first, as the chutes seem to be uninhabited. But as Rake lifts the children out through the chute, a prisoner comes out of nowhere. He's wielding a metal pipe, launching it into Rake's back. Ketavan tries to help Rake by grabbing the assailant from behind, but in a particularly uneasy moment, the man hits her in the face with the pipe, sending her reeling. It's especially horrifying when we discover that this man is Davit — Ketavan's husband.
Davit is a great deal more powerful than the average prisoner, and at many different moments, it feels like Rake really could die. The camera swirls around the men at a breakneck pace, and the brawl has some especially gnarly moments — Rake shoves Davit's face onto a white-hot boiler (causing his skin to sizzle), before tearing his hand in half (yikes) and plunging a knife into his neck. Davit's wife gets the last swing, smashing the pipe in his face.
Considering just how graphic the fight in the coal chutes ends up being, I'd hate to imagine what unimaginable brutality was waiting for Rake if he was instructed to go the other way.
3. All Aboard The Brutality Train
A scene that's equally impressive in both sheer violence and genuine ingenuity, the train ride sequence in "Extraction 2" is so intense that it even terrified Chris Hemsworth himself. It's easy to see why: On this train from hell, Rake is tasked with taking down a freaking armed helicopter while standing on a moving train. Rake succeeds — of course he does, he's Tyler Rake! — but it's such a searingly intense moment that you genuinely believe he might fail. He narrowly dodges a rocket launched straight at him and gets back on top of the train to finish business.
But that's not all this train ride has to offer — there's plenty of hardcore hand-to-hand combat too, and not just for Rake. The scene is thrilling because we spend a moment away from Rake to see his colleague Nik, outnumbered three to one in a claustrophobic train carriage. The men get their blows in, but they're ultimately no match for Nik and her arsenal of skills. If you find yourself missing Rake, fear not, because we jump right back to him beating the snot out of every enemy in sight. It's a breathtaking sequence — seriously, I didn't breathe once — and any scene where Rake takes on a helicopter singlehandedly and wins deserves a spot near the top of the list.
2. The Final Fight
"Extraction 2" slowly builds toward the epic faceoff between Rake and Zurab throughout the entire film — well, nothing happens slowly here, but you get the idea. After yet another grueling fight, Rake has found his way to the church, where Zurab sits waiting for him. Bleeding out, Rake needs to get this fight over fast if he wants the chance to save Sandro.
"God gave me a mission to rain vengeance upon your head," Zurab tells Rake, his voice laced with malice. And it is on. Forcing Sandro — who's strapped with a bomb — to take Rake's gun means this fight is gonna be settled with fists. After a surprise appearance from Nik, who's gunned down by Zurab, the fight is on.
And what a fight it is. These two men absolutely despise each other, and that hatred fuels their furious movements. Things aren't only resolved with fists though — Zurab pulls out a buzzsaw and tries to saw into Rake's neck, who finds a screwdriver and drives it into Zurab's side. The men use everything and anything at their disposal to hit each other. As the battle goes on, both men are dangerously close to death, and as blood pours, the tension is unbearably high.
Our hero isn't going down easy, as he manages to get on top of Zurab, driving his combat knife into his heart. Rake lies down next to him, and with the two men bloodied and bruised, Rake pulls out a pistol and fires one bullet into Zurab's skull, ending their saga in a typically brutal fashion.
1. Things Get Fiery
Immediately following Ketevan and Rake's fight in the prison yard, a brick to the head nearly takes Rake out of commission. But he is practically a superhero, so he's only out for a moment — though it's long enough for him to get separated from Ketevan. Still in the prison yard, Rake finds himself brawling with armed guards, using their heavy shields against them.
As if that wasn't enough, a Molotov cocktail comes flying through the air. While Rake's shield absorbs most of the flames, his arm is set on fire, as are a number of guards. Such a thing would normally give someone pause — but not Rake, who proceeds to punch a number of enemies directly in the face with his hand literally on fire. I cannot stress how absolutely, gloriously bonkers this is. He extinguishes the fire by hitting someone so hard the fire goes out. Rake is finally reunited with Ketevan, but first, he takes a dumbbell to the man attacking her, caving his face in. Gnarly.
Perhaps the most unbelievable thing about it all is that the entire prison escape sequence is done in one single shot lasting over 21 minutes. It's truly gonzo, go-for-broke filmmaking that adds an incredible impact to these already brutal moments. It's sequences like this fiery brawl that make "Extraction 2" one of the breakout action movies of the year.