How Extraction 2 Director Sam Hargrave Decided That Character Would Be The One To Die
This post contains spoilers for "Extraction 2"
What's an action movie without a guy who's reluctant to go on the central mission who ends up getting killed? The answer is a film that's not beholden to well-worn action tropes. Unfortunately, that's not "Extraction 2." Depending on your tolerance for this stuff, the sequel to 2020's "Extraction" is either a dazzling step up from the already impressively executed stunt choreography of the first movie, or a generic streaming actioner that will ultimately recede into the deepest recesses of your mind before evaporating entirely.
But director Sam Hargrave and writer Joe Russo have tried their very best to make sure the latter doesn't happen, mainly by punctuating the action with some attempts at making us feel something. The exhausting "Extraction 2" sees black market mercenary Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth) team up with old friends and fellow mercs Nik Khan (Golshifteh Farahani) and her brother Yaz (Adam Bessa), who makes it clear all he wants to do is watch the football game. Instead, Yaz is roped into a deadly mission that involves liberating the family of Georgian gangster Davit (Tornike Bziava) from a prison where they've been forced to coexist with their abusive patriarch. And once again, Rake and co. fight their way out of a seemingly impossible situation, taking out prisoners, soldiers, and even a couple of helicopters on the way.
Unfortunately, that's not the end of their woes. The team is pursued to their Vienna hotel by Davit's brother Zurab (Tornike Gogrichiani), who isn't too pleased about Rake jamming a shovel into his sibling's neck (one of many garden tool-related deaths in "Extraction 2"). Sadly, Yaz ends up paying the price, taking a few shots from Zurab before perishing aboard an escape helicopter. And all he wanted to do was watch the football ...
'You have to lose something'
Yaz showed up in the first "Extraction," where he and his sister help Tyler Rake extract the kidnapped son of an Indian drug lord. But for the sequel, both Nik and Yaz play a slightly larger role, especially in terms of Russo's attempts to contrast the brutality of "Extraction 2" with some heartfelt moments. Rather than just double down on action, the writer, along with director Sam Hargrave, tried to flesh out the supporting characters this time, with Yaz's death ultimately designed to not only up the emotion but motivate Nik going forward.
Hargrave recently spoke to Collider, where the stunt performer turned filmmaker recalled how he "went back and forth," on who to kill, explaining that, "You have to lose something, at least to raise the stakes for the third act." And before poor Yaz was put in the crosshairs, it seems Hargrave and Russo were toying with some other potential deaths. As the director explained:
"We played with some different characters but ended up with Yaz being the one to choose because we thought that helped motivate two beloved characters, which was Tyler Rake and Nik Khan. People are huge fans of Nik. She has garnered such a following from these movies that we wanted to make sure that she was serviced as well, meaning that her character had some really meaty stuff to hold on to. So we figured we landed with Yaz because it did two for the price of one, basically. We have the guilt that Rake feels of bringing them into this, his close friend and brother basically, and then the actual blood brother of Nik dies, so that she's conflicted, like, what is she doing here?"
Is this really the end for Yaz?
In an interview with Vulture, Sam Hargrave revealed that Netflix's internal data plays a significant role in how these movies are constructed, saying:
"Netflix is very data driven. It has analytics on everything. So that did factor in as far as keying in on the moments people enjoyed, action sequences they really loved, but also emotional moments that help them connect with the characters."
With "Extraction 3" being greenlit within days of the sequel hitting the streamer, it looks as though we'll be getting a lot more Tyler Rake in the near future, especially considering the Russo brothers, who produced both movies, previously revealed their plans for an "Extraction" shared universe.
So, depending on what the all-important Netflix metrics reveal for "Extraction 2," we might see more of Yaz and Nik in a prequel in the near future. There's been talk of such a thing before, with Hargrave alluding to the potential spinoff in his Collider interview. Which means this might not be the end for Yaz just yet. In the meantime, like so many movie cops who perished days before retirement, we can add Yaz to the long list of "guys who just want to chill but ended up getting killed off."