Second Emulation

Binoculars, Bombs, and Booty Calls: A Gorge Story

• Shawn Juarez • Episode 73

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The line between isolation and connection blurs in "The Gorge," Apple TV's latest offering that defies easy categorization. Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy star as guards posted on opposite sides of a mysterious ravine, communicating through binoculars while protecting the world from creatures lurking below. What begins as a promised action-thriller gradually reveals itself as something entirely different.

Our deep dive explores how this film masters visual storytelling through its stunning cinematography and non-verbal character development. The movie excels at creating a palpable sense of isolation where our protagonists develop a relationship across distance, using body language and written notes instead of conversation. This unique approach to character connection becomes both the film's greatest strength and its unexpected focus.

Where "The Gorge" stumbles is in its confused identity. Marketed as high-octane action but released on Valentine's Day, it struggles to balance multiple genres – action, romance, sci-fi, and even revenge – without fully committing to any of them. The two-hour runtime with minimal dialogue tests viewer patience, while the reveal about the "Hollow Men" creatures diminishes their threat rather than enhancing it. Even Sigourney Weaver's appearance feels oddly disconnected from her action film legacy.

Through letterboxd reviews and thoughtful analysis, we examine why this film ultimately becomes a "watch once and forget" experience despite its talented cast and intriguing premise. Is it worth your time? What audience would actually enjoy this genre-bending experiment? And most importantly – can an atom bomb sitting untriggered for decades ever make logical sense? Join us as we dissect this curious Valentine's offering that proves some gorges are too wide to bridge.

Subscribe now for more in-depth film analysis and join our conversation about "The Gorge" on social media. What did you think of the film? We'd love to hear your take on this puzzling release.

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  📍 Hi, hello, and welcome to Second Emulation! Oh my God, you guys, I’m so excited for you to listen to this episode—like, it’s going to be so good! Your amazing host is about to take you on a deep dive into all things movies, anime, gaming, and pop culture. Seriously, it’s, like, the best way to spend your time. So, grab your favorite drink, maybe a latte or something cute, and get ready to have the best time. Okay, love that for you! Here’s your host!

Hey everyone. Welcome back to Second Emulation. Sure. Where we deep dive into the latest movies and see what's worth your time. I'm Sean, your host, and today we're gonna be talking about the gorge, the new action thriller that just dropped on Apple tv. If you're a fan of high stakes adventure sending visuals and a touch of mystery, this one might be on your radar.

Stick around as I'll break down, break it down, share my thoughts,  and see what other movie lovers on letterbox are saying about the film. So  let's get into it.  So here's a brief summary stops us of the film it reads.  For those who haven't seen it yet, the gorge follows two highly trained, operative, grow close from a distance after being sent to guard opposite sides of a mis route. 

Mysterious Gorge. When an evil below emerges, they must work together to survive. What lies within it? Stars, miles Taylor, Anya Taylor, joy, gonio Weaver. And it's directed by Scott Dickerson.  So let's talk about it.  First impressions, when I first heard of the Gorge, I didn't know what to think of it, but it wasn't until I saw snippets on TikTok that kind of gave me an idea of what the identity of this film was going to be.

And I was excited for it because here I'm thinking, oh, it's going be like this high octane action film, which  I'm pretty much enjoying. Now I.  Mind you, the snippets that they were showing on social media, and TikTok,  I have to give it up to the marketing for Apple, I believe, is that they knew how to, grab your attention because I was sold Now. 

With this, I'm not really a sucker for any action films.  I'm just very simple. If it has a good premise,  I'm all for it. And so first impressions have to, I wanna say have to be at a level, 10 for me, but they. Have to, be there to pull me into the story.

And so  the gorge, when what I saw, I. From the trailer was visually, pleasing. And we've seen stories like this before, man versus evil creature from some unknown location. So the structure for it was not all, nothing new, just how it was implemented was something unique.

And I was like interested to see how this was going to play out because  from what I could tell from the trailer was, we got two people, on opposite sides, have nothing more to communicate with and, other than just binoculars.  For a good story that I haven't seen before.

So I was very much interested in this film, and I had to bug, lots of different, my family members or my partner about watching it. And so we finally bit the bullet and we watched this film now.  Let's say, what I wanna talk about is what worked  about this film.  I wanna say the cinematography was great.

