Apex: Movie Review

A little Netflix original never hurt anybody. I’ll admit, before coming across this while browsing through Netflix, I had no idea it was even being released. What immediately grabbed my attention was the cast: Charlize Theron and Taron Edgerton leading a survival action movie together sounded exactly like the kind of chaotic, entertaining watch I wanted for a Wednesday evening.

The premise is fairly straightforward. Charlize Theron stars as Sasha, an adrenaline junkie who spends her time climbing mountains alongside her Australian boyfriend, Tommy. While attempting to scale the Troll Wall in Norway, the pair are caught in a violent storm and forced to make their way back down to safety. During their descent, a rock from an avalanche hits Tommy in the head and knocks him off the wall. The weight of his body threatens to bring Sasha down as well, so she has no other choice than to cut his rope off, condemning him to his death in order to save herself.

Five months later, Sasha is still consumed by grief and guilt as she heads to Australia’s Wandarra National Park for a solo hiking trip. On the drive there, she stops at a remote gas station and encounters an unsettling park ranger who warns her about a recent string of disappearances in the area. Not long after, two hunters begin heckling her and making her increasingly uneasy before a stranger steps in and scares them off. The stranger introduces himself as Ben, offering Sasha directions and suggesting the perfect starting point if she really wants to experience the beauty of the park.

Once she sets off on her own, things quickly begin to unravel. Sasha loses her backpack and soon crosses paths with Ben again, only to realise that he was the one who stole it in the first place as part of a carefully planned trap. It becomes horrifyingly clear that Ben is a psychopathic killer who has lured her deep into the wilderness with the intention of hunting her down for sport. Clearly revelling in his twisted game, Ben pulls out a boombox and a crossbow before telling Sasha she has until the end of the song to run as far as she can before he comes after her.

What follows is a tense cat-and-mouse chase set against the harsh yet stunning backdrop of the Australian wilderness. Whether she’s kayaking through dangerous rivers or scrambling across steep hillsides, Sasha is forced to rely on every survival instinct she has if she wants any chance of escaping with her life.

The highlight of the movie is, without doubt, Taron Edgerton’s performance. It’s a role unlike any other we’ve seen from him before, yet he slips into it effortlessly. Ben is revealed to be a cannibal who lures people into his cave before killing them and turning them into jerky (even his own mother). It’s the kind of character that gives an actor the freedom to fully embrace the darkest, most unhinged corners of their abilities, and Edgerton throws himself into it completely. There’s a clear sense that he’s relishing every moment of the role, making Ben both deeply disturbing and strangely captivating to watch.

Will this movie win any awards or break new ground in storytelling? Definitely not. But if you’re looking for something that can keep you thoroughly entertained for an hour and a half on a weekday evening while also delivering some genuinely strong performances, then it absolutely succeeds at that. It knows exactly what kind of film it wants to be and leans into it confidently, making for a tense and enjoyable watch from start to finish.