Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s action movie ‘Extraction 2’ follows Tyler Rake, ex-special forces turned mercenary for hire who specializes in extractions. He is a highly trained individual known to get his targets out of impossible situations. We are familiarised with his talents in ‘Extraction,’ where he is hired to save Ovi Mahajan, the son of an Indian crime lord, who is kidnapped and held by his father’s enemies.
At first, Rake sticks to being a professional who cares only about the job. However, as he spends more time with the boy, we see a softer side of him, which reveals some key details about his past, the most important of which is pertaining to his son. What happened to Rake’s son? Let’s find out.
Tyler Rake’s Son’s Battle with Lymphoma
In ‘Extraction,’ we discover that Tyler had a son who was diagnosed with lymphoma. He was still a kid, and as his situation worsened, it became clear that he wouldn’t live much longer. This was heartbreaking for Tyler, and he felt worse because he couldn’t do anything but watch his son die. It was an unbearable thing for him to see his son die, so when the time came, he decided to leave.
Tyler was in the Special Air Service Regiment and frequently left home to serve in the tours. When his son was in the final stages of cancer, Tyler received the order for a mission in Afghanistan. He could have stayed with his son but found it best to leave. He knew that by the time he returned home, his son would be dead. However, he couldn’t bear to see it happen in front of his eyes. He met his son for the last time in the hospital and then left after saying his goodbyes.
As expected, his son was dead by the time Tyler came back home. Not witnessing his death didn’t do anything to lessen Tyler’s pain, which only got worse with time. The fact that he left their son at a crucial moment haunted his wife, Mia. She couldn’t forgive him for walking out on them when they needed him the most. This led their marriage to crumble, and they divorced soon after.
With both his son and wife out of his life, Tyler had nothing left to live for. He left the military and offered his skills elsewhere. He became a mercenary for hire. He knew this job came with many dangers, and the chances of dying someplace with none the wiser about what happened to him were very high. But it didn’t bother him. Broken by the death of his son and the guilt that was eating away at him, he took one job after another and earned a reputation for getting the job done no matter how hard it got.
In ‘Extraction,’ when Vik tells Tyler about the job in Dhaka, she notes that he has lost all care for himself. He spends his days drinking and has become suicidal. He readily accepts high-risk jobs because he is not afraid of death. IHehopes it comes to him because he doesn’t have anything worth living for. That is until he saves Ovi and realizes he could use his talents for better things.
In Ovi, Tyler sees the image of his own son. He bonds with Ovi and decides to protect him at all costs. When their contract is nullified, and Vik tells him to abandon Ovi and come back, Tyler refuses to do it because he has grown to care about the boy. He cannot simply let him die. He decides to see the extraction through, even if it means he might die in the process, which happens at the end when he is fatally wounded and falls from the bridge into the river.
While Tyler saves Ovi, he is still not very optimistic about his life. However, when he gets another chance to save someone, he comes out of retirement without hesitation. He is still the same ruthless killer, but he exhibits care for the children around him, which shows how much he loves his son and how he has decided to honor his memory by saving innocent people.
