“Extraction 2” pushed Chris Hemsworth right to the limit.
ET Canada’s Brittnee Blair recently spoke with the star of the blockbuster Netflix action sequel, and he talked about the craziest stunt he performed for the movie.
“The most complicated one was the one in its entirety,” Hemsworth said, referring to the film’s eye-popping 21-minute long take. “Particularly in the section which is in the prison yard, where there’s 300 or 400 extras and background artists and stunt performers. Things are on fire. People are on fire. I’m on fire.”
Asked how he mentally prepared to be set on fire for the sequence, Hemsworth said, “You know, you use two parts of the brain. One’s going, ‘What the hell are we doing? This is insane. Get out of here.’ And then the other part’s like, ‘No, no, no. The safety measurements have all been taken, and there’s guys there to help.’”
Still, the actor admitted that doing the stunt was not without its serious risks.
“It’s always a roll of the dice,” he said. “And, you know, I would put just enough burn liquid on my arm that would ignite. And by the end of the sequence we were shooting, it should have gone out. Sometimes it didn’t and I’d have to do a little bit of this,” miming stamping out the flame.
Sometimes it did get a little close for comfort, he said, recalling, “Especially when it ran up my arm at one point and I’m swinging and punching. I was like ‘Whoa, that’s getting close! That flame.’”
Hemsworth also talked about the importance of doing as many of the stunts as possible for real and in-camera, particularly during the big train sequence in the film, which he called “pretty wild.”
“Just the fact the train’s moving 50 miles an hour, I’m on the front of the train and the helicopter is flying backwards 20 feet away from me, and [director Sam Hargrave]’s in the middle of the camera capturing it all,” he recalled.
“And this is all in-camera. This is not green screen or special effects. So it has a grit and intensity and a truth that I think resonates with audiences,” Hemsworth said. “You know, we’ve been inundated with special effects and video game-type imagery, and it’s fun and it’s cool, but there’s a there’s a lack of truth there. Whereas this was all in-camera.”
“Extraction 2” premieres June 16 on Netflix.