Apex movie review: Charlize Theron faces punishing rock climbing, treacherous cliffs and a psychotic Taron Egerton in a survival thriller

Anyone who has watched Charlize Theron kick ass on screen knows that she has the athleticism to handle herself in even the toughest action roles. Whether with firearms and blades, fists and feet, or behind the wheel, her work is made more profound by an insistence on doing her own stunts whenever possible. In films like Mad Max: Fury Road, Atomic blonde and The old guardHer physicality is equal to any co-star. Netflix’s very bad action thriller summit is a great addition, as the star immerses herself in the rugged Australian landscape and throws the immense force of nature at her while teasing a psychotic serial killer into the mix.

After the departure of 2024 touchesan elegant, decades-spanning drama about lost love, Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur returns to his most familiar intense survival mode with this racy story of an extreme adventure junkie for whom testing her limits is her vocation, and even more so when the odds are stacked against her. The taut nail-biting is well-acted, skillfully choreographed and fast-paced, 95-minute thriller. It’s a rare breed of original broadcast that can safely be called a real movie.

Theron plays Sasha, an American first seen making a difficult winter ascent down a steep rocky slope at Norway’s Trollwall with her Australian boyfriend and regular extreme sports partner, Tommy (Eric Bana). From the get-go, Kormákur and Ace DP Lawrence Sher give us an unnerving sense of the danger they face with the kind of dizzying drone shots that will be used effectively throughout.

Even with the storm approaching, Sasha wants to keep moving upwards with his fingers covered in blood, while Tommy reasonably suggests he call it quits. He eventually convinced her after a little slip and they set up their gated pole tent, which looks like a fragile paper lantern when hung on the cliff wall overnight.

Tommy tells her that he’s reached his threshold with these extreme trips and wants to stop, also expressing concern that Sasha tends to rush into challenges, and takes too many chances. Not entirely surprisingly, this ended in tragedy the next day as they attempted to descend to safety.

Jump (via the stylish main title graphics) to Australia, where a heartbroken Sasha has gone in search of solitude on a camping trip. In the fictitious Wandara National Park, she registers her name with a ranger (Aaron Pedersen), who warns her not to venture into the isolated area alone. Apparently his fears have something to do with the office wall covered in “missing persons” brochures.

Screenwriter Jeremy Robbins places what appears to be a potential threat in the form of a fearsome kangaroo hunter (Matt Whelan) and his drunken companion (Rob Carlton), whose names alone, Diesel and Ripper, convey a hint of menace. Their lascivious flirtation at a backroad supply store leaves Sasha bristling as she cleans them.

The most benign presence is friendly, fresh-faced local boy Ben (Taron Egerton, in a wonderful Oz accent), who sells homemade beef jerky at the store. At the gas pump, he offers directions, advising her to skip the straight line and take a more scenic route to her destination. He doesn’t lie. The views are amazing.

That night the hunters arrived at her campsite overlooking a steep gorge and river, their truck loaded with Roe’s bleeding bodies. Sasha quietly gets annoyed when they become more aggressive, but they get bored and move on once she locks herself in her jeep.

The next morning, you head down the river for some whitewater rafting, which takes on hair-raising shades. Wild river (Remember Meryl’s action?) Once she was chased through an obstacle course of rocks and waterfalls. The fun begins when Ben shows up shortly after her backpack is stolen and insists on offering her replacement gear and breakfast at the remote campsite. But her host soon reveals other plans, giving her a brief start before hunting her down with a crossbow.

summit Joins a long line of thriller films — from wolf creek and Killing ground All the way back to 1971 Wake up in fear – which don’t exactly attract tourist commercials for a quiet time in outback Australia. Kormákur takes full advantage of the country’s dramatic landscape and dense forests, the latter of which form the perfect terrain for Sasha’s initial journey, a pulse-pounding racing sequence that has her running through the trees like fog.

Egerton makes Ben an appropriately frightening character, balancing rough charm with off-putting humour, cunning with childish levity, and signs of psychological damage with down-to-earth sadism. The dangers grow more complex once he grabs his prey and drags her into his horrific lair, where Sasha gets a more complete picture of the nightmare she’s trapped in.

Things get tough when Ben shows off his amazing dental work and reveals why you should turn down the delicious jerky. But those moments that flirt with horror are less exciting than the constant switching of who has the upper hand. Theron’s Sasha is not a hard, invulnerable body, but a terrified, beaten captive, so it’s thrilling when she seizes a momentary opportunity to turn the tables. Her rock climbing skills also come in handy when she’s trapped in a narrow gorge, and soon after when the hairy ascent provides echoes of the foreground.

Most people’s money goes to Theron’s character in any life-threatening situation, but Edgerton’s Ben puts her through her paces with fierce determination. All of this gets a constant electric charge from Kormákur’s muscular direction, from Cher’s sweeping photography, and the ominous, nonsensical score by Hogni Egilson.

The only surprising choice is the jarring ending song “Nasty Boy” by Icelandic electropop band Trabant, which is completely at odds with the tone of the closing scenes. This may be a time when autoplay that crushes Netflix credit into other content could be a blessing.