*Spoilers below for anyone who hasn't seen 'Extraction'*
Chris Hemsworth hasn't totally abandoned Thor as he recently teased his fourth outing as the superhero in 'Love and Thunder'. However he is trying his hand at other projects away from Marvel, his latest being Netflix action movie 'Extraction'.
The feature sees him play a mercenary tasked with rescuing the kidnapped teenage son of an imprisoned crime lord.
His character Tyler Rake and the kid, Ovi (Rudraksh Jaiswal), strike a close bond over the course of the film.
In the end, Tyler sacrifices himself and (seemingly) gives his life so the boy can live.
The movie's last shot sees Ovi swimming in a pool and noticing a figure, who is out of focus, in the distance. It cuts to credits so we never find out if it is Tyler or not.
According to director Sam Hargrave, the original ending was not ambiguous as to the protagonist's fate.
He told Collider: "In the original script — and this was my idea — Rake does not live.
"His story was complete because he found something to keep him alive, and his journey was complete when he came to redemption through sacrifice. He made the choice he was okay with.
"He had come to terms with his past and the choice he made in the present saved this kid, and if that meant him dying, so be it. And that was his journey in my mind."
Hargrave shot different versions of the ending and let test screenings decide Tyler's fate in the end.
"It was not surprising that a lot of people wanted the character to live, and some people wanted him to die," he said. "People were torn; it was almost down the middle. We want to appeal to as many people as possible without compromising the integrity of the story."
He liked that the ambiguous ending serves as "a pretty good compromise" with "the best of both worlds", whereby: "If people on one hand feel like the story is complete and is a story of redemption through sacrifice, then for them it’ll be where the kid is imagining [Rake standing there], and then now you go, ‘Yes, I’m satisfied.’
"If you feel like you love Tyler Rake and you want a sequel, and you’re like ‘There’s no way, you can’t kill him!’ then that’s Tyler Rake standing there looking at you. So we kind of purposefully did not pull focus to the character standing there."
