Baltasar Kormákur (2 Guns, Everest) directs Jeremy Robbins’ script about adrenaline junkie Sasha (Charlize Theron), who’s haunted by a climbing accident and heads to the isolation of the Australian outback. What was meant as a retreat to reset turns into a cat-and-mouse battle to the death when Ben (Taron Egerton), a local weirdo, makes her his next target for his sick, ritualistic killing spree. (95 min.)
APEX
What’s it rated? R
What’s it worth, Anna? Full price
What’s it worth, Glen? Full price
Where’s it showing? Netflix
Glen Charlize Theron once again proves she’s a credible badass (Mad Max: Fury Road, Atomic Blonde, The Old Guard), and Taron Egerton leans into his surface-level charm with an unhinged psycho bubbling just beneath (Legend, Smoke). Sasha lives on the edge, an extreme-sports nut who’s always ready to push it too far. That personality trait is dangerous for her—and also dangerous to those she’s with, as we discover during the opening tandem climb of Norway’s Troll Wall. It’s easy to dismiss the tall, willowy, supermodel-esque Theron as being incapable of Sasha’s level of athleticism, but as part of the film’s marketing campaign, she scaled an Apex billboard in Times Square. She’s legit. It’s entertaining and gripping—think The Perfect Getaway (2009).
Anna Theron has earned her badass badge. She doesn’t shy away from roles that demand physicality and strength. After pushing herself and her partner to the limit on Troll Wall, she’s off to the Australian wilderness to clear her mind, kayak the rapids, and let go. Egerton’s Ben immediately made my hackles rise—a feeling familiar to many women when a strange man is a little too interested in what you’re doing and where you’re going. He plays it as charm, though, and until Sasha returns to camp to find her pack missing and then stumbles onto Ben’s camp in search of it, he’s a forgotten blip in her day. When Ben makes clear his intention to hunt and kill her, Sasha is given little time to process the strange news. From there, it’s a race against a killer who knows the landscape well. Our girl Sasha isn’t going down without a fight though.
Glen The premise is nothing new. The Most Dangerous Game, Richard Connell’s short story about big game hunter who’s hunted by a Russian aristocrat, was published in 1924 and inspired dozens of films including The Running Man (1987) and more recently The Hunt (2020), a satire where liberal elites hunt “deplorables.” The twist here is that Ben isn’t merely a hunter out for the ultimate game, he’s a sadist who wants to toy with his prey. Egerton gets to chew the scenery. He’s so menacing it’s almost cartoonish. The film’s not going to win any awards, but watching Theron scale a sheer cliff, working to find toeholds and tiny ledges to pull herself up, or watching her hang on for dear life as she’s sucked down whitewater rapids is a blast.
Anna It’s a predictable premise, but it benefits from two strong leads. Ben’s character does take unexpected turns, and we learn there’s more to his menace than mere murder. He’s not your run of the mill killer; he’s got it in his head that this is part of a larger puzzle and that sacrifice is key. People have gone missing in this wilderness often, but they’re thought to be careless tourists who wander too far. Little did they know there’s a monster out here, picking off people in a sick game. You’re right, this isn’t a rare film, and it very likely will be forgotten over time, but the setting is truly gorgeous, Theron is a certified badass, and Egerton turns his creep factor up to 11. This is a perfect flick to stream when you can’t decide what to watch. ∆
Arts Editor Glen Starkey and freelancer Anna Starkey write Split Screen. Comment at gstarkey@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Best of SLO County 2026.