The Gorge’s ending has several layers to understand, and it’s worth breaking down the details after finishing. Apple TV+’s latest sci-fi thriller movie is directed by Scott Derickson (Doctor Strange), and The Gorge’s cast is led by Miles Teller (Whiplash), Anya Taylor-Joy (Furiosa, The Queen’s Gambit), and Sigourney Weaver (Alien). Teller and Taylor-Joy play Levi and Drasa, expert snipers who are tasked with guarding opposite ends of a mysterious gorge. Throughout the film, they begin to communicate, leading to a romance that puts their mission and their employers in jeopardy.

After escaping the depths of the Gorge, Levi and Drasa decide that, before they escape, the right thing to do would be to destroy the operation so future operatives wouldn’t succumb to the same lies. This forces Bartholomew, Sigourney Weaver’s character and the head of an organization called Dark Lake, to personally get involved, arriving at the Gorge to take them out. The duo ends up out-thinking her, taking out the satellites and then detonating the Gorge. Bartholomew is killed in a helicopter explosion as Levi and Drasa escape.

Levi & Drasa’s Plan To Destroy The Gorge Explained

Levi & Drasa Activated The Gorge’s Self-Destruct Protocol

While deep within the Gorge, Levi and Drasa discover a 2000s computer with documents pertaining to Dark Lake and the mission in the Gorge. Included in this is a file called “Stray Dog,” which is a self-destruction plan tied to the location through the use of a nuclear weapon. If humans ever reach a point where they can no longer contain the Gorge’s contents, they will have to destroy it, making this a last resort. Dark Lake doesn’t want to use this, however, as they’re a corporation specialized in genetics that wants to profit off the location’s unique DNA samples.

Levi and Drasa intend to destroy the Gorge before leaving and going into hiding, as they believe Dark Lake is evil and covering up the “mother of all secrets.” The computer shows that the blast radius of the nuke will be 4.2 kilometers, so they would have to detonate it from afar if they wish to live. This is the longest kill sH๏τ either of them will have ever taken, and they have to do so, then run the final few hundred kilometers to make it to safety.

Why Levi Didn’t Make It To The Rendezvous Point With Drasa

Levi Was Injured In His Escape

Levi and Drasa’s plan involves them reuniting to live out their days hiding in France. However, before they can escape from wherever the Gorge is, they need to make sure they aren’t contaminated. The pair both quarantine themselves for five days, as per the plan, making sure they haven’t been infected by the substance in the Gorge. Drasa arrives at the rendezvous location and waits for a time, eventually leaving, believing Levi to be ᴅᴇᴀᴅ.

Levi arrives at the cafe in the movie’s ending to find Drasa at her new job, and the two reunite to live happily ever after. The main reason that Levi took so long to get there was for dramatic tension, to force Drasa and the audience to reckon with the possibility that he didn’t make it. Narratively, it’s because he hurt his leg while running away from the drones and likely had to spend longer surviving and healing up before he could reach her. He’s a resourceful man, though, and manages to find her anyway.

The Gorge’s Contamination Event & Hollow Men Explained

A WWII Chemical Weapons Experiment Went Wrong

A film reel in the Gorge’s research station provides most of the necessary exposition related to the Gorge and the Hollow Men. Toward the end of World War II, collaborators from the East and the West worked together on a classified project to develop nuclear weapons that would rival that of the Manhattan Project. These chemical missiles were intended to be a world superpower, but an earthquake struck and damaged their base of operations.

As shown by the woman in the film reel, the chemicals involved in creating the weapons merged with the DNA of the human beings. Rather than continue to develop the weapons, the scientists’ mission changed to containing the toxin. Those who lived down there turned into Hollow Men, and the chemicals continued to alter animals like horses, spiders, and more, eventually leading to horrible hybrid creatures.

What Bartholomew & Dark Lake Was Really Doing With The Gorge

Dark Lake Was Using The Hybrid DNA To Create Super Soldiers

Bartholomew is the primary representative of Dark Lake, a sinister faction that has been harvesting the Gorge for the unique DNA of its contaminated creatures. Since no one can enter the area without being contaminated, they use drones to enter and exit the Gorge, transporting the necessary substances. Snipers are then used to protect the Gorge from the outside, preventing anything from escaping and entering the real world. Dark Lake’s primary purpose is to use the hybrid DNA to make super soldiers.

Did Bartholomew Die In The Helicopter Crash?

Bartholomew Didn’t Survive Stray Dog

While The Gorge seems like a movie that has potential for a sequel, until Apple officially announces something, it should be ᴀssumed that Bartholomew died. There could always be more to take her place at Dark Lake, but their purpose might have shifted now that the Gorge has been destroyed. Bartholomew was this movie’s main villain, and having Sigourney Weaver in an antagonist role helped to subvert expectations. For the purpose of giving her character a solid ending, it’s rather poetic that she was killed by the explosion of her own project.

What Levi’s Poem To Drasa Really Means

Levi Tells Drasa How Much She Meant To Him

One of the first things Levi and Drasa bond over is Levi’s interest in poetry. He claims he isn’t very good at writing poems, despite writing daily and having taken a class, but she insists that he has to show her his material. He only reveals the name of his poem, “She Collapsed the Night,” which she resonates with, and saves the complete work to reveal to her in the case of his death. Believing him to be ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, she reads it. The text of Levi’s poem that the film shows is as follows:

She Collapsed the Night

I did not know, I knew how to hope.

I did not know, I’d long been hoping.

To behold you,

Coping only to be held by you.

You – unshatterable alabaster.

You – Starlight carved by chainsaw.

This is a relatively simple love poem that compares Levi’s time before meeting Drasa to “the night.” Before meeting her, he didn’t know how to hope and didn’t even know he wanted to hope. However, after meeting her, he realized she was all he ever wanted. She ended, or “collapsed,” his hopelessness or his “night,” allowing him to rediscover himself and his will to live.

The Real Meaning Of The Gorge’s Ending Explained

The Gorge Is About Levi & Drasa Finding Hope In EacH๏τher

The Gorge has all the thrills of a science fiction and horror movie, with creative action and world-building. That said, the core of the story isn’t the conflict; it’s the characters. Levi and Drasa are two adults who have lost their place in life, and their line of work has led to instability and separation from other people. They go into the job because they have nothing to lose, and like Levi says, they discover something to live for throughout. The reason they stand out so much to each other isn’t just base attraction, but because they understand one another.

Scott Derickson’s movie shows two adults who have taken on the profession they’re great at, but both of them have artistic souls. Levi loves poetry, while Drasa loves music. There’s more to these characters than who they’ve shaped themselves out to be, and by finding each other, they’ve recovered their right to access that part of themselves. The Gorge is mostly just a fun action/romance movie, but there’s some depth to these characters between the lines.