Intrepid outdoorswoman Sasha (Charlize Theron) has all the physical tools she needs to survive the Australian outback, but if she had spent more time indoors, especially watching movies, she might have been a little more cautious when venturing out. All the threats so vividly established in films from “Wolf Creek” to “The Royal Hotel” are further flagged in Baltasar Kormakur’s punchy survival thriller “Apex,” where they once again assume the form of mostly human men, a nod to the venomous snakes and wild rapids that appear along the way.
Played with grin and glee by the surprisingly adversarial type Taron Egerton, the initially affable lumberjack Ben is every Down Under psycho you’ve ever seen on screen rolled into one stubborn, pudgy package, and a striking screen presence not unlike Theron’s brawny khaki-clad glamazon. So the two are well-suited for a wild weasel-and-mouse chase across land, water, and claustrophobic rock crevices, even if there’s not a moment’s doubt as to who will win in the end. A gleefully pulpy return to the genre after the sentimental diversion of 2024’s Oscar-nominated Touch, Kormakur’s film doesn’t exactly wow, but it more than makes up for it with an emotional action spectacle.
In fact, it feels like a waste to release “Apex” directly to Netflix, where it’s a generally better-made, adrenaline-fueled film that’s sure to get wilder streaming numbers than recent viral hits like “Thrash.” But within a minute of filming, capturing the dizzying scale of the wind-swept, terrifying rock formations of Norway’s famous Troll Wall, instantly making you sick to your stomach as you look down to the ground far, far below, it’s clear that the movie’s natural habitat is the movie theater. Preferably in a packed multiplex house on a Friday night, where viewers can shriek in unison at each obvious but effective shock.
The first such chorus comes in the film’s nauseating 10-minute prologue, when Sasha and her burly Australian boyfriend Tommy (Eric Bana) pitch their tent on the aforementioned hyper-vertical Norwegian cliffs in the midst of an extreme mountaineering expedition that, in their world, passes for fun. Or at least in Sasha’s case, in an early heart-to-heart, Tommy admits he’s slowing down, so we know it’s almost time for a toast. Sure enough, in the intense mountain climbing scene that follows, a tragic accident kills him, leaving Sasha wracked with guilt.
Five months later, she is driving alone through the great wilderness of New South Wales to soothe his soul and piece together her own. This road is difficult terrain for solo female travelers for a variety of reasons. It begins with him being harassed by aggressively naughty local men at a gas station and later at a remote campsite. Ben, who is more polite, initially exhibits the chivalrous attitude of intervening, but Sasha is wary enough to resist his friendly advances, even if they are not his kindly instructions. Big mistake. With his regular buzz-cut hair and overall jovial demeanor, Egerton is expertly cast, projecting a more chipper type of masculinity than the type we’re usually invited to fear in such scenarios—at least until the game begins when he’s not quite like that with a loaded crossbow in his hand.
The rules of this game are simple, it’s really kill or be killed. Kormakur and screenwriter Jeremy Robbins establish the rules in a short amount of time. Like almost every other Apex installment, it clocks in at a lean 95 minutes and barely touches on the trauma behind its protagonists when there’s immediate danger to contend with. Its brisk storytelling economy fits well with Theron’s own concise, coherent performance style. She doesn’t play Sasha as a dull superwoman—her fearsome fighting spirit still allows for human wear and tear, scars, and palpable fatigue—but as in Mad Max: Fury Road, her realistic physicality makes for compelling viewing. We feel the toll on her body as she is thrown against rocks or beaten by strong currents.
Egerton, by contrast, grandstands with a little more pomp. Relishing the pivot to full-on villainy, he makes Ben an increasingly unhinged movie monster who can be compared to other guys you might know. And the idea that a bunch of men left out in the elements might rot into caveman psychosis is perhaps the point of Apex, insofar as Kormakur’s thoroughly instantaneous nail-biting makes sense.
Because it’s essentially a proudly entertaining B-movie with plenty of the benefits of A-movie craftsmanship. Shah’s superb cinematography, National Geographic-sized scene settings alternate with hilarious, propulsive movements during the chase. Sigurdur Eythorsson’s crisp and effective cutting. The roaring sound design and stunt choreography are to die for at first glance. You won’t remember it long after the end credits roll, and it’ll be quickly interrupted by Netflix’s next algorithmic recommendation, but it’s a happy throwback to a time when more junk food movies had to look, sound and feel this good, albeit on a much larger canvas.
