Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Judging from howExtraction 2narratively picks up where the bridge fall left off, reports of Rakes death were premature.
During test screenings for the first movie, we tried a couple of different endings.
We kept it purposefully out of focus so that each camp of audience members could be satisfied.
There was a lot of excitement internally about this character.
Actually, both camps could be right.
Extraction 2was also discussed as a prequel.
We landed on moving forward because we felt like we had peaked emotionally with that first movie.
Its harder knowing what we know about Tyler Rake and how he left his son dying of cancer.
If we go backward, the audience already knows thats the emotional crux of that story.
Youre going to de-age him by ten years?
That seemed like a lot of money to spend.
A recast seemed like a terrible idea.
So all of those complications pushed us in the direction of moving forward with the story.
Its not such a reach that this tough guy could survive all of that stuff.
What were the biggest challenges in doing that?
You probably had minute-by-minute internal data from Netflix about what people liked.
Did that factor into your filmmaking at all?Yes and no.
Netflix is very data driven.
It has analytics on everything.
Sometimes, more isnt bigger; sometimes, more can be deeper.
Fans of the first movie really enjoyed Nik and Yaz.
Extractionis about the extraction of a kid.Extraction 2is the extraction of a family, which is a force multiplier.Exactly.
Tyler Rake extracts people from dangerous situations.
We went from extracting one individual to multiple individuals.
Thats always difficult to do because youre always swinging for the fences.
Rather than just a foot chase, lets make it hand-to-hand combat and a car chase.
Theres a scene where Chris is on top of a train shooting machine guns at helicopters.
We had these safety nets on the side in case something like that happened.
And luckily, we did!
Understand: It takes a lot of force to lift a metal berg into the air.
I tried to hold on to the camera and grabbed the side of the train.
Luckily, I was caught by the net and the cable, so I didnt fall to my death.
Did you drop the camera?No.
I was like,Dont drop the camera.
Im okay, now I know how strong that winds going to be.
Your background as a stunt performer definitely comes in handy there.
I have confidence in myself to recover, should I get in trouble.
Of course, Id feel bad if I hurt myself and we slowed production for any reason.
Im sure a lot of camera operators could have done that stunt better than me, framing wise.
But I hear its not.
So that one took some convincing.
Netflix was like, Cant we just do that on a blue screen?
Then flash forward in production, backward in story time.
What else can we do?
And then we were like,Well, its cold out.
Okay, they got fires.
Chris was the easy sell.
We had the best team you could have prepping that sequence.
The burn is all about prep and safety ahead of time.
Because fire is a tricky thing.
It goes from Its warm to Ive got third-degree burns in an instant.
So theres really no margin for error.
Youre filming outdoors; if the wind blows the wrong way, your movie is literally toast.Exactly.
So we had people with all their weather instruments being like,All right, the winds good.
And all the stunt teams,Yeah, were all prepped.
And then it was time to convince the studio.
And they were like, Well, why cant you do it CG?
That isnt the energy and DNA of this franchise.
Its really tough because there are so many great fight coordinators and stunt coordinators and stunt minds out there.
How do you differentiate yourself?
We smash him in the head with a bucket of nails.
And then theres thejust-announcedExtraction 3.
Netflix loves the character; its doing great things for them.
AGBO is very excited because Joe Russo has created a character he thinks is very memorable.
What that is exactly is still to be determined.
But I do know its being worked on as we speak.
The universe, different characters I dont know.
Ive read scripts for a couple of different characters that are growing in that space.
Who knows how theyll interact and interweave throughout the years?
But there is talk of potentially giving a stand-alone film to Nik Khan to give her origin story.
People love that character.
And Golshifteh Farahani has really personified a strong, independent badass heroine.
I would love for something like that to come to pass.
The doors open to a lot of possibilities.We introduce the Idris Elba character into this universe.
He could have his own movie, or he could be in a movie with Chris.
Theres a lot of potential now.
The stage has been set for a pretty interesting future in theExtractionuniverse.
