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Plot - Eric Qualen (Lithgow) is a ruthless criminal who has constructed an elaborate plan to hijack a United States Treasury airplane in mid-air and steal the $100 million bounty they are transferring. The operation is botched however and the money falls to the ground below, scattered across the foreboding Rocky Mountains. With the ability to track the cases which hold the money however it still seems like a sure win for Qualen and his gang of henchmen. After all, all that's standing between them and their haul are some measly mountain climbers. These climbers however are amongst the most skilled in the world, and they have the courage to match it. Gabe Walker (Stallone), Hal Tucker (Rooker) and Jessie Deighan (Turner) are in no mood to let the criminals get away with their plan so a frantic race to locate the money begins.
So far as part of my move musings I've done reviews of Die Hard on a cruise ship (Speed 2), Die Hard on a warship (Under Siege), Die Hard in a hockey stadium (Sudden Death) and probably some others I'm forgetting. Plus I also reviewed the original granddaddy of all of them; Die Hard itself. Now we come to perhaps the most ambitious of all the Die Hard clones that have been relentlessly churned out over the years; Die Hard on a mountain. While all of those films relied on containing the hero and the action within a single claustrophobic setting, Cliffhanger thrives on opening its world up, setting its sprawling action across the epic and wild expanse of the Rocky Mountains. As the end credits begin to roll the final image that we see is of those mountains themselves, and that feels like a very appropriate end as in many ways that setting becomes a star in its own right, perhaps even the star of the movie. It provides the film with some stunning scenery and vistas as its backdrop which means it's always interesting to look at. While its setting was the Colorado Rockies that isn't where Cliffhanger was actually filmed, it was instead filmed in the Cortina d'Ampezzo-Dolomites mountains in Italy because of their remarkable similarity to the Rockies. Captured by Alex Thomson's cinematographic eye the scenery just adds another layer of interest to the film; so scenes that we've seen countless times before in action films feel fresh thanks to the locations they are based in. It also creates
To really make the grade as an action film what you clearly need is some great action, pure and simple. And Cliffhanger certainly delivers. It both opens and closes on a high note with two great set-pieces and keeps the action flowing in between. In the opening scene Stallone's Gabe attempts to rescue his friend Hal and Hal's girlfriend, Sarah, who have become stranded high in the moutains after Hal injured his knee. After winching Hal to safety Gabe attempts to do the same for Sarah, but with disastrous results. Her harness breaks and she is left dangling above a massive chasm and certain death. Disregarding Hal's advice Gabe goes out onto the line in an attempt to save her but she slips from his grasp and falls into oblivion. The scene actually acts as a bit of a surprise. I mean this is Sylvester motherf*cking Stallone!!! He's the heroic dude who always saves the day, he's not going to let her fall is he? I mean there's no way, he's going to pull her up and....oh s*it she fell!
And that vulnerable thread actually runs throughout the film. This isn't the type of character that Stallone or his action counterparts would play all that often; he's no tough-as-nails cop, no bad-ass soldier. He may be a tough, rugged mountain climber but he is also very human and is left completely shaken by the accident. It gives the character just a little bit more for Stallone to work with. And as a big fan of the man I think that he does a great job. Oh and as a little aside to that great opening set-piece, it's a scene which is hilariously spoofed by Jim Carrey and a racoon in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls.
Cliffhanger also features a series of rather awesome deaths which befall the villainous characters. These include Stallone riding one of the bad guys like a sled down the mountain (resulting in vicious ice burns down the guy's face) before depositing him over the cliff, the giant fireball that eventually claims Qualen and Qualen's despicable, heartless sacrificing of his own lover. And then there is the best death scene, one of my favourites throughout all of cinema actually. Having fallen down a crevice in the moutain Stallone finds himself getting his ass kicked by Kynette, one of the villain's henchmen. Seemingly at Kynette's mercy Stallone all of a sudden grabs Kynette by the family jewels and crushes them with his bare hands! He then hoists him up into the air and body presses him into the cave's roof, causing a stalactite to puncture through his body.
