Apple TV’s The Gorge feels like The Last of Us got drunk and wandered into the Stranger Things Upside Down. The futuristic dystopian thriller is a high-octane, emotionally raw love story with a twinge of zombie killing. It doesn’t revolutionize the genre, but it’s a decent watch.
Miles Teller plays Levi, a wisecracking sniper carrying a metric ton of emotional baggage. Anya Taylor-Joy is Haley, a solitary assassin reminiscent of Villanelle from Killing Eve. When these two meet in a secretive post-WWII research facility, they form a trauma bond that leads to love similar to Katniss and Peta in The Hunger Games.
When the pair unexpectedly end up in the gorge and start battling decades-old soldiers lost to time, they experience the traditional tropes of military thrillers. Machine guns, smoke bombs and the occasional explosion keep the film moving forward, but only because they have to. Add a random military missile silo, and the hits keep coming. The only novel part of the gorge scene is the slimy part-people, part-neuron mass of creepy zombie parts…which, of course, surrounds the bridge our protagonists must cross to survive.
Interestingly, through all the bullets and killing, The Gorge dares to be sincere. It wears its heart on its bloodstained sleeve, pushing through melodrama with such conviction that you kind of have to respect it. Teller and Taylor-Joy make it work. She gives haunted intensity; he gives lovable screw-up with a death wish. Together, their connection burns bright.
Still, the script gets lost in the third act. It veers dangerously into eye-roll territory, trying to stick an emotional landing while juggling booby traps. Some lines land like poetry. Others land like fan fiction. But let’s be real…isn’t that part of the charm?
RHFC Rating: 5.5/10 🍿
