Anthony Mackie & Morena Baccarin’s Post-Apocalyptic Action Thriller Is A Hit On Max

While Netflix remains the undisputed king of streaming as far as subscriber numbers go, there’s a heck of a lot of stuff happening elsewhere, and a lot of it is actually quite good. Apple TV+ sticks out as the most salient example, with the platform churning out a string of top-quality series from “Slow Horses” to TV’s trippiest mind-bender “Severance,” the second season of which is even better than the first.

But there’s also Max, which is where you’ll find Warner Bros. Discovery’s diverse offerings. The merger of the two companies made for an odd pairing, wherein one of Hollywood’s most esteemed studios met the network responsible for Shark Week. But Max is worthwhile for many reasons, having recently debuted the great and startlingly medically accurate series “The Pitt.” Max also saw an Oscar-nominated animated movie dominate the most-watched charts recently, which is a better state of affairs than Amy Schumer’s comedy “Kinda Pregnant” topping the Netflix charts with a 29% Rotten Tomatoes score.

Now, Max viewers have turned their attention to a 2024 action thriller that stars Anthony Mackie and which seems oddly reminiscent of another modern action-horror series. “Elevation” can’t claim to have been Oscar-nominated, but it can at least claim to have hit number one on the Max charts.

Directed by George Nolfi (“The Adjustment Bureau”) who previously directed Anthony Mackie in the strangely inert 2020 period drama “The Banker,” “Elevation” stars Mackie as Will, a single father living with his son, Hunter (Danny Boyd Jr.), in the post-apocalyptic U.S. The pair are forced to reside above 8,000 feet after mysterious creatures known as reapers emerged from sinkholes in the ground and laid waste to modern society. For whatever reason, however, the beasts can’t travel above 8,000 feet, which is all well and good until Hunter needs more oxygen filters. Will is then forced to venture down from his Rocky Mountain refuge to Boulder, Colorado, where he’s sure he’ll find the necessary filters to save his son. Of course, that means he’ll have to contend with the hell beasts that now roam Earth’s surface, but with the help of scientist Nina (Morena Baccarin) and friend Katie (Maddie Hasson), he might just be able to pull it off.

If that sounds a little like a “Quiet Place”-esque premise, this movie does — as the trailer proudly announces — come from the producer of that successful horror series. The reapers in “Elevation” do seem a little reminiscent of the so-called “Death Angels” in the “Quiet Place” films — generic gray movie monsters with a mysterious aversion to sound height. But none of that has stopped Max viewers from streaming the film enough for it to top the streamer’s charts.

“Elevation” was released in the U.S. on November 8, 2024, and only made $1.2 million on its opening weekend, finishing 11th overall and making $3.6 million worldwide by the end of its run. Not exactly the best outcome for a film that cost $18 million to make. Now, though, as per streaming viewership tracker FlixPatrol, the film is getting a second chance at finding an audience, after hitting Max on February 21, 2025, and almost immediately charting at number one on the movie rankings on February 23. It stayed in the top spot for February 24, too, and will likely stick around for a little while longer. Interestingly enough, Mackie’s thriller is also charting on Amazon’s Prime Video in other countries, where it has hit number one in the UK and Australia.

“Elevation” might have all the hallmarks of a generic streaming movie, with a derivative premise and a seemingly ill-advised theatrical run. But a 57% Rotten Tomatoes is far from the worst score we’ve ever seen for one of these streaming success stories. Prime Video has been particularly egregious of late, with a forgotten Owen Wilson and Zach Galifianakis movie getting a second chance on the streamer despite a truly upsetting 8% Rotten Tomatoes score. “Elevation” might not be the premium filmmaking we all hope to see at the top of these charts, then, but it’s a heck of a lot better than some of the other dross we’ve seen surface in recent years, and it certainly seems to have captured the attention of the Max audiences.

Unfortunately, the reviews really can’t be described as anything but begrudging. Even the positive ones aren’t really all that glowing. In his ostensibly “fresh” review Phil Hoad of The Guardian writes “Prospective future installments might want to aim higher than mere competency” — that’s worth a nice ripe tomato, apparently. At least the Colorado setting is getting some love, with Bob Strauss of the San Francisco Chronicle writing, “The main thing you’re likely to take away from this movie is how nice all those rocks and trees look.” He’s joined by Christy Lemire, who in her review for LAist determined that “everyone is solid in this and you see a lot of lovely aerial shots of the Rocky Mountains.”

So, if you like pretty ok action thrillers and happen to be a fan of aerial shots of Colorado, maybe join Max subscribers and give this one a go. It’ll hardly be much consolation to Anthony Mackie, whose “Captain America: Brave New World” is in trouble at the box office having suffered a 68% second-weekend drop, but hey, it at least it ain’t “Kinda Pregnant.”