With a title like The Gorge, you might expect a brutal survival thriller, a battle against nature’s wrath in some desolate canyon.  What you get instead is something much stranger—a genre mashup that’s part sci-fi actioner, part romance, and part neo-emo existential crisis.  Directed by Scott Derrickson (Sinister, Doctor Strange), the film aims high with its ambitious mix of ideas but ultimately lands somewhere in the middle, never as thrilling or cinematically passionate as it wants to be.

The Apple TV+ film follows Levi (Miles Teller, Top Gun: Maverick) and Drasa (Anya Taylor-Joy, The Menu), two elite operatives stationed on opposite sides of a deep gorge, guarding it against an unknown, possibly supernatural threat.  What begins as a high-stakes mission morphs into an unconventional love story as the two form a forbidden connection despite their strict no-contact orders. 

It’s admittedly an intriguing setup—think The Abyss meets Mr. & Mrs. Smith—but the script struggles to find its footing.  At times, it’s an adrenaline-fueled thriller; at others, it’s a slow-burn romance; and occasionally, it dips into maudlin meditative musings on fate and duty.  The problem is that it never fully commits to any of these, leaving the film with a massive identity crisis, often at critical junctures when it should be moving forward narratively.

Teller and Taylor-Joy are more than capable of handling the film’s demands, but their chemistry is oddly muted.  Their connection is supposed to be the film’s emotional anchor, yet it never quite sparks the way it needs to.  The film insists they’re drawn to each other, but it doesn’t show us in a way that feels natural or deeply felt.  Even a welcome supporting turn from Sigourney Weaver (The Good House)—clearly having fun in an throwaway role—can’t inject enough energy to elevate the central “love above the gorge” story.

Visually, The Gorge has its moments, thanks to cinematographer Dan Laustsen’s (The Shape of Water) eye for atmospheric sci-fi landscapes.  But an overreliance on CGI makes everything feel strangely artificial, as if the filmmakers couldn’t decide whether to lean into practical effects or fully embrace a digital aesthetic.  The result is an awkward blend that never quite immerses the viewer.

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s score should be a highlight, given their track record for moody, evocative soundscapes (Challengers, Queer, etc.).  Instead, their work here feels atypically uninspired, never enhancing the film’s charged beats in the way their best compositions do.  Rick Heinrichs’ production design offers a few impressive set pieces, but they’re often swallowed by CGI-heavy sequences that sap them of their tangible impact.

The film’s biggest issue is that it doesn’t trust its audience.  Rather than letting the central romance develop naturally, Zach Dean‘s screenplay constantly reminds us that this is a love story, forcing melodramatic beats that don’t feel earned.  The action sequences, while competently staged, lack the visceral intensity that would make them truly gripping.  Dean also wrote The Tomorrow War, another straight-to-streaming film for Prime Video that was far more effective in balancing the personal and the pulpy.

That’s not to say The Gorge is a disaster.  It’s an easy watch, the kind of film that plays fine on a streaming service where expectations are lower.  There are flashes of intrigue, hints of something deeper, and strong performances that do their best with the material.  But it’s also frustrating—one of those movies that teases greatness but never quite delivers.  You might say that The Gorge finds itself caught in a chasm between genres: too unfocused to be a great action movie, too shallow to be a great romance, and too scattered to be a great sci-fi thriller.  It’s entertaining enough—but given the talent involved, it should have been much more.