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Anya Taylor-Joy and Miles Teller play two highly trained operatives who fall in love over a mysterious gorge that might just be the gateway to hell.
Ex-military Levi (Teller) is hired by Bartholomew, an enigmatic suit played by Sigourney Weaver. The Gorge doesn’t bother much for a backstory about the whos, hows, and whys. The movie is more concerned with the present moment than how the characters got to that point. It’s refreshing to get straight into the action and mystery without the overlong prologues, villain origin story, and childhood trauma of the main character.
We meet ex-elite sniper Levi sat alone at the beach before he is called in to meet Bartholomew. The pair share a less-than-subtle conversation about Levi’s mental state and how he failed the psych test. She asks why he is single, why he never worked as a private contractor, and how his mental state is. It’s a quick and easy way for audiences to understand Levi, even if the writing lacks nuance. He’s a lonely man, four years out of the military, who self-medicates to avoid the bad dreams about the time he served.
Drasa gets even less of a history. She is Lithuanian, she is a fantastic shot, and her elderly father is very sick. It’s all the writers want the audience to know about the female lead. Although the film reveals a few more details about her throughout the movie, she remains an elusive character. Anya Taylor-Joy deserves a much more layered character than a one-note sharpshooter with an exaggerated Eastern European accent and a love of punk music.
Levi is dropped into a jungle and placed in a watchtower over a vast gorge. The man he replaces, J.D. (Sope Dirisu), tells him that he has watched over the pit alone for years and still has no idea what lurks below. He can only imagine the horrors that live in the darkness underneath the pit. The gorge gets the best introduction of any character in the film.
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Levi thinks he is alone in the jungle, with J.D. quickly leaving the desolate landscape. He radios the hub every 30 days and hears roars from the pit below. Other than that, and the ominous engravings left by the previous watchtower men, Levi believes himself to be alone in the wilderness.
But he soon notices Dresa in the tower opposite him. Via a telescope and some written posters, like a Taylor Swift music video, the pair bond across the dark canyon. Both are there for the same reasons, two sharpshooters ready to protect the world from the monsters below. But both have a past they are running from and are unhappy enough to live alone in a watchtower and exit society. The film ignores the idea that Levi’s predecessor would not have noticed Dresa’s predecessor, considering the proximity of the two watchtowers.
The first 15 minutes of The Gorge lures viewers into thinking they are watching another over-produced, underwritten action blockbuster. The lone ex-military man, the mysterious private contractor, the helicopter ride into the jungle. But this Apple TV+ film has a lot more going for it than the normal streaming popcorn flick.
The first act of The Gorge plays out more like a rom-com than an action film, as the pair dance on separate sides of the gorge in unison, play chess via telescope, and fall in love. It sometimes feels like the evil pit between the duo is just a way for the writers to create the ultimate meet cute. Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy are immensely likable together, even when underwritten, and more avatars than realistic characters.
The second hour of this film is where the action kicks into gear. After an incident occurs on a date, Dresa and Levi find themselves inside the gorge. The duo learns that the horrors within the pit are far more terrifying than they could ever have imagined. The reveal is tightly written but falls apart pretty quickly if you stop to think to unpick the details.
There are so many genuinely chilling moments in The Gorge, but they are let down by dated special effects. The CGI on the scenes inside the gorge looks more like an early 2000s video game than a million-dollar streaming movie. It’s very obvious that the film was predominantly filmed on a green screen, and the terrible effects occasionally distract from the plot.
The Gorge loses its way in the last 30 minutes. The action sequences start to become cliché, and the film struggles to know what to do with the innovative ideas the first two acts set up. The pace speeds up in the final quarter, rushing through plot points in the desperate need to wrap up the narrative. Teller and Taylor-Joy’s likability isn’t enough to save the film’s messy and unfulfilling closing act.
The writer, Zac Dean (The Tomorrow War, Fast X), manages to set up an intriguing premise with very minimal backstory but doesn’t quite know how to get his heroes out of the mess. The writers certainly could have done more with these characters, this location, and this mystery.
Directed by Scott Derrickson (Doctor Strange, The Black Phone), The Gorge is a confusing blend of genres that is enjoyable despite its flaws. The romantic angle of the action-mystery is a surprising success, helped by the enigmatic leads and their natural chemistry. The mystery behind the titular gorge is intriguing and has a decent payoff, even if it’s not the most original plot or the smoothest landing.
The Gorge is romantic, chilling, and thrilling despite the filmmaker’s best attempts to ruin it with clunky writing, overreliance on VFX, and an unfulfilling final act. The Apple TV+ film works better as a romance with some additional monsters than an action-adventure about two operatives discovering the secrets of a humanity-threatening gorge.
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Grade: B-
The Gorge
“The world's most dangerous secret lies between them.” Two highly trained operatives are appointed to posts across a vast and very secret gorge.
Release Date: February 14, 2025
Director: Scott Derrickson
Cast: Miles Teller , Anya Taylor-Joy , Sigourney Weaver
