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How Netflix's Extraction Filmed A 12-Minute-Long 'One Shot' Action Scene

How Netflix's Extraction Filmed A 12-Minute-Long 'One Shot' Action Scene

To say it was challenging sounds like an understatement

Tom Wood

Tom Wood

The director of Netflix's latest action blockbuster starring Chris Hemsworth, Extraction has explained how they managed to film an incredible 12-minute-long action shot, shot seamlessly to appear as one take.

Hell, as anyone from the movie 1917 will tell you, it's tough enough making any longer piece of cinema look like one shot, let alone staging a daring action scene using continuously shot footage.

Sam Hargrave, the film's director, is actually something of an unusual choice to direct the film, but perhaps this makes him the perfect guy for the job.

Before getting this role from Joe Russo, one half of the fraternal Avengers: Endgame directorial duo, Hargrave was actually a stunt co-ordinator.

He had worked with both of the Russo brothers on several films, but decided to move behind the camera for this one, and took on some pretty big challenges.

Chris Hemsworth stars in Extraction.
Netflix

Speaking to Ars Technica, he explained: "For me, action is a way to tell a story in a dynamic way.

"And if you're not able to see what's happening, if you're not able to experience it as the characters do, then you're missing a lot of the impact of the moment."

So, in the film, Hemsworth's character Tyler Rake is trying to rescue the kidnapped son of an international crime kingpin.

Obviously, it goes pear-shaped.

However, one scene in the film has been grabbing people's attention.

As the first act of the film draws to a close, Rake has grabbed the youngster from his captors in the Bangladeshi city of Dhaka, and tries to extract him - that's the whole point, after all - and a new character enters the fray.

Sam Hargrave.
PA

What follows is an incredible action scene that lasts for 15-20 pages of the script, featuring fights, car chases, and wire-work, all through the crowded sub-continental city.

Hargrave opted to make this look like a one-shot sequence by stitching 36 segments together seamlessly in order to meet constraints of time, as well as putting the viewer right into the thick of it.

That meant concluding each segment exactly at the beginning of the next. Maintaining continuity - no coffee cups, Game of Thrones - must have been a nightmare.

Oh, and there are strict rules about guns in that part of the world, so all of that was done with rubber guns and then animated during post-production.

The scene is 36 segments stitched together.
Netflix

He modified the cars to carry special cameras, and even designed a special light-weight camera rig to film from right inside the epicentre.

Anyway, when you watch it, you'll probably agree that the extra effort was worth it, and creates an amazingly choreographed piece of cinematic chaos.

Featured Image Credit: Netflix

Topics: TV and Film, Celebrity, Interesting, US Entertainment