Extraction: Does SPOILER Die in the End? The Film’s Director Explains What the Final Shot Means

Extraction just hit Netflix yesterday and is a military action thriller that follows Chris Hemsworth as a mercenary who is tasked with rescuing a crime lord’s son. The movie was directed by Sam Hargrave, produced by Joe and Anthony Russo, written by Joe, and currently has a 62% critics score and 70% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. ComicBook’s own Charlie Ridgely giving the movie a 2 out of 5, calling it “fast and forgettable.” Despite mixed reviews, the movie was left with an ambiguous ending that has the Internet talking. The end of the movie left one character’s fate up in the air, which the director recently addressed in an interview with Collider. Warning: Extraction spoilers ahead…

Towards the end of the film, Hemsworth’s Tyler Rake seemingly dies after protecting young Ovi (Rudhraksh Jaiswal). After being shot a couple of times, Rake appears to be okay. That is, until an unexpected bullet catches him in the neck and he falls over a bridge into water. It appears that it’s the end for Rake, but the final shot of the movie sees Ovi in a pool, with a person standing in the background, out of focus. While it’s heavily implied that it could be Rake, there’s no confirmation either way. Here’s what Hargrave had to say about the ambiguous ending for Hemsworth…

“What would hopefully happen is people will be discussing that afterwards, and you get to say which one you feel is right for you.” He added that the character originally died in a very clear manner, and explained why it was changed. “We had a version of the movie, and we tested it a lot, and it was not surprising that a lot of people wanted the character to live, and some people wanted him to die. People were torn; it was almost down the middle. We want to appeal to as many people as possible without compromising the integrity of the story. And so, we think a pretty good compromise is to make an ambiguous ending. If people on one hand feel like the story is complete and is a story of redemption through sacrifice, then for them, it’ll be where the kid is imagining [Rake standing there], and then now you go, ‘Yes, I’m satisfied.’ If you feel like you love Tyler Rake, and you love Chris Hemsworth, and you want a sequel, and you’re like ‘There’s no way, you can’t kill him!’ then that’s Tyler Rake standing there looking at you. So we kind of purposefully did not pull focus to the character standing there.”

The director revealed that he actually preferred the original ending. “In truth, that was a thing of testing. Because we shot multiple endings. We shot a lot of different ways to pull this off. Because in the original script—and this was my idea—Rake does not live. His story was complete because he found something to keep him alive, and his journey was complete when he came to redemption through sacrifice. He made the choice he was okay with. He had come to terms with his past and the choice he made in the present saved this kid, and if that meant him dying, so be it. And that was his journey in my mind.”

What did you think about the ending of Extraction? Tell us in the comments!