Few actors have mastered jump roping the line between drama and action as well as Charlize Theron has. Whether you first came to know her in the ’90s — when she starred in Mighty Joe Young and The Cider House Rules — or more recently started looking forward to every time her villainous character pops up in the Fast & Furious franchise, Theron’s presence makes every movie she’s in all the more compelling. That intensity makes her the perfect unexpected prey in Apex, director Baltasar Kormákur’s (Beast) thriller about Sasha (Theron), a grieving woman who’s hunted through the Australian Outback by a crossbow-wielding serial killer (Taron Egerton).
The high-intensity action flick isn’t the first serial killer story that Theron has starred in: She won a SAG Award, a Critics Choice Award, a Golden Globe, and an Oscar for her portrayal of Aileen Wuornos in the 2003 biographical drama Monster, co-starring Christina Ricci (Wednesday). That role launched Theron’s career into the stratosphere, and she went on to helm dramas like North Country and Tully, comedies like Young Adult and Long Shot, and a laundry list of action and genre flicks like Mad Max: Fury Road, Atomic Blonde, and The Old Guard (more on that below).
Keep scrolling to learn more about Apex and Theron’s other movies on Netflix.
This intense thriller, directed by Baltasar Kormákur (Everest), stars Theron as Sasha, a bereaved woman who takes a trip to the Australian Outback to seek solace in the wilderness. But she gets more than she bargained for when an unsettling man named Ben — played by Taron Egerton (Carry-On) — tracks her into the forest. Armed with a crossbow, Ben initiates a deadly game of cat and mouse with Sasha, who’s forced to get as far away from the ruthless psychopath as possible before his pump-up music ends. Because when it does, it’s hunt or be hunted. Eric Bana (Untamed) also stars in this action-packed flick in which Theron and Egerton perform many of their own stunts.
Theron co-stars with Nicole Kidman (The Perfect Couple) and Margot Robbie (A Big Bold Beautiful Journey) in this biographical drama as news anchor Megyn Kelly. The film, directed by Jay Roach (The Roses) and written by Charles Randolph (The Big Short), follows the story of three women who risk their careers to expose the toxic work culture perpetuated by their powerful boss, Roger Ailes (John Lithgow), at Fox News. Kate McKinnon (The Bubble), Mark Duplass (Creep), Connie Britton (Dirty John), Malcolm McDowell (Blue Thunder), and Allison Janney (The West Wing) also star. Theron’s performance earned her nominations for Best Actress at the Oscars, Critics Choice Awards, Golden Globes, and SAG Awards.
Theron leads this action epic as Andromache of Scythia, aka Andy, a centuries-old warrior who leads a team of other immortal mercenaries, including Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts), Joe (Marwan Kenzari), and Nicky (Luca Marinelli). Together, they protect the world from threats, and have altered history time and again. When a new immortal, Nile (KiKi Layne), is discovered, they work to recruit her — just in time for a villainous pharmaceutical executive (Harry Melling) to enact his plan to capture the group in order to experiment on them and unlock their genetic secrets. Chiwetel Ejiofor (Come Sunday) co-stars in this movie directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Woman King) and written by Greg Rucka, who also wrote the comics on which the film is based.
Andy’s past comes back to haunt her in this sequel, directed by Victoria Mahoney. When the world’s first immortal, the vengeful Discord (Uma Thurman), sets her sights on the team, they have to work quickly to unravel a growing mystery centered around Nile and Andy, who’s losing her immortal powers and having trouble reconciling her past choices with her current reality. Henry Golding (Snake Eyes) and Veronica Ngô (Furies) also star.
Based on Soman Chainani’s 2013 novel of the same name, this fantasy movie, directed by Paul Feig (The Housemaid), follows best friends Sophie (Sophia Anne Caruso) and Agatha (Sofia Wylie), who are sent to the titular school that teaches the next generation how to be fairy-tale heroes (called “Evers”) and villains (called “Nevers”). When Sophie, who longs to be a princess, is enrolled as a villainous Never and Agatha, who’s skeptical of fairy tales, is cast as a heroic Ever, their friendship and the fate of their world are put to the test. Theron co-stars as Leonora Lesso, the wicked dean of the School for Evil, and is joined by an ensemble cast that includes Kit Young (Shadow and Bone), Jamie Flatters (The Forgotten Battle), Rachel Bloom (Rachel Bloom: Death, Let Me Do My Special), Michelle Yeoh (The Brothers Sun), Cate Blanchett (Don’t Look Up), and Kerry Washington (Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery).
