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Where was Apex filmed? Behind the scenes of the Aussie action thriller starring Charlize Theron

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Posted on April 24, 2026

The latest Netflix nightmare doubles as an advertisement for Oz’s outdoor offeringsThe latest Netflix nightmare doubles as an advertisement for Oz’s outdoor offerings

On Location peels back the curtain on some of your favourite films, television shows, and more. This time, we ask where is Apex filmed?

Charlize Theron’s new movie Apex is a story of survival. So it’s fitting that the film’s director, Baltasar Kormákur, brought the production to the depths of the Australian wilderness, primarily using real locations to incite the action. It’s something the Icelandic filmmaker has done on several past movies, including Everest.

“I love that part of filming in nature is that you can only control so much,” Kormákur says. “The fight with nature also starts to make it more interesting, rather than fully controlling everything. I tend to use nature first before we go on to any set. Because then the actor comes informed about what the real challenges are and they can replicate that.”

In Apex, Theron plays Sasha, a rock climber dealing with the horrifying loss of her partner (Eric Bana). She travels to Australia to explore via kayak, but soon finds herself in a deadly game and cat and mouse with an eccentric local (Taron Egerton) who wants to hunt and kill her. She is forced to draw on all of her strength and skills, including the rock climbing prowess she buried when her partner died. Many of the scenes were shot in real places around Australia’s Blue Mountains, as well as in Canberra and Engadine. Some of climbing and kayaking was recreated on sets, but Kormákur also insisted on pairing those with actual locations. Theron did a lot of it herself, including the tense final climb, shot at Glenbrook Gorge and on a stage.

We spoke with Theron and Kormákur about the experience of making Apex, how real world locations helped to inform Theron’s acting, and why being physically pushed to the brink can result in a stronger performance onscreen.

Why was the Australian wilderness the right fit for this film?

BK: First of all, how remote and rugged it feels… And there were logistics from a financial point of view that it would be a good place to shoot. When we talked about it for the first time we realised we had to shoot it in the southern hemisphere because there was a lot of water work and Charlize is not a big fan of cold water. That was one of the first things she told me: “I’m not a big fan of cold water.”

CT: It was written for a colder place. I was like, “You have the wrong actress. I don’t think I can do this, but if you find a hot place, call me up. I’ll be ready to go.”

What’s the appeal of shooting a film in such a remote place?

CT: It’s incredible. It’s such a gift. Because this movie relied on really immersing yourself into this environment. You can only [get to know the] character in those circumstances. You have to really go out there and you have to feel it. And you’re constantly being informed. Australia is just absolutely an incredible place to spend any time in. I loved the people and where we shot. We shot in such beautiful places. So as an actor it was really helpful.

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What were your favourite places to shoot?

BK: There were a lot of great locations in Blue Mountains. What was rewarding was after we shot in these really rugged places some of the Australian crew came and thanked me for taking them to places they’d never seen or heard about. We went pretty deep in. The journey that she has to go through, a journey to hell and back basically, we had to go on [it ourselves too]. I wanted to go deep into the caves and the crevices, almost like a metaphorical feeling of a psychic journey. It was so important to find those places that gave you this depth. We actually had to swim to some of the locations and caves. I’m not exaggerating.

CT: With wetsuits on and hard hats! We would swim in freezing water and then we’d hike for like 40 minutes and we’d swim again. It sounds crazy and it was, but it was truly an incredible experience.

You got into that freezing cold water?

CT: It got into that cold water, yeah. He pulled the wool over my eyes. He got me there when the temperature was still really nice, and I was like, “I can’t wait to get into this water.” And then I loved it for a good four weeks. And then it got chillier and chillier. And then he saved the cave water, the really cold water for last. Every single day some poor man had to feed me little chocolate bars because I was going to die.

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Are the caves in the film real caves?

BK: A lot of them are, yes. We had to do some extension, but the beauty is I don’t think people can actually tell which one was built. But a lot of it was for real. There’s a climbing scene, for example, where Charlize is going between two rock walls and that’s all her climbing in her glory. That was this incredible place called the Dry Canyon, which we found deep in the Blue Mountains. It’s such a gift to be able to take actors to those places because it starts to inform the experience the characters go through. When you’ve just walked for 40 minutes into a cave the Hollywood glam is gone. Now you’re just a raw human being. And, of course, it takes a certain type of actor who is willing to do that. Charlize is one of them. She came in with the idea to be barefoot.

CT: It was great. I totally loved it. The climbing was definitely my favourite part of the movie.

BK: She’s an awesome climber. I was very impressed. The final climb is exactly what you see. That is a real rock face. She did that.

