'Apex' Ending Explained: Why Ben didn't kill Sasha when he had the chance
This story contains major plot and character details.
Directed by Baltasar Kormakur, 'Apex' is the latest survival thriller on Netflix starring Academy Award winner Charlize Theron and Taron Egerton. Theron plays Sasha, a mountain climber who travels to the desolate Australian Outback. However, a fulfilling adventure trip soon turns out to be a horrific ordeal in which Sasha's survival is threatened by the predatory killer Ben, played by Egerton. By the end of the movie, Sasha has to undertake a dangerous climb up a steep mountain to put an end to Ben's pursuit.
Long before Sasha found herself in peril, she was already recovering from a personal tragedy. The 'Apex' also features Eric Bana as Sasha's partner Tommy. While the two of them were climbing the Troll Wall in Norway, a devastating accident caused Tommy to plummet down the cliff, ultimately leading Sasha to release his dead weight and leave him behind. Five months later, Sasha is in a remote corner of New South Wales, Australia, and before entering a park, she comes across a notice board filled with photographs of missing individuals. The meeting with Ben took place immediately after, and he introduced himself as an outdoorsman who makes his own beef jerky.
As it turns out, Sasha soon finds her supplies missing, and Ben offers her some from his own lot. His kind-hearted facade soon comes undone as he tells her to take a special route through the wilderness, apparently so she can see areas of outstanding natural beauty. "But it is, in fact, because he’s this psychopathic serial killer, and he wants to hunt her through the woods," as explained by Egerton in an interview with Tudum. Ben plays the Chemical Brothers' 'Go' and tells Sasha she has time until the song finishes before he starts hunting for her with a crossbow. Although Sasha escapes momentarily, she soon spots Ben sunbathing and tries to steal his canoe in a closely contested fight. Ben, meanwhile, can capture her with a well-placed bear trap and takes her along to an underground lair, where Sasha learns to her horror that Ben is a killer and has been making jerky from the remains of his victims.
After a grueling course of violence and torture, both Sasha and Ben find themselves trapped at the bottom of a ravine. The next morning, the two of them climb together to escape, and while Ben is at home in the wilderness, Sasha has had much more mountain-climbing training. She is thus able to give Ben the slip and disconnect his weight in a manner reminiscent of what happened to Tommy. As a result, Ben falls with a scary thud, and Sasha climbs onto the cliff, tasting the victory of survival. The movie is now streaming on Netflix.
