that's not just any stunt cameraman
that's Sam Hargrave the director of
Netflix's action movie extraction to
create this one shot required a
complicated maneuver first he unstrapped
himself from the hood of a car
then he ran over to another car to film
inside and then he had to repeat the
same shot from two different positions
precisely to allow for a seamless final
edit the result was this a shot that
goes smoothly from outside a fast moving
vehicle to inside the car without any
visible interruption and that's just
three seconds of a 12 minute long
sequence film to look like a single shot
which required camera moves by foot and
by harness complex stunts invisible cuts
and a cast that could endure extended
fight scenes
the director wanted the audience to see
the complicated act of mercenary Tyler
Drake extracting the kidnapped movie
happened in real time and felt that one
long tape is the way to do it the entire
sequence consists of a car chase then a
chase up some stairs a flight in the
building a jump from one rooftop to
another a tumble off an awning a fight
in the street and one final car chase
which amounts to about 36 different
segments attached together creating an
impressive 12-minute seemingly
continuous scene then planning to
shooting it took approximately four to
five months to bring this one sequence
to life first they looked at large maps
of the location in India and highlighted
routes where they would be shooting the
scene then they choreographed the chase
shots using toy cars labeling each one
carefully what are the logistics it's
not just me and a camera and you know
Chris Hemsworth in a car there's
hundreds of people involved in making
this happen so where do you stage them
it was a really intense technical puzzle
to solve
Hargrave is no stranger to big one take
action scenes on top of being a stuntman
and coordinator for multiple Marvel
movies he'd famously choreograph the
memorable ten-minute one-take fight
scene in atomic blonde while most movies
might require one or two location scouts
this movie required seven to eight
during scouting the crew needed to find
the most narrow and claustrophobic
streets possible as well as buildings
that provided passageways for easy
continuous shooting sometimes they would
alter the location to fit the sequence
and other times the location would alter
what the script looked like for example
while this one building offered the
perfect balcony for Chris Hemsworth and
randeep hooda to start fighting it did
not have an awning that allowed their
characters to tumble off the building so
the crew constructed one before actually
shooting the scene all of the stunts
were rehearsed and filmed on location we
were testing and proving everything so
that when we got there there were no
unanswered questions we knew exactly
where stitches were gonna happen how
were we going to you know throw this
person over a balcony and and capture
that the sequence begins with a car
chase this is when Hargrave strapped
himself to the hood of a vehicle the
small
Nicoll allowed him to squeeze through
some tight spaces like this tunnel most
movies film car chases using a pursuit
arm which is a camera mounted to a
vehicle meant to follow action you can
see one used during the chase scenes to
the streets of Busan in black panther so
why do this instead stylistically it
allowed them to switch more seamlessly
to a handheld style when they needed to
practically it allowed for mobility for
shots where the camera switches
perspective from outside Tyler Drake's
car to inside Hargreaves vehicle had to
pull up directly alongside brakes car
then Hargrave unclipped himself and put
the camera as far inside the car as
possible then once he could get inside
the car he leaned out the window and
then pulled the camera back in to
reshoot the same action and the same
background this allowed the two shots to
be stitched together Hargreaves said
that he had to replicate it precisely
and he was off by even a few degrees
they would have to shoot it all over
again eventually they'd have to get the
two main characters out of the car and
onto the street in order to get the
camera to leave the car without a cut
the window needed to shatter during this
crash the camera was hard mounted inside
the car and then put onto a slide where
it could then be pushed through the now
empty window space so Hargrave could
grab it and continue the shot up a
flight of stairs as he chased a group of
cops and then eventually met back up
with the two main characters that's
where things got complicated because the
hallways were only about three and a
half feet wide he had to avoid stepping
over fallen bodies or running directly
into the fight and when you see the
camera back up and eventually follow
oviya way Hargrave had to count the
exact number of steps he was walking
backwards so he wouldn't crash into a
wall to get that right I think we had to
do and he was 21 pigs and because the
crew was so mobile they had to rely on
natural light as much as possible to
light scenes lighting kits were only
used when necessary
like inside cars and inside the truck
well this was all one long continuous
take they still needed to call cut at
some point so the sequence is full of
invisible stitches like when the window
was shattered
sometimes the places the locations
weren't right next to each other and
they weren't sequentially you weren't
able to shoot and move through them
sequentially when oviducts into a room
and starts throwing objects that
doorframe was used as a stitch point in
reality they recreated the room in
another building down the street it was
like you know ten blocks away because
the room had more access had more space
to shoot if not done correctly this can
create a continuity nightmare
so to successfully cobble these shots
together they had to recreate the first
door frame in the second location so
they looked exactly the same in both
places that actual location where he
comes out is another place where he had
this ditch and that was just a couple
doors down from that location because
what we're trying to you know get the
person to believe is he goes in that
door goes down the room and comes out
you know not far away where Krista was
stitches were also necessary for some of
the more dangerous stunts when Tyler
jumps from one roof to another they had
to switch from Hemsworth to a stunt
double so they put in a stitch right
here as the shot switches to the back of
the character's head allowing Hemsworth
to swap out with his double stunt
doubles came in again when Hemsworth and
who does characters tumble off a balcony
and into the street
here's Hemsworth watching as his double
Bobby Holland hit and took the fall this
was one of the hardest shots to capture
and was as much a stunt for Hargrave as
it was for the actors heartbreak said
that normally a shot like this might
have anywhere from four to five cameras
whatever they'd give me as many as I
could so that you could if something
goes wrong or if the paintings off you
could cut around it with just one camera
that I wanted to be close to them to
feel the impact of the fall but also
wide enough to keep to see the fault so
to get the shot hartgrave jumped off the
balcony and over the awning with them
roped into a pulley system it allowed
him to hop right behind them as they
fell and then got on the ground right on
time after five tries they got it right
then the two actors continued to duke it
out in the middle of the street because
there are no visible cuts and the camera
had to keep rolling and rolling the
fight scenes were specially challenging
for the actors because they couldn't cut
to different angles there was no way for
them to fake it the actors would also
have to be ready to move as a small
vehicle goes right between them during
the fight a detail they incorporated
after location scouting in the final
stretch of the sequence
Tyler Novi steel truck for one last big
chase they actually did use a special
vehicle with a pursuit arm for this part
this was the only way they could
physically keep up with the one unbroken
take illusion we had a camera vehicle so
that we could race up beside the truck
and get into the car deeper than I could
when I was shaking in my arms only goes
so far but we could get this action
vehicle in a little deeper to the car CG
I came in handy for the moment where
Tyler and Obi jump out of the truck
according to Hargrave the jump was
originally just hinted at however in the
editing room they decided they wanted to
actually show it but this location was
no longer available so first they had to
rebuild the street and tunnel on an
airport tarmac in Thailand there they
had the stunt doubles leap out after
that they worked backwards by having the
two actual actors recreate the moment
before the characters jumped out of the
truck in front of a green screen so this
shot of them about to leap out of the
truck and them actually falling out is
two different shots in two completely
different locations connected seamlessly
when the truck flips
the continuous take ends while it was
important to keep the momentum going and
always have something exciting happening
on-screen Hargrave also found the best
way to keep the audience engaged
throughout was by pulling back in the
moments before Tyler and Obi jump off
the roof there was supposed to be a huge
fight on the roof but Hargrave decided
to scrap it there's been so much action
before and there's about to be so much
more and we can't make this decision in
the editing room you can't just you know
cut around and say well let's speed this
up said I think right now we're
overloading the audience with action we
need to take a break we need it like
insert a little joke here so they
settled with this unscripted moment of
comic relief or did you trust me
you