CT: That last pull up, when I pull myself on the top of it, that was a real drop. It just went down into a gorge. They had me on just a security line, so they couldn’t pull me. I had to physically get my body over that last boulder. So what you’re watching in real time is me trying to get my ass up there.

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Did you climb that more than once?

CT: Yes, because Baltasar Kormákur is never happy with just one take.

How long did you spend training for the climbing?

CT: I want to say two and a half months. I spent a decent amount of time with an incredible female climber, Beth Rodden. She’s a rock star, and she became really important to me because I think there was a lot of the psychology around climbing that really informed a lot about this character. I tried to spend as much time as I could with her. I knew that this was going to be physically demanding and I tried to strength train as much as I possibly could. I’m really glad I did because I can tell you, by the day before we wrapped, my tank was empty.

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Does it impact your performance when you are physically straining like that?

CT: Yes, and the way Balt and our DP shot this, which I think was so so smart, was that we never set up the wall in a way that there were marks. We weren’t going to climb the mountain with marks like “feet, feet, hand, hand, feet, feet.” Balt asked for these really elaborate sets to be built. We did the first part of that climb on an actual face of a wall in the Blue Mountains, and then we built the rest. But all of the climb was filmed with three to four cameras constantly floating and finding me. So I would show up and I would just start climbing and I didn’t know where I was going to go. The first take would sometimes be 20 minutes of me just trying to figure out how to get up here. But the element of not knowing is what I think really helps. Because then you’re not mechanically putting your hands on the rocks – that starts to look a little easy. So Balt gave me time to really explore the mountain on my own, to really feel like I was alone on this thing and having to problem solve.

Besides the freezing cold water, what are some of the challenges you had to contend with shooting on location?

BK: You have to allow the location to inform you. You have to go with the flow of it. You can’t just decide, “Oh, we’re going to do this.” The mountain doesn’t always agree with you. It does start to be a part of the character. I’ve seen a lot of climbing scenes in movies where people are way too clever and cool and jumping around. That’s what I especially love in the final climb. I really wanted this to be life and death. And it’s hard to create that. I wanted to create this unexpected feeling and allow her to figure it out. At the point of – exhaustion and she was exhausted – things start to look really interesting. I know this is hardcore, but that’s what happens when you are so tired and it’s so difficult that you can’t fake it.

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How much of the kayaking did you do yourself?

CT: I suck at kayaking. Turns out I absolutely suck. I’m not trying to be cute. Once you saw it, you couldn’t unsee it. On day one, the crew saw a lot. Balt was like, “I want you to slowly come in here and then pull in here and this is going to be your campsite.” And I was like, “Fine, got it.” It was a car wreck. I do have a brand new respect for kayakers. I was a little cocky going in because I’m very comfortable in the water. I’m a great swimmer. Water doesn’t scare me. I was like, “It’s a boat and a paddle. How hard can this be?” It turns out really fucking hard.

BK: She’s a better climber than a kayaker, let’s put it that way. But she did a lot of the kayaking, actually. It was very punishing and a lot of that shows [on screen] because it’s supposed to be. We also got some great kayakers to help us out, but a lot of that is Charlie’s actually doing herself, whether she was fighting through it or not.

CT: I pulled my socks up real quickly after day one. I was like, “I need to spend some real time on this. We need to sort this shit out.” And then I got to a place where Balt could actually shoot me.

Image may contain Charlize Theron Leisure Activities Person Sport Swimming Water Water Sports Bathing and Adult

What was the best location you discovered while making the film?

BK: Dry Canyon, which I mentioned. There’s also one called Grand Canyon. These were amazing places. There were also incredible places like Canberra. We did this big jumping scene at a place called Ginninderra Falls.

CT: We started there. I have very fond memories of that. Day two he made me jump off that cliff.

BK: She did it seven times!

CT: It was actually eight, but who’s counting?

Was there anywhere in Australia you got to hang out while making the film?

CT: We were working a lot. We really had no time off. And we never rested on our laurels, like “We have a script, let’s just shoot this.” If we weren’t shooting, everybody was sitting together throwing ideas around: How can we make next week’s work better? I felt like I was just going going and going and Balt was going way more than me. And that’s what the movie demanded. So we didn’t really have a lot of social time. We did one night go and dance. It was gay pride, and we went to go dance somewhere – I could never tell you the name of where. But gay pride in Australia is, truly, chef’s kiss.

BK: Every pizza place I went to was fantastic. Australia has the best pizza in the world. I don’t know why they make such good pizza. There was actually one in the Blue Mountains [called Rustico]. I have never tasted such a good pizza.

CT: I don’t know this pizza that you’re talking about because I was on a very strong protein diet for you. So thanks for throwing your carb diet at me.

Apex is out on Netflix in the UK on Friday, April 24, 2026