The Gorge dropped on Apple TV+ on February 14, 2025, and one of the first things viewers wanted to know was where those breathtaking landscapes actually were. The film follows two elite snipers who spend a year guarding opposite sides of a secret gorge and have no idea where in the world they are. The irony is that we the audience can find out exactly. Here is every filming location broken down by what you see on screen.
The Gorge Filming Locations
The Gorge was filmed across California, the United Kingdom, and Norway. The bulk of the production took place on studio stages in England, with real outdoor plates shot across Norway and various parts of the UK. The actors themselves filmed almost entirely in Britain. The Norwegian mountain footage was shot without the cast present and composited in during post-production.
| Country | Location | What It Was Used For |
| England | Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden | Tower interiors, underground gorge sequences |
| England | Bourne Wood, Surrey | Forest scenes around the towers |
| Norway | Romsdalen Valley, Rauma | Gorge exterior and mountain landscapes |
| Norway | Åndalsnes | Mountain valley plates |
| Norway | Loen, Vestland | Fjord scenery plates |
| Wales | Llandudno, Conwy | Cemetery scene, coastal France stand-in |
| Wales | St. Tudno’s Church, Great Orme | Lithuanian churchyard scene |
| California, USA | Rosie’s Dog Beach, Long Beach | Opening beach scene with Levi |
| California, USA | Point Dume, Malibu | Coastal cliff scene with the Cross of Lorraine |
| California, USA | Geoffrey’s Malibu restaurant | Restaurant scene set in France |
| Scotland | Cullen Estate and Highlands | Additional exterior plates |
Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, England
Filming began in March 2023 in London, with production at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, where the tower interiors were built on a stage.
This is where most of the heavy lifting happened. To create all the facilities deep within the gorge and the foggy underground sequences, shooting in a studio with custom sets and greenscreen was necessary. Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden is a famous studio lot used for some of the most iconic movies of all time, including the Harry Potter franchise, Star Wars, and several DC movies.
The two guard towers, the bunker interiors, and the underground laboratory were all built here. If it felt claustrophobic and real, that is because it was a physical set rather than a purely digital environment.
Romsdalen Valley and Åndalsnes, Norway
This is the location most people are searching for after they watch the film.
When it comes to exterior shots of the titular gorge, that is footage of a real canyon in Norway. Even though Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy didn’t film any scenes in Norway, director Scott Derrickson shot background “plates” of the exterior there, and then created composite shots in post-production.
Derrickson was specific about why he insisted on doing it this way.
"We shot plates in Norway for the canyon, for the rock walls, for the forests, for the sky, and then sort of stitched together the virtual space itself of the gorge," he explained. "When you're looking at the gorge, most of what you're seeing is real photography. And that is what makes it look good. It makes it look real. It looks real because, for the most part, it is real."
The mountainous landscapes surrounding the gorge were taken from the spectacular 60-kilometer-long Romsdalen Valley in western Norway near Åndalsnes. The valley is carved by the Rauma River and flanked by the Romsdalsalpene mountains, including the renowned Trollveggen, the Troll Wall, the highest vertical rock face in Europe, with a sheer drop of approximately 3,600 feet.
The production also filmed in Loen, Norway, a village in Stryn Municipality in the Vestland county, known for its deep fjords.
If you want to visit the real landscapes from the film, Åndalsnes is the place. It is a small town and a popular stop on Norwegian cruise routes precisely because of the dramatic cliffs and valleys surrounding it.
Bourne Wood, Surrey, England
The close-up scenes with the actors in the forest around the towers were filmed at Bourne Wood in Surrey, England. A remarkable number of major productions have been filmed here, including the Marvel movies, the Harry Potter films, and Gladiator.
More recently, Napoleon featured the Battle of Austerlitz, and the largest battle scene in House of the Dragon was also shot here.
So when you see Levi or Drasa moving through dense forest on the edge of the gorge, that is a Surrey woodland, not a Norwegian one.
Llandudno and St. Tudno’s Church, Wales
Llandudno in Wales stood in for Èze in France. The coastal town in North Wales has a rocky shoreline that works convincingly as the French Riviera when shot carefully.
The cemetery scene where Drasa’s father appears was filmed at St. Tudno’s Church on the Great Orme headland in Llandudno. This is a medieval church that has been on that site since the sixth century. The graveyard sits on the slopes of the headland with sea views that gave the scene its melancholy atmosphere.
