‘Extraction’ Fans Should Watch Netflix’s ‘The Old Guard’ Before the Sequel

The amount of content Netflix pushes out yearly makes it easier for gems to slip through the cracks. There usually isn’t enough time to enjoy them before the next week’s release sweeps them away. The Old Guard is one of the gems. Following a group of immortal warriors who believe they have found another one of their own, The Old Guard is a sleek action romp that does a good job of establishing its mythology. This mythology does more than set up the stakes of the world; it paints vivid portraits of complicated, thousand-year-old relationships between the team members, who know each other better than anyone else ever could. The Old Guard doesn’t just make the heroes immortal as a gimmick; it haunts everything they do. After five years, fans can finally expect The Old Guard 2 to be released this year.

Charlize Theron leads the group of ancient warriors, and nowhere else is the weight of that shared history more apparent. This is similar to Extraction and the burden that can come with fighting, as Chris Hemsowrth’s Tyler Rake often finds. His burly action hero faces a similar dilemma to Charlize Theron in The Old Guard that their emotions can get in the way of what they are trying to defend. The two also share a fresh approach to action scenes. The bloody and unflinching action in both movies should satisfy fans who want to see what happens to the heroes when they finish fighting. The Old Guard is a bit more restrained and hyper-stylized, but just like Extraction, it infuses raw anger with moment-to-moment action.

‘The Old Guard’ Is Brutal

Action movies can try to make worlds that feel lived in on screen, but The Old Guard uses its unique dynamics to strip any sexiness from the fight scenes. Charlize and the gang are tired after so many years of fighting. Strangely, it makes the punches they take feel more consequential because, although we know they’re going to get up, we don’t know how much more their psyches can take the cycle of dying and being reborn. It’s a brutal life, one that isn’t shown in endless flashbacks but weary looks and palpable hesitation.

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And to top it all off it’s streaming free on Tubi.

The Old Guard is as violent as any other modern action movie, and when it gets going, the group’s skills are fun to watch. The cast, especially Theron, brings the dynamic pages of the comic book to life with enjoyable link-up moves in battle and the dedication they have to each other when fighting. It makes them feel like a family and less like individuals who happen to be immortal. The Old Guard doesn’t force one-take scenes to demonstrate the group’s abilities, but it does use some clever shots to show what it’s like charging into death as a way out of an encounter.

‘The Old Guard’ Balances Action and Drama

Just as The Old Guard forces its heroes to keep fighting, it confronts them with the weight of their histories when they stop. The movie plays with the idea that they can’t always rely on coming back to life when fighting, which makes for some fascinating conflict as the new immortal Nile wants to push the boundaries of her unlocked ability. Charlize Theron’s character, Andy, is therefore expected to be some sort of mentor to Nile, but at this point, she is worried that her unexplained powers might be running out. The Old Guard balances the old and the new. Normally, when a new character joins a team like this as a way to kick-start a story, the movie has to go to great lengths to explain what they’ve already been through together.

However, The Old Guard makes this obvious through the characters instead of relying on exposition. None of the team wants to take on another person because, to them, another immortal is another person to see suffer like they have. The Old Guard also embraces its group’s history when they are put under threat. One brilliant moment, when a team member gives a speech about his boyfriend, whom he has loved for thousands of years, shows how well The Old Guard mines its premise.

There are a lot of similarities between The Old Guard and Extraction. The first might be based on mythic characters and the second on a more grounded approach, but both prioritize the impact of their brutal action set-pieces. Both show the physical and emotional toll that fighting has taken. Even though Extraction shows Tyler Rake as a soldier and nothing more, the sequel Extraction 2 shows just how vulnerable he can be. The Old Guard’s heroes find themselves in a similar cycle of violence and exhaustion, which makes the action scenes in both movies feel much riskier.

Netflix’s two action franchises are arguably the pinnacle of what they have achieved in the genre, both in terms of the fighting on-screen and the emotion that drives it. Both series are about groups of people brought together for more than just their shared abilities to punch and kick. The Old Guard and Extraction might seem like disposable action movies on their surface, but individually, they manage to elevate their conventions because they aren’t evasive about the familial bonds that they are fighting for.

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It tells the story of three brothers who find themselves at the center of a raging conflict.

They test the characters emotionally as well as physically, which might not sound like a lot, but it goes a long way in humanizing the stoic leads of both franchises. The Old Guard and Extraction are movies about fighting for others around you, not necessarily just defending them, but also the emotional toll of years of fighting and bloodshed, all for nothing to have changed. It’s then that you realize Tyler and Andy are so impenetrable because of what they’ve already lost, not because they’re just action heroes. The Old Guard and Extraction movies are streaming on Netflix now.