As anyone who saw the fourth season of Dexter will be able to attest to John Lithgow makes for one terrific villain. Although here he is in more hammy, outlandish form than the quietly chilling way he played the Trinity Killer. He is just delightfully smarmy as Eric Qualen, smirking and sneering his way through the film. The man just has a face for evil. With hardly any effort at all it just takes on this natural look of pure disdain, giving his character this real sense of superiority as if he is disgusted to be having to share the same planet as the rest of us. And as is fitting for a villain in a 90s action film Lithgow employs an English accent. When it came to action films, the 80s and 90s were a time where just about every single villain came with an accent, typically from one of three camps. They were either English (Last Action Hero, Gone in 60 Seconds, Tomorrow Never Dies, The Lion King etc), German (Die Hard, Die Hard With a Vengeance, Rocketeer) or Russian (Air Force One, Red Dawn, First Blood Part 2, Top Gun, Rambo 3, Rocky IV, Red Heat, Hunt for Red October, Goldeneye etc etc. Man the Russians had a really tough time of it! 
).
Backing him up in the villain stakes is a fun performance from Rex Linn as Richard Travers, the dirty US Treasury agent who hooks up with Qualen and orchestrates the theft. The only previous work that I would really associate him with would be as the police officer on CSI: Miami so it was nice to see him playing a much nastier a*shole character. And even though he's not playing a villainous character Michael Rooker also gets a lot of traction out of clashing with Stallone. Rooker played Hal Tucker, a fellow mountain climber and previously a close friend of Gabe's. Following the death of Sarah he blames Gabe and from then on Rooker plays Hal with a great deal of intensity and a real bitter fury towards Gave. The only real disappointment in the cast is Janine Turner as Jessie, the supposed love interest of Stallone's Gabe even if I never really felt it, but in her defence a large part of that is down to the underwhelming character she is lumbered with.
One thing that really adds to the thrill of the film and how much the audience becomes invested in the story and its characters is how genuine much of it clearly is. While it did employ a series of cinematic tricks such as CGI, miniatures, matte paintings and even a motorised Sylvester Stallone pippet to impressive use, for the most part this is principal effects at work. These are real people that you're seeing climbing on that mountain, including the actors themselves on a number of occasions climbing the mountains and hanging over cliffs and voids. And when it's not them you've got a series of the world's best mountain climbers acting as their stunt doubles, meaning that we get some fantastic examples of mountain climbing. Although that's not the only piece of stunt work to catch the eye. The scene that depicts the attempted theft from the Treasury plane is insane. The plane is hijacked mid-flight and a line connecting it to another plane is put in place. The Travers character then uses the line to transfer from one plane to another in mid-air, a feat that was actually achieved through principal means, no CGI. Stuntman Simon Crane performed the stunt for real at 15,000 feet without even any safety devices and was paid $1 million to do so; and in my eyes he earned every penny. And while Cliffhanger was filmed in Italy this scene was actually filmed back in America as performing such a stunt was illegal in Europe. As a result of this stunt Cliffhanger resides in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the costliest aerial stunt ever performed. And Sylvester Stallone is to thank for making it happen. The insurance company that were underwriting the film refused to insure anyone to perform the stunt, so Stallone offered to have his salary cut to pay for the stunt. And because of the extreme danger involved, the stunt was only performed once.
Conclusion - Like the large majority of Stallone's back catalogue, Cliffhanger was never exactly going to trouble the big award ceremonies or be a darling of the critics. Also like the large majority of his films however, Cliffhanger is a whole load of fun. It's got some exciting action, a deliciously evil villain in Lithgow and is actually quite a funny and witty excursion on occasion.