Additional filming locations in the UK included Surrey, Bedfordshire, and County Durham in England, as well as Conwy in Wales and the Cullen Estate and Highlands in Scotland.
Long Beach and Malibu, California
The opening sequence where Levi is exercising on a beach and showing off his unexpected poetry skills was shot in the US. The beach was filmed at Rosie’s Dog Beach on the Belmont Shore of Long Beach, California.
The cliff scene featuring the Cross of Lorraine, which appears to be set in Èze on the French Riviera, was also shot in California. The cross was CGI’d into a cliff between Westward Beach and Pirate’s Cove Beach in Point Dume, Malibu. The climactic scene in the 1968 film Planet of the Apes, in which the ruins of the Statue of Liberty are discovered, was filmed just below this location.
The restaurant scene is Geoffrey’s Malibu, a famous oceanfront restaurant located at 27400 Pacific Coast Highway. The zoom-out showing the Mediterranean-style buildings in the Côte d’Azur is a computer-generated image.
How Did They Create the Gorge Itself?
The gorge as a visual space does not exist anywhere in the world. It was assembled from multiple real locations combined in post-production.
The production used location shooting in Norway near the Rauma River. The interior studio work, including the tower sets and sequences inside the valley, was filmed at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden.
Visual effects work was handled by DNEG and Framestore, two of the most experienced VFX houses in the industry. The Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross score gave the space its atmosphere once the visuals were assembled.
The result is a gorge that feels physically real because its components, the rock walls, the forests, the sky, are all real photographs stitched and shaped into something that could not actually exist.
The Cast and Crew Behind The Gorge
| Role | Name |
| Director | Scott Derrickson |
| Writer | Zach Dean |
| Levi Kane | Miles Teller |
| Drasa | Anya Taylor-Joy |
| Bartholomew | Sigourney Weaver |
| Supporting | Sope Dirisu |
| Score | Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross |
| VFX | DNEG and Framestore |
| Studio | Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden |
| Distributor | Apple TV+ |
Is The Gorge Worth Watching?
Yes, the film became Apple TV+’s biggest launch for a movie ever, surpassing Wolfs starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt.
Critics were split. On Rotten Tomatoes, 62% of 149 critics’ reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.9 out of 10. The site’s consensus describes it as a surprisingly endearing romance that loses its way once its action-thriller obligations take over. Metacritic assigned it a score of 57 out of 100, indicating mixed or average reviews. IMDb users rated it 6.7 out of 10.
| Platform | Score | Type |
| Rotten Tomatoes | 62% | Critics |
| Rotten Tomatoes | 74% | Audience |
| Metacritic | 57 / 100 | Critics |
| IMDb | 6.7 / 10 | User Rating |
The pattern is clear: audiences liked it more than critics. The chemistry between Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy is the most consistent point of praise across reviews. The first half, focused on two isolated snipers slowly falling for each other across a canyon, is where the film is strongest. The second half, when the creatures and the action take over, is where opinions diverge.
The New York Times called it a film that “crackles most as a lively pas de deux between Taylor-Joy and Teller, who commendably take their material seriously no matter how seriously ridiculous it gets.”
If you go in expecting a slow-burn sci-fi romance with action in the second half, you will enjoy it. If you go in expecting a creature horror film, you may be disappointed.
Can You Visit the Filming Locations?
Yes, and several are well worth the trip.
| Location | Where It Is | Visitor Notes |
| Romsdalen Valley | Near Åndalsnes, Norway | Accessible by train or car, popular cruise stop |
| Åndalsnes | Rauma, Norway | Small town, stunning alpine setting |
| Bourne Wood | Surrey, England | Public woodland, no entry fee |
| St. Tudno’s Church | Great Orme, Llandudno, Wales | Historic church, open to visitors |
| Llandudno seafront | North Wales, UK | Coastal town, easy to visit |
| Point Dume | Malibu, California | Public beach access |
| Geoffrey’s Malibu | Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu | Functioning restaurant |
Norway is the obvious bucket-list choice from this list. Romsdalen Valley is one of the most dramatic natural landscapes in Europe, and it is accessible without specialist equipment. The train journey to Åndalsnes on the Rauma Line is itself considered one of the most scenic rail routes in the world.
