The Gorge is now streaming on Apple TV+.
By Greg Wheeler
When thinking about long-distance relationships, you’ll probably visualize two lovebirds separated on other sides of the world. However, in The Gorge, the latest movie to debut exclusively on Apple TV+, the two people at the heart of the tale are separated by a miles-wide deep trench that contains something monstrous within.
The movie stars Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy as Levi and Drasa, two elite snipers who have been stationed at a top-secret location, at opposite ends of the titular gorge. Their mission? To eliminate the strange creatures that try to escape the gigantic chasm. They don’t know what these monsters are or where they have come from, but dutiful soldiers that they are, they take aim at these foul-looking beasts every time they climb to the surface.
The two operatives are forbidden from communicating with each other but it’s not long before they break this rule and start flirting using hand-written messages that they hold up for one another. Reading messages via his binoculars is not enough for Levi, however, who decides to get up close and personal to Drasa by ziplining across to her location. Romance then blossoms between them but their meet-cute love story threatens to come to an end when, on Levi’s return journey across the gorge, his zipwire breaks and he falls into the eerie mists of the chasm below.
Not wanting to be left alone without her newfound lover, Drasa jumps in after him. It’s here where the story picks up pace, becoming less a romance movie and more a nightmarish science-fiction flick laced with several exciting set pieces as the two operatives face off against the creatures around them and discover the truth about the mission they have been tasked with.
When the sci-fi horror elements kick in, director Scott Derrickson (The Black Phone) ramps up the tension nicely. He’s aided by some decent CGI that brings to life the mutated monsters that pose quite the threat to both Levi and Drasa’s romance and the world at large. The scenes within the gorge are suitably eerie as Levi and Drasa explore a long-lost town that, with its run-down look and foggy atmosphere, looks like it could have come straight from Silent Hill (both the games and the films).
The movie earns points for its visuals then, but the actual plot is a little clunky. When the truth about the gorge and its inhabitants is revealed, you may be a little confused by the explanations that are offered. We won’t divulge the movie’s secrets here but if you’re looking for well-thought-out answers to such questions as “What are the monsters within the gorge” and “Why is Miles and Drasa’s mission top secret”, you’re going to be left wanting.
Despite the flaws in the story, the film might prove enjoyable enough if all you’re looking for are a few decent scenes of horror and some creatively constructed action scenes. The movie delivers on those fronts so you’re guaranteed a good time if you don’t think about the plot too much when watching. The romantics in the audience will also appreciate the love story between Levi and Drasa as Teller and Joy ably demonstrate the crackling chemistry between the psychologically scarred operatives.
It’s a surprise The Gorge wasn’t given a cinema release as the spectacular imagery and explosive set pieces would have been right at home on the big screen. Regardless, we can at least be thankful for an Apple TV+ original movie that has more drive and imagination than such middling efforts as Greyhound, The Instigators, and Fly Me To the Moon, which had many movie buffs wondering why they were keeping up with their subscriptions to Apple’s service.
Released on Valentine’s Day, the movie offers something for sci-fi horror fanatics and romance lovers alike. Monster-averse romantics might want to stick with the new Bridget Jones movie but if you don’t mind the sight of mutated menaces infiltrating a non-traditional love story, The Gorge might be the antidote to all those tepid romance movies that are currently clogging up our streaming services.
I give The Gorge a B.
TV and City 