The opening scene of the new thriller Apex is one of the more memorable I’ve seen in a while. In the span of just a few minutes, we learn a great deal about Sasha (Charlize Theron), an extreme sports enthusiast who is on a dangerous mountain climb with her husband (Eric Bana). He’s more of an expert than she is, and when he sees that a massive storm is on its way, he’s ready to head back down the mountain rather than make it to that elusive summit that she’s having trouble getting to. She keeps slipping then climbing back up; she won’t give up because it’s not in her nature, but staying on the rock-face for too long leads to an awful tragedy and teaches her a lesson (too late) that being an adrenaline junkie and taking risks don’t go hand in hand.
The film jumps ahead in time several months, and Sasha has returned to the land where her husband was born in Australia, where she’s decided to do a bit of whitewater kayaking down a fairly treacherous river. On her drive to the starting point, she’s harassed by local hunters but is able to handle them on her own. Even still, a friendly local named Ben (Taron Egerton) helps her out and even gives her better directions to her destination than her GPS does. As directed by Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur (Beast, Adrift, 2 Guns, 101 Reykjavík), Apex makes us guess where the real threat is going to come from. After her first overnight in her tent, Sasha wakes up to discover that much of her gear has been stolen, she assumes by the hunters. Soon after, she runs into Ben again, and he offers to restock her supplies, but in fact, what begins is a storyline almost as old as the movies themselves involving predator and human prey.
The film underscores my longtime belief that the worst things that can happen to you in this world will all happen to you in Australia. Apex begins as a modern take on The Most Dangerous Game, but turns into something almost sickeningly hyper-violent and truly sinister. Even still, by the end, Sasha and Ben inexplicably have to work together to get out of this situation alive, and it sets up a stunning ending that seems almost too quick, but still caught me off guard. The rock-climbing and kayaking sequences are well shot, and the outback’s jungle locations are lush, dense, and full of horrors.
At the ripe old age of 50 years, Theron is pulling off acts of physical daring that people half her age would be terrified to try. (I realize some of the work here is done by a stunt person, but there are kayaking moments that are clearly her.) She’s not going to win any awards for this performance, but she puts her mind and body into this character and it makes a difference. The movie is basically a slightly polished b-movie with a simple story, the leads going back and forth on who has the upper hand, and I waited eagerly to see how or if Sasha would finally outsmart this fairly intelligent and sophisticated psycho. The only thing that really bummed me out about the experience of watching Apex is that I wasn’t doing so on a big screen; this thing would look great on a wider screen.
The film is now streaming on Netflix.
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