The Easter Egg That Links Extraction To Thor
Netflix's action-packed mercenary thriller, Extraction, succeeds on the muscular back of leading man Chris Hemsworth. Since the streaming original dropped last month, however, fans have been uncovering a series of interesting Easter eggs hidden inside the film and, according to one poster on the Movie Details subreddit forum, we can add one more to the growing list, and it, too, involves Hemsworth's back.
Much ink has already been spilled over the pseudo-secret that Hemsworth only agreed to do Extraction because Avengers maven Joe Russo was involved. As any loyal fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe already knows, Hemsworth has been playing the hammer-wielding Norse god of thunder in that little franchise since 2011's Thor. Hemsworth's character quickly became a founding member of Tony Stark's (Robert Downey Jr.) Avengers, and has since played a pretty pivotal role in the macro-story of the entire Infinity Saga.
As one can probably imagine, Russo and Hemsworth have established quite a bit of creative trust in each other in the process of telling that multi-billion dollar story. It's no surprise, then, that Russo wanted to tap Hemsworth to play the part of brooding mercenary-with-a-tragic-past, Tyler Rake. What is surprising, is the homage Extraction made to Hemsworth's other Russo project via a striking back tattoo.
One of Chris Hemsworth's many tattoos in Extraction is an allusion to Norse mythology
One of the strategies the makeup artists on Extraction employed to make Hemsworth seem more grizzled and less astonishingly attractive was the application of excessive scarring and tattoos. Reasonable minds can differ as to whether or not this choice achieved the desired effect or just made Hemsworth more handsome, but some of the tattoos at least carried a little extra meaning.
One Redditor, posting under the handle u/driftwood7386, pointed out that Tyler Rake's most prominent back tattoo is a perfect recreation of the image above. The poster mistakenly identifies this image as the Helm of Awe, also known in Norse mythology as "The Viking Compass". u/driftwood7386 suggests that this symbol is an homage to Hemsworth's day job at Marvel as the resident God of Thunder.
While fellow Redditors were quick to point out in the comments that the symbol is actually the more complex Norse "vegvisir," they all agreed that its inclusion was likely a nod to Thor. For what it's worth, the vegvisir is a mystical inscription intended to help guide a warrior or explorer back home, and was first seen in medieval viking culture. Aside from being a clever way to link Hemsworth's performances, the vegvisir also seems like a pretty appropriate tattoo for a mercenary like Rake in the midst of an epic redemption arc.
Extraction is currently streaming on Netflix, where it premiered on April 24, 2020. No sequel has officially been announced, but Russo assures us it's forthcoming.