There isn’t a whole lot of dialogue in the first half of this Post Cold War sci-fi, action, horror film. Two elite snipers, one from the U.S. and one from Russia are stationed in huge towers across The Gorge, but why? What are they keeping at bay?
We haven’t seen Miles Teller since (Top Gun:Maverick and Whiplash). Levi (Teller) has just been stationed in a cold war bunker with little to keep him busy except drink potato vodka, read books and notes written by predecessors on the wall decades prior. He’s in a huge cement structure at the top of this massive gorge, only able to communicate with his American supervisors by radio. Sigourney Weaver plays the strident Bartholomew, in charge of this operation. She only appears at the beginning and end of the film
Drasa (Anya Taylor-Joy, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, The Menu) is his strong Russian counterpart in the bunker on the other side of the Gorge. She seems to have a similar living situation, but with music, and better vodka. At first they do what they’re supposed to do. Ignore each other. But curiosity grows as they peer across through binoculars over the huge cavernous divide.
An hour into the film, she starts writing questions and comments on a huge sketch pad with a marker, and he does same. Is this the beginning of a beautiful relationship or a frustrating one? Director Scott Derrickson,(Doctor Strange, The Black Phone) and Writer, Zach Dean (The Tomorrow War) creates this silent communication system for the beginning of a romance as they use quips and comedy to get to know each other, as they’re waiting for something to happen.
Levi and Drusa are there to protect a secret scientific experiment from entering the world. Predictably, there are monsters down there. Levi and Drusa’s job is to make sure that what lives in the Gorge, stays in The Gorge.
Of course, Levi figures out a way to get over to her side which turns the story into a romance, until circumstances inevitably turns their situation into an action thriller for survival. They fight what is known as “The Hollow Men,” referencing a T.S. Eliot poem. The monsters are former humans whose DNA has mutated. Levi and Drusa do impossible stunts as they try to escape the mutants which are not unlike so many creatures you’ve seen in other sci-fi adventures.
Director Derrickson wanted to limit use of CGI for the film but used it for the big scene where Teller and Taylor-Joy are trying to mount the wall of The Gorge on a jeep that was built on a set with background shot in Norway. Still strenuous, Teller had train for months for this big incongruous action scene where they’re on a jeep winching up the wall of The Gorge as they fight off the mutant monsters. It looks a little cheesy.
What saves this film is the chemistry between the two main characters. Despite the perfunctory sniper shots and explosions, the romantic interplay between Taylor-Joy and Teller helps you stick with it, until a somewhat anti-climactic conclusion.
Apple TV+ 2 hours 7 minutes PG-13
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