- Okay, if you want to survive
you do exactly as I say.
(Guns shooting)
- What's up everyone?
I'm Amy Johnston.
- And I'm Darren Bailey.
- We're actors and stunt performers
We wanted to highlight
some of the stunts that are more dangerous
than they may look.
(man screaming)
And take a deep dive into them.
- It's important to note
that neither of us worked directly on this film.
Every stunt coordinator has his or her
own methods and tricks
of how to achieve the perfect stunts.
We're friends with the core team
and the director Sam Hargrave,
a world class stuntman himself,
and we just wanted to acknowledge some
of the amazing stunts that impressed us most
as fellow professionals,
offering some insight from our own experiences.
Let's get started.
(Suspenseful music)
The stair fall.
- Everyone loves a good stair fall.
This stunt stood out to me for a few reasons.
First off, when you have more
than one person involved in a stunt,
you are required to work out your timing
and body mechanics with someone else's
which can sometimes be tricky.
For this stair fall in particular,
(ground hitting)
We see that the first guy falls backwards
onto the stairs followed by the second guy.
Here we see the performer fall backwards
as he throws his gun to the side
to get it out of the equation,
and first lands on the upper part of his back,
creating a safe cushion with his arms as well.
At this point, momentum and gravity
take him down
and he controls his body
as much as possible in a way that looks
like he is out of control.
As he rolls down about halfway down the stairs,
the second stunt performer takes his timing
and starts his stair fall.
He now has the timing off
of the first stunt performer
to take his stair fall behind him safely
with the proper distance.
As they both land right in front of the camera,
we see very clearly that the first stuntman
was not wearing any back padding during this stunt.
This is the most interesting part to me.
For stair falls or for any stunts in general,
you would typically want to pad up every part
of your body that you can.
This was very impressive.
Well done to the whole team.
(food squishing)
(men fighting in the background)
- The wall slam.
In the apartment where Ovi Mahajan
is being held hostage,
Chris Hemsworth's character,
Tyler Rake, though he looks like more
of a Brad to me,
comes in to rescue him by lethal force.
In the middle of this fight with multiple men,
he grabs one of them,
slams his head against the table,
then push kicks him in the back.
(man screaming)
Sending him flying
into a damaged wall head first.
The stuntman hits his head against the wall,
sending debris flying,
then falls directly onto his back
in excruciating pain.
This is the kind of stunt
that's designed to make the viewer feel
the pain of the performer.
It's brutal, fast and precise.
Firstly, Chris is kicking the stunt performer
forward in one shot
to which I assume the performer
is just sending himself with that force.
The next shot at the low angle
is designed to see all the action
through the opening in the wall.
It surely looks like a bigger opening
from this angle,
than it does to the stunt performer
who is not only paying attention
to where his head needs to hit,
possibly on a padded area of the wall,
hidden on this reverse shot,
but also ensuring his legs don't clip the piece
of the wall jutting out by his knee,
landing on his back in a way
that doesn't use his arms to brace the landing,
and then acting out the pain to sell the impact.
This stunt can be achieved by rigging or not,
that doesn't really matter.
What I think is most impressive about this stunt
is the commitment of the performer
to hit multiple marks
in a short amount of time
with high intensity,
and continue acting
through it to sell the impact to the audience
while also telling us that he
could still pose a threat to our hero.
The best stunt performers have the keen ability
to act emotionally
while simultaneously react physically.
(man screaming)
(suspenseful music)
The roof fall.
(suspenseful music)
- These two performers
have incredible timing and precision.
Let's take it from the top.
The stunt starts out by a rail fall
onto the roof below.
The first stuntman takes his rail fall
followed by the second at perfect timing.
They don't want to land at the same time
because they could land too close for comfort.
The performers place their bodies
with the proper velocity on the rail
in the perfect spot for their bodies
to land in the correct way
on the roof below.
(record spinning)
If they place the rail too low on their body,
they will flip over faster
and if the rail is too high on their bodies,
they may not get the full momentum
to land properly.
So the rail fall
is crucial in order
to continue this big stunt with control.
As they both land on the roof below
the gun is lost and they slide
and roll down towards the ground.
It's important to note the details here.
One performer slides as he pretends
to go for the gun mid slide
and the other rolls.
They are doing different movements
to make it look more out of control.
A very small detail that adds beautiful chaos.
The next part of the stunt
is their big impact onto the truck.
(truck banging)
(man grunting)
Again we see the performers
taking the reactions and falls differently.
One slides down the side of the truck,
as the other hits the truck with more power,
and speed and bounces right off.
This is a very detailed stunt
with multiple parts to it.
