Rainbow Six Extraction trailer continues sci-fi's love of wrecking the Statue of Liberty

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"The Chimera is up to something"

A new Rainbow Six Extraction trailer shows off a blend of CGI storytelling and actual gameplay footage, while also taking a moment to indulge in one of sci-fi storytelling's greatest pleasures.

We're speaking, of course, of blowing the hell out of the Statue of Liberty. 

The Rainbow Six Extraction trailer begins with massive glowing tendrils of the chimera parasite bursting through the earth, circling up and through the statue before dislodging its head, which tumbles down to Liberty Island moments later - taking a whole bunch of tourists with it.

With this trailer, Extraction joins the likes of Cloverfield, The Day After Tomorrow, Independence Day, Escape from New York, Planet of the Apes, and many other sci-fi classics that use the imagery of Lady Liberty's destruction as shorthand for things getting real bad, real fast. With that taken care of, the trailer picks up narration from Dr. Elena "Mira" Álvarez, a Rainbow Six Siege operator who is now putting her research chops to work in studying the resurging parasite menace.

Álvarez notes that "at least 12 new Archaean types" are waiting for operators in hot zones, specifically introducing the cloaking Lurker and minion-summoning Apex. As she warns that "the Chimera is up to something, something dark," we get a brief look at what appears to be a fully parasitized version of her fellow operator Sledge. Is he in there somewhere, or has the Chimera simply taken to replicating the form and abilities of one of its greatest threats?

Rainbow Six Extraction is set to arrive on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Google Stadia, and Amazon Luna on January 20. Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass subscribers will be able to play it as part of their membership starting on day one.

We got a hands-on look at Rainbow Six Extraction as part of our Big in 2022 series.

Connor Sheridan
Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and was formerly a staff writer at GamesRadar.