Susan Granger’s review of “The Gorge” (Apple TV+)
“The Gorge” is a remote, fog-shrouded place that the most powerful nations of the world are determined to keep secret. Ever since the end of W.W, II, it’s been guarded by enormous watchtowers perched on opposite sides.
This sci-horror thriller begins as two elite, world-class snipers are chosen to maintain and protect the huge, remote chasm. On the Eastern European side, there’s Drasa (Anya Taylor-Joy), a renowned markswoman from Lithuania, and on the Western side, there’s Levi (Miles Teller), an experienced American assassin who stealthily moves from the miliary to contract work.
Accepting this ‘cloaked’ assignment involves a year-long commitment with no technology: no Wi-Fi, no phones, no communication with the outside world. Only a radio check-in with their respective headquarters every 30 days. They have no idea where they are on the globe and are forbidden to contact one another.
But they do have high-tech binoculars – so the inevitable happens. She sees him; he sees her. The only hitch is that hideous, ravenous monsters – dubbed ‘The Hollow Men’ from a T.S. Eliot poem – keep surfacing from the depths of the mysterious abyss, trying to scale the steep walls. requiring Drasa and Levi to utilize all of their weaponized experience just to stay alive.
“The Gorge is the door to hell…You need to stop what’s there from coming out!” That’s really all you need to know.
Cleverly scripted by Zach Dean (“The Tomorrow War”), who manages to mesh sci-fi horror with romance, and inventively directed by Scott Derrickson (“Doctor Strange”), it’s a fun ‘n’ frightening excursion into a chilling genetic mystery – packed with quirky historical twists, screwy sci-fi science and relentless, radioactive action.
The chemistry clicks between Anya Taylor-Joy (“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” “The Queen’s Gambit”) and Miles Taylor (“Top Gun: Maverick,” “Whiplash”) with additional menace emanating from a cold-blooded paramilitary spook played by Sigourney Weaver.
Full disclosure: My son, Don Granger, was one of the producers.
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Gorge” is an exciting, explosive, engaging 8, streaming on Apple TV+.
