Tyler Rake faces his most personal mission yet in Extraction 2. The Netflix action sequel picks up nine months after Chris Hemsworth's mercenary nearly died in his Bangladesh mission, being pulled out of pseudo-retirement for a mission to rescue his ex-sister-in-law and her family from the Georgian prison they're being held in by her crime lord husband.
Alongside Hemsworth, the cast for Extraction 2 features new and familiar faces, including Golshifteh Farahani, Adam Bessa, Olga Kurylenko, Tinatin Dalakishvili, and Idris Elba. Offering more insight into Rake's tragic past while raising the stakes and scale of its action, the sequel forges an exciting future for the Netflix franchise's future.
Following its successful debut on Netflix, Screen Rant spoke exclusively with FuseFX VFX Supervisor Michael Viera to discuss Extraction 2, the surprising VFX hidden throughout the action sequel and putting together one of the movie's biggest sequences.
Michael Viera Talks Extraction 2
Screen Rant: You're no stranger to the world of the action genre, how were you and your team approached to work on Extraction 2?
Michael Viera: Upon ing FuseFX Atlanta, I jumped into supervising shot work in post on Extraction 2. I picked working with Fuse based on who works there and that they have a mix of great leadership and artists, mixed with exciting shows. Brian Kubovcik, Head of Studio/SR. VFX Supervisor - FuseFX Atlanta was someone I really wanted to work with, which influenced my decision to work there. I was thrilled to learn that Bjoern Mayer was the show-side VFX Supervisor. We had previously worked together, and he always has great ideas, is super collaborative, and clearly understands a director's vision. These are all really important factors to me; it's best to work towards a common creative goal with people you like being around. Also, a big shout-out to Magdalena Wolf, the show side VFX Producer, who trusted us to deliver from the start - we really appreciate her!
As practical as Sam Hargrave and Chris Hemsworth strove for with the film, what do you think would surprise audiences about how much CGI was involved, as well as how you and your team worked to keep them as realistic as possible?
Michael Viera: If audiences knew how much hidden VFX there is in most films, they would be very surprised. Muzzle flashes and explosions I'm sure people know there are VFX elements to them; however, the item audiences might not consider is having to rebuild large portions of a car flipping towards the screen to remove rigging.
Working on Extraction 2, the FuseFX team found the locations of the set on Google Earth to help visualize what extensions were needed to recreate the BG. Any additional photography that was taken on-set was used, as well. We were able to recreate the muzzle flashes based on each weapon from the library at FuseFX. Our compositing supervisor Alex Miller helped lead the team to maintain the continuity of each weapon.
We had to create bullet damage for Rake's car on bulletproof windows. We did a lot of R & D to how we wanted to approach this, so we could have the flexibility to make fast iterations and keep the continuity throughout the sequence. We had to set up a look and make sure this look was the same in every single shot.
We did all of this in Nuke's 3D system instead of going the CG route so that we could make creative changes quickly. The CG team at Fuse set up a workflow to allow the compositing team to design the damage on the car and make iterations based on without having to go back and forth between departments. This saved a lot of time and let the CG team focus on other tasks.
Lastly, The biggest challenge was really the RPGs. The leadership from our CG Supervisor, Rob Cavallo, and our FX Supervisor, Rob Eckert, was incredible, and they were able to help their teams produce very photo-realistic smoke trails.
What was one of your favorite scenes or elements to get to work on for this film?
Michael Viera: One of our favorite scenes to work on was downtown Vienna which FuseFX and the team worked to develop the bullet damage on Rake’s car, explosions, flipping cars, RPG grenades/trails, muzzle flashes, and bullet impacts. A lot happened throughout the sequence, and we were very excited for the opportunity to help bring all these elements to life in our shots.
The one-shot sequence is obviously one of the most talked-about for it, especially coming from the first movie's oner; how involved were you with it, and what were some of the challenges you and your team faced in navigating this format?
Michael Viera: We did not work on this sequence, but it was very impressive. Congrats to the teams that worked on this; I found it super successful.
Did you or your team get to be on set at all for this one? If so, how important do you think it is to have someone such as yourself participating directly with the production?
Michael Viera: Unfortunately, we were not on set for this, but our fearless leader Bjroen Mayer was there every step of the way and provided FuseFX with all the material needed to help develop our sequences to look as photoreal as possible.
About Extraction 2
Chris Hemsworth returns as Tyler Rake in EXTRACTION 2, the sequel to Netflix's blockbuster action film EXTRACTION. After barely surviving the events of the first movie, Rake is back as the Australian black ops mercenary, tasked with another deadly mission: rescuing the battered family of a ruthless Georgian gangster from the prison where they are being held.
Hemsworth reunites with director Sam Hargrave, with Joe and Anthony Russo's AGBO producing and Joe Russo writing. Golshifteh Farahani reprises her role from the first film, with Adam Bessa, Olga Kurylenko, Daniel Bernhardt and Tinatin Dalakishvili also co-starring.
This is a sequel to the first film that was based on the graphic novel 'Ciudad' by Ande Parks, from a story by Ande Parks, Joe Russo & Anthony Russo, with illustrations by Fernando León González. EXTRACTION 2 is produced by Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, Mike Larocca, Angela Russo-Otstot, Chris Hemsworth, Patrick Newall and Sam Hargrave, with Jake Aust, Benjamin Grayson, Steven Scavelli, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely as executive producers.
Check out our previous Extraction 2 interviews below:
Extraction 2 is now streaming on Netflix!