They did a lot of filming where they essentially conveyed that miles and Anya were fully.  Isolated. And at the opening scene, we are broken down of the need to know and the threats and how realistic, how,  essentially  what's at stake. Because  this  premise is have worked like the longest game of.

Telephone. Every new guard is, told a story from the previous guard of what they're dealing with. And it's just, an endless cycle of what's going on  with the film.  And the set pieces were there, like it, they made it very apparent, like these people are isolated  now.  How we're going, how are we going to implement a type of threat in this film?

And I feel like how they implemented that was very good in a sense. Like we've all seen different creatures, monstrosities, like the threat, but there was a line, and I feel like it worked very well in the film, was that  there's a, in the context of the film, they use like a line of a certain point of history where a battalion of soldiers on horses went into the gorge to like essentially clear it out and just never came back. 

And that's one narrative that's been passed down from guard to guard.  And so  there's a bit of history there, not history that I know of, but it helps Samantha, the story that  people have known of this for years and have kept it secret.  Now Miles and Anya's chemistry, was conveyed very well.

And I think that's what worked is that a lot of it was non-communication. So a lot of body language to convey what they were doing and form of communication. And then Ryan's does, writing things out so they can like communicate. So it, what I like is that they relied heavily on non communicating cues in the film for a majority of this film.

And it also to the sense like, we can't make too much noise. We have to be very silent. We can't like. Essentially enjoy the company of the person who's at the other side of the post  type of thing.  And  even though apparently you're there for an entire year,  you have no one else to communicate with.

You're just there with your thoughts.  It made it seem more like a prison  instead of a job. And so I, that's. Certain things I feel like it worked is that  one,  you had the longest game of telephone  two. It did provide you that sense of this is of another form of isolation where you're devoid of the world and no forms of communication, no technology other than what's already been established and created at your tower  in regards to also food. 

And there'll be no one to communicate with.  You're just there with your thoughts. There's no Uber Eats, there's no, let me read a book. I think what,  what also played into it, what I think what worked was that seeing the different sides and how they lived, uh, Anya's side, her character was ver, like they had music, she had music to listen to were Miles' side, just looked bare bones. 

Typical for I guess you would say for a guy who who was staying by himself in the woods, but it just seemed they were conveying, based on the people who were stationed here, what necessities and things that they cherish most to help them get through their servitude  And Anya's character had music. 

And I felt and Miles did not, he, he didn't have anything. So that really spoke volumes in regards to both characters being there.  Now, what didn't work, and  I have to say there was a lot because I went into this because I was under the impression that this was an action film.  Lord, I was mistaken. 

This is a love movie or a romance movie.  It's hard to get that impression when you know you're fighting creatures from below. And  the way they kinda work this in is that, over the course of time you have no one else.  To communicate with. And of course, miles is across from Taylor who's very attractive and they build this kind of,  I wanna say,  long distance relationship  because they have no one else to talk to.

So they communicate with themselves.  And I felt what didn't work was that  within the middle of the film, while they're.  Informing us of the audience that this relationship's gonna happen  regardless if you wanted to or not.  And it, it didn't seem very organic  and  I. Kind of also what led to the climax of the film where essentially shit hit the fan and you get more narrative of what the film is as a whole and what it's trying to convey.

I. Is that Miles Taylor fucked everything up because he wanted a booty call,  essentially. And when you get to that point of the film, you're thinking, okay, they  obviously  wanted this to be something more.  And they say that and they work towards that. The way the camera. Film, how it focuses so much attention on Anya and then Miles.

There's a lot of non, so non vocal cues between the two.  The way the film is established is it is an action film, but also trying to be like a romance love story that's hidden a few layers beneath this action movie. I.  And  it didn't really sit well with me. I was confused, to be honest,  that I think that's,  I can say what I felt like didn't work was that I was confused out of at a certain point of  they're trying to build some kind of love story chemistry and. 

Essentially that ultimately is what ends up screwing them over.  He just couldn't keep it in his pants, which is funny to say, is that everything happens the moment miles goes over. And they have for a it's not a booty cup, but for a lunch.  A dinner and it ends up turning into a romantic night for the both of them. 

