‘The Gorge’ Review: Mediocre Genre Blending Sci-Fi
The Gorge is kinda like that old saying often attributed to the writer Mark Twain, “If you don’t like the weather in New England now, just wait a few minutes.” This multi-genre tale begins by establishing a tantalizing sci-fi premise, then setting it aside for a low-flame romance between top-billed Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy, then ditching that for a final hour of increasingly mindless action. It’s a genre mashup where each component never quite makes it over the hump, although there are pleasures to be gleaned in a straight-to-streaming sort of way.
The film’s central mystery — namely what evil lurks at the bottom of a fog-shrouded gorge — keeps us engaged until the mystery is solved, at which point the film becomes less credible and less interesting. Directed with flair if not distinction by Scott Derrickson, The Gorge maintains interest but does not reward it. In the annals of recent sci-fi films featuring two isolated main characters, The Gorge takes its place far behind Gravity, the masterpiece starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock, yet well above Passengers, the Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt misfire.
Much like the four genetic lottery winners from those films, Teller and Taylor-Joy make a good-looking pair, but only the latter really pops. With her large, alert eyes and slight mischievous streak that can feel ill-advised considering the stakes, Taylor-Joy has less to play than Teller but is able to do more with what she’s given. She portrays Drasa, a top-shelf Lithuanian sniper with a dying father and pangs of career guilt. Teller plays Levi, a retired Marine and mentally anguished American assassin who reads and writes poetry because, you see, he’s a sensitive retired Marine and mentally anguished assassin.
‘The Gorge’ Has Our Attention With a Promising Premise The Gorge PG-13 Action Romance Horror 2.5 /5 Release Date February 28, 2025 Runtime 127 Minutes Director Scott Derrickson Writers Zach Dean Producers Gregory Goodman, C. Robert Cargill, Dana Goldberg, David Ellison, Don Granger, Miles Teller, Sherryl Clark, Adam Kolbrenner Cast Miles Teller Levi Anya Taylor-Joy Drasa
Powered by Expand Collapse Pros & Cons The premise keeps you intrigued and interested. Some of the action is diverting enough. Anya Taylor-Joy once again proves herself a badass. Miles Teller has never been the most charismatic actor. The truth behind the gorge is less creative than many video games. The creatures are pretty silly.
Such eye-rollers are frequent in a script — by The Tomorrow War’s Zach Dean — that name-drops T.S. Eliot and Robert Frost in an unconvincing attempt to add richness to a story that clearly doesn’t require it. Especially when our curiosity and anticipation are properly stoked by the set-up. Given his loner status, Levi is enlisted by a frosty, private sector bigwig (Sigourney Weaver) for an assignment so secretive that, upon deployment, he’s not even sure what country he’s in.
Across the globe, Drasa is tapped for the same assignment: For one year, they will each be stationed on an observation tower on opposite sides of an enormous fog-cloaked ravine that Cold War enemies from the East and West have collaborated to keep hidden since World War II. As told to Levi by the officer he’s replacing (Sope Dirisu, ready for the next career step), at the bottom of the gorge are screeching, inhuman, and rarely seen creatures called the Hollow Men. The mission is for Levi and whoever is manning the eastern guard post to keep them from escaping.
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Teller is a fine enough actor, but he’s not particularly charismatic and vibrant, so he’s better in lovelorn or hangdog roles that ask for our sympathy rather than ones where the fate of the world hangs in the balance. Taylor-Joy, as she proved in projects ranging from The Queen’s Gambit to Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, is great at everything, so consider it our (and Levi’s) good fortune that she’s the one guarding the eastern side of the ravine.
Levi first spies the beautiful Drasa from across the mysterious 600-meter divide in butt-flattering tight jeans, an early sign that Derrickson (Sinister, The Black Phone) is not attempting a love story for the ages. Although they are prohibited from contacting each other, the pair begin communicating by writing messages on large drawing pads, which begs the exciting question of whether they’ll have enough paper to last an entire year. Soon they’re playfully sharpshooting across the gorge to the Ramones’ “Blitzkrieg Bop,” which is interrupted by a Hollow Men attack, providing an early sense of the danger they’re up against.
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We never learn much about Levi and Drasa except that they’re both beautiful and troubled, which leaves it to Teller and Taylor-Joy to make us care through sheer force of star power. And they do keep us awake as Levi goes wildly against protocol by rappelling across the gorge, flowers in tow, to meet Drasa face to face. Although neither has seen another human in six months, they’d be justified if they just hopped into bed. But Derrickson wants to establish a plausible romantic relationship, so instead, they drink wine against a green screen and compare notes on their various kills.
Still, given the limited time they have to connect, no amount of sensual dancing and post-coital googly eyes can make us buy the depth of a connection based, let’s face it, on expediency and loneliness. And if the film is trying to establish an additional motivation for Levi and Drasa to protect each other, one would hope that the possibility of a grisly death would be motivation enough.
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Ultimately, The Gorge will live or die based on whatever awaits the pair at the bottom of the ravine, and we find out when Levi falls inside, followed immediately by Drasa to the rescue. The details of the movie’s final stretch will not be revealed here, but let’s just say Alfred Hitchcock was right when he said, “there is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.” The reason for the gorge’s existence is about as interesting as the premise of many video games, and when Levi and Drasa stumble upon a film canister and a movie projector that answers all our questions, not only is the answer a letdown but so is how they earned it.
That said, Derrickson brings decent Saturday Night at the Movies-style energy, and he’s not above a fun little jump scare as the bullets and the monster detritus fly. And keeping us in the game is yet another terrific, full-bodied and dissonant score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
The Gorge has a premise that’s almost sturdy enough to survive its limp love story and empty calorie thrills. It’s a down-market patchwork of films like The Keep, Aliens, and Annihilation that lacks the elite action chops of the former and the thematic heft of the latter, unless you consider the reciting of poetry an automatic upgrade in a sci-fi film. Otherwise, what happens in the gorge is about as memorable as what happens in The Gorge. The Gorge, a production of Skydance Media and Crooked Highway, premieres February 14 on Apple TV+. Watch it through the link below:
Watch The Gorge