Extraction spoilers follow.
Netflix's movie Extraction with Marvel star Chris Hemsworth has left viewers with a major question after it arrived on Friday, April 24.
Extraction sees Hemsworth's Tyler Rake undertake a dangerous mission to rescue Ovi (Rudraksh Jaiswal), the son of India's biggest drug lord. It doesn't go entirely to plan and the movie ends on an ambiguous note.
Director Sam Hargrave told Digital Spy that there could be a follow-up to Extraction and "there definitely have been discussions of broadening this world".
"We're all going to wait to see how fans react to the film. And based on that, there have been discussions of different storylines that could take place in different times – both forward in time and backwards in time," he explained.
But what form that follow-up takes could well depend on how Hargrave resolves the final shot, which he also spoke to us about.
To delve into what it all means, we have to go into major spoilers, so be warned.
We know from the very start of Extraction that Tyler's mission doesn't go to plan as the movie begins with him severely wounded (and shot) on a bridge, before jumping back two days to show how he got in that fine mess.
After Tyler picks up Ovi, his team are ambushed by Saju as Tyler is making his way to the drop-off point. Saju needs to get Ovi back, as Ovi's father has threatened the lives of Saju's family if he doesn't succeed.
Saju hired Tyler because he couldn't do it himself without an army, but he always planned to double-cross him as he doesn't have the money that Tyler's team would require for the job.
Tyler's friend Nik (Golshifteh Farahani) tries to persuade Tyler to just leave Ovi behind and escape Dhaka. However, haunted by the memory of his dead son, Tyler chooses to try and help Ovi escape too.
He seeks the help of his acquaintance Gaspar (David Harbour) and it's here where shit really hits the fan.
Gaspar tells Bangladesh drug lord Amir Asif (Priyanshu Painyuli) – who had Ovi kidnapped – where to find Ovi, promising to split the reward money with Tyler.
Ovi manages to kill Gaspar, but Tyler is forced to team up with Saju to help Ovi escape, leading to him basically taking on the entire army and police force of Dhaka in a desperate final stand.
Tyler's plan is to draw everyone away from the bridge so that Saju can take Ovi safely across. It doesn't work though as Saju is killed by a sniper and even though Tyler's team arrive for back-up, Tyler is shot by the same sniper before Nik can kill him.
He's then shot a fair few more times by various people to give Ovi time to get to the helicopter. Just when it looks like Tyler has (somehow) survived, he's shot in the neck by Farhad (Suraj Rikame), who's spent the whole movie trying to prove himself to Amir.
Tyler then falls off the bridge into the river and, to be honest, it's hard to see how he makes it back from that.
However, we cut to eight months later and Ovi is back to living his normal life. Nik has tracked down Amir and kills him in a toilet, either as revenge for Tyler's death or to protect Ovi.
Ovi is seen holding his breath underwater in a swimming pool. When he surfaces, he spots someone watching him from the edge. Could it really be that Tyler managed to survive? The figure is blurred, but sure looks like Tyler.
It turns out that the ambiguity was Hargrave's way of responding to the test screenings of the movie, which led to varied responses from viewers.
"There was a discussion back and forth throughout the whole production process as to what the ending of the movie wanted to be, and we shot a number of different ways," Hargrave told Digital Spy.
"Through the test audiences and amongst us, the filmmakers, we decided on that ending as being the best, because different people viewed the film in different ways. They have different reactions. And test audiences were kind of split down the middle.
"We actually tried to be respectful of that and to serve that. Depending on how you view the film, I think the ending will play differently for different people, depending on your feelings for these characters throughout the film."
So he's either survived or Ovi is just imagining him, much like Tyler kept remembering his son during the movie.
While it seems unlikely that Tyler could have survived given the sheer amount of times he was shot, we are introduced to him jumping into the sea and holding his breath for a long time underwater.
Earlier in the movie, Ovi uses a quote from writer Paulo Coelho that could prove significant too: "You drown not by falling into a river, but by staying submerged in it."
That's a reference to Tyler's lingering guilt over not being there when his son died, but could also be used as nod towards how Tyler survived if Extraction proves to be enough of a success to warrant a sequel.
How they'll explain away the notable blood loss is trickier, but maybe he's just very lucky, and everyone just missed Tyler's vital organs.
Extraction is now available to watch on Netflix.
Netflix/Left Bank Pictures The Crown season 3 with Amazon exclusive box artwork
House of Cards - Season 6
Digital Spy now has a newsletter – sign up to get it sent straight to your inbox.
Looking for more TV recommendations and discussion? Head over to our Facebook Group to see new picks every day, and chat with other readers about what they're watching right now.
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