I've not posted a new review for a little while for one reason or another, so to make it up to you all here's a double bill. First up is the last of my current run of action films, another Stallone film and another personal favourite (or guilty pleasure however you want to term it)
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Year of release
1993
1993
Directed by
Renny Harlin
Renny Harlin
Written by
Michael France
Sylvester Stallone
Michael France
Sylvester Stallone
Starring
Sylvester Stallone
John Lithgow
Michael Rooker
Janine Turner
Rex Linn
Sylvester Stallone
John Lithgow
Michael Rooker
Janine Turner
Rex Linn
Cliffhanger
+
Plot - Eric Qualen (Lithgow) is a ruthless criminal who has constructed an elaborate plan to hijack a United States Treasury airplane in mid-air and steal the $100 million bounty they are transferring. The operation is botched however and the money falls to the ground below, scattered across the foreboding Rocky Mountains. With the ability to track the cases which hold the money however it still seems like a sure win for Qualen and his gang of henchmen. After all, all that's standing between them and their haul are some measly mountain climbers. These climbers however are amongst the most skilled in the world, and they have the courage to match it. Gabe Walker (Stallone), Hal Tucker (Rooker) and Jessie Deighan (Turner) are in no mood to let the criminals get away with their plan so a frantic race to locate the money begins.
So far as part of my move musings I've done reviews of Die Hard on a cruise ship (Speed 2), Die Hard on a warship (Under Siege), Die Hard in a hockey stadium (Sudden Death) and probably some others I'm forgetting. Plus I also reviewed the original granddaddy of all of them; Die Hard itself. Now we come to perhaps the most ambitious of all the Die Hard clones that have been relentlessly churned out over the years; Die Hard on a mountain. While all of those films relied on containing the hero and the action within a single claustrophobic setting, Cliffhanger thrives on opening its world up, setting its sprawling action across the epic and wild expanse of the Rocky Mountains. As the end credits begin to roll the final image that we see is of those mountains themselves, and that feels like a very appropriate end as in many ways that setting becomes a star in its own right, perhaps even the star of the movie. It provides the film with some stunning scenery and vistas as its backdrop which means it's always interesting to look at. While its setting was the Colorado Rockies that isn't where Cliffhanger was actually filmed, it was instead filmed in the Cortina d'Ampezzo-Dolomites mountains in Italy because of their remarkable similarity to the Rockies. Captured by Alex Thomson's cinematographic eye the scenery just adds another layer of interest to the film; so scenes that we've seen countless times before in action films feel fresh thanks to the locations they are based in. It also creates
To really make the grade as an action film what you clearly need is some great action, pure and simple. And Cliffhanger certainly delivers. It both opens and closes on a high note with two great set-pieces and keeps the action flowing in between. In the opening scene Stallone's Gabe attempts to rescue his friend Hal and Hal's girlfriend, Sarah, who have become stranded high in the moutains after Hal injured his knee. After winching Hal to safety Gabe attempts to do the same for Sarah, but with disastrous results. Her harness breaks and she is left dangling above a massive chasm and certain death. Disregarding Hal's advice Gabe goes out onto the line in an attempt to save her but she slips from his grasp and falls into oblivion. The scene actually acts as a bit of a surprise. I mean this is Sylvester motherf*cking Stallone!!! He's the heroic dude who always saves the day, he's not going to let her fall is he? I mean there's no way, he's going to pull her up and....oh s*it she fell!
And that vulnerable thread actually runs throughout the film. This isn't the type of character that Stallone or his action counterparts would play all that often; he's no tough-as-nails cop, no bad-ass soldier. He may be a tough, rugged mountain climber but he is also very human and is left completely shaken by the accident. It gives the character just a little bit more for Stallone to work with. And as a big fan of the man I think that he does a great job. Oh and as a little aside to that great opening set-piece, it's a scene which is hilariously spoofed by Jim Carrey and a racoon in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls. Cliffhanger also features a series of rather awesome deaths which befall the villainous characters. These include Stallone riding one of the bad guys like a sled down the mountain (resulting in vicious ice burns down the guy's face) before depositing him over the cliff, the giant fireball that eventually claims Qualen and Qualen's despicable, heartless sacrificing of his own lover. And then there is the best death scene, one of my favourites throughout all of cinema actually. Having fallen down a crevice in the moutain Stallone finds himself getting his ass kicked by Kynette, one of the villain's henchmen. Seemingly at Kynette's mercy Stallone all of a sudden grabs Kynette by the family jewels and crushes them with his bare hands! He then hoists him up into the air and body presses him into the cave's roof, causing a stalactite to puncture through his body.
