Apex (2026)

Directed by: Baltasar Kormákur

Written by: Jeremy Robbins

With: Charlize Theron as Sasha, a rock climber and Tommy’s widow, Eric Bana as Tommy, a rock climber and Sasha’s husband, for the first reel anyway. Taron Egerton as Ben Eric Bana.

Take The Most Dangerous Game, Deliverance, just a hint of Red Dragon; add great camera work, breathtaking rock climbing sequences, outstanding sound effects, spectacular scenery, and you’ve got Apex. A well crafted screenplay and polished direction are icing on the cake.

The picture opens in a kind of place where defy-the-odds types go to end their inner torment and challenge Mr Grim Reaper (Alpinist Division). The Troll is 3600 feet of unforgiving rock in Norway, and husband Tommy and wife Sasha are foolhardy enough to climb it. I am sure they are not the first, nor will they be the last.

However, there was this, ah.. obstacle . Just like on the Matterhorn in the Disney version of the James Ramsey Ulleman’s novel Banner in the Sky. You guessed it , the overhang! No James MacArthur to help out this time. Sasha takes it personally. Husband Tommy advises patience. The damn rock ain’t going anywhere.

Night closes in and Tommy, after enduring a lot of mouth from “there’s no barrier that cannot breached” Sasha (and you wonder why I am not married), declares this attempt at summiting to be on hold, requiring a descent down the rock face.

An ice storm assaults the two as nature sneaks a hand in, the ace up that sleeve being the climber’s natural nemesis, rocks, offspring of The Troll. Tommy, that maroon, takes the direct/fast route to the bottom so as not being late for his appointment at the crematorium 

(We are spared the Wilhelm scream with doppler effect. The scream was voiced long ago by western actor Sheb Wooley; Ben Miller in High Noon and others, sorry boys, no Eye-Tie westerns; and writer/performer of that iconic rock ‘n Roll hit of my yut ,The Purple People Eater.

”I said Mr. Purple People Eater, what’s your line?

He said eating purple people, and it sure is fine,

But that’s not the reason that I came to land

I wanna get a job in a rock ‘n’ roll band”.

and Don’t we all…) Sasha blames herself for his death., you know. Tommy’s, not Sheb’s.

Long dissolve to : Australis Terra Interior , Hic sunt dracones: the fictional Wandarra National Park. Seems the late husband Tommy was a native of those parts and Sasha is there on a twofold mission.

Tommy kept that appointment with the crematorium and his ashes coming going home. Sasha’s up for some stressful R&R. Two byods, one stone.

At the ranger station she notices several missing persons posters. Seems folks on a jaunt through the park went walk-about hereabouts and the Danger Ranger never laid eyes on ’em after they stepped off into the big muddy.

At a down-under version of a 7/11 Sasha encounters two generic Outback louts. Nineteenth Century chauvinist swine you’ve seen in one of the many tiresome versions of Road Warrior movies or any movie set in Alice Springs. Motorized pinheads with guns. Too much time spent with dingos, combined with inbreeding gives new meaning to the concept of sister/wife.

She is saved by the intervention of a good Samaritan. Perhaps too good.

Sasha steps off into the Lawless Wild. The suspense begins. As you might expect she has the opportunity to employ all her survival skills, over the first cousin of the Norwegian overhang, and deal with not just opponents provided by feral nature, but a villain cut from the same bolt of dirty cloth as Ed Gein.

Charlize is lookin’ real good.

Available for streaming on Netflix