What also didn't work for me was that there wasn't as much action  because as I mentioned earlier, this was marketed as an action film  and  there's probably only one scene where there was action. And then after that, there was just lots of narrative, non-communication or non  vocal communication going on  where  you were just left to wonder when would the film actually pick up? 

And it seemed like it only really picked up  around the middle of the movie towards the end  and was very unfortunate. This movie's at least almost it's, I think it's two hours long.  It didn't need to be.  I didn't know that when I watched the film, but yes, it does not need to be two hours long.  And I think as a result of that, you get into situations where you are relying heavily on your actors to carry the story.

And that's what end up happening here is that  there are many of the scenes in this film.  You were relying on the actors to do a lot more in this movie that didn't have much dialogue. Oddly enough it didn't have a lot of dialogue which is very odd for film. But this one had very few dialogue.

A lot of the communication was non-vocal. Might have it written down. I guess you can call that dialogue in some sense. 

I think also the cg for the creatures that they're dealing with also wasn't up to par. Like  it felt like  they needed to stay hidden,  and the lighting also didn't help in their favor as well. That.  The cg, like once the light was on and you could actually see like the biology of the creatures it was just a lot of cg.

I don't know if there was any actual practical effects in here, but a lot of, cg  for the creatures anyways. So in a sense they were actually alone for the most part. The so of this movie.  And  when you rely heavily on an evil, you classify as an evil and it's lots of CG kind of takes away  from the movie  in my opinion.

There are films where it's done, expertly.  This one, it wasn't, and I think that's why I felt like it didn't work for me because you're still, you're even adding more weight and more to what the ca the actors have to then, do in order to convey, what's going on in the movie. 

And what I found also at a place that I felt like didn't work was the supporting characters.  Segoa Weaver was oddly in this movie, and she didn't need to be like, she played a character that maybe had a couple lines and then, towards the climax, when things get revealed. It's like this whole, thing.

But like  she was introduced maybe in the beginning and you don't see her again until maybe close towards the end.  And, I felt like they could have got anyone else for that role especially to going to a weaver. Like you're gonna get, pay her the big bucks maybe just to  in the movie briefly.

I couldn't, her character wasn't believable. In a sense it felt like more so that she  was forcing, I won't say forcing, but you could tell like she didn't believe what she was saying. And Sego Rivers and she's an action star  or she comes from doing action films back in the day.

So it's just hard to see her in a role like this word, when she's  soly known for her film.  Alien film franchise. So I just thought it was, they could have got anyone else and it wasn't believable to have her there. For this film,  which says a lot. 

I think what also didn't work was the ending. I think that's what was the best. The biggest disappointment is that the ending wasn't earned at all  and there was no essentially no payoff.  And I felt like when you watch the film and you get to the end and you're like left scratching your head wondering what was the point of the entire movie? 

And that brings me to my next point of the film  is that, um, before  I go on, I will say there's gonna be spoilers in this and.  For those who haven't seen the film or don't wanna watch it, this will be some spoilers. Before we go on, I want to give a quick spoiler warning. If you haven't seen the film the Gorge, go see it, or you can skip ahead in the next section. 

Alright, so let's get into it.  Let's talk about the reveal of the creatures that are known as the hollow mount, which is labeled okay.  What they're the big reveal is, which they should not have given them any type of expect, any type of background just left them as a mystery.  But when they did the big reveal for  what the hollow men are, who are they? 

Just the power that these creatures had just dissipated. And for those who don't know, the hollow man, or essentially an experiment gone wrong,  it is then revealed to us that in the middle of the movie, they,  miles and Anya discovered a.  Science facility,  and they find out that the holloman or byproduct of this gas that was created as a biological weapon  and as a result, they don't know how to, turn it off  essentially.

Result of this is that.  The scientists want to study themselves. The people end up becoming creatures, and as a result the, essentially the gorge becomes uninhabitable for everyone that's around  and you, we get more information that  the.  The government isn't really protecting the gorge, but a private sector company looking to monetize the research that they find there to create super soldiers. 

