The shorthand term for that 12-minute fight scene and seemingly-unedited shot from Sam Hargrave’s Extraction is “oner.” And Extraction’s oner—where Chris Hemsworth drives, gun battles, and then faces off with Randeep Hooda—is one of the most ambitious and fearless attempts at the technique we’ve ever seen. Hargrave told Men’s Health in a recent interview that his team prepared for the scene over four months. It then took them ten days to shoot the scene on location in India. (The setting for the scene is Dhaka in Bangladesh.)
Extraction‘s oner is not, however, one continuous single camera shot. Instead, Hargrave called it an “apparent one take,” meaning the sequence was filmed to resemble a oner. But that fact doesn’t lessen the feat; even several one-minute takes stitched together makes for a formidable cinematographic challenge.
To film the scene, Hargrave strapped himself to the front of various chase vehicles and even leapt across a building on a wire. (As a stunt actor, Hargrave is used to such vehicle and rooftop work, and if he wasn’t the film’s actual director, one may call his efforts “stunt camerawork.”) The only respite came during the few edits that the team made where they could take a breather, including when Hemsworth kicks in a door or when two fighters tumble out of a window.
Here is video including all the best scenes from the movie Extraction. Enjoy! 🙂