Chris Hemsworth may have starred in multiple Marvel movies, but the actor says the stunts on Extraction 2 are the toughest he’s faced yet. The upcoming Netflix sequel sees him back as mercenary Tyler Rake for a new high-stakes mission after being presumed dead.
"It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done," Hemsworth tells Total Film magazine in its new issue – which is out on newsstands on May 25. "I’m not exaggerating. At the end of a take, you’re sucking air like you never have before, and everyone drops to their knees. But it’s so much more rewarding. I would love to take this style and integrate it into a Marvel film, if I was ever to do another one."
Hemsworth looks bruised and battered in our exclusive picture from the new movie, which you can see above. But the actor says it was one sequence in particular that he found very tough.
The 21-minute long one-shot scene, which you can see in the Extraction 2 trailer, follows Rake as he escapes from a prison in Georgia. He first fights his way down a maze of stone corridors. Then across a prison yard. Then his waiting vehicle is pursued by multiple armored jeeps at high speed. And then he boards a speeding train and fights in it and on it as helicopters swoop and land atop the hurtling locomotive, unloading fire and goons.
"It was like, 'I don’t know if I can get to the end of this round,'" grimaces Hemsworth, when asked about filming it. "It’s like a boxing match: 'When is the bell going to ring? When are they going to call cut?'" Asked if it’s as painful as it looks, he takes a breath.
"I couldn’t get a stunt double to come in and do any of the oner, because it’s me all in-camera and there’s no hiding around the edits. So I had this physio on set who was named The Wizard. He would see me just sit there and start leaning in a different way. He’d grab me, pull me aside and quickly dig his hands into my back and my shoulder or whatever, and send me back out there. I’d get home and it would be straight into the ice bath, right into the sauna, and physio. A few anti-inflammatory tablets. And then back out there."
Extraction 2 launches on Netflix on June 2. This is just a snippet of our interview in the new issue of Total Film magazine, which features Christopher Nolan's epic Oppenheimer on the cover. The magazine hits shelves this Thursday, May 25. Check out the covers below:
If you’re a fan of Total Film, why not subscribe so that you never miss an issue? You’ll get the magazine before it’s in shops, with exclusive subscriber-only covers (like the one pictured below). And with our latest offer you can get a free STM ChargeTree worth £69.99. Head to MagazinesDirect to find out more (Ts and Cs apply).
