If you're tired of online dating, why not try being stationed alone in a watchtower by a mysterious chasm? The latter method turns out to be surprisingly successful in The Gorge, as director Scott Derrickson's (The Black Phone) new sci-fi thriller doubles as the world's most unlikely meet-cute.
The film stars Anya Taylor-Joy (Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga) and Miles Teller (Spiderhead) as two highly skilled operatives who connect across the titular gorge. But their love story isn't the only thing on their minds. Unknown horrors lurk in the depths below them, and it's up to the two of them to guard the gorge's secrets — even if they don't know them themselves.
These sci-fi and mystery elements create a fascinating puzzle for The Gorge to solve. It's a shame, then, that so much of the film's runtime is spent on a romance that ranges from inoffensively cute to horrifyingly cheesy, threatening to undermine The Gorge's intrigue at every turn.
What is The Gorge about?
Most of The Gorge's first act focuses on U.S. veteran and elite sniper Levi (Teller), whose lack of meaningful connections to friends or family makes him the perfect candidate for a top-secret mission. For one year, he must man a watchtower on the Western edge of a mist-filled gorge in some undisclosed location. (He's recruited by a very mysterious and very underused Sigourney Weaver.)
As Levi learns from his predecessor, this gorge has been under surveillance since the end of World War II, with Eastern and Western forces collaborating to keep it in check. Given the unlikely allyship, it's clear that the creatures that live within — nicknamed "the Hollow Men" by a 1940s-era watchman — are enough of a threat to the world to warrant collaboration between the U.S. and Russia. Not enough to allow contact between the Eastern and Western watchtowers, though, as Levi is forbidden to communicate with his counterpart across the gorge.
But that's not going to stop his Eastern counterpart! Drasa (Taylor-Joy), a deadly Lithuanian sniper with ties to the Russian government, reaches out to Levi in a moment of loneliness on her birthday. Soon, the two have regular conversations thanks to the power of binoculars and written signs. It's not far from the "To me, you are perfect" scene from Love Actually. Or a good chunk of Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me" music video. These communications are bubbly and sweet — but do they work in a movie like The Gorge?
The Gorge's romance feels out of place.
I am not averse to The Gorge having a romantic element, since there is something quite touching about how Drasa and Levi break through their loneliness to find one another. Yet The Gorge doesn't let us sit in that loneliness long enough for their desperation for company to really resonate. This is especially true of Drasa, who gets almost no interiority during her and Levi's first months in their respective towers. The film's first few minutes do give us a sense of her family life and what she risks losing if she goes to the tower for a year, but the payoff there is negligible. Drasa's role, at least for the first half of the movie, is more to coax Levi out of his shell than to stand on her own two feet.
The courtship, too, rings false given Drasa and Levi's backgrounds. You're telling me these trained operatives would blast loud music or jam out on cutesy makeshift drum kits while on a covert mission that involves creatures who often gravitate towards sound?
Thankfully, at least some of their courtship feels earned, like a discussion of their sniping distance records. Elsewhere, a long-distance chess game (a nod to Taylor-Joy's role in The Queen's Gambit) is the right balance between funny, cutesy, and still feeling in touch with Levi and Drasa as characters.
The best portions of this love story come when the pair fight in tandem. After one of their first conversations, Drasa snaps from sweet to focused when she realizes Hollow Men are crawling up the Western side of the gorge. She jumps into action to protect Levi from afar, and he returns the favor moments later. Seeing how quickly these two gorge-crossed lovers have each other's backs does more for their love story than the entire Love Actually/"You Belong With Me" montage.
The gorge is the real star of The Gorge.
Luckily, we get far more of Drasa and Levi in action once the contents of the gorge come to light. And what fun they are!
The Hollow Men make their first appearance fairly early on in The Gorge, looking like zombies crossed with the Green Knight from David Lowery's The Green Knight. But that first appearance isn't a case of The Gorge overplaying its hand too early. Instead, we're just getting started.
A dip into the gorge itself reveals a frightening world of body horror and genetic mutations, not too far off from Annihilation's trippy Area X. A sequence involving what I can only describe as a flesh tree is a standout, but The Gorge has its fair share of spooky, gloopy fun up its sleeve.
That fun especially comes into play in the film's latter half, which features some predictable plot twists but (maybe more importantly) also unleashes a whole load of "hell yeah" moments. (You'll never guess how they get back out of the gorge!) Taylor-Joy and Teller also prove way more dynamic to watch in action hero mode than in romance mode, especially since their action deepens their love story far more than their clichéd first interactions. (I'm sorry, I just can't get over the drum kits!)
With a first half hampered by a lackluster romance, it could be easy to write The Gorge off. But it's that second half, with all its carnage, that makes the trips into the depths a little bit worth it.
The Gorge premieres Feb. 14 on Apple TV+.
