Apple TV+’s The Gorge is a wildly entertaining mash-up of genres that somehow works beautifully … for the most part. (More on that later.) At its heart, it’s a love story that’s driven by action, with splashes of sci-fi, sharp comedy, and even a touch of political drama stirred in for good measure. What truly makes it shine, though, are the engaging performances from Anya Taylor-Joy (Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga) and Miles Teller (The Offer), who add personality and depth to every scene.

The setup is fairly simple. Two snipers man towers on opposite sides of a deep gorge. One’s an ex-Marine who writes poetry and has 113 confirmed sniper kills. The other is a Lithuanian sniper with incredible patience and a record that rivals her counterpart. Both are single, share remarkable accuracy with their weapons, and are haunted by the people they have killed and the widows and orphans left in their wake.

Levi (Teller) and Drasa (Taylor-Joy) are recruited by their respective governments for one-year stints manning the towers. They receive minimal information about their assignments and are dropped on opposite sides of the mysterious gorge without knowing their exact locations. There are gardens for veggies and game to hunt for meat. Their days will be spent checking gun turrets set up every 600 meters on the edge of the gorge. Dangling mines also require maintenance checks, and there are special “cloakers” that block the gorge from being seen by satellites.

Their sole task is to keep what’s in the gorge from getting out. Why? Because if the “Hollow Men” who reside in the gorge escape, they could potentially wipe out the human population. The gorge watch has been in existence for decades and operates under strict secrecy. The West Tower and East Tower snipers don’t know each other and are forbidden from communicating. Of course, since romance is a key element of The Gorge, both parties will disobey that order.

It’s Drasa who makes the first move months into their solitary confinement. They engage in flirtatious written exchanges, toast to Drasa’s birthday, and even compare their longest kill shots. You know, as we all do when starting a romantic relationship. The sweet messages ultimately lead to Levi taking a logic-defying leap forward in their budding romance-a leap that could lead to the end of the world.

The gorge’s residents are suitably creepy, and their origin story, while incredibly bizarre, is believable enough. The effects are top-notch, and Teller and Taylor-Joy convincingly portray assassins who find a love connection in the most extreme circumstances imaginable.

It’s not until Drasa and Levi connect through their long-distance messages that The Gorge fully finds its footing and comes to life. Taylor-Joy and Teller have real chemistry as two lonely souls who form a partnership of equals. Their relationship is not only convincing but also genuinely entertaining to watch develop.

An assumption established in the initial setup is turned on its head in the film’s third act. Zach Dean’s script takes the story in a dramatically different direction than anticipated. But the shocking twist is revealed almost too late. It feels worthy of much more in-depth attention than it gets, which is why I added the “for the most part” caveat in the opening paragraph.

The Gorge may stumble with its twist, but the energetic performances from Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy more than make up for it.

GRADE: B

MPA Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, brief strong language, some suggestive material and thematic elements
Release Date: February 14, 2025 on Apple TV+
Running Time: 2 hours 7 minutes
Directed By: Scott Derrickson (The Black Phone)