AppleTV+ Original Film The Gorge offers a genre romance unlike anything else on the platform. Directed by Scott Derrickson (Sinister, The Black Phone) and written by Zach Dean (The Tomorrow War, Fast X), the film blends genres and comes out the other end with a big impact. We spoke with Scott Derrickson about the film, how he’s enjoyed breaking genre expectations, and a whole lot about love.
The draw of The Gorge’s romances comes from the fact that it’s being built across a literal gorge separating out two heroes. Both individually tasked with guarding the canyon and keeping whatever is inside at bay, Levi (Miles Teller, Top Gun: Maverick, Spiderhead) and Drasa (Anya Taylor-Joy, The Menu, Furiosa), are there to keep the world safe. Then, they start flirting with signs across the gap until they finally meet.
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With a strong atmosphere and the impending dread of what’s below, Drasa and Levi’s romance is both adorable and filled with tension. When asked about keeping the romance alive without losing the situation’s intensity and ultimately about stoking the romance, Derrickson said, “I really love Zack Dean’s screenplay and the idea that there’s a mystery to the gorge. We don’t know if it’s down there. It’s very cryptic in the beginning, [but we know] there’s something terrible down there.”
But the terribleness below only accentuates the romance above, he continued, “The fact that these two people who are isolated are not supposed to talk to each other, but then can’t help it—and because they’re at a distance, I think they are a little more open with each other than they would have been. There is just something about the idea of getting to know somebody over many months, at that distance, that I just think is romantic. That has to be my favorite part of the script.”
Shooting both Teller and Taylor-Joy from miles apart is The Gorge’s strength, and it was also some of the most difficult moments to shoot. Derrickson explained, “It was technically very challenging because they were never in the same space. We shot miles first, and we tried to put Anya on a crane, but it just didn’t work.
He continued, “So every day, I would shoot Miles, and then when it came time to shoot Anya, I’d [recount what just happened] for her to react to. You just did a very good job of really listening to what I was saying, the scene, and the moments that needed to be about, and then it was my job to make it visually interesting and not boring—because that could get boring very fast.”
But making engaging visuals during the romance was only one thing on Scott Derrickson’s plat. The other? Well, balancing the genres in The Gorge. Derrickson explained that the challenge multiple genres represent is also why he signed on for the film.
“I wanted to do the movie because I love that romantic idea [of The Gorge] and the nature of the romance at a distance. But then it moves into Sci-Fi and action, then horror and a political thriller. It’s got 4 or 5 different genres that it’s working with, but it’s still a romance the whole time,” Derrickson continued, “[Romance] is the glue that holds it all together. And I thought to myself, ‘I’ve never seen a film like this.’ You really can’t compare The Gorge to another film, and I think that became why I wanted to do it.”
The Gorge pulls together rewarding directorial genre-blending challenges.
For fans of Scott Derrickson’s career, his ability to navigate multiple genres isn’t much of a surprise, with credits that take him from the MCU with Doctor Strange, an episode of Snowpiercer, to an exorcism film that’s also a courtroom drama with The Exorcism of Emily Rose, and of course, Sinister and The Black Phone. But to pull multiple genres together in one go? That’s something special.
That said, I put Scott Derrickson on the spot to tell us about what scene he was most proud of in The Gorge. The answer? “I think this scene that I’m most proud of as a director is a two-part scene. It’s the elongated first time that [Levi and Drasa] start to communicate with each other with the signs because that’s very hard not to make it boring. They have to write the messages, turn them around, look in the binoculars, have a reaction, and do it again, which is not normally cinematic. So, as a director, I had to figure out how to make that romantic. How do I make that emotional?”
Derrickson continued, “I just shot it. I shot it so that I could cut things out so it would flow naturally and not feel choppy, but then focus on those performances where you can see the little subtle nuances, how each of them is reacting to the other person’s message. Then, it gives way to a great shootout the first time the hollow men show up. It’s this epic firefight sequence, and I think that that whole section is from the beginning of her firing the gun and saying, what’s your name, all the way to the end of the firefight. That’s the section of the movie where I feel like directorially: I got that one right.”
The Gorge pivots from romance to action to horror and to a spy thriller across its one time. But the first time it happens sets the tone for how it will keep moving through the genres. Scott Derrickson explained, “The secret of that honestly was The Ramones. I knew that there would be this intimate thing that was happening between [Levi and Drasa] as they’re communicating, but then I thought, ‘Okay, what I need is something loud and raucous [to transition]. So that I can remove it and then put it in silence, that’s when you have the suspense, when everything stops, when everything’s quiet.”
“To do that, we added this whole thing of her putting on The Ramones and dancing out there and saying, ‘Show me your moves Levi!’ They’re having in the gunplay with the bottle and all that, and then when she sees something, and she unplugs everything, it’s immediately quiet. [Drasa] makes a little emotion with her hands to her eyes. You don’t know what’s happening, but you know it’s pure tension. That really is how it all starts, with just unplugging those speakers.”
For Scott Derrickson, The Gorge (2025) is all about love.
But The Gorge’s Valentine’s Day release date means more to Scott Derrickson. While the challenge of working across genres was a reason he came on to direct the film, there was a more personal one, too: love. Derrickson brought out his connection to the theme.
“The Gorge was an opportunity for me to be expressive and to dwell in the space of a story that spoke to me regarding the romance,” Derrickson said, “A few years before I got the script, I had fallen in love and gotten remarried. My wife and I had to fight really hard to be together,r and I liked that aspect of the script. [Levi and Drase] have to really work at getting to know each other and fight hard to be together and survive together.”
This personal touch also translated to what Derrickson took away from the film when it was all over. “The takeaway for me was ultimately about the uncharted territory out there.” he explained, “There’s uncharted territory out there for directors mixing, not just two genres, not just three, four, five genres. I credit Zach with that because that was the screenplay, and at first, it was the reason I said no. It was too many genres; movies don’t do this. And then I started to think a bit and wound up asking myself, ‘Wouldn’t you love to see that?’ I ultimately decided I wanted to see this movie. Cinematically, that was the big takeaway.”
But it’s not all about directing. Dickson explained, “Personally, The Gorge is a bit of an altar for me. It’s a bit of a capsule in time now. For me, it really represents a time when some unexpected and very powerful love entered my life. You know, my wife shot in a unit on The Gorge. She actually shot a lot of second unit on my new movie The Black Phone 2. Having a partner, and I mean gaining a real partner in the things I do, that’s what happens in that movie for those characters too. Ultimately, that’s what happened to me in my life.”
The Gorge may capture genre romance, but knowing how much Derrickson put of his own into it makes this Apple TV+ film a definite addition to the Valentine’s Day movie canon.
