Apex (2026) – High Climber

Released: 24th April
Seen: 26th April

The Ozploitation genre used to be truly great. Back in the 70s and 80s, Australia made absolutely batshit genre films that utilised the outback landscape (and a few stereotypes about Australians) to create some genuinely amazing films. Razorback, Patrick, Long Weekend and a whole bunch more weird horror films set Down Under were a great part of the underground cinema of the day… and then they kind of became rare birds, the truly wild days where we could just throw a few people into the middle of nowhere and make a film are rare to say the least. It’s a film style that really should make a comeback, but until then, I will happily take Apex, Netflix’s high-budget imitation brand version of a cheesy Ozploitation film, even if it does have a lot fewer Aussies involved than one might like.

Apex begins with a couple of rock climbers, Tommy (Eric Bana) and Sasha (Charlize Theron), who go into the middle of Australia and climb a particularly difficult bunch of rocks. Because the film needs an inciting incident, Tommy falls to his death, thus removing the only actual Australian from the central cast. Several months pass and Sasha goes back out into the outback to grieve and do some camping/canoeing/anything other than rock climbing. While heading out she bumps into Ben (Taron Egerton) who seems charming at first in that specific way Australian characters appear charming in cheesy outback horror movies before eventually things turn sinister at a campsite where Sasha is told by Ben that she has to run while he tries to hunt her with a crossbow… cue the remainder of the film having Charlize Theron running through the outback while a crazed Elton John impersonator chases after her with a crossbow.

Apex really does feel like the kind of film that would’ve been made in the Ozploitation heyday, from the outrageous stunt casting of famous people who were somehow affordable, to the stereotypical performances played to the hilt, to scenes that look so brutal that you’re kind of stunned you didn’t hear about a stunt person dying. It has all the elements without the grungy coat of paint or insane shot choices that really made that history of cinema special. Fortunately, when you throw all those elements together you end up with a film that’s more fun than it probably should be, delivering some wild action scenes and more than enough moments of tension to really get the audience invested in the absolute insane silliness that’s being presented completely seriously.

Apex starts pretty impressively, letting us really get to know Sasha as a person and grow to like her. You see her dealing with the kind of crap all women have to deal with and she’s incredibly resilient during it, you see her changing her personality to keep herself safe when around people (“People” in this context meaning “annoying asshole men who make creepy comments to women who didn’t ask for their attention”) and then letting go while out in the dangerous woods and floating about on the rapids. She’s a strong fascinating character so when she ends up being cornered by the absolute insanity of Ben, you fear for her but also know she’s going to be able to give this guy a hard time that he doesn’t expect. It’s a smart woman against a smart but crazy man and watching them play off each other is fascinating.

It’s almost refreshing that there are no really dumb moments from either main character, they both are paying attention and not letting obvious things go by. There are a few moments where Ben gets cocky and does a little bit of grandstanding (The moment in the trailer where he gives her “until this song ends” or his skinny dipping scene just after he knows she’s spotted him, as a few examples) but he still has things planned so he can just jump back into the chase at any moment. It makes for some genuinely intimidating moments that raise the tension and make it feel like he is always ready to just end this if he wasn’t enjoying the chase so much… which makes it more fun when Sasha gets the upper hand to take him on. 

Now, admittedly, a lot of this falls apart in the final act where they kind of fumble with how to end it all. Not spoiling anything but there’s at least one moment where Sasha could quite easily kill Ben and get out of this insanity and she just doesn’t for some reason that doesn’t feel like it was ever made clear. It also kind of backs down from the insanity at some point, there’s a pretty horrifying reveal that elevates Ben as a villain into something truly demented and then it’s like the film forgets what it just told us and makes him the same guy he was at the start which feels like a bit of a letdown. It certainly heads in the direction of the glorious batshit insanity that the Ozploitation genre became known for but at the absolute last second it backs out and just goes with a more standard ending, maybe the big Hollywood stars didn’t want to go to the level of weird required but then maybe don’t set up something insane and not fulfil that promise.

Apex still manages to deliver a really fun time with some great performances, very cool action scenes and enough moments of suspense to do the job but it’s let down by a lack of commitment to ideas it sets up that promise something much more insane than you’d get from an Oscar winner and someone who probably should have an Oscar nomination by now. It looks stunning, has a lot of fun and feels like a throwback to a period in film history that doesn’t get the love it deserves, Apex might not be the absolute apex of this kind of genre but it is closer than one tends to expect from a Netflix film thrown out like this one was.