The set-up of APEX—the new Charlize Theron Netflix movie that began streaming today—is simple. Taron Egerton is a deranged killer, and Charlize Theron has to outrun him in the Australian wilderness. It’s straight-forward, looks great, and it’s super entertaining. What more could you want from a Netflix movie?

Directed by Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur, with a screenplay written by Jeremy Robbins, APEX stars Theron as Sasha, an experienced climber grieving the death of her husband (played by Eric Bana). She embarks on a solo hiking-and-kayaking trip in the Australian wilderness, where she meets a friendly local (Egerton) who offers her travel tips. But when she follows the route he suggests, she quickly realizes he isn’t friendly at all. He’s a deranged serial killer, and he wants to hunt the most dangerous game: her.

It’s really not that complicated, but if you weren’t paying attention and get lost along the way, then don’t worry, because Decider is here to help. Read on for a breakdown of the APEX plot summary and APEX ending explained, including what Charlize Theron throws in the ocean at the end of APEX.

APEX movie plot summary:

The movie opens with Sasha (Charlize Theron) and her husband Tommy (Eric Bana) doing a tandem climb on Norway’s treacherous Troll Wall. Sasha tries again and again to reach the top of the mountain, but keeps falling and being caught by the rope secured to Tommy. She wants to keep going, but reluctantly heeds Tommy’s warning that she needs a break. That night, Tommy reveals he would like to slow down their lives, and stop doing so many extreme things. He says his “lucky compass” is telling him to turn back. Sasha dismisses him for backing out when things get hard.

The next day, Sasha and Tommy are forced to rapel back down the mountain because of a storm. A rock slide knocks Tommy off the wall. Sasha holds onto his rope for as long as she can, but has to let go when it’s dragging them both down the mountain. Tommy dies.

Five months later, Sasha takes a solo hiking-and-kayaking trip in Australia, where Tommy was from. She’s warned by a park ranger that the area is dangerous, and lot of people get lost and go missing in the wilderness, especially recently. A friendly, jerky-making local named Ben (Taron Egerton) helps Sasha with directions, and offers her an easy route and a hard route. He advises her to take the hard route, and she does.

While kayaking, Sasha comes across many hand-made memorials for missing people along the shore. She sets up camp and contemplates Tommy’s lucky compass, which she has with her. That night, she hangs up her bag just like you’re supposed to. But the next morning, she hears a strange bird screech, and when she exits her tent, the bag—all her supplies—is missing. She kayaks down the river and comes across Ben’s camp set up. Ben offers to re-up Sasha on supplies, but insists she join him for a meal, first. Sasha, who really needs those supplies, agrees.

After a strange conversation with Ben, in which he reveals he knows who Sasha is and knows about her rock climbing past, Ben reveals it was him who made that weird bird noise, and him who stole Sasha’s bag. Ben, it turns out, is a psychopath who likes to hunt the most dangerous game, aka humans. He keeps Sasha’s phone but returns her bag, and tells him she has until the end of the song he blasts—”Go” by the Chemical Brothers—to get as far away from him as possible. After the song, he’s coming after her. It’s game on. Go!

Sasha bolts. She manages to outrun him for a while, but knows she won’t be able to leave the area without a boat. She tries to steal Ben’s boat while he’s distracted, but finds herself caught in his bear trap. Ben ties her up and takes her to a remote cave, where she sees decomposing bodies of Ben’s many other victims. Yep, you guessed it: Ben is a cannibal! He files his teeth into fangs! The jerky he makes is human meat! And Sasha ate some! Gross!

Sasha, spying a picture of Ben’s mother in the cave, brings up Ben’s mom to get him emotional. It works, he reminisces that Mom was his first victim. Sasha uses the distraction to attack him and escape, despite her hands still being bound and connected to Ben via a cable. Sasha drags Ben down the river, down a water fall, where he’s knocked unconscious. Sasha attempts to kill him with a big rock before he wakes, but he comes to. In the struggle, Sasha is nearly choked to death, but she does manage to at least break Ben’s leg.

Exhausted, Sasha and Ben collapse on the riverbank, still bound together. Sasha deduces the only way to survive is to climb the the nearby mountain. Otherwise, it’s much too long of a journey by foot to reach civilization. She proposes to Ben that they do a tandem climb up the mountain together. She says she will build Ben a harness and pull him up the mountain, if he gives her the climbing harness he’s already wearing. (Which he had to lower them into the caves, earlier.) Ben agrees, but warns Sasha that if she tries abandon the harness and drop him, that he will drag her down the mountain, too.

Sasha begins the climb, pulling Ben along with her. While taking a break on a ledge, Sasha secretly loosens her harness, and secures her other rope to a rickety tree, to keep the tension on Ben. But Ben realizes what she’s doing, and tries to pull her down. Sasha holds onto the tree, and Ben pulls the harness off Sasha, but doesn’t bring her with it. Now, Ben is only hanging on by the tree. Sasha unties the rope from the tree, and lets Ben fall to his bloody death.

But Sasha’s not out of the woods yet. Now she needs to free-solo climb up the rest of this mountain if she wants to survive. It’s not easy, but she does it!

APEX movie ending explained:

Sasha limps back to the road, where a friendly hiker finds her and gives her a ride back to her car. Sasha returns to the park ranger station, and reveals she knows where all the missing people are. They aren’t missing—they were taken. Helicopters recover over 20 bodies from Ben’s sick little jerky-making cave, allowing the families of his victims to find closure. Meanwhile, Sasha finally finds her own closure re: Tommy’s death.

What does Charlize Theron throw in the ocean at the end of APEX?

In the final scene of the movie, Sasha tosses Tommy’s lucky compass into the ocean, finally able to let go of the guilt for having let of that rope. If you don’t remember that compass, go back to the beginning of the movie, when Sasha and Tommy spend the night before the storm in the tent on the side of the mountain. He briefly mentions it. It’s really just a visual representation of Tommy, to show that Sasha is ready to let him go.

Just before the film ends, Sasha hears a bird caw, reminiscent of the bird call that Ben would do. It startles her, and the movie ends with Sasha looking uneasy.

In other words, even though the movie pretty much wraps everything up with a bow, it is leaving the door just slightly open to perhaps continue this story. Sure, it probably really was just a bird. Or maybe Ben has a crazed cannibal brother who’s still out there. He did say the teeth-sharpening thing was a tribal ritual, so perhaps there are more like him. At the very least, Sasha is clearly going to carry some trauma from this experience, and will be looking over her shoulder a lot in the coming years.

When asked if he had discussed the possibility of a sequel with Charlize Theron (also a producer on the film, as well as its star), APEX director Baltasar Kormákur told Decider, “We haven’t really talked about it, to be honest. But you never know what lies ahead of you. I would certainly work with her again, and Taron as well. That would be something.”