Extraction was probably one of the most anticipated films of 2020, and with Chris Hemsworth at the helm of affairs, the viewers thought that it would take the box office by storm. Though the statistics said that it was one of the most-watched films on Netflix that year, the story and the screenplay were sheer disappointments. There were lacunae in the narrative that couldn’t be explained, and Joe Russo wrote an extremely weak screenplay that wasn’t able to invest us in the characters. We felt at one point that Hemsworth’s character, Tyler Rake, had some potential, but so little was disclosed about him that we couldn’t ascertain what was happening in the film. With Extraction 2 set to release on June 16, let’s get to know the character of Tyler Rake a little better, understand his motivations, the kind of man he was, and what happened to him while he was on the mission in Bangladesh.
Spoilers Alert
Who Is Tyler Rake?
Tyler Rake, an ex-soldier and now a mercenary, was burdened by his grief, and life had just become an accumulation of losses, anguish, and regret for him. His wife had separated from him sometime after the death of his son. Tyler’s son was suffering from a terminal illness (lymphoma), and there came a time when he realized that he couldn’t be saved. Tyler was in a helpless situation, and he didn’t want to see his son suffer and die a painful death in front of his eyes. So, he voluntarily asked his superiors in the army to send him to Kandahar, Afghanistan, and his son passed away during that time itself. Tyler could never move on from that tragedy, and from then on, he lost any and every motive to keep moving forward. Tyler always took the most dangerous missions, as he hoped that one day, a bullet would pierce through his body and end his misery. He was considered one of the most lethal assassins in the world, and quite evidently, he was not proud of that status. One day, his colleague, Nik Khan, who was also a part of his group, arrived at his house and told him that the son of a powerful Indian drug lord had been kidnapped by another Bangladeshi drug lord named Amir Asif. She told Tyler that it was no less than a suicide mission, but Tyler still agreed to take the job. Nik Khan (whom we shall see in Extraction 2 also) had a soft corner for Tyler, and she was scared that a day would come when he would stop making even that little effort that had kept him alive till now.
What Made Tyler Risk His Life For Ovi?
Tyler made it very clear that Ovi was just cargo for him and that he had agreed to carry out the extraction only for money. But there came a time when Tyler put his guard down and opened up about his life in front of Ovi. He told the boy how he had lost his son and how he did not consider himself to be a brave man. Tyler developed fatherly instincts towards the boy and made sure that he protected him and brought him back to India safely. Ovi might have had a father, but he never felt loved. He didn’t approve of his father’s actions, and at times, he felt as if he was caged in his golden prison. Ovi didn’t desire any of those materialistic things; he just craved a place that he could call home. Being with Tyler, probably for the first time, he felt that somebody cared for him. Here was a stranger who had met him only a couple of days ago but was ready to risk his own life so that he could go back to his own land. Maybe Tyler felt that he would be able to redeem himself if he saved Ovi’s life.
On one end, where Tyler was coping with the grief of losing his child, there was another man named Saju who was ready to sacrifice himself to save his family. Saju was employed by Ovi’s father to look after him. When Ovi was kidnapped, Ovi Mahajan Senior told him that if he didn’t bring back his son from Bangladesh, then he would kill his entire family. Mahajan Sr. didn’t have the money to hire a top-notch mercenary like Tyler Rake, but Saju knew that nobody could do it apart from him. Though at first, Saju tried to trick Tyler, later they both joined forces and fought against the men of Amir Asif. Tyler was able to save Ovi, but in the process, he was gravely injured and fell from the bridge where the shootout was happening. Everybody, including Nik and Ovi, thought that Tyler was dead, but it was not so. Towards the end of Extraction, we saw somebody walking towards the swimming pool where Ovi used to come regularly. We believe that it could be Tyler, as, in the trailer for Extraction 2, we have seen that he had miraculously survived.
What Can We Expect From ‘Extraction 2’?
The stakes would be higher in Extraction 2, and we would once again see Tyler Rake fighting the odds and saving the lives of innocent people. As we saw in the trailer, after what had happened in Bangladesh, nobody believed that they would see Rake once again in action. But the man was resilient, and not only did he rise from the dead, but he also started training his mind and body so that he would be able to come back once again. The trailer tells us that there is a woman and her children who need to be saved, and Tyler probably knows them. Tyler is in a different country altogether this time, and he probably has new allies, too, who will help him to complete his mission. More than anything, Nik would want Tyler to get over his past and try to find happiness in his life. Nik is Tyler’s guardian angel, and we would see her in Extraction 2 as well, helping the infamous gun-for-hire in his mission. Once again, the story and screenplay have been written by Joe Russo, and the film has been directed by Sam Hargrave. By the looks of it, the action sequences are superb, but we hope that there is an impactful story at the core and some strong conflicts to drive the narrative ahead.
