Includes SPOILERS for The Gorge!
Anya Taylor-Joy and Miles Teller’s characters in The Gorge uncover a mystery surrounding a lost 1940s army battalion, and it’s crucial to the film’s story. The movie’s stars play elite snipers named Drasa and Levi, who are ᴀssigned to an undisclosed, remote location where they’re tasked with protecting the outside world from the inhabitants of a deep underground valley. Levi’s predecessor, JD, describes the job as protecting the outside world from the entrance to Hell, but there’s much more to the Gorge than what meets the eye, especially regarding the “Hollow Men.”
The Gorge is being operated on by a sinister organization named Dark Lake. As Levi discovers and explains, Dark Lake is a “huge corporation specialized in genetic research” and doesn’t have any affiliation with the US Military like he initially thought. Their research involves using drones to transport DNA samples out of the Gorge, so understanding what exactly is in the contaminated area is crucial to understanding the movie’s plot. Luckily, a scene with an old 1940s film reel says everything one would need to know.
The Soldiers In The Battalion Turned Into The Gorge’s Hollow Men
A 1940s Chemical Weapons Experiment Went Wrong
Part of the film’s mystery is the uncovering of a 1940s World War II battalion of soldiers. These men were part of an operation of collaborators from the East and the West that formed toward the end of the war, hoping to create chemical weapons in order to rival that of Oppenheimer’s Manhattan Project. However, the mission went awry when an earthquake struck, causing the chemicals to create a devastating toxin that contained all lifeforms within the area.
Each of the Hollow Men they kill is wearing some sort of military uniform
The soldiers stationed in this operation turned into “Hollow Men,” as shown in Levi and Drasa’s expedition. Each of the Hollow Men they kill is wearing some sort of military uniform, suggesting that these are still the bodies of the men they once were, but the chemicals have deformed them and turned them into zombie-like creatures who are restricted to the toxic zone. The Gorge’s Hollow Men were named after the poem of the same name by T.S. Eliot, which was published in 1925.
Why The Battalion Went After Levi & Drasa In The Gorge
The Hollow Men Are No Longer Human
By 2025, when The Gorge presumably takes place, the soldiers who were once stationed in the area are long ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. The Hollow Men aren’t humans anymore and are much closer to zombies, animals, or typical sci-fi monsters. Like in Alien or other sci-fi/horror movies, the Hollow Men want nothing but to feed, with Levi even mentioning in the film that he thinks they’re hungry. Any humanity in these beings was flushed out long ago.
