Survival at the Edge: How Australia’s Wilds Shaped Charlize Theron’s New Thriller

Charlize Theron’s latest film, *Apex*, is a raw survival story, and director Baltasar Kormákur wanted it to feel real. So he took the cast and crew deep into the Australian wilderness, shooting at actual locations instead of relying on soundstages. The Icelandic filmmaker, known for using nature in movies like *Everest*, says the unpredictability of the outdoors makes the action more gripping. “You can only control so much,” he explains. “Actors come informed about real challenges, and that shows on screen.”

In *Apex*, Theron plays Sasha, a rock climber grieving her partner’s death. She heads to Australia for a kayaking trip, but it turns into a deadly chase with a local hunter, played by Taron Egerton. Many scenes were filmed in the Blue Mountains, Canberra, and Engadine. Theron did her own climbing, including the tense final ascent at Glenbrook Gorge. She trained for two and a half months with climber Beth Rodden, and the result is raw and unscripted. “We’d shoot with three or four cameras floating around me,” Theron says. “I’d just start climbing, not knowing where to go. That uncertainty makes it real.”

Kormákur sent the crew into caves they had to swim to, wearing wetsuits and hard hats. Theron recalls freezing water and long hikes. “Every day, someone fed me chocolate bars so I wouldn’t die,” she laughs. But the effort paid off. The film’s most striking scenes—like a climb between two rock walls in Dry Canyon—are entirely real. “When you’ve walked 40 minutes into a cave, the Hollywood glam is gone,” Kormákur says. “You’re just a raw human being.”

Theron admits she struggled with kayaking. “I was cocky. Turns out, it’s really hard.” But she pushed through, and the exhaustion reads on screen. For Kormákur, that was the point. “At the point of exhaustion, you can’t fake it. That’s life and death.”