How Extraction 2’s director went hands-on for his 21-minute action shot

When it comes to modern filmmaking’s fascination with one-take, no-cuts action sequences, the nexus point is undoubtedly Alfonso Cuarón’s dystopian epic Children of Man. That 2006 movie features several of those extended one-shot scenes, or “oners,” as the industry calls them. Clive Owen’s crew and he drive into a forest in the early part of the movie. Suddenly a car on fire barrels over a steep hill to block their path. In an instant, they’re beset by attackers, leading to an astonishing one-shot chase where the camera moves from inside the car to out in the road. Cuarón and his team had to create entirely new technology to achieve it. CGI is now so common that this type of trick has become a cliche.

Every jaw-dropping action scene is like Atomic Blonde’s 10-minute barnburner, there are endless instantly forgettable attempts at long-take action scenes, awash in CGI blurring to cover their cuts. To learn more about the For Extraction 2. For director Sam Hargrave escaping this dynamic to find something personal and new within the oner, was as exciting as the final product. The result of his response to that challenge was one the most mind-blowing oners committed to screen. How he did it is also extraordinary.

Photo: Jasin Boland/Netflix

“I think the oner, when used as a storytelling tool, can be very effective,” Hargrave told Polygon over Zoom, ahead of Extraction 2.’s release. “I think if you use it as a device, as a gimmick, it can be overdone or get a little bit cliche. It was not the original reason that I chose to use the device. [Extraction]This film is designed to give the viewer a truly immersive experience. And for something like this, it’s also a way to lens the action in a manner that differentiates it from other films a little bit. Because there are so many great action movies out there, so many great designers and directors, how does Sam Hargrave bring a point of view to a sequence that is maybe just mine, and make it unique to this franchise?”

First, let’s look at the first Extraction,Hargrave wanted to establish himself as a new filmmaker, so he shot a 10-minute film. ExtractionTyler Rake, a mercenary soldier (Chris Hemsworth), rescues an innocent kidnapping victim. Rake rescues the violent family of a gangster from a deadly prison. Rake’s 21-minute journey begins when he reaches them. He and his family must fight their way through the prison, escape through a wood, and board an armored vehicle waiting outside.

That sounds standard enough — fight, chase, fight, chase — but the set-piece contains a series of striking mini set-pieces, all essentially happening in real time. The biggest stunt has Rake’s enemies landing a helicopter on the moving train, as he alternates between hand-to-hand combat and machine-gunning the helicopter. It’s confounding stuff. Yes, there are hidden stitches that obscure some cuts, but the action largely happened on location just as you’re seeing it on the screen, which pulls the audience right into the danger with Rake.

Hargrave wanted to make the audience leave their chairs and enter the movie. “You as the audience get to go with the character on a journey in real time, and hopefully by the end of it, be exhausted, just as exhausted as the character is,” he says.

Image: Netflix

The key is to immerse yourself in the experience. Extraction 2., which was made for streaming — most people will only have the option of viewing it at home. The concept of an oner must evolve beyond mildly impressing audiences to making them think. How did they manage to do that?Hargrave, who is now one of the most prominent filmmakers in the streaming world, has created a film that looks and feels as big on television as it does at a theater.

Hargrave’s experience as a stunt professional sets him apart from his peers. While stunt pros have always made for great directors, dating all the way back to Hal Needham, we’re living in a bit of a golden age of stunt crews as directors in American action cinema. Chad Stahelski and David Leitch, who have worked on the John Wick films series (and other action movies), are among those directors.Atomic Blonde, Bullet TrainThey began their careers in stunt work and carried their passion for elaborate action to their directorships. Hargrave has worked alongside Leitch since Atomic Blonde, Marvel’s The Avengers and Hunger Games The franchise sector followed a path similar to that of the other sectors.

Hargrave’s stunt past prepared him for scenes like the gargantuan oner in Extraction 2. — most notably as a camera operator. Hargrave’s approach is almost Buster Keaton like, not just in creating the incredible feats but also by shooting them himself.

