The Gorge

The title of this movie is the two-word answer to a most unexpected question. Namely: “What do you get if you cross American Sniper, The Last Of Us, Stranger Things, Aliens and Love Actually?” Writer Zach Dean (The Tomorrow War, Fast X) appears unashamed of his influences on this former Black List spec script, and director Scott Derrickson (Doctor Strange, The Black Phone) has much fun with them, serving up a frothy B-pic stew. By the time we reach the wink-at-the-audience montage that depicts Miles ‘Whiplash’ Teller and The Queen’s Gambit’s Anya Taylor-Joy bonding over drumming and chess, there is no doubt left that The Gorge can’t, and shouldn’t, be taken too seriously.

The set-up is a doozy. Teller and Taylor-Joy are sexy-but-damaged elite operatives (American and Lithuanian, respectively) whisked to a super-remote top-secret location by Sigourney Weaver, guest-starring as the token untrustworthy boss-person. Their year-long mission? To stand sentinel over an eerie chasm which may or may not be “the door to Hell”. Only, they’re on different sides (literally), sequestered in opposing watchtowers and, for some reason, forbidden to communicate.

Predictably, it’s not long before they break the rules and start flirting via hand-scrawled signs and friendly fire. And it’s no surprise when their shared mission goes south and they ultimately plummet through the gorge’s thick mists into an Upside Down-ish nether-realm of nasties.

The action-horror elements are solidly squealy (skull-spiders!), if beset by not-quite-there CGI and a rather underwhelming revelation about the gorge itself. Along the way, Dean’s script suffers the occasional clunk and clang: after narrowly surviving an extended monstrous encounter, Taylor-Joy sighs and says, “That was so surreal.” Ya think?! But still, like we said: not to be taken too seriously.

What’s most impressive — aside from a cool, synthy Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross score — is the way Dean and Derrickson firmly pitch The Gorge as a romance; that Valentine’s Day drop-date on Apple TV+ is no accident. In other films, the separated-snipers concept would be the start of a duel or rivalry. Here it is a meet-cute, with Taylor-Joy and Teller forming a firm double act via a very different kind of long-distance relationship, which plays out unhurriedly and surprisingly sweetly. Their amour is endearing, underpinning the CG-creature silliness with some unapologetic heart (there’s even some love poetry), and making you root for them to blast their way out of this entertaining nightmare and earn a happy ending together. At least until some other shadowy paymaster finds the couple a different supernaturally plagued geological feature to babysit. ‘The Butte’, anyone?