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Apex is a good movie. This is great because Netflix owed me a good movie after Thrash and they certainly owed one to Charlize Theron after The Old Guard 2. 

In many respects this follows the pattern of a 90s thriller. It has high levels of suspense built around someone being randomly terrorised by a crazed psycho with an inexplicable desire to destroy the lives of innocents seemingly for their own weird, dark entertainment. Sure there might be some tenuous motivation; maybe they are offended by their prey’s perceived entitlement (maybe they are even considered responsible for whatever lack their stalker has), and in this case it all takes place in the isolated wilderness which according to convention is the one of only two places it has to be set, the other being the polar opposite; a highly populated urban area. 

Rather than Apex being a cliche though, it actually holds real surprises and you never quite know where it is going or how it is going to get there. If this had come out in the 90s it would have been a huge hit, quickly being revered as a classic, but in 2026 it just slips out quietly on streaming to be seen or not as word of mouth and the algorithms dictate. 

The title Apex has a double meaning, it clearly refers to Taron Egerton’s character who sees himself as some supreme predator, but the film also features a lot of rock climbing. Arguably it is also trying to suggest that the movie itself reaches for the highest point or vertex of thrilling entertainment. While you are watching it, if not after, it kind of does.

The mountain scenes are probably the best parts, certainly it is these where your heart is most in your throat. The opening centres on this and just two minutes in I was suffering incredible vertigo. In America they have publicised the film more than in the UK and it is this element they have focused on. On opening weekend they had Charlize Theron haul herself up a climbing wall attached to a New York billboard to sell it. My favourite part of this was when the Hollywood star shouted from the top, in a manner that seemed to suggest she was a bit cross about the whole stunt, ‘Apex is streaming on Netflix right now motherf#€kers! Don’t make me climb a wall in Times Square for nothing!’

Charlize Theron is excellent in the movie. She clearly did her own action while filming as well as in pushing the release, and the close up nature of everything definitely adds to the verisimilitude. Egerton also is right there in the mix as well and they are a curious and dynamic pairing. He is proper bonkers too, it’s like he watched Deliverance, The Wicker Man and Psycho on rotation as a kid and it has left him totally demented. 

The scenery is stunning too. Cinematographer Lawrence Sher is having a moment here as much as the two lead actors. The director is Baltasar Kormákur who previously did 2022’s lion drama Beast and the Washington and Wahlberg crime caper 2 Guns so outside of his native Iceland has had a fairly forgettable filmography and to be fair his standard direction here doesn’t suggest that is going to change. If you’re looking for the pinnacle of easy Saturday night home viewing though, this could be it.