As a movie like You’re Cordially Invited has recently shown, it’s becoming more and more of a challenge for audiences to swallow romance “whole.” Because to attempt doing so in the present is to end up choking on one’s own disgust. In other words, there needs to be some kind of major dilution within the genre in order for audiences to “buy in.” Or at least buy in more than they would without a little “chaser.” Because romance served “straight up” is too much to bear for most audiences of the present.
Thus, with director Scott Derrickson’s horror background (e.g., The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Sinister and The Black Phone) and screenwriter Zach Dean’s action background (e.g., 24 Hours to Live, The Tomorrow War and Fast X), The Gorge blends as many genres as possible to appeal to a wide audience. This further cemented by the “hot people” cachet of Miles Teller as Levi Kane and Anya Taylor-Joy as Drasa (yes, Taylor-Joy does her best to execute a Lithuanian accent). While Taylor-Joy has “the face” to keep audiences riveted, Teller has “the body” (and flaunts it when he can during one unclothed scene in particular). Which is a plausible detail considering he’s an ex-Marine and one of the world’s most sought-after snipers. Drasa also falls into the latter category, hence the reason why they’re both tapped for a highly specific mission (though, as they both later realize, the main criterion for the job is being expendable—having no one in their lives who will miss them). A mission so shrouded in secrecy that they’re both air-dropped merely within the vicinity and forced to walk the final kilometers to their respective watchtowers without even being told what country they’re in.
Before this portion of the story, however, the viewer is given plenty of insight into each character’s background and emotional state. Starting with Levi, who is summoned by a woman referred to only as Bartholomew (Sigourney Weaver) to discuss this “project” she has in mind for him. And when she asks if he knows who she is, he replies, “I’m guessing you’re some high-level spook.” This kind of blasé response being a testament to how unmoved he is by just about everything. Not only because he’s “seen it all,” but because he’s in a state of deep depression. Something the viewer is given a sense of when he’s first introduced in a reflective moment as the sun rises on the beach, and someone else’s dog comes over to give him some brief affection (seemingly the only form of affection he’s received for quite some time). He confirms his mental nadir by saying, “There’s not a lot ‘reasons’ for me right now.” Namely, reasons to have contested the psych evaluation that pronounced him as “unfit” for another mission. His sense of existential ennui is, of course, music to Bartholomew’s ears, who positions her offer as, “What if I gave you a reason?”
It is then that Derrickson cuts to Pervalka, Lithuania, where, after having killed yet another person from an extremely long range, Drasa meets her father in the cemetery where her mother is buried. The two discuss, among other things, the greater sense of guilt she’s been feeling about these kills—a sentiment that echoes the same kind of depression that Levi has been experiencing. And with her father telling her that because of his cancer diagnosis, he’s planning to kill himself on Valentine’s Day (which is also, appropriately for the romance element, the same day that The Gorge was released), Drasa isn’t made to feel much better. Especially since she can’t really stop him from doing it while she’s on this year-long mission (the same one as Levi). In short, there’s going to be no one left in the world that will miss her either “if” she disappears.
But for the powers controlling the gorge, it’s not a matter of if, so much as when. This is made clear after J.D. (Sope Dirisu), the “minder” tasked with briefing Levi on what, exactly, he’ll be doing (even though there’s nothing at all “precise” about his description of what the gorge actually is), is killed upon being theoretically “extracted” from the location. Instead, the very powers he gave his all to end up commanding that he gets shot point-blank while hanging from a helicopter, and then tossed into the depths below.
But for the moment, Levi and Drasa remain blissfully unaware of that eventual fate, each passing the days in solitude as best they can. Granted, the perspective is mostly shown from Levi’s experience in the west tower before Drasa “infiltrates” his space, so to speak, by communicating with him through the same method that Taylor Swift perfected in the “You Belong With Me” video. That is, writing down messages on large white pieces of paper in black marker. Drasa “breaks the silence” this way just one month into the mission. It’s November by now, and apparently her birthday (making her either Scorpio or Sagittarius, both of which have their drawbacks, particularly in a woman). As such, she feels she has a right to violate the “protocol” by acknowledging the only other person who could possibly understand the bizarreness of what she’s going through right now. When Levi writes back, “We are not allowed contact,” Drasa writes a new message on her giant notebook paper: “My name is Drasa today is my birthday. I’m going to do whatever the hell I want.” Levi, who was already starting to become taken with her from afar, is powerless to such charms. Much as the boy in “You Belong With Me” eventually is (though no one ever seems to point out that those two had absolutely no reason for communicating in that very slow, frustrating way—in contrast to Levi and Drasa, who are quite limited in terms of “talking” to each other).
After enough months of back and forth like this (complete with a meta moment of Taylor-Joy throwing it back to The Queen’s Gambit by playing chess with her counterpart), Drasa tells him on the day she realizes her father has killed himself that, “It’s been a hard day. I wish somehow you could be here with me.” It then seems that all he needed was a literal written invitation to rig up a makeshift zipline and slide his way on over. In the months before this, however, the pair already became well-acquainted with the creatures a.k.a. “hollow men” that J.D. had loosely warned Levi about—not giving him quite the graphic picture of what they would look like. Which is to say, like half-human, half-tree thing zombies. And that’s where a The Last of Us-esque vibe starts to trickle in, a parallel that also makes sense considering that said show started out as a video game. And The Gorge is nothing if not extremely video game-y. An aspect that becomes extremely pronounced once both Levi and Drasa end up in the gorge together (this after Levi falls into it while in the midst of going back to his side of the tower, prompting Drasa to dive in after him without a second thought—such is the power of l’amour).
Upon descending into these depths, it becomes immediately evident that the situation is even more sinister than they suspected. Not least of which is due to the fact that the 2,400 men that went down into the gorge in the late 1940s and never emerged (as mentioned by J.D.) have all been mutated—along with their horses—into these hybrid “tree people/zombie things.” Or “hollow men,” to simplify the moniker. And as Levi and Drasa navigate their way through these treacherous environs, The Last of Us shines through in moments where it becomes integral not to make contact with the mutated creatures. Not just because they’ll “suck you into themselves,” but because humans can get infected with the same mutation. Something that ramps up when they find themselves in the “missile room,” where a giant seething, interconnected entity of hollow men is being self-cultivated by the contaminant (perennially leaking from the missile) in the “fog.”
So it is that the Alien (or Aliens) moment comes when they go into the “hive,” as it were. And yes, it seems like a pointed choice to give a nod to the “nests” in various Alien movies, what with Weaver being featured in the film. It is after setting the nest on fire that Levi and Drasa work their way to the next part of their escape plan: getting out of the gorge in an old Jeep that has enough, let’s say, durability to drive up the side of it. Of course, once they get out, their troubles have still only just begun. Because it is unlocking the truth that leads to an even bigger landmine of figuring out how to deal with it.
For Levi and Drasa, an additional part of the “hard” truth learned at the gorge is that they’ve fallen deeply in love with one another, each person filling the hole (no sexual pun intended) of loneliness that has kept them distant and removed from humanity for years (in addition to being elite snipers that can’t really get too close to anyone…not even to shoot them). While, sure, that revelation is a blessing, it’s also a curse. Because it means that, for the first time maybe ever, they both have something to lose. And that can be just as scary as it is comforting. Unless, like Taylor Swift, one can at least fall back on the comfort of writing a song about love gone wrong.