Film Trivia Snippets - John Lithgow was actually a last minute addition to the production. Christopher Walken had originally been cast in the role of Qualen but left just before filming began, necessitating the 11th hour piece of casting. /// Cliffhanger was actually a bit of a compromise which arose as the result of others projects being cancelled. The studio, Carolco, had originally signed Stallone to appear opposite John Candy in a John Hughes comedy about feuding neighbours. While Renny Harlin had been signed to direct “Gale Force”, a 'Die Hard in a hurricane' action film whose effects were deemed to difficult and expensive. After both projects fell through they were brought together for Cliffhanger. /// At one point in an effort to demonstrate his faith in the safety equipment, Renny Harlin put on a harness and flung himself out on a cable over a cliff. /// During the version that was seen by audiences during sneak previews a rabbit was killed by gunfire. Their horrified reaction was enough to make Stallone invest $100,000 of his own money to have the scene re-shot and have the rabbit be seen to escape. /// One of the men who acted as a stunt double for Stallone was Ron Kauk and he really had to bulk up for the role. He ate 5 carbohydrate-heavy meals a day and pumped a lot of iron. As well as doubling Stallone, rather surprisingly he also doubled for Leon Robinson (a 6'3” black man) and Janine Turner (a 5'6” woman)!
). Backing him up in the villain stakes is a fun performance from Rex Linn as Richard Travers, the dirty US Treasury agent who hooks up with Qualen and orchestrates the theft. The only previous work that I would really associate him with would be as the police officer on CSI: Miami so it was nice to see him playing a much nastier a*shole character. And even though he's not playing a villainous character Michael Rooker also gets a lot of traction out of clashing with Stallone. Rooker played Hal Tucker, a fellow mountain climber and previously a close friend of Gabe's. Following the death of Sarah he blames Gabe and from then on Rooker plays Hal with a great deal of intensity and a real bitter fury towards Gave. The only real disappointment in the cast is Janine Turner as Jessie, the supposed love interest of Stallone's Gabe even if I never really felt it, but in her defence a large part of that is down to the underwhelming character she is lumbered with.
One thing that really adds to the thrill of the film and how much the audience becomes invested in the story and its characters is how genuine much of it clearly is. While it did employ a series of cinematic tricks such as CGI, miniatures, matte paintings and even a motorised Sylvester Stallone pippet to impressive use, for the most part this is principal effects at work. These are real people that you're seeing climbing on that mountain, including the actors themselves on a number of occasions climbing the mountains and hanging over cliffs and voids. And when it's not them you've got a series of the world's best mountain climbers acting as their stunt doubles, meaning that we get some fantastic examples of mountain climbing. Although that's not the only piece of stunt work to catch the eye. The scene that depicts the attempted theft from the Treasury plane is insane. The plane is hijacked mid-flight and a line connecting it to another plane is put in place. The Travers character then uses the line to transfer from one plane to another in mid-air, a feat that was actually achieved through principal means, no CGI. Stuntman Simon Crane performed the stunt for real at 15,000 feet without even any safety devices and was paid $1 million to do so; and in my eyes he earned every penny. And while Cliffhanger was filmed in Italy this scene was actually filmed back in America as performing such a stunt was illegal in Europe. As a result of this stunt Cliffhanger resides in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the costliest aerial stunt ever performed. And Sylvester Stallone is to thank for making it happen. The insurance company that were underwriting the film refused to insure anyone to perform the stunt, so Stallone offered to have his salary cut to pay for the stunt. And because of the extreme danger involved, the stunt was only performed once.
Conclusion - Like the large majority of Stallone's back catalogue, Cliffhanger was never exactly going to trouble the big award ceremonies or be a darling of the critics. Also like the large majority of his films however, Cliffhanger is a whole load of fun. It's got some exciting action, a deliciously evil villain in Lithgow and is actually quite a funny and witty excursion on occasion.