By Cindy Summers –
3 out of 4 Palm Trees
In “The Gorge” two ultra-skilled snipers from opposite sides of the world are sent to guard opposite sides of a gorge at an unknown location, even to them, from an unknown darkness that lies beyond the mist that covers the top concealing what lies at the bottom. Levi (Miles Teller) and Drasa (Anya Taylor-Joy) were told not to communicate with the other side, but they eventually did and even formed a mutual attraction which fatefully caused them to know what lies below the mist. In discovering the truth, they decide to work together to prevent the destruction of humanity.
Levi had been retired from the Marines for four years, but due to his specialized shooting skills had kept employed with mercenary work as well as some contract work from the military itself. He received a request to report to Camp Pendleton for an assignment and found himself waking up on a military cargo plane. A soldier took his watch, cell phone and ID and briefed Levi that he would be parachuting from the plane and would have to hike 38 kilometers to his destination. When he asked where they were, the soldier said they couldn’t share that information.
Levi met another soldier named JD at the edge of a gorge that was at the location Levi was told to arrive at by morning. JD asked Levi what he had been told about the mission and Levi said he was told nothing and just given an unmarked topo map and that he didn’t even know what country he was in. JD shared he had been there a year and still didn’t know where he was. JD explained that the large building was known as the West Tower and was completely self sufficient. JD told Levi the tower on the other side was the East Tower and there was to be no contact.
JD said Levi’s job was to keep what was in the gorge from getting out. He then threw a bomb in the gorge and it echoed with haunting screams telling Levi they were creatures known as “The Hollow Men”. JD said in the late 1940s they sent three battalions (2400 men) on horseback into the gorge to clean it up and not one of them came back. After that the powers that be shifted to a purely containment strategy. JD left for his rendezvouz point to board a helicopter home, which later Levi would discover never happened to help keep the secret being hidden in the gorge.
In the East Tower, Drasa followed protocol until her birthday in November, where she shot off her gun to get Levi’s attention to read a note she wrote regarding celebrating her birthday. Levi decided to forgo what he was told and celebrate with her, which ultimately resulted in him seeing that it was ruthless mutants that lived in the gorge. This was also the beginning of what became regular communication between them using large notepads and markers. They learned about each other, including that they were both stellar snipers, and even played chess.
Several months passed with the two growing to be close far-away friends. On Valentine’s Day, Levi saw that Drasa was very sad, not knowing that her father said he would take his life on that day. Levi felt compelled to comfort Drasa so he engineered a plan to cross the gorge on a zipline and see her face-to-face. The trip over went great, as did the dinner and “sleep-over”, but on the return in the morning the zipline snapped sending Levi parachuting into the gorge. Drasa didn’t hesitate, grabbing a parachute and some weapons and jumped into the mist to rescue Levi.
The first half of the movie has viewers engaged in a “beyond chance” romance with attractive and charismatic characters, while the second half plays out a “beyond reality” battle to escape while finding clues like a video game. Director Scott Derrickson said in an interview that the film takes inspiration from the popular video games “Until Dawn” and “Silent Hill”.
Runtime: 2hr 7m
