diff --git a/docsite/rst/playbooks_filters.rst b/docsite/rst/playbooks_filters.rst
index 7d4ace9c4b..830448655a 100644
--- a/docsite/rst/playbooks_filters.rst
+++ b/docsite/rst/playbooks_filters.rst
@@ -352,6 +352,39 @@ override those in `b`, and so on.
 This behaviour does not depend on the value of the `hash_behaviour`
 setting in `ansible.cfg`.
 
+.. _extract_filter:
+
+Extracting values from containers
+---------------------------------
+
+.. versionadded:: 2.0
+
+The `extract` filter is used to map from a list of indices to a list of
+values from a container (hash or array)::
+
+    {{ [0,2]|map('extract', ['x','y','z'])|list }}
+    {{ ['x','y']|map('extract', {'x': 42, 'y': 31})|list }}
+
+The results of the above expressions would be::
+
+    ['x', 'z']
+    [42, 31]
+
+The filter can take another argument::
+
+    {{ groups['x']|map('extract', hostvars, 'ec2_ip_address')|list }}
+
+This takes the list of hosts in group 'x', looks them up in `hostvars`,
+and then looks up the `ec2_ip_address` of the result. The final result
+is a list of IP addresses for the hosts in group 'x'.
+
+The third argument to the filter can also be a list, for a recursive
+lookup inside the container::
+
+    {{ ['a']|map('extract', b, ['x','y'])|list }}
+
+This would return a list containing the value of `b['a']['x']['y']`.
+
 .. _comment_filter:
 
 Comment Filter
diff --git a/lib/ansible/plugins/filter/core.py b/lib/ansible/plugins/filter/core.py
index d5e1a12e53..3ab9db5a51 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/plugins/filter/core.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/plugins/filter/core.py
@@ -339,6 +339,18 @@ def comment(text, style='plain', **kw):
         str_postfix,
         str_end)
 
+def extract(item, container, morekeys=None):
+    from jinja2.runtime import Undefined
+
+    value = container[item]
+
+    if value is not Undefined and morekeys is not None:
+        if not isinstance(morekeys, list):
+            morekeys = [morekeys]
+
+        value = reduce(lambda d, k: d[k], morekeys, value)
+
+    return value
 
 class FilterModule(object):
     ''' Ansible core jinja2 filters '''
@@ -415,4 +427,7 @@ class FilterModule(object):
 
             # comment-style decoration
             'comment': comment,
+
+            # array and dict lookups
+            'extract': extract,
         }
diff --git a/test/integration/roles/test_filters/tasks/main.yml b/test/integration/roles/test_filters/tasks/main.yml
index a94bb8c655..af6c5d49de 100644
--- a/test/integration/roles/test_filters/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/test/integration/roles/test_filters/tasks/main.yml
@@ -68,3 +68,13 @@
         - '"0.10 GB" == 102400000|human_readable(unit="G")'
         - '"0.10 Gb" == 102400000|human_readable(isbits=True, unit="G")'
 
+- name: Container lookups with extract
+  assert:
+    that:
+        - "'x' == [0]|map('extract',['x','y'])|list|first"
+        - "'y' == [1]|map('extract',['x','y'])|list|first"
+        - "42 == ['x']|map('extract',{'x':42,'y':31})|list|first"
+        - "31 == ['x','y']|map('extract',{'x':42,'y':31})|list|last"
+        - "'local' == ['localhost']|map('extract',hostvars,'ansible_connection')|list|first"
+        - "'local' == ['localhost']|map('extract',hostvars,['ansible_connection'])|list|first"
+        - "'ungrouped' == ['localhost']|map('extract',hostvars,['vars','group_names',0])|list|first"