Extraction‘s final scene is open to interpretation, which feels odd against the rest of the movie. Starring Chris Hemsworth in-between Thor duties, Extraction tells the story of Tyler Rake, a damaged mercenary sent on a dangerous mission to Dhaka. Going in alone, Rake must extract a teenage boy from the clutches of a drug lord and deliver him into the hands of another drug lord who happens to be his father. Although Rake is solely focused on his fee initially, the bond between Hemsworth’s character and his young charge, Ovi, grows over the course of Extraction and, by the end of the story, Rake is desperate to get the youngster to safety. Haunted by the loss of his own son, Rake puts up a noble last stand so that Ovi can be saved, and takes a bullet to the back of the neck for his trouble. With Ovi looking on distraught, a beaten and bloodied Rake falls into a river, seemingly to his death.
Months later, however, Ovi is swimming, deeply traumatized by his experience but somewhat changed by meeting Rake. When he surfaces from the water, Ovi sees a figure who looks suspiciously like Chris Hemsworth watching over him, and this is where the film ends. The scene can be interpreted in several ways; either Rake survived, or Ovi is seeing him as a vision with the real Rake very much dead. Extraction writer Joe Russo has stated the film’s intention was for the audience to decide for themselves what happened.
Ambiguous movie endings always walk a fine line, but Extraction‘s doesn’t have the desired effect. For the most part, Extraction is a straightforward action movie, and while it certainly excels as a no-holds-barred adrenaline rush, the film is deliberately light on character and plot. Tyler Rake himself is cut from a well-used action hero cloth, and of the supporting cast, only Ovi is given any meaningful development. Extraction‘s story, meanwhile, isn’t one to think about in detail. Rake’s tragic backstory is bare bones stuff, and his struggle to return Ovi to a family setup he’s quite clearly miserable in feels more than a little odd; in the space of a few scenes, the boy goes from berating the life of a drug lord’s son to crying to go home. Fortunately, that doesn’t matter when there’s another spectacular gunfight lurking around the corner.
There’s nothing wrong with action movies having a simple premise and, truthfully, the audience doesn’t need to know Tyler’s favorite color and shoe size to enjoy watching him kick ass. But the film’s ambiguous, open to interpretation conclusion tries to be something Extraction is patently not. As mentioned previously, such endings are a notoriously tricky beast at the best of ties and need to be earned through everything that comes before. Christopher Nolan’s Inception is one of the best examples, with the spinning top ending infuriating viewers in exactly the right way, fitting with the reality-bending theme woven throughout the film. Similarly, The Graduate‘s ending subtly sows the seeds of doubt as Dustin Hoffman and Katharine Ross ride away together to “The Sound of Silence.” These uncertain movie endings earn the right to be cryptic through consistent tone, deep character exploration, etc.
After just under 2 hours of balls-to-the-wall action, a thought-provoking, chin-stroking ending is an unwelcome late arrival to the party, and feels distinctly tacked-on. Indeed, that may be because the original script did have Tyler dying at the end, and the possibility of him being alive was only added after feedback from test screen audiences. But if a happy ending was what Extraction was looking for, it should’ve stuck to the comic book source material, in which Rake is confirmed to be alive. It’s also hard to discount the possibility that Extraction‘s enigmatic final scene was added purely to facilitate a potential sequel, should Netflix be willing.
Coming to a firm resolution one way or the other, rather than sitting on the fence, would’ve been far more in keeping with the rest of Tyler Rake’s adventure. For better or worse, Extraction is direct, hard-hitting and uncomplicated – there was no need to change that in the final seconds.
