Published Apr 14, 2026, 3:00 PM EDT
Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock.
As the streaming arm of the mega-corporation that makes iPhones, Apple TV has always had money to burn. To a company like Apple, a $100 million loss on a movie like Argylle is just chump change. Even before it had made a name for itself, Apple TV (or Apple TV+, as it was originally known) could attract A-list talent like Brad Pitt and Martin Scorsese to make their movies at the house the iPad built with an offer they couldn’t refuse.
Apple’s casting team has turned Joaquin Phoenix into Napoleon Bonaparte. They’ve pitted Denzel Washington against A$AP Rocky in a rap battle. They paired Julianne Moore with Sydney Sweeney as a mother and daughter in a tense psychological thriller. They just released Jonah Hill’s dark comedy Outcome, with a stacked cast featuring Keanu Reeves, Cameron Diaz, Matt Bomer, Laverne Cox, Drew Barrymore, and Hill himself. Just about every original movie that drops on Apple TV has an impressive all-star ensemble.
In between the first and second Black Phone movies, Scott Derrickson directed the genre-bending romantic sci-fi action horror thriller The Gorge for Apple TV. Despite a mixed response from critics, The Gorge was still a big streaming hit for Apple — and it has to be at least partly thanks to the star power of having Rooster, Princess Peach, and Ellen Ripley all in the same movie.
The Gorge Paired Up Anya Taylor-Joy & Miles Teller
Image via AppleTV+The Gorge stars Anya Taylor-Joy and Miles Teller as two elite snipers who have been given a strange but simple task: each guard one side of a big, deep, cavernous gorge without knowing why you’re doing it, or what lies inside the gorge, for a full year, without any contact with the outside world. It’s a gonzo high-concept premise befitting of an episode of The Twilight Zone, and Derrickson has a lot of fun with the mysteries of his titular gorge.
But it’s really about the relationship between these two snipers. That gorge just gives them a convoluted plot reason to spend a whole year with each other, falling in love. Although the movie received generally mixed reviews, most critics agreed that Taylor-Joy and Teller had strong enough on-screen chemistry to carry the movie. Critics felt that the love story worked, but that the film’s action-thriller trappings got in the way of the romance. The action-packed third act leads the movie to a pretty predictable ending, but the chemistry between these two actors keeps it watchable from start to finish.
Sigourney Weaver Steals The Show
Taylor-Joy and Teller brought a considerable amount of star power to The Gorge, but the cherry on top is the legendary Sigourney Weaver, back in sci-fi action horror territory. As the star of the Alien franchise, Weaver is practically the patron saint of this specific subgenre, so having her in the cast is quite the honor — it’s like making a western with John Wayne. Weaver plays Bartholomew, the mysterious stranger who recruits the two snipers to watch over the gorge.
Critics typically agreed that The Gorge starts to fall apart in its final act, when it stops being a curious sci-fi romance and becomes a more straightforward action film. But Weaver comes in to save this third act when Bartholomew’s true nature and motives are finally revealed. Weaver is one of Hollywood’s most iconic action heroes, but it’s always fun to see her ham it up in a darker role, like her turn as the big bad in Simon Pegg and Nick Frost’s UFO comedy Paul.
Taylor-Joy and Teller are both great in this movie, but Weaver steals the show every time she pops up. There’s been a lot of talk about the star power of F1 and Wolfs and Killers of the Flower Moon, but The Gorge deserves its flowers, too.
English (US) ·