Netflix released the survival thriller Apex on April 24, 2026. The movie pits Charlize Theron against Taron Egerton in a deadly chase across the Australian wilderness. Director Baltasar Kormakur (Everest, Adrift) keeps the story simple. Two people enter the forest. Only one walks out. The ending makes this clear, but how Sasha kills Ben carries heavy meaning tied to her painful past.
Apex runs for 95 minutes. The cast stays small. Eric Bana plays Tommy, Sasha’s climbing partner who dies early. The rest of the film follows Sasha and Ben as they hunt each other through rivers, forests, and cliffs.
Sasha’s Past Tragedy Sets Up the Final Moment
The film opens on Norway’s Troll Wall. Sasha and her partner Tommy (Eric Bana) try to climb a dangerous peak. Tommy warns Sasha that she keeps rushing past a tricky spot. He tells her to slow down. Then a storm hits. While they rappel down, an avalanche strikes. Tommy gets hit by a boulder and hangs unconscious. Sasha holds him for a moment, but his weight pulls her down too. She has to let him go. He falls to his death.
Five months later, Sasha travels to Australia. She carries Tommy’s lucky compass. She wants to kayak through Wandarra National Park. A park ranger warns her that many people have gone missing in that area. She ignores the warning.
At a gas station, two hunters bother Sasha. Ben (Taron Egerton) steps in and helps her. He seems friendly. He makes his own beef jerky called Jenno’s Jerky. He tells her about a secret route called Grand Isle Narrows. She decides to take his advice.
Ben Reveals His True Nature
Sasha kayaks to the spot Ben suggested. She camps for the night. The next morning, all her supplies are gone. She walks until she finds another camp. It belongs to Ben. He acts friendly at first, then shows his real face. He stole her bag. He wears her bracelet. He pulls out a stereo and a crossbow.
Ben tells Sasha she has until a song ends to run. Then he will hunt her. The song is “Go” by The Chemical Brothers.
Sasha runs. She drops the stereo and crossbow into a waterfall. Ben chases her through the forest. He plays recordings of a family talking to trick her into thinking help is near. He shoots arrows at her. One arrow hits her thigh.
The chase leads to a ravine. Sasha steps on a bear trap. The sound alerts Ben. He catches her and takes her to his underground lair.
The Dark Truth About Jennos Jerky
Ben’s lair holds a horrifying secret. Dead bodies hang from hooks. Ben tells Sasha that he kills people and turns them into his jerky. He named the jerky after his mother, Jenno. She was his first victim.
“There are native tribes that say to capture the spirit of your prey, you have to consume its liver. The trick is finding a spirit worth capturing, I suppose.” – Ben
Ben files his teeth into sharp points. He claims he does this to connect with nature. He prepares to kill Sasha as part of his “ritual.” But Sasha fights back. She bites off part of his ear and jumps into a river that runs through the cave.
Sasha Kills Ben During the Final Climb
Ben grabs the rope attached to Sasha’s handcuffs. Both of them fall down the waterfall. They wash up at the bottom of a canyon. Ben hits his head on rocks and passes out. Sasha tries to cut the rope, but Ben wakes up. They fight. Sasha grabs a rock and breaks Ben’s leg. His bone sticks out through the skin.
Now both of them are stuck. Ben cannot walk. Sasha cannot climb with her hands tied. They make a deal. Ben will untie her if she helps him climb out of the canyon. He warns that if she tries to escape, he will pull her down with him.
They start climbing. Sasha moves slowly and carefully. She reaches a ledge where Ben cannot see her. She finds a dead tree branch growing from the rock. She wraps Ben’s harness rope around the branch. Then she slips out of her own harness. Ben realizes what is happening and tries to pull her down. But the branch breaks under his weight. He falls to the bottom of the ravine.
“When I finally got to the top, I just kept in mind how crazy the story is. Its such an insane story, and you try to put yourself in the characters shoes doing that final climb. You cant help but think, ‘What did I just experience? I shouldnt be alive.’ Her whole life hits her in that moment.” – Charlize Theron
The fall kills Ben. The camera shows his face. He will not hunt anyone ever again.
Sasha Finds Help and Closes a Chapter
Sasha climbs the rest of the canyon alone with no ropes or equipment. She reaches the top and cries from exhaustion and relief. Two women pick her up and drive her back to her van.
She goes to the ranger station and reports Ben’s cave. A news report later reveals that police found 20 bodies in Ben’s lair. The missing persons cases that everyone thought were accidents are now solved.
The final scene shows Sasha standing on a beach. She holds Tommy’s lucky compass. She looks at it for a long time. Then she throws it into the ocean. The compass sinks below the water. Sasha walks away, ready to move forward with her life.
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What the Final Climb Really Means
The climb where Sasha kills Ben mirrors the climb where Tommy died. In Norway, Sasha had to let Tommy fall because she had no choice. Nature forced her hand. In Australia, Sasha chooses to let Ben fall. She makes an active decision to kill her hunter. This time, she holds the power.
The compass toss shows Sasha letting go of her guilt. She blamed herself for Tommy’s death. Now she understands that some choices are necessary for survival. She honors Tommy by visiting his homeland and then releases his memory into the ocean.
Taron Egerton called Ben a character with “arrested development” in an interview. He said Ben acts like “a kid playing pretend, a kid trying to demonstrate that he’s a grown‑up and knows his way around these parts.”
Apex is now streaming on Netflix worldwide.
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