I didn't have an enjoyable mashup of "Love Actually" and John Carpenter's "The Thing" on my Bingo card in 2025, but I enjoyed the hell out of Apple TV+'s THE GORGE, which somehow manages to check both those boxes.
As the film opens, Anya Taylor-Joy (Furiosa, The Queen's Gambit) appears as Drasa, one of the globe's best snipers, taking out a shady target from very long range.
We're then introduced to retired military operative Levi, lured to a new, year long, clandestine mission by the mysterious Bartholemew (Sigourney Weaver, perfectly cast).
Miles Teller (Top Gun: Maverick, The Offer) is terrific as Levi, an enigmatic blend of loner and career soldier.
He's basically drugged, flown many hours to an unknown location and leaps to a secluded, tiny base below that sits on the edge of a massive gorge. He's given a tour by the solitary soldier manning the mission, whose tour ends the same day that Levi's begins.
Directly across from his watch tower is another one, manned by Drasa, who has just begun her own one-year, solitary tour of duty.
They have both been told the same thing. No contact with the other side.
Complete focus on what's in The Gorge is mandatory. They are not there to protect it from people getting in. They're there to protect the world from what might be trying to escape its deep, foggy depths.
It's an intriguing premise, set up with suspense and humor by writer Zach Dean (The Tomorrow War) and Director Scott Derrickson (Doctor Strange, The Black Phone).
Drasa and Miles's days are filled with the same routines, which include checking all the massive gun turrets and satellite dishes that line the border of the Gorge. There is some nice foreshadowing as we see the huge gattling guns and hanging land mines on the sides of the cliff. There sure is a LOT of firepower and technology making sure nothing gets out of those depths.
Months pass.
On Drasa's birthday, she begins communicating with Levi via writing on a tablet and holding her messages up so he can see them via his high tech binoculars. It's a hilarious, constant callback to Richard Curtis' "Love Actually" that works brilliantly.
Suddenly this mysterious thriller becomes an endearing romance.
The plot holds a lot of surprises so I'm not going to reveal anything here.
Let's just say that her birthday party gets a little loud, waking up their neighbors far below, who begin climbing up the walls in massive numbers.
It's a killer sequence, with "Predator" style gunfire, explosions and tension to spare.
But the real action kicks in when Levi decides to zipline across to meet with his long distance gal across The Gorge.
That zip line snaps and he plunges into whatever lies below.
Without hesitation, Drasa slaps on as many guns as she can carry and a parachute and plunges to assist Levi. This entire sequence is designed and shot at such a breakneck pace that I just sat there smiling, looking forward to what ever came next.
Within The Gorge, Dickerson and his design team cut loose with a wild blend of "The Thing" (a great tribute-if you know you know), "Fallout", "The Postman", "Captain America", "Oppenheimer", I could go on and on.
All those pieces are pulled together into something pretty clever and surprising. It's a sense of discovery experiencing a "new world" that I haven't really felt since Alex Garland's under seen 2018 masterpiece 'Annihilation". While it doesn't hit those levels of creativity and gravitas, it carves out its own territory very effectively.
Then we're back to an explosive, rip-roaring conclusion that sees our forbidden couple trying to escape the creatures below and the government spooks above.
Teller and Taylor-Joy are both up for the task and deliver as individual characters and kick-ass action heroes.
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (Gone Girl, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) deliver a moody, atmospheric score that has no trouble delivering heavy rock when the action demands.
Bottom line; THE GORGE is an enjoyable blast that delivers a unique mix of romance, horror and action packed thrills, earning a very solid B+ from this Friday night viewer.
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