The Gorge
Apple TV+
While streaming original movies are pretty hit or miss, no matter how many A-list stars are in them, like its show collection, Apple TV+ has grabbed some pretty good ones. One of them is a new sci-fi/romance/horror movie that I would recommend checking out after seeing it last night.
That would be The Gorge, which stars two of the hottest young actors in Hollywood right now, Top Gun Maverick’s Miles Teller and Furiosa’s Anya Taylor-Joy. Sigourney Weaver is even in there for a little bit, but the film effectively stars just two people.
Miles is Levi, a Marine turned mercenary sniper, Taylor-Joy is Drasa, an Lithuanian FSB assassin. The two are assigned to monitor “the Gorge” a giant, mist-filled chasm in some unknown country, posted up in opposite towers on either side. They’re not allowed contact with each other, but I did say this is a romance, so yes, they do find a way to get to know each other.
The problem with recommending this film is that it’s hard to get into it without at least some mild amount of spoilers, but saying it’s sci-fi up front should give you at least a bit of a hint. But if you want to know literally nothing else, turn back now, though I’m not planning on “ruining” the mystery.
The Gorge
Apple TV+
The film turns a corner when you discover what’s actually in The Gorge, and all I can say is that this is very much influenced by the famous Annihilation, directed by Alex Garland, about a mysterious location on earth where flora and fauna have gone wild and the humans that enter the zone start to be transformed into…something else.
This shares a lot of similarities to that, but it leans even more into horror in some sequences. I was very impressed with both the creature and landscape design here, and the VFX look better than most superhero blockbusters I’ve seen in recent years. I was pretty stunned with how cool this ended up being, while also wondering what happened at the Gorge and the true nature of its secrets would turn out to be.
No, it’s not as artfully shot or acted as Annihilation, and the tone shift from mile-apart romance to the horrors down below is so jarring it almost doesn’t work, but I came away deeply impressed with what I saw, and it’s an easy recommendation to any sci-fi fan looking for something new and cool, even if it’s not exactly destined to be a long-term classic.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
