Chris Hemsworth stars in Extraction, Netflix’s latest hit action adventure film. He plays Tyler Rake, a man great at his job of kicking butt because of his devil may care attitude. Sam Hargrave directs Extraction with Avengers: Endgame and Avengers: Infinity Wars director Joe Russo acting as screenwriter and producer, alongside his brother Anthony Russo and Hemsworth. Many people are talking about the movie because of the Extraction ending, which is just as dark and ominous as the entire flick.
In Extraction, Tyler goes on a mission to remove Ovi Mahajan Jr. (Rudhraksh Jaiswal) from being held hostage by Bangladesh drug lord Amir (Priyanshu Painyuli). Ovi’s father is incarcerated and the biggest drug lord in India. Ovi Mahajan Sr. (Pankaj Tripathi) entrusted his henchman Saju (Randeep Hooda) to look after his son. Once Tyler and Ovi Jr. meet, it’s a non-stop thrill ride.
Spoiler alert: If you haven’t seen Extraction yet, turn back now. We are about to enter heavy spoiler territory.
The Ending Of Extraction
Tyler successfully brings Ovi to the point of exchange, but Ovi Sr. sends Saju to steal Ovi so that he can avoid paying the ransom. It leads to a very long battle. Tyler wins it, and escapes alive with Ovi. Tyler’s partner, Nik (Golshifteh Farahani) tells him that she can get him to safety and out of Dhaka, but he needs to leave Ovi--a certain death sentence for the boy.
Tyler can’t do it. Instead he calls a friend, Gaspar (David Harbour) to help him. They arrive at Gaspar’s home where Tyler and Ovi bond more. He shares how he left his son for a third tour in Afghanistan because he was too scared to watch his six-year-old child die of lymphoma. After the emotional moment, Tyler learns that Gaspar wants to kill Ovi to obtain a ten million dollar reward.
The men fight, and Ovi shoots Gaspar to save himself and Tyler. Tyler then decides to call Saju, so that they can work together to save Ovi. While trying to escape the city (which is on lockdown due to Amir’s orders), the two men engage in an all-out fight with authorities. Saju is murdered, Ovi makes it across the bridge to Nik, but Farhad (Suraj Rikame), an ambitious kid working for Amir, shoots Tyler in the side of the neck.
Severely injured and bleeding, Tyler falls off the bridge into the river. Meanwhile Ovi and Nik board a helicopter and leave the city to safety. Months later, Nik manages to get in a bathroom alone with Amir and kills him. Jumping forward, Ovi has returned to his lonely life, but with a new sense of bravery. He jumps in a pool and stays at the bottom before rising up. A mysterious can be seen standing nearby, just out of focus in the distance.
Ovi's Quote About Drowning
Before getting into whether the figure was Tyler, we need to go back to the scene where Tyler told Ovi about his son. After Tyler pours his heart out to Ovi. The boy gives him a quote.
You drown not by falling into a river, but by staying submerged in it
This is a quote by author Paulo Coelho. My reading of the quote is that everyone suffers but that doesn’t kill us. What kills our souls and spirits is the inability to overcome the pain. To let it engulf, and literally or figuratively drown us. This moment allows Ovi to say, yeah what happened was horrible but you can still survive and live, you just have to decide to stop drowning. It also may act as a foreshadowing of Tyler’s fate.
Did Tyler Die?
The simple answer: it’s up to you.
Hemsworth and Hargrave shared that when they first screened the film to a test audience, the original ending divided them. So in a way to kind of appease everyone, they left the ending open ended.
Because there was a split reaction amongst audiences, we tried to satisfy both sides. Hopefully if you as an audience member loved the character, want to see more then you will see one result of that final image. You'll see Tyler there. If you felt like his story is completed through sacrifice, you might see someone different standing there. So hopefully it was satisfying even though people might have a question, but maybe they get talking to their friends saying, 'Hey, go see this movie cause I want to talk to you about the ending'. It was purposefully ambiguous.
Since there is no clear yes or no answer in terms of Tyler’s death, let’s make an argument for both cases. Shall we?
He is Dead
Tyler started the movie as a broken man with two missions driving him. The first was to extract Ovi from his kidnappers, and the second was to die. Nik points out that Tyler doesn’t care anymore. He wants to die. We see numerous scenes where Tyler could be killed as he stares in to the face of death without flinching. If you believe Tyler fulfilled his mission by ensuring that Ovi makes it safely across the bridge, then he can now embrace his final mission: death.
Tyler’s son’s death haunts him. All throughout the movie, he sees flashes of his son, but at the moment of his presumed death, he has a clear image of his son. This could symbolize him finally achieving peace and going to the afterlife to be with his son. He’s finally redeemed himself and can get his happy ending on the other side with his child.
The mysterious figure is not Tyler but a spirit like figure of him encouraging Ovi to continue living and fighting. The figure could also just be any random man. Maybe Ovi Sr. now has bodyguards watching Ovi. The figure could be calling Ovi because it is time for him to escort him home safely.
He Is Alive
If you see his mission as incomplete, then Tyler is definitely still alive. Tyler’s mission at the start of the film was to extract Ovi and get paid. By the end of the film, he builds a deep bond with him. His immediate goal, after Nik advises him to drop Ovi in the street, is to protect him, and then it turns to getting him home. However, there is a scene between Gaspar and Tyler where Gaspar says that Ovi is a walking corpse.
No matter what, Ovi’s life will be in constant danger because of his father. He may escape and survive this time, but there will be other dangers. Nik kills Amir, so she eliminates the immediate danger to Ovi. However, Farhad’s ruthlessness and ambition may result in him rising up to become a new drug lord.
Even if Amir and his people are gone, who knows how many enemies of Ovi Sr. exist. It’s not Tyler’s job to make sure Ovi lives to old age... but it could be. Tyler, in many ways, views Ovi as his redemption for not being there when his son died. Maybe the quote spoken by Ovi runs through in his head as he’s dying, and drowning in the river, so instead of staying submerged, he fights back and takes on a new mission: continue to protect Ovi.
Ovi also spoke about his father not really caring about him. Maybe Tyler decides (while in the river) that the true goal shouldn’t be to return Ovi to this cold home, but help him escape this life and find a new one. I’m not saying he’s trying to adopt Ovi, but maybe he wants to get him far away from his father and help him build a new life somewhere else.
The figure at the end could have been Tyler starting his mission to help Ovi leave India and start a new life.
Will There Be Sequels?
There hasn’t been any confirmation about sequels, but if you follow Netflix’s top ten listings, then you may have noticed that Extraction has been in the top ten for days.. This means the movie is performing well. Netflix is unpredictable, so it’s hard to know what will receive renews or sequels. However, I would bet on an Extraction sequel.
Chris Hemsworth is too bankable and gives a great performance in this movie, so we cannot imagine them having any Extraction sequels not featuring him. Therefore, to keep the franchise going, Tyler needs to be alive.
Extraction is currently available to stream on Netflix. Stream it here.
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