Let that sink in that  two.  If not both private sectors are just trying to keep this place hidden so they can develop new weapons and create their version of super soldiers,  and so they allow this area to exist for,  I'm not sure, so many different centuries.  And every now and again they're nowhere near what they want, but they wanna protect it and study it and keep people like their competition from, finding out what the gorge is and what the specimens or the creatures there so they don't fall into the enemy's hands. 

And I'm like, what?  This whole, the whole point, the whole, layer of them killing the relieve guard on both sides, or from Miles's side. I'm not sure if it happened on Tanya's side, but we get the point of view that once the guard is relieved he's killed because he knows what they're protecting and so they don't want any information getting out. 

And I'm like, really? He wasn't gonna tell anyone.  I'm sure he's excited to be back with his family, but no, they just kill him off. Which they pull a Ganges Khan is that they kill off the person who's guarding. So that way no information can be, discovered or, reaches out to the public of what they're doing. 

When you finally get that reveal, it makes everything you just watched pointless,  like pointless because it now doesn't make any sense. 

And mind you,  the only, safeguard or deterrent that they have for any creature who gets out is a atom, is it a, I believe it's an atom bomb  that is been there.  God knows when, and they trigger it and it will evaporate, killing everything up to a set mild.  You have me to believe that during all this time, not one creature accidentally set the thing off.

No one who was the scientists who were being mutated decided to activate the bomb. No. They just allowed, they know these things to be there. They have to take on or, and kill, or people nearby villages succumb to the vapors, which is known as the gorge.  So I did find it very interesting that, with all that,  miles and Anya, who  again, you know, once they find out the secrets, decide exactly what they're gonna do, they're going to  destroy the gorge. 

And get revenge on Sequoia Weaver's character who essentially has put them there and they don't want anyone finding out or the creatures to get out.  And so it goes from a semi action  heaven love interest to a now ever veg film. 

And you're left scratching your head like, what am I watching?  Because none of that seems to take, none of that is actually important. And I think the worst part of the film is that, so Goya Weaver's character  actually takes it upon herself to Eli to wanting to eliminate miles. Taylor's character, like she wants to be present.

She wants to see him die with his own eyes. And we, I know from watching films like that, we have a character like that, that's just death flags. You're just instantly saying, I'm gonna die,  and lo behold her character, doesn't survive. 

What's also not a spoiler  is that. This film  was released on Valentine's Day. This was supposed to be a romance movie, like for two, two couples. The premise of them was like two long distance people finding love. They, they can't be a gorge apart,  and I'm like, that's how it was marketed.  Action.  They market it as with an action part.

'cause they didn't want you to see the other parts of the film, which was distinctly done very well. But once you watch it, you're like, this is a goddamn romance movie with action in it. And they even released it on Valentine's Day, which I don't know who does that.  They had picked any other day, but they were really hoping that couples would, watches on Apple tv.

And this wasn't even theaters. This was on Apple tv.  So  the quality of it was eh, to begin with. But come on.  There have been other films, let me retract that. There have been films that are, good that have been on streaming  Prey was one  and Prey.  I put it up there with Hey man, this film  was done.

The Gorge,  not even that go was done. Maybe.  Below. Below. I put it like, as a film that you'll watch once and forget because I know I wanted to forget after watching this.  But  with that being said, let's get into our next segment of the podcast where we talk about what other movie goers.

Follow the film and give their own thoughts and rating. So we'll be moving over to letterbox.  Now, what is gonna happen is that I'll pick, two users who've gone given reviews and give their, what they wrote about the film and their rating. Now, before I do that, I'm gonna give my rating on this film my overall now on a scale of one to five, I give it. 

A three out of five. It's not perfect, but it's definitely worth a watch if you're into the romance sci-fi thriller. But it's one of those movies where you just leave it on the shelf. Or if it's on Apple tv, you watch it once and just forget about it.  Now let's get onto our our reviews. 

I pulled a few reviews from under boxes to get like a sense of how the community is reacting, and I'll read a I'll read a few and share their ratings and let you know if I agree or disagree. So our first user goes by the name of Nick Holberg. He writes,  I already forgot. I forgot everything about this movie. 

And then he gave it two out of five stars. Now,  I would have to agree with this, with his review.  Is that after watching it  the next day, I technically forgot what this movie was about.  What? I watch it again. No,  but his rating is on par with mine. I gave it. I was being, generous by giving a three, but he gave it two. 

