By John Serba

As if Charlize Theron hadn’t been through enough already in Australia, Apex (now on Netflix) puts the Mad Max: Fury Road star in deep doodoo, deep in the bush. The versatile actor – kinda recently rebranded as an action hero, thanks to the Fast/Furious series, Atomic Blonde and The Old Guard – straps on a climbing harness to play a serial thrillseeker pitted against a serial killer played by a gone-gonzo Taron Egerton. This is a classic Tight 90 thriller from director Baltasar Kormakur, who’s made a name for himself with tense survivalist stories (most recently Beast and Adrift) that meet their modest goals, just like this one does.

APEX: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

The Gist: No big deal, Sasha (Theron) and Tommy (Eric Bana) have pitched a tent on a tiny portable platform on the face of Troll Wall in Norway, about – and I’m just eyeballing this number – 400 million-zillion miles up. They love to climb, which one presumes they do instead of drugs. She superglues the cuts on her fingers from barehand-clinging to tiny nooks and crannies and lips then snuggles up to Tommy, who shares that he might be growing weary of “doing so many extreme things.” It starts a bit of a spat because she likes to push it and push it and push it some more and he’s feeling, shall we say, more prudent these days. Famous last words? Hmm. Sure sounds like it. 

No spoilers here but once the title card hits it’s five months later and Sasha is alone in the Aussie outback gripping Tommy’s “lucky compass” while wearing the expression of a broken, forlorn woman. She’s in Wandarra National Park (note: this does not exist in real life) which a ranger tells her is a place where “people get lost, and stay lost.” Some greasy kangaroo hunters act all lecherous in her general direction but then there’s Ben (Egerton), who’s far more genial and gives her directions to a gorgeous “secret” spot for her to camp, kayak and hike. She thanks him somewhat warily, buys some of his homemade jerky from the outpost and despite her wariness follows his advice to the lovely locale where nothing terrible would ever, ever happen, I’m just certain of it.

She drives on past the invisible ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER signs and, that night, the sleazy hunters pull up alongside her campsite and mess with her in a gross intimidating fashion. She ends up not really sleeping locked in her truck, cradling a can of pepper spray like a teddy bear. They’re gone by morning, so she packs the kayak, helmets up and gets her adrenaline fix by riding the rapids and paddling through rocky outcroppings. She finds a campsite and hits the tent for the night and when she awakes, the pack she hung in a tree is missing. Curious. She wanders the trail and comes across another campsite and wouldn’t you know it, there’s Ben, hanging out among a vast and tangled outcropping of RED FLAGS. He’s friendly, though! Offers her some brekkie, which she accepts, but not without suspicion. He says the ’roo hunters don’t hunt with proper reverence for nature and whatnot, then proves himself more reverent by brandishing a crossbow and giving Sasha a head start. Very sporting of him. Can’t help but respect that! 

What Movies Will It Remind You Of? Well, Sasha/Theron does find herself driving a truck down a long dusty winding Australian road, but how much fury is present is up for debate. Otherwise Apex is Most Dangerous Game crossed with Cliffhanger or one of Kormakur’s other films, Everest, with maybe some bits of Predator and 127 Hours, too.  

Performance Worth Watching: The MMA acting cage match here is between Egerton’s amusingly cartoon-villainish scenery-gnawing and Theron’s thoughtful blend of steely perseverance and vulnerability. Let’s go with the more nuanced work and give this accolade to Theron.

Sex And Skin: Egerton’s impressively sculpted glutes; some bloated naked corpses.

Our Take: The title of the movie has a double-meaning, see, whether you refer to reaching the mountain summit or put the word next to “predator.” No shit, sherlock, you’re inevitably thinking as I point out such an obviousness, but that’s the level of depth Kormakur hopes to reach with Apex. Again: modest goals, in this case, to tell the story of an adrenaline junkie and give us our own little tasty hormonal thrill. Jeremy Robbins’ screenplay stirs a bit of off-the-shelf Grief And Loss into Theron’s character, who almost certainly ponders whether there’s a finite amount of luck for people like her, who push themselves to their limits and do crazy shit Because It’s There. Theron brings more nonverbal considerations to the role than it likely needs, but she ultimately elevates some boilerplate fare into an unobtrusively compelling character study.  

The film follows through on a fairly simple premise, jumping right to the action so we can quickly acclimate to its warm-to-hot temps, with Kormakur maintaining a level of velocity in the final hour that doesn’t allow the sweat to dry. There are moments when Sasha is quite literally up shit creek without a paddle, moments of psychological warfare, moments of surprise in the final act, moments where some logical deficiencies, if you’re feeling forgiving, can be explained away as heat-of-the-moment desperation. The visual effects are mostly convincing and the New South Wales scenery can be impressive in its intimidating beauty. Memorable performances and Kormakur’s ability to generate teethgrinding tension during both active and quiet moments make Apex an effective thriller. The world can use more Tight 90s like this.

Our Call: Apex isn’t the first movie to climb this particular survivalist-thriller mountain, but it does it with skill both behind and in front of the camera. STREAM IT.

John Serba is a freelance film critic from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Werner Herzog hugged him once.