Photo: Jasin Boland/Netflix

“The real challenge, truthfully, for me, is that a lot of operators and camera people could do a better job than I did, but there’s a certain weight of responsibility because of where I want to put the camera,” Hargrave says. “Sometimes it’s in a pretty dangerous spot. On the second film, I wanted the camera to follow the real helicopter landing on a train moving at a fast pace, then turn around and watch it leave. That’s a fairly dangerous stunt to pull off. I got blown from the side of a train. I was wearing a harness with a cable during the rehearsal. [I was] walking into hurricane-force winds.”

Hargrave says his stunt career put him in a lot of “tricky situations,” but that they gave him a sense for what is and isn’t safe on set. “I have a lot of confidence in myself to be able to read the dangers and get out of those situations, should something go wrong,” he says. “I feel more comfortable putting myself in harm’s way than someone else. Truthfully, the main reason I end up doing a lot of those things is not because I’m a better operator, per se. It’s just [that] I feel more comfortable putting myself in harm’s way.”

At this point, though, his directorial experience also comes into play when he’s choosing his own shots in the middle of the action. “I have spent many, many thousands of hours shooting and cutting action,” he says. “So I do have a sensibility of when things are going to happen, where they’re going to go. After decades in the business, I have developed a sense of body language and can predict what will happen. So it does help sometimes to save a sequence — if things are not going exactly according to plan or choreography, I can go, Uh-oh, it’s going south, let me move the camera. And I can still catch the action, because of my knowledge of what’s going to happen.”

Photo: Jasin Boland/Netflix

All of this means that Hargrave isn’t just directing the film, operating the camera, or even helping create the stunts. He’s Performers The stunts are performed with the actors and crew to achieve truly eye-catching shots. So many oners fail because they’re often static medium-wides that weave through a scene, never changing perspective. Hargrave’s work in the Extraction series feels revolutionary because he’s constantly shifting where the audience is looking.

And he’s keenly aware of that while he’s running around with the camera. “A lot of that sensibility comes from me wanting the audience to be present,” he says. “It’s as if the camera is the audience. I’m a proxy for the audience. So when something’s happening, there’s a conversation going on and I hear it, I want to get closer to it, oftentimes. Human instinct tells us to move closer in order to better hear. […]It’s like something else occurs. Hemsworth pushing another kid into the chute? Oh I forgot!, so I’ll turn and look up there. [I’m]It’s like being there. So it becomes, again, an immersive experience, not just one where you’re sitting back in the third person and viewing it how I forced you to with this cut, and that cut, and this cut. It’s hopefully an organic experience.”

Hargrave’s advice to anyone who wants to take a crack at framing this kind of one-take action? “Don’t do it, it’s really difficult!” While he laughs as he says this, it’s clear that he’s put real thought into why to use one-take action, beyond Wouldn’t this look cool? Hargrave’s mind is always moving with the shot. It’s not enough to pull something like this off — there has to be a motivating factor. Which isn’t lost on Hargrave, a filmmaker to his core.

“It’s like a play,” he says. “You are seeing this all take place in real time. So the question for me now is: How do I get those cinematic shots, and beautiful images of variety you’d get in a typical sequence? Then you have your tights, mediums and wides. How can you do all that without cutting off the camera? If you’re going to have a conversation, how do you get angles that aren’t just a two-shot, or just an over?”

According to him, the only way out of this dilemma is by moving the camera. “And that’s really where the creativity comes in for me and the blocking becomes so important, in the space, on location. We can see this in that tunnel sequence, where we start running and then stop. [Chris Hemsworth has] got to lift three people up this coal chute, it’s like, It could become boring to watch this in wide shots. How do you choreograph something with the camera that you can tell the story, keep it moving, but not seem as if you’re forcing it? Don’t just do a 360, because what is motivating the camera’s movement?”

The oner was saved just when it started to get stale by innovators such as Sam Hargrave, who ran around and threw themselves under helicopters in order to capture the perfect shot. He’s found a way to extract it, if you will, from thoughtless, CGI-laden exercises, and propel it to explosive new heights. If Extraction 2. proves anything, it’s that not everyone can pull these sequences off — at least not in ways that feel like they’re worth the effort.

Hargrave’s one-shot has raised the bar high for all future action films, but… how can you beat this? If anyone can do it, though, it’s probably the man who lit Chris Hemsworth on fire eight minutes into a 21-minute take, which isn’t even near the top of list of the wildest things that happen in this sequence. The oner’s dead. Long live the Oner.