Two ace snipers one a former American marine with PTSD, the other a Lithuanian covert-operative trained to kill since young and who is often hired by the Kremlin are stationed high above two brutalist-designed towers at the opposite ends of a massive gorge.

With their binoculars fixed on each other, their gun turrets at the ready, the two rivals know little about the actual mission, save for one key fact: their guard duty is not to mow down the other faction, but to keep each other`s walls safe from a horde of zombie-like creatures that randomly climb out from the depths of the gorge between them.

The Gorge, then, despite sounding like a science-fiction horror-action film which it is is a romance-drama about two unlikely lovers, who happen to be ace killers.

The American, Levi Kane (Miles Teller, Goose`s son in Top Gun: Maverick) and the Lithuanian, Drasa (Anya Taylor-Joy, the young Furiosa from Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga) have strict orders against communication with each other. Their mission brief only provides them with basic facts keep the gorge secure and check in once a month with a one-line reply that they are alive but that doesn`t stop the two from investigating, and falling in love.

I guess the old adage about familiarity breeding love, rings true. . . especially when both the man and the woman are strikingly good-looking, and literally have eyes for each other.

The Gorge is directed by Scott Derrickson (Doctor Strange, The Black Phone) and written by Zach Dean (Deadfall, The Tomorrow War) and, in this rare case, one sees the talent of both individuals. Dean wrote the screenplay on `spec` (ie without commission from any production house or studio), and it made its way into the coveted `Blacklist` in 2020, an industry list about great unproduced screenplays.

Derrickson, who is well-adept at handling minimal stories with good character build-ups (he also directed and wrote the horror titles The Exorcism of Emily Rose and Sinister), keeps the film nimble and engaging, even when it slips, or rather since we are dealing with a chasm falls deep into unimaginative territory in its second act. That is when the romantically inclined pair eventually find themselves inside the gorge, where seen-it all-before secrets are revealed to the audience.

Derrickson, Dean, Teller and Taylor-Joy, keep one intrigued as the film reaches its climax with the arrival of Sigourney Weaver, the head of the American side of the gorge (no points for guessing that Weaver plays the villain).

Irrespective of its eventual nosedive into stereotypical terrain, one takes joy in seeing a standalone film that deals with a somewhat original premise that doesn`t bank on superheroes and franchises. The Gorge almost feels like it came from a forgotten era, where the idea, the ambience and characters reigned in films, and stories did not need sequels to work.

Streaming on AppleTV+, The Gorge is produced by David Ellison (Ghosted, all Mission: Impossible films since Ghost Protocol, all Terminator films since Genisys). The film is rated PG-13, and has a few scenes of adult romance