‘Apex’ on Netflix: Cast, Plot, Release Date and How to Watch Through DIRECTV

Apex has quickly become one of the most talked-about movies on Netflix, and if you haven’t seen it yet, here’s everything you need to know before you watch. Directed by Baltasar Kormákur, the filmmaker behind Everest and Adrift, Apex is a survival thriller starring Charlize Theron as a woman who travels to the remote Australian wilderness seeking solitude and finds herself hunted instead.

The film premiered on Netflix on April 24, 2026. For DIRECTV customers, Netflix is available to add to your account, and Apex is available to stream right now.

Quick facts

What is ‘Apex’ about?

Sasha, played by Charlize Theron, is an experienced climber grieving the loss of her partner who travels alone into the remote Australian wilderness. What begins as a personal test of endurance quickly becomes something far more dangerous when she becomes the target of a methodical and deadly hunt.

The film is built around the cat-and-mouse dynamic between its two leads, using the scale and isolation of the Australian wilderness as both setting and antagonist. Kormákur, whose previous films placed characters in similarly unforgiving environments — a collapsing mountain in Everest and an open ocean in Adrift — brings a proven instinct for survival storytelling to the material.

Cast at a glance

• Charlize Theron — Sasha
• Taron Egerton — Ben
• Eric Bana — Tommy

Charlize Theron as Sasha

Charlize Theron plays Sasha, a woman processing grief through physical challenge who finds herself fighting for survival in the wilderness. Theron has established herself as one of the most credible action performers working today. Her work in Mad Max: Fury Road and Atomic Blonde required genuine physical commitment and that history informs how audiences read Sasha from her very first scene.

What distinguishes Sasha from Theron’s more overtly trained action roles is vulnerability. Sasha is not a soldier or a professional. She is a capable and determined woman whose resourcefulness is tested far beyond what she prepared for. That distinction gives the character a grounded quality that Theron handles with her characteristic precision.

Taron Egerton as Ben

Taron Egerton plays Ben, the film’s antagonist, a calculating predator who has turned hunting human targets into something approaching a method. It is a significant tonal departure from the roles Egerton is best known for including Eggsy in the Kingsman franchise and Elton John in Rocketman.

What makes the performance work is restraint. Ben is not theatrical in his menace. He is quiet, methodical and almost clinical which makes him considerably more unsettling than a more aggressive antagonist would be. Egerton leans into that stillness fully and the result is one of the more unexpected villain performances of 2026.

Eric Bana as Tommy

Eric Bana plays Tommy, Sasha’s late partner whose presence shapes the emotional foundation of the story. An Australian actor working in his home country’s landscape, Bana brings natural authority to the role and a grounded physicality that complements the film’s survival focus.

Why the Cast Works

Apex earns its tension through an asymmetry built directly into the casting. Theron brings years of established credibility in survival-oriented roles and audiences believe she can endure what Sasha endures. Egerton, largely untested as a villain, makes Ben genuinely unpredictable in a way a more familiar antagonist could not. That contrast creates real dramatic stakes before the hunt has even begun. Kormákur, who knows how to use landscape as a character in its own right, gives both performers the space to let that tension breathe.

Watch ‘Apex’ with DIRECTV

Watch Apex on Netflix through DIRECTV and keep everything in one place. You can add Netflix directly to your DIRECTV account, link an existing subscription or choose a plan that fits your budget, then stream instantly on your TV or any compatible device.

Learn more about adding Netflix to your DIRECTV account!