2023's slate of action films features some of the hardest heroes to take down in action history. Earlier this year, fans flocked to theaters in droves to see John Wick: Chapter 4 where Keanu Reeves once again proves there's no one better at gun-fu while Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One marks the return of Tom Cruise's unkillable Ethan Hunt later this year. Stuck in the middle of these behemoths is a newer hero in Chris Hemsworth's Tyler Rake who survived some gnarly wounds to make it back for Extraction 2. With Wick and Rake becoming fan-favorite seemingly-immortal heroes, Collider's own Steve Weintraub had to ask director Sam Hargrave who he thought would win in a fight between the two.
Obviously, as the helmer of both Extraction and Extraction 2, Hargrave is a bit of a biased judge, something the stuntman-turned-director willingly admits upfront."That's like the greatest question of all time," he said while laughing. "I mean, that's tough because, you know, I'm partial to the character of Tyler Rake." He's more willing to give the upper hand to his hero over Wick especially since he's intimately familiar with everything that Rake is capable of. "I’m gonna take away John Wick's bulletproof suit and I'm gonna give it to Tyler Rake. The dude's a badass, so there's no debate."
When asked to take off his director hat though, the question becomes more of a challenge. John Wick has become an action icon, rising from the ranks of low-budget indie looking for a home to a billion-dollar franchise with films that only get more insane as they go along. As he's made his way through the world of assassins and dismantled the High Table, John has taken his licks but always manages to come back with a vengeance, attaining an almost mythical status within the world of the films. Hargrave insists he's not trying to discredit any of Baba Yaga's accomplishments, but Chapter 4's ending proves that he can be taken down and there's no evidence yet in the director's mind that Rake can be especially after surviving a gunshot to the neck:
"No! No one– John Wick is a verb now, like to John Wick someone, that’s a thing. He's a legend onscreen in his own movies, and yet he's a legend now as an action icon. So no, that dude doesn't go down without a fight, but the fourth movie proves he can go down! And we've proven that our guy can be killed and brought back from the dead, so you gotta give it to Tyler Rake. A long, hard-fought battle, to be sure, but I think you gotta go with Tyler Rake."
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Hargrave Thinks a Fight Between Wick and Rake Would Be One for the Ages
Of course, if the shoe were on the other foot, Hargrave joked that Chad Stahelski wouldn't hesitate to pick Wick. "Well, of course, he would, and it probably wouldn't even be a long... he’d be like, 'Nah, Wick,' in five seconds." Whatever fight did occur between the two would be legendary though. Whether Stahelski brought his kinetic John Wick style to film the sequence or Hargrave applied his stellar stunt coordinating skills, Hargrave says "It would be wildly different, but I think, hopefully, entertaining no matter how you cracked it because those two guys in a scene together would be insane, let’s be honest."
Extraction 2 has a lot to live up to following the massive success of its predecessor, but the promos have teased new pulse-pounding heights for this franchise. After returning from being clinically dead in the first film, Rake is tasked by a mysterious client to infiltrate a Georgian prison to rescue a woman and her two children. In a further show of his immortality and the film's over-the-top action, the film will feature an insane 21-minute oner of Hemsworth on fire while battling through the prison yard. Hemsworth will reunite with Golshifteh Farahani and Adam Bessa who reprise their roles while Olga Kurylenko, Daniel Bernhardt, and Tinatin Dalakishvili join the cast.
Extraction 2 premieres exclusively on Netflix on June 16 but readers here at Collider can also win tickets to a special screening at the Paris Theater in New York City on June 13 featuring a Q&A with Anthony Russo alongside Hargrave. Check out the trailer below.
