Sci-fi devotees are feasting at Apple TV+ these days. From For All Mankind (which will spin off into the Star City series) to Foundation and Silo, no shortage of original-series hits exists. The tech giant’s streaming service is hard at work on the movie side, too, with an added secret weapon-team of atmospheric wizards, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who have scored upcoming film The Gorge. This creature feature will also star a sci-fi legend behind the leading duo, so let’s explore what to expect from his movie.
Plot
This film will land during the Valentine “season.” Don’t roll your eyes because, to that end, co-star Miles Teller told Screenrant that this movie is “good alternative programming… to your typical love story,” and Anya Taylor-Joy added that this movie weaves in “so many genres” to showing that romance. Teller further promised that “they have to go through some really entertaining, engaging, high-octane, hellacious sh*t to end up with each other,” which is supported by the film’s trailer that doesn’t hold back on story hints.
Director Scott Derickson (Sinister, Doctor Strange) helms the story of two snipers (Levi and Drasa), who are recruited by Sigourney Weaver’s mysterious character to guard opposite sides of a gorge that might be “the door to Hell,” according to a character portrayed by Sope Dirisu. The sniping duo isn’t allowed outside contact or communication with each other, but they end up falling in love (as much as two people can) through binoculars. Voyeuristically? Maybe. From Apple TV+’s film synopsis:
Two highly-trained operatives are appointed to posts in guard towers on opposite sides of a vast and highly classified gorge, protecting the world from an undisclosed, mysterious evil that lurks within. They bond from a distance while trying to stay vigilant in defending against an unseen enemy. When the cataclysmic threat to humanity is revealed to them, they must work together in a test of both their physical and mental strength to keep the secret in the gorge before it’s too late.
The film involves hefty fight-or-flight scenes and heavy stunt work, but while speaking with Collider, Teller revealed that the most difficult part of the movie to film was actually a dance scene due to technical difficulties involving a camera and wifi, which led to the pair filming “a whole day” to achieve “one shot” in the dance sequence. The lo-fi trick, apparently, was when Derrickson “just [took] the camera outside and [reset] it, and that worked.”
Another presence will loom larger than the Lovecraftian creatures in The Gorge, too. That would be the score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and you can always count on Reznor to be vocal about any situation. As he recently told Indiewire, the pair has now almost entirely devoted themselves to scoring films because they enjoy “the collaborative experience with interesting people.” Additionally, the pair dropped hints to GQ about their “kind of haunted, chanting murmur” that will set the mood for The Gorge, including in scenes such as “Teller and Taylor-Joy in an evil-looking spiky forest.”
Reznor, as well, praised his musical partner for their symbiotic process, in which Reznor tends to watch a scene and “improvise some music,” and then Atticus uses his “superpower” to pull everything together to actually work with the scene. Their approach has made them a go-to pair for prestige-project scores since David Fincher’s The Social Network.
Cast
The creature(s) and the atmosphere do plenty of acting in this movie, but Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy are headlining with Sigourney Weaver picking up her sci-fi queen crown for another go.
Release Date
Happy Valentines Day: The Gorge streams on Feb. 14, 2025 on Apple TV+.
Trailer
The trailer sets up the movie’s romance and adventure: