'Extraction 2': Anthony Russo & Director Sam Hargrave on Stunts & Violence
Before its Netflix premiere, Collider offered fans a rare opportunity to catch Extraction 2, starring Chris Hemsworth, on the big screen. Following the screening, Editor-in-chief Steve Weintraub sat down with former stunt coordinator and two-time director Sam Hargrave and producer Anthony Russo for an exclusive Q&A. No worries if you had to miss out because we have the full interview here, which you can check out in the video or in the full transcript below.
RUSSO: We knew it was a special movie after Sam had gone through the process and we had a finished film, but yeah, you never know what the audience reaction is gonna be.
RUSSO: Well, here's the thing, you wanna keep your options open for where you take a story, right? And the thing you know is what you've either written or shot or edited or presented to an audience. That's until you've presented something to an audience. It's all fluid, it remains constantly fluid, and our process is to always be thinking about options and possibilities and different ways we can go to surprise ourselves and, therefore, hopefully surprise audiences.
I could be wrong about this, but with Extraction 2, originally, I read that it was going to be filmed in Australia, and then you moved it. So was the film different when it was going to be in Australia, or what happened? HARGRAVE: Yes, that was really risky business… I think the difficulty nowadays is there are so many great action movies—I mean, I'm sitting next to one of the great action directors of our era, actually—there are so many great action movies that the real question is, how do you differentiate yourself in that pantheon that has come before of great films? And I think all I can do as a filmmaker is give my specific point of view, and oftentimes these long extended takes in real locations with...
In that instance, we rehearsed for three or four weeks, just that one part, so that all the variables and all the dangerous elements were identified. And then, we tried to limit the amount of risk because we all want to go home at the end of the day to our friends and loved ones.
Did you come up with any action sequences or ideas for an action sequence that, for some reason, didn't work out on this movie, and you have it in the back pocket for the hopeful Extraction 3? So that was something that I found very interesting that we just changed that in the editing room, and it worked a lot better. You guys can attest to—well, maybe not, but hopefully—being a little more emotionally involved by the time that oner rolls around.
Now, every project has a different level of involvement by the different people at AGBO. Joe is much more hands-on on this project, having written it, so he's much more tuned in to the sort of detailed evolution of the project. I'm a little more sort of one step back from that.
HARGRAVE: Alright, we’ve worn that joke out. I don't remember, but I do believe I know the last thing we got in was the scene with Nik walking in with and talking with Ketevan about second chances. That scene with the two women in the bedroom with the kid lying there.
But specifically the weights, there were probably dozens of ideas just within that space of ways that the stunt team came up with to end people's existence. So then I had to go, “Eh, seen that one,” or like, “That's too violent.” And then sometimes that's the hardest part, is picking the best ideas from a list of great ones. That's really tough. I think we landed on two or three exciting versions of that.
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