The Loudies Part 2: The Most Punchable Person in 2023 is in Extraction 2
Extraction 2 combines the thrill of watching Chris Hemsworth fight people WHILE ON FIRE with the bad choices of a man who picked the wrong day to believe in himself.
In Extraction 2, lots of people get punched in the face. But this guy, who’s got a solid beard and a great-looking sweater, really takes the cake.
He doesn’t know it yet, but he’s the highlight of the amazing prison escape sequence in Netflix’s Extraction 2, a well-executed Chris Hemsworth movie that asks very little of its audience other than “feel feelings” and “watch awesome things.”
Hemsworth plays Tyler Rake, a hoss of a man and mercenary who takes it upon himself to rescue his estranged wife’s sister and children from a Georgian prison. Mom and kids are in this prison because her husband is an uber-dangerous mobster who bribed politicians to put his family in the slammer with him. This is all you really need to know about the quality of the human we’re dealing with.
The prison escape scene, presented as a single 21-minute shot, is breathtaking. And the best part is Rake going full Ricky Bobby and PUNCHING PEOPLE WHILE ON FIRE.
In countless interviews, Hemsworth, director Sam Hargrave and others geek out about how impressive it was for Hemsworth to actually light himself on fire for the scene. It’s really fun to watch them get excited about old school stunt work.
Great Moments in Punching While On Fire
In a flurry of action, Rake gets his money’s worth on punching people with his arm engulfed in flames. He punches this guy in the chest, with sparks exploding all over his shirt.
And then he punches this guy, who’s getting attacked by what appears to be a dragon made of flames.
But the best version of “Chris Hemsworth punches a guy while on fire” isn’t reached until he lays into our friend Sweater Beard. This character gets no dialogue, and we barely see his face. But everything about this man’s brief moment on screen says that he believed he was ready for this.
For starters, You don’t end up in a prison riot because you’re a demurring flower of a human. He is a big, large man who’s right in the middle of fighting many other big, large men. This is very much a “big meaty man slapping meat” situation. He’s in his element. Plus, he’s survived to this point in the riot and made it all the way out to the excercise yard, so it stands to reason that he’s dropped a lot of dudes thus far.
So when Beardy McSweaterton sees Tyler Rake punch people with his fiery fists and knock them out, his confidence is clear. He’s going to be the one to step up, fight this handsome man engulfed in flames and drop him.
He was wrong.
Beard Sweater lands a punch, but it does nothing. Rake responds by punching this guy so much that Beard Sweater’s face deprives the fire of oxygen, smothering it out. YES. HE PUT OUT THE FIRE WITH HIS FACE.
This is the last moment Tyler Rake is on fire. RIP, flame fists.
Sweater Beard Fails to Learn Men In Black’s Most Important Lesson
I can only imagine the regret Sweater Beard must feel. There’s a real “don’t start nothing, won’t be nothing” energy to his moment on screen.
There are literally hundreds of people to fight in this prison riot. And nearly all of them are not on fire, as evidenced by this graphic.
S.B. is standing close by as Rake punches out two people with fiery fists, and lays out two other people with just regular punching and kicking. On some level, he must understand that—when given the option to take a moment and stop his body from burning—Rake instead chooses to continue punching while on fire.
To say it another way, Sweater Beard saw that grizzly bear of a human in tactical gear WHO IS ALSO ON FIRE and thought “That’s the man i want to fight. I will stand near him and prepare for combat.”
That type of hubris must be honored. Congrats, Sweater Beard. The punches to your face were the best of 2023. Nothing like getting burned and punched at the same time to spark an existential crisis.