Apex (A PopEntertainment.com Movie Review)

PopEntertainment
Apr 25
5 min read

Updated: 3 minutes ago

APEX (2026)

Starring Charlize Theron, Taron Egerton, Eric Bana, Matt Whelan, Bessie Holland, Aaron Pedersen, Rob Carlton, Duncan Fellows, Julia Ohannessian, Niam Hogan, Willow London Seager, Zac Garred and Caitlin Stasey.

Screenplay by Jeremy Robbins.

Directed by Baltasar Kormákur.

Distributed by Netflix. 95 minutes. Rated R.

In the over 100 years since “The Most Dangerous Game” – the 1924 short story by Richard Connell about a big-game hunter lands on a remote island belonging to an aristocratic general, only to find out that he is being used for prey by the bored aristocrat who has taken hunting humans – the tale has become a classic story and a staple of literature classes.

The story – both directly and indirectly – has also always fascinated filmmakers. There have been at least four or five direct adaptations of “The Most Dangerous Game,” as well as dozens of action films that are loosely based on the concept, including Run For the Sun, Bloodlust!, The Woman Hunt, Avenging Force, Hard Target, Surviving the Game, Predator, The Eliminator, Judgment Night, Ready or Not, and yet another film called Apex, which had limited release in 2021 and as far as I can tell has nothing to do with the movie I am reviewing here.

My personal favorite of these loosely-based-on films was a long-forgotten 1974 TV movie called Savages, which was directly based on a fantastic novel called Deathwatch by Robb White. (It’s very hard to find anymore, but if you get a chance to watch it, take it. It really holds up.) It came out in a short-lived stretch in comic actor Andy Griffith’s career when he decided to shake up his nice-guy reputation by playing some truly edgy characters in TV movies – he also did Pray For the Wildcats, Winter Kill, The Strangers in 7A and Go Ask Alice.

Before you mock, the 1970s were a high point for made-for-TV movies, which were often as complex and edgy as their theatrical counterparts. Other acclaimed TV movies that came out at about the same time include Brian's Song (1971), Duel (1971), The Night Stalker (1972), The Night Strangler (1973), Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1973), Bad Ronald (1974), Trilogy of Terror (1975), Sarah T: Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic (1975). The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976), Helter Skelter (1976), Something for Joey (1977) and Salem's Lot (1979).

In Savages, Griffith played a hunter named Madec, who hired a local (Sam Bottoms) to take him into the Mojave Desert to hunt for bighorn sheep. When Madec mistakenly shot an old hermit that he thought may be a sheep, the hunter forced his guide to survive in the desert without clothes, water, or food, planning on having him die and framing the murder of the prospector on him. The book was also remade in 2014 with Michael Douglas, retitled Beyond the Reach, to little fanfare.

Which brings us to Apex, the latest of these films, which reminded me even more of Savages than the original story while watching. First things first, it is far from one of the best “Most Dangerous Game”-inspired films – and it’s not as good as Savages was – but there is still some life in this old storyline yet.

The movie does not tip its hand to its eventual direction for a good first third on the movie. It starts with the lead character, an extreme sports adrenaline junkie named Sasha (Charlize Theron) trying to scale a mountain in Norway with her boyfriend (Eric Bana). They get caught in an avalanche and he may or may not have been killed, however he is definitely out cold and Sasha has to cut his line, or she will fall to her death, too.

Months later she is still wracked with guilt. Sasha takes her late boyfriend’s ashes to his native Australia to spread them in his home area. While doing so, she fits in some whitewater rafting. One afternoon while gassing up her truck in a rural service station. She is hit on threateningly by two local hunters, but a nice (but kind of odd) local named Ben (Taron Egerton) interjects for her. When they are talking, he suggests a remote camping area which she would probably love.

She decides to check the place out and it is lovely. That is until the two hunters show up. Then Ben arrives too, and his eccentricities are becoming more and more disturbing. Spoiler alert – well not really a spoiler since it is blatantly exposed in the trailer – it turns out the two hunters are just harmless assholes, but it is Ben that Sasha really has to worry about.

Ben was polite, almost gentle in his early scenes, then gradually lets the mask slip until you see the fanatic underneath – a guy who files his teeth and talks about “ritual” like he’s discovered a higher form of self‑care. It’s not subtle, but it is effective, especially when the film lets him and Sasha share quiet, poisonous conversations instead of just trading blows.

However, it is just that madness which sort of killed this movie for me, at least in the terms of being a “Most Dangerous Game” knock off. In “The Most Dangerous Game,” and even in Savages, the hunters were not insane. In fact, they were quite sane and cunning. Some of their beliefs may have been crazy, but in no way were they.

They had very specific reasons for what they were doing – in the story it was a harsh look at class divides and the TV movie was a perceived (if certainly misguided) act of self-preservation – survival of the fittest.

Those characters were certainly not deluded, but there is really no other way of describing Ben. He’s a madman, a serial killer with new age rationalizations for what they are doing. He protests that he doesn’t kill for sport, the victims are a gift, and taking life requires respect. Everything he does flies in counterpoint of these talking points.

Also, honestly, the variation that has a man hunting a woman gives Apex a creepy vibe. This is in no way judging Charlize Theron’s performance – believe me, no one can doubt that Sasha could easily beat Ben in a fair fight – but the fact that the deck is stacked so strongly against her gives Apex a sense of unfairness and objectification.

All of which may be, I admit, giving a bit too much sociological weight to a straight-to-Netflix action flick. However, isn’t the whole idea of “The Most Dangerous Game” human sociology at its most primitive and base?

You can watch Apex and you’ll probably enjoy it. It is a well-made potboiler. And if you decide to track down the original story or maybe hunt down Savages (it’s streaming on YouTube, just saying…), all the better.

Jay S. Jacobs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgv8jf_8dm0