They had to map this out
piece by piece and be very precise
with where they wanted to land,
and then pad themselves up accordingly.
These performers needed to execute the proper placement,
velocity and acting performances
in addition to staying safe.
(piano music)
- The 180.
There's nothing like a high speed car chase
on a narrow dusty road
where bullets are flying,
windows are breaking,
pedestrians are jumping out of the way
and cars are flipping.
This sequence takes place a couple of minutes
into the incredible 11 and a half minute oner.
A oner is a long continuous shot,
often created using multiple shots
seamlessly blended together.
Shortly after an incredible car flip,
in it's own right,
is a complex sequence
that involves actor Randeep Hooda's character,
Saju, shooting at police
as he makes his getaway in pursuit
of Tyler and Ovi's vehicle.
A police car drives past Saju's vehicle,
makes a sharp 180 degree turn directly
in front of the speeding cruiser,
then reverses into a crash
as Saju drives on.
This is all about precision driving
and coordination from multiple stunt drivers
including the stunt driver operating the vehicle,
our camera is filming the action from.
Having the window down in Saju's car
is also a great way to show us that
it's really the actor inside this vehicle
as the rest of the stunt sequence happens around him.
It's easy to miss this precise driving work
so soon after an equally impressive
and dangerous car flip,
which is why it deserves to be pointed out here.
The car bail.
- Here we have a three person stunt.
The stunt driver is not seen
but is crucial to the safety of the stunt
for the two performers to bail out of the car safely
at the right speed and placement.
Car bails may look like a simple roll
but when you are in the car
ready to bail out at the speed needed,
the adrenaline is pumping,
and all you see is a blur of the ground.
In three, two, one,
and out of the car they go.
The first stunt performer jumps out
and does a quick toe tap on the ground
which is very important to do
to gain footing and a bit of control.
As the gravity and momentum take hold of him,
the second performer jumps out
at the perfect time to place his body
in front of the first.
Now this is interesting
because the two performers have to make sure
that they have the right momentum and angles
to not roll into each other
and they both have control
in where they are taking their momentum.
Again though, if you can wear any pads
to protect yourself, do it.
How many times can you hit the ground
in the same spot,
not injure anyone or yourself
and get back up and do it again perfectly?
This is one of the many jobs
of a stunt performer.
(vehicle crashing)
(helicopter whirring)
- The van hit.
(suspenseful music)
Another incredible stunt during the oner
is when Tyler drives his van into Saju,
sending him flying into sheet metal and debris.
Firstly, we see actor Randeep Hooda step
into his mark,
preparing to be nudged off frame right
by the front of the van.
This is just enough to begin pushing him
off-screen where a hidden cut
takes places on a whip pan to the right.
By the time we see him again,
it's now a separate shot of a stuntman
being ratcheted back on a wire
into some collapsible purpose-built set.
After violently hitting the debris,
he falls onto the ground,
not using his arms
to brace his fall,
as his character has been knocked out
from the force of the crash.
When the stunt man flies back,
notice how his head and extremities are forward.
Not only does this help sell
the velocity of the impact,
but it ensures his back is the first thing
to hit the debris creating a nice divot
for him to crunch into
before dropping out onto the ground.
(car screeching)
(car crashing)
Sound design also helps sell
the initial vehicle hit against our actor.
Despite the van only needing to come
into the frame enough to sell the hit visually,
(suspenseful music)
The bike crash.
(suspenseful music)
- I want to talk about how impressive this stunt
is from my point of view.
Let me just say that the build up
to this stunt is perfect.
There's the great sound design
and the nice back and forth shots
building the tension to the big stunt.
If we take this frame by frame,
we can get an idea of just
how spectacular this stunt is.
As a motorcycle comes to a straight halt,
we see the two performers fly off
together over the handles.
You can see the rider has to push off
of the handles hard to make sure he clears them
as the passenger connects to his body
to keep that same momentum
so that they can take off at the same time
and safely over the handles.
Once they have cleared the handles,
the passenger and back moves a bit back
to the side of the rider
to brace for impact
as the rider puts his arms out
and gets ready for his impact.
The rider quickly takes his momentum forward
and turns it into a forward roll
as the passenger flies over him
to land on his back.
The passenger in back needed to make sure
that he had enough force to safely fly
over the rider and land accordingly.
This was a brilliant stunt
and so fun to watch.
I have watched this one,
over and over again.
Really nice work.
(Man and women screaming in background)
- We hope you enjoyed this insight
into just some of the many stunts in Extraction.
It should go without saying
but these stunts are performed
by the most skilled of professionals
under extreme supervision
and should not be attempted by anyone at home.
- Exactly. What stunts impressed you the most?
Let us know.
(Exciting music)