Naman Shrestha
With Baltasar Kormákur at the helm, Netflix’s ‘Apex’ acquaints us with an adventurous, adrenaline junkie rock climber named Sasha. In order to distract herself from grief, she sets out to venture through the Wandarra National Park, nestled in the Australian wild. While at a gas station, she asks a stranger for the best way to reach the Grand Isle Narrows. Upon reaching her destination, she notices that all the gear from her truck is missing. Soon, she bumps into the man from the gas station yet again, in the middle of the wilderness.
It turns out that he was responsible for stealing her belongings and has intentions of hunting her down. What follows is a deadly game of cat and mouse as Sasha must outsmart the hunter who won’t rest until he catches her. Starring Charlize Theron, Taron Egerton, and Eric Bana, the survival action thriller movie is set in the Australian wilderness, which multiplies the tense atmosphere through its isolated visuals.
Apex Filming Locations
Production on ‘Apex’ was primarily conducted in Australia, particularly across New South Wales. A few portions were also filmed in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. According to reports, principal photography for the thriller began in the first week of February 2025 and seemingly wrapped in April of the same year. From what we can tell, the cast and crew members reunited in July 2025 for reshoots. The shooting of the film in the Australian state reportedly contributed to about $56 million in expenditure and created over 460 local jobs.
Director Baltasar Kormákur told Netflix Tudum, “For a film like ‘Apex’ — where the elements and the terrain are characters that loom just as large as the movie stars battling in it — no other country in the world could have taken the place of Australia as our primary location. The unrivaled landscape, studio facilities, and talented crews in New South Wales have been a boon to this production. I want to thank the people of NSW, the NSW government, and the Australian Government’s Location Offset for all the support we’ve received in making this journey possible.”
New South Wales, Australia
Many pivotal sequences for ‘Apex’ were reportedly lensed in and around Sydney — the capital city of New South Wales. The cast and crew members took over the Royal National Park in the suburb of Sutherland, located in southern Sydney. Various forest and beach portions were seemingly recorded within the premises of the protected national park. The steep cliffs and waterfalls in the Blue Mountains also make multiple appearances in the Netflix production. They obtained permission to shoot important cave scenes at a remote cave in the Blue Mountains, where the crew hiked and swam to reach, while some gear was helicoptered in. The picturesque vistas of the Ginninderra Falls, situated in the rural locality of Wallaroo, also feature in ‘Apex,’ as Sasha tries to escape from the clutches of her hunter.
The filming unit was also spotted lensing key portions around the Glenbrook Gorge and Jellybean Pool. As per reports, in order to tape some sequences under a controlled environment, they utilized the facilities and space of Disney Studios on Driver Avenue in Sydney’s Moore Park suburb. Home to a total of nine sound stages of different sizes, the film studio also consists of production offices, screening theatres, set construction space, water tank facilities, and several exterior lot locations, making it an ideal filming destination for a wide range of projects. Interestingly, Charlize Theron, who portrays Sasha in ‘Apex,’ learned to climb for her role in about three months. While training with her instructor, Beth, the actor connected with her and said that the experience couldn’t have been any better.
Talking about the 45-minute to an hour hike to the set, Charlize told Outside that “something about it that felt spiritual.” She added, “We were going to places where people don’t really go. We never had to worry about closing sets off, because there was just no one there. The gorge that we shot the end of the movie in was more than a two-hour hike to get to. Then we would climb that mountain all day, or come out of the river fighting each other, load up, and hike all the way back out.” While Charlize learned climbing, Taron Egerton, who portrays the hunter, learned kayaking at an Olympic training facility. Calling it awesome, the actor told Outside that he “took that very seriously and spent a number of months getting in shape for it.”
Taron also trained his upper body for the climbing scenes, which he admitted was a personal triumph. During the shooting, he realized that he had a fear of heights. “The stuff that we shot at height was really challenging for me. I experienced the kind of cognitive fog where I couldn’t really take direction up there. I couldn’t really repeat simple technical moves, because the fear kind of clouded my mind a little bit. So overcoming all of that stuff was a real personal triumph,” he added. There were several shots that needed him to overcome his fears, such as a scene where he was suspended on a wire and was to be dropped down from about 20-30 meters high.
He stated, “I wanted to do it; I wanted to give him the shot, but I was petrified. I was absolutely petrified. There’s a camera mounted above me for the close-up, and I fall away from it. We did it all at my pace. I was sort of having to control my breathing and not freak out. And I did it, and it was totally exhilarating. The crew was the most incredible crew I’ve ever worked with. Aussies are made of something different. Everyone gave me a spontaneous round of applause because everyone knew I was terrified.”
Møre og Romsdal county, Norway
Additional portions for ‘Apex’ were also reportedly captured in the Norwegian county of Møre og Romsdal. To be specific, the filming unit set up camp around the Troll Wall, which features in the beginning of the movie. When asked about the amount of climbing anf whitewater scenes she did on her own, Charlize opened up, “The climbing is primarily me…I had broken my big toe, my climbing toe, and torn some intercostal muscles on my left side. So I had a wonderful climber help me out with a little bit of the climbing on the Troll Wall. But everything else, except for maybe a few clip-ins, I can almost guarantee, is all me.”
She added, “That last bit, where I’m pushing over the hill [on the barefoot solo scene]? That’s actually the real cliff. It’s so crazy that they allowed me to do it. I don’t even know why or how we got around it, but we had a crazy, Icelandic director [Baltasar Kormákur], and he makes the movie feel so authentic. That shot, when I’m trying to push myself up on that cliff, I’m actually really trying not to die.” Since she considers herself a great swimmer, Charlize thought that kayaking would be easier for her. “But I have to tell you, it was not the most natural thing for me. Kayaking was actually more challenging than anything else in the movie,” she revealed.
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