Now with our second review,  it's from the user, Wayne O'Connell Davis. He writes, think Annihilation, but dumbed way down. Very fun though. And he gave it three out of five stars.  You know what?  I actually have to agree with them because  recalling annihilation with Natalie Portman, I felt like who they got to do the CGI was the same person they got to do the CGI on this film is that, the creatures were great. 

Or not as great, but the story went nowhere. Once you, that there was so much buildup and once the big reel happens, it just felt oh, that was it. And the movie just couldn't recover. After that, it felt like it was stumbling just to get to the finish end, the finish line.  So I'd have to agree with the agree with both the two users I got from the two  users I pulled from letterbox.

Now  it seems I would've picked another one, but just going off of every review I've seen so far, I think there's a general consensus on letterbox, which a lot of 'em are not. Positive. A lot of reviews I'm seeing are around two and a half, barely pushing three. There's some fives in there, but I feel like they may have enjoyed it way too much, or it could be like a throwaway review where they're just trying to, say something funny about the film. 

But not many people are not really praising the film. They're more so praising Miles Tate, miles Teller, and an Taylor Joy because these two actors are way too attractive to being a film like this.  But  it appears that letter box, uh. Users are in a consensus of giving praise more towards the actors and the film itself, and I would have to agree with them. 

And I felt like  the movie that Miles and Taylor did a lot of  essentially carrying in this film.  And it shows.  Let's get into some final thoughts. So overall, the gorge is a two out of five starting, is what I gave it. Now it's not really a solid action. Or thriller genre film. There were some stunning elements in the film overall, but it still has some flaws.

Again, with, the portrayal of some type of love interests and also trying to essentially not figure out what the film was going to be.  The film itself had three different genres that I was trying to employ in the film. And I think when you do something like that and you don't stick to one genre, you can lose your message of what the film's going to be, and it didn't really pay off in the end.

As I mentioned earlier, the final ending were  Miles and Taylor get a happy ending, which did not feel earned. And it felt like more it was forced in a sense. If we would've, if the film would've ended after the Adam bomb exploded and wiped out the gorge, that would've been perfect enough. You don't need the extra part to say, Hey, these two individuals, they fell in love and they get to have their happy ending and they're not being hunted down. 

I can live without that, but again.  That's one of my final, that's one of the things I feel like is final thoughts. Another would be the movie's two hours.  If there are some films that are entertaining enough to get you to that two hours. This film is two hours and not a lot of dialogue, and so a lot of it, is non-vocal communication can be boring very quickly. I found myself actually, going through my phone at certain points where there was nothing action and stimulating to catch my eye. So overall, I would put this movie as like you would watch it  and put on the shelf essentially. It's one of those one and done films and. 

Not to say that there aren't individuals who might like that. It may make this a call. Classic.  I, me personally, am saying that  I watched it once, I  forgot most of the film and I'll probably not watch it again and down the line. Will I pick it up again? Probably not, unless I forget everything.

I'm like, oh, this is entertaining, but.  Those are my final thoughts on the film. The movie called The Gorge, which was marketed as a Valentine's Day love, romance, thriller in action movie, which it did not hit  on any of those categories. I felt  like it was trying to do way too much  and it showed.  Would I recommend this film?

No,  I would not recommend this film.  I will feel much better if you didn't know the film existed and if you stumbled onto the film yourself. By all means, watch it. Have a good time if you think the film is worth, if you think it's entertaining. But me personally, I would not go outta my way to recommend this film to anyone.

I would just keep.  You know that I watched it to myself and that would be it,  but there'd be some other films that we, that I could recommend learn in the same genre. I'll probably post some later in regards on like our letterbox account.  But with that being said,  this brings this episode to a close, and I want to thank you for tuning into this episode of Second Alation.

If you enjoyed the show, don't forget to subscribe. Leave a review, share it with your friends.  You can also follow our, our podcast on Twitter and Instagram,  and for more movie recommendations and updates. Let me know your thoughts of the Gorge. I'd love to hear your thoughts  and. Next week we'll be doing diving into the film flight risk, which stars Mark Wahlberg, and, can't wait to get into that one.

Until next time, thank you and catch you in the next episode. Bye. 

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