A teeming, violent pre-pandemic world in 'Extraction'

big-budget action thriller “Extraction” belongs, in many ways, to ar world.

It’s set in Bangladesh capital of Dhaka, one of most densely populated cities in world. It’s in this urban sea of people and traffic that Chris Hemsworth’s battle-scarred mercenary engs in a torrent of gun fights, car chases and hand-to-hand combat.

“Extraction,” produced with Marvel-trained muscle of Joe and Anthony Russo (“Avengers Endgame,” “Captain America”), wasn’t shot in Dhaka but in Thailand and Ahmedabad, India. In India, it was one of largest Hollywood productions to set down on subcontinent. throngs re doubled for Dhaka and populated “Extraction,” a teeming movie made very obviously before pandemic era of social distancing.

“re were thousands of people watching each day and erupting at end of each take. It was like being in Coliseum,” Hemsworth said in an interview by video conference from his home in Australia. “It’s interesting w to go: Would you be able to pull that off post-this? It would be very different.”

film re-teams Hemsworth with Russos, a year after “Endgame,” in a script penned by Joe Russo a decade ago. He adapted it from graphic vel “Ciudad,” which is set in Paraguay’s Ciudad del Este. But a couple years ago, when Russos tapped Hargrave to direct, y went looking for a new city.

“re were a few projects that were circling Ciudad del Este as a location, one in particular at Netflix. When we came up with idea to flip it to Sam, we started looking for ar, fresh location,” said Joe Russo. “We had spent some time in Mumbai on a promotional tour and that’s where we got idea to do it in Bangladesh.”

Hargrave first scouted Dhaka in 2017, in between shoots for “Infinity War” and “Endgame.”

“It’s very densely populated but it has an energy and vibrancy that’s unique,” said Hargrave. “You couldn’t look in any direction that’s t unique to Western eye.”

Films set in far-flung locations with a white protagonist have sometimes been criticized for relying on “white savoir” tropes, a charge that has been

cast is an exceedingly international one, including Bollywood stars Randeep Hooda and Maj Bajpayee. Since launching in India in 2016, Netflix has increasingly prioritized reaching subcontinent's 1.3 billion people. Reed Hastings, Netflix's chief executive, has previously forecast that company's

For Russos, y see “Extraction” as an extension of globe-spanning scale of Marvel, brought to a different genre and a smaller-screen platform.

“Joe and I got to see t just fandom but filmmaking community around world,” said Anthony Russo. “Having opportunities to tie into talented filmmakers from every corner of globe is very exciting to us.”

Russo brors are currently editing ir next film, crime drama “Cherry,” remotely. y say y are, like much of industry, trying to conceive and plan for how productions of any kind — let alone huge, rough-and-tumble films like “Extraction” — can resume in months ahead. Directors Guild recently formed a committee led by Steven Soderbergh to examine possible on-set solutions.

That makes visceral, peopled realm of “Extraction” a vision of a recent but, at least temporarily, vanished movie world. To Hemsworth, it was a thrilling one.

“It ratcheted up pressure of shooting within those places being so densely populated,” said actor, recalling elaborate action scenes with hundreds of people. “Sam threw us in a location that added to it tenfold.”