Movie Review: 'The Gorge' is an Early Best of the Year Candidate

The Gorge

Directed by Scott Derricks

Written by Zach Dean

Starring Anya Taylor Joy, Miles Teller

Release Date February 14th, 2025

Published February 13th, 2025

A woman awakes in a makeshift bed in a wooded area. She marks off a day on a makeshift calendar and begins to listen for a specific sound. That sound is the arrival of a small aircraft on a tiny airstrip far from the rest of the world, and a good deal of distance from where this woman is. The unknown woman then pulls out a long range weapon with a precision scope and trains it on the door of the plane, some distance away. When a man emerges from the plane, the gun is fired, the man falls dead, and the scene comes to an end.

Editing and visual context are all you have to go on. It’s disorienting but with purpose. The film intends to cause a little confusion and chaos because part of the journey of the movie is clearing up the confusion surrounding a bizarre new assignment for a pair of well trained killers. Our heroine, Drasa, and her opposite number, Levi (Miles Teller), have been given a bizarre new assignment filled with mystery and intrigue that they will have to clear up if they are to survive it. Naturally, clearing up the confusion will require just the kind of skills Drasa demonstrates in this opening scene, patience, intelligence, skill, and stealth.

So, what is this mysterious assignment? In an agreement between the U.S and Russia, two sides of a large gorge are to be protected by any means necessary. A pair of towers are set up directly opposite to each other, symbolic of the Cold War divide of the recent past. The two sides are intended not to interact and each is here to maintain weapons systems that are trained not on each other but on whatever is inside the gorge. Naturally, the curiosity about who the person in the opposite tower is will get the best of Drasa and Levi and, because they are both young and attractive, it quickly becomes flirtatious.

Though separated by a massive gorge, the two strike an immediate chemistry with notes passed back and forth via their binoculars. The pair each show off their shooting skills and even communicate well enough without speaking that they can play entire games of chess. Their bond is sealed however when the monsters in the gorge attempt to escape. Working together, the pair use their military honed skills to turn back the humanoid gorge monsters, saving each other’s lives.

Eventually, they get together via an elaborate rope and pulley system and the smoking hot chemistry of Miles Teller and Anya Taylor Joy almost makes you forget you are watching a sci-fi action thriller. For a time, you are watching these two incredibly attractive people vibe and carry on charming banter about their backstories, and it’s really entertaining. Director Scott Derrickson smartly lets this scene breathe and gives his two terrific stars the chance to shine, be funny, and be romantic. Their bond makes what comes next so much more interesting.

The action of The Gorge simply must go into the gorge and we need to know more about the weird conspiracy that created the monsters of this monster movie. And, all of this works nearly as well as the romantic comedy between Teller and joy. These characters are so terrific and terrifically capable that their fight scenes against the monster antagonists have a charm of their own. The two are always saving each other from some elaborate monster fight and we can’t help but cheer at their dedication to each other and their deepening romantic bond amid this insane situation.

The action of The Gorge is spectacular, inventive and a little scary. One sequence set inside of a church features spiders with human skulls for heads crawling on anything and everything and blowing up spectacularly when they are shot or crushed. The production design in this sequence, and in many of the monster scenes, is outstanding as is the seamless CGI which grounds the scene in a reality specific to this movie universe. It’s so much fun and still quite creepy, scary and exciting.

I had no idea what to expect when I sat down to watch The Gorge and I came away incredibly surprised. The Gorge combines sci-fi monsters, a conspiracy plot, and a fiery romance with the kind of ease that not many movies can achieve. The chemistry of our leads and the talent of director Scott Derrickson have combined to make a genuinely special movie, one of my early favorites of 2025. I’m kind of bummed that The Gorge is on Apple TV. I would have loved to have seen The Gorge on the big screen in a crowded theater. I can easily imagine it being a memorable theatrical experience. Oh well, gather your friends and watch The Gorge on Apple TV, it is one of the first great movies of 2025.

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