‘Extraction’ on Netflix: That Ambiguous Ending Explained

Warning: This article contains major Extraction spoilers. Hopefully, you know that from the headline, but just in case.

Do you want to watch a movie where Chris Hemsworth is essentially the avatar in a violent video game? If you answered yes, then queue up Extraction on Netflix, a new action thriller out today from director Sam Hargrave and writer Joe Russo, who, like Hemsworth, hails from the world of Marvel.

Extraction stars Hemsworth as a black-market mercenary who has no qualms about murdering hundreds of henchmen in Bangladesh but would do anything to save one kid from Mumbai name Ovi. Why? Well, you’ll have to read on to find out. Though the plot of Extraction is fairly straight forward, it throws you for a loop at the very end. As that one meme says: What does it all mean? Don’t worry, I’m here to help. Let’s get into that Extraction ending, explained.

What is Extraction about? What is the Extraction plot, explained?

Extraction opens with Chris Hemsworth getting shot on an abandoned highway. It’s not clear if the shot is fatal or not, but he certainly doesn’t seem to be doing well, as he gurgles up blood and flashes to a vague memory on the beach.

Two days earlier in Mumbai, a 14-year-old schoolboy named Ovi (Rudhraksh Jaiswal) is kidnapped. His father is an imprisoned international drug lord who is also named Ovi (just to make this extra confusing). Ovi Sr. knows that it’s his drug lord rival in Bangladesh, Amir Asif, who has taken his son. The reason, apparently, is to “humiliate” him, and that’s all the explanation we get on why Ovi Jr. is taken.

Ovi Sr. tells his employee Saju that he must get his son back, unless Saju wants to watch his own son die. So Saju hires Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth), an Australian mercenary who does things like walk off of a 100-foot high cliff and meditate at the bottom of the water, mostly because he’s tortured by that mysterious beach memory.

Rake takes the job and sets off with his team, which includes a woman he has a romantic history with named Nik, to “extract” Ovi Jr. Amir Asif is holding the kid in the capital city of Dhaka, which also happens to be where someone that Rake knows, named Gaspar, lives. More on that later.

Rake successfully rescues Ovi Jr. by killing a bunch of people, but when Amir hears that Ovi has escaped, he has the entire city shut down to prevent them from leaving. The plan was for Rake and Ovi to escape on a boat, but a bunch of men with guns have gotten there first. One of those men with guns is Saju, Ovi Sr’s employee, which is weird, because Saju is the one who hired Rake in the first place.

Ovi and Rake escape the men with guns via a series of video game-like car chases and fight scenes. They lay low in Dhaka, which is tough because Amir orders everyone in the city with a gun to hunt Rake down. Nik calls Rake and tells him that Saju and Ovi Sr. are working together: Ovi Sr. couldn’t afford Rake’s fee, so now they are trying to sabotage the job, after Rake did all the hard work. Oooh, OK.

Nik tells Rake the only way he can get out alive is to leave Ovi Jr. behind. But Rake doesn’t want to leave Ovi Jr. behind. It probably has to do with that beach memory. Rake and Ovi Jr. are attacked yet again outside a market, this time by a group of kids. Rake cuts off a kid’s finger, and they escape via a sewer.

Rake decides to go to that man Gaspar, who apparently owes Rake his life. As it turns out, Gaspar is Stranger Things star David Harbour. Gaspar treats Rake to some classic “David Harbour chill dad vibes” and lets them stay with him.

In a moment of bedtime tenderness, Rake confesses to Ovi that he had a 6-year-old son who died of lymphoma cancer a few years ago. Rake wasn’t there when he died. He left voluntarily to fight in the army in Afghanistan, because he couldn’t bear to watch him die. This is the moment where we’re meant to realize that Rake wants to save Ovi Jr. because he wasn’t able to save his own son.

Unfortunately, Gaspar betrays them. He made a deal with Amir, to kill Ovi Jr., let Rake escape, and collect a $10 million reward, which he offers to split with Rake. Rake fights Gaspar, then Ovi Jr. comes in and shoots Gaspar.

How does Extraction end?

Rake calls Saju and offers to work together to get Ovi Jr. home safely, free of charge. Rake will distract the vehicle blockade, while Saju and Ovi Jr. cross the bridge out of the city. Apparently, this is the only way out. It’s not clear why. But Rake promises his team will be on the other side of the bridge in a helicopter to help them escape.

When Saju and Ovi Jr. are caught by a guard,  Saju sacrifices himself to draw the bullets away. He is killed by a sniper. That same sniper almost kills Rake, but Nik kills the sniper first. Unfortunately, Rake has already been badly wounded.

We’re now finally at the scene from the beginning of the movie, which means we finally get to see the mysterious beach memory. If you guessed it’s about Rake’s son, you’d be right. Ovi Jr. holds Rake’s hand as he dies. Rake tells Ovi Jr to run, which will bring Ovi to safety. Rake miraculously finds his strength to stand up to go out in a blaze of glory. He’s shot in the neck by the kid whose finger he cut off. He stumbles to the bridge, falls, and this time he really dies, thinking of his son. OR DOES HE?!

Ovi Jr. makes it safely to the helicopter and escapes. Eight months later, Ovi is back to his life. Nik kills Amir while he’s using the bathroom. The final shot is Ovi holding himself underwater in a swimming pool, then swimming back up to the surface. It’s out of focus, but when Ovi looks to the side, there is a man standing on the edge of the pool that looks like the outline of Chris Hemsworth. How many men have that same impressive profile? It’s Rake! It has to be! But is it Ovi’s imagination? Or did Rake survive a gunshot to the neck?

What is the Extraction ending, explained? Is Chris Hemsworth alive at the end of Extraction?

Reader, I’m here to tell you that Rake is alive—but only if you want him to be, according to director Sam Hargrave.

In an interview with Comingsoon.net, Hargrave said, ” The original story I wanted to tell was one story and that was it, Tyler Rake sacrificed himself to save the kids and that was it.” But, the director continued, “as much fun as everyone was having shooting this movie and as great a job as Hemsworth did with the character, the potential of this character coming back and seeing more of his stories became very enticing to everyone. And it was truthfully, it was a very strong back and forth. There was a strong camp that was like, no, he should make it. And another camp was like, no, he has to make it.”

Hargrave said, in the end, it was up to the viewer if he made it. “If you like Tyler Rake and you want to see him come back, then you will see that image as him alive. And if you feel like he completed his journey and his redemption is fulfilled, you will be like, nah, that’s a mirage. So it was a deliberate choice, once we got in there, to leave it in that fashion.”

So there you have it! If you’re a fan of Rake, he’s alive. Personally, I’m stumped as to how Rake would survive being shot that many times and falling off a bridge. But, like, it’s action-movie logic. Just go with it.

Does this mean there will be an Extraction sequel? Well, there is no official news on that yet. but if the film does well, it seems likely. Hargrave told Comingsoon.net that while he was open to it, but that “we didn’t want people to feel that it was just a sequel for the sake of a sequel, which oftentimes happens in Hollywood.”

Update: This article has been updated to add more information about the ambiguous ending of the film.

Watch Extraction on Netflix