Cliffhanger
-Made in 1993 by Renny Harlin
-Stars Sylvester Stallone as Gabe Walker, a mountain climber forced into a game of cat and mouse with a forger in the Rocky Mountains.
Did You Know?-The parachute the base jumper deploys on his escape from the villains depicts the Finnish flag
-The teddy bear that falls off the cliff in the opening scene added at the last minute to give everyone an idea of how truly deep the chasm was.
-Stallone, who is a golf player, said that rock climbing roughed up his hands
-During filming, an electrical storm struck, hitting 5 crew members
-Was set in Colorado, but filmed in the Dolomites of Italy
Plot-In the opening scene, mountain climber and rescue ranger Gabe Walker(Sylvester Stallone) and his friend, fellow ranger Jessie Deighan(Janine Turner) are dispatched to pick up their friend Hal Tucker(Michael Rooker) and his girlfriend Sarah(Michelle Joyner) on a narrow peak in the Rocky Mountains called "The Tower". While moving from one mountaintop to the helicopter via steel cable, Hal's girlfriend Sarah's harness breaks and she is left dangling over a deep chasm. While the others try to come up with a way to save her, Gabe straps on to the cable to go and save her. It's unsuccessful; her gloved hand slips through his and she falls 4,000 feet to her death in the chasm
-8 months later, Gabe returns to town for the first time since Sarah's funeral and he is overcome with guilt, thinking he could have done more. He has returned only to pack up his remaining stuff and leave permanently and also convince Jessie to come with him. A radio distress call comes to the local rescue center where Hal and Jessie work. Hal heads off to find the climbers. Battling personal problems, Gabe works with Hal on the mountain, where Hal, still angry, almost throws Gabe off a ledge.
-The rescue turns out to be a false report; the 2 climbers are taken prisoner by a gang of theives led by Eric Qualen(John Lithgow), who wants to recover 3 suitcases filled with $100 million in uncirculated $1,000 bills belonging to the United States Department of the Treasury. With the help of a turncoat Treasury agent named Richard Travers(Rex Linn), Qualen and his mercenaries attempt to steal the suitcases via an air-to-air transfer, but the cable breaks and the suitcases are lost. The thieves' plane, due to loss of power, crashes and now the suitcases holding the money have beacon locators in them, enabling them to track them, and due to the treacherous mountain terrain, they summon Gabe and Hal to help them find them
-The group comes to the first of 3 suitcases, Gabe is tethered to a rope and ordered to climb a steep wall to get it. Gabe frees himself from the rope and begins scrambling up the mountain, causing an avalanche which takes out Heldon(Denis Forest) down, one of Qualen's guys. Seeing the money fly by, Qualen presumes Gabe is dead and orders the group to proceed
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-Gabe suvives the avalanche and makes his way to an abandoned cabin where he finds Jessie, who got airlifted into the area earlier. He is half frozen from climbing the mountain wearing only a thin sleeveless muscle shirt and Jessie finds him clothes to wear. Together, they reach the 2nd case before Qualen does. They find the case empty except for a $1,000 bill with "Want to Trade?" written on it. They split up to find Gabe, while Qualen's mercenaries Ryan(Gregory Scott Cummins) chases after Gabe and Jessie. They both slide down a hill, fighting and the thug is killed when he flies down into an abyss as Gabe is hanging onto the edge for dear life. 2 of Hal's friends, casually hanging on the mountain, run into Hal and the theives. Hal tells them to run and as they do, one is shot dead by Qualen's mercenary Kynette(Leon Robinson). The other parachutes off the cliff, where he gets caught in a tree, leaving him dangling. When Gabe makes an attempt to climb out of a crevice, he is seen by Kynette. A fight occurs between the 2, resulting in Kynette being impaed on a stalactite. Gabe tries to pick up the theif's radio to call the rescue chopper, but Hal alerts him that Qualen is planting explosives directly above him and plans to kill him, with Gabe and Jessie barely escaping
-The thieves, with Hal as their guide, make their way to the cabin for the night. Elsewhere, Gabe and Jessie hole up in a cave and stay warm by burning the money. The chopper pilot, Frank(Ralph Waite), not knowing of any response from Jessie, Gabe or Hal, flies over the mountain, where he finds Hal's friend stuck in a tree, frees him and transports him to safety, alerting the police
-The next morning, Gabe and Jessie try to beat the theives to the last case. Kristel(Caroline Goodall) flags down the chopped. Against orders from Qualen, Delmar(Craig Fairbass) shoots Frank. Hal crawls over to Frank and he gives Hal a knife. Hal sticks it in his boot and the thieves walk over to the chopper. Travers points a gun at Qualen, telling everyone that he is now in charge. Qualen informs them that without someone to pilot the chopper, they are stranded and shoots Kristel dead
-Again, with leverage over Travers, Qualen tells Travers, Hal and Delmar to track the case. Once close to the case, Travers tells Delmar to kill Hal, only to find Gabe has beaten them to the punch. Delmar nearly beats Hal and kicks him off a cliff, but Hal stabs him in the leg and shoots the thug with his own shotgun. Elsewhere, Jessie, who signaled the rescue chopper, thinking it's Frank, is taken hostage by Qualen. Travers finds that Gabe has found the last case before him and chases him, causing Gabe to fall into the frozen river. Under the ice, Gabe outsmarts Travers and shoots the Treasury agent with his bolt gun 3 times. His body is now being carried away by the river.
-Communicating by radio, Qualen and Gabe make a deal to exchange the money for Jessie. Qualen releases Jessie, but Gabe tricks him by throwing the money into the rotating blades of the chopper. In the confusion, Qualen's chopper falls, getting stuck on a steel ladder down the side of the mountain. Gabe and Qualen fight atop the wreck. Gabe manages to jump off as the chopper falls several thousand feet and explodes. Later, Tucker quotes "If you're looking for Qualen, try about 4,000 feet south of here. He'll be the one wearing a helicopter." The 3 are then found by federal agents and rescued.
Cast
- Sylvester Stallone as Gabe Walker, a former mountain climber and rescue ranger haunted by his failure to Sarah, the girlfriend of his best friend, Hal Tucker
- John Lithgow as Eric Qualen, a sadistic former military intelligence officer now serves as a leader of the gang of thieves trying to rob $100 million dollars from the U.S. Treasury
- Michael Rooker as Hal Tucker, Gabe's best friend and a mountain ranger who blames Gabe for his failure to save Sarah
- Janine Turner as Jessie Deighan, Gabe's girlfriend who works in the same mountain search-and-rescue group whom Gabe has become distant from since his failure to save Sarah
- Rex Linn as Richard Travers, an U.S. Treasury agent who is a double agent working with Qualen
- Caroline Goodall as Kristel, Qualen's pilot and seemingly companion
- Leon Robinson as Kynette, Qualen's brutal main henchman
- Craig Fairbrass as Delmar, Qualen's sadistic ex-soccer player-turned-henchman. Fairbrass' cunning performance as Delmar led him to be cast in the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare trilogy (voicing heroic characters Gaz, Lieutenant Simon "Ghost" Riley and Sgt. Wallcroft, whom each shared a combative trait with the film's character Delmar).
- Gregory Scott Cummins as Ryan, Qualen's henchman
- Denis Forest as Heldon, Qualen's henchman
- Michelle Joyner as Sarah, Hal's ill-fated girlfriend who dies falling 4,000 feet after Gabe failed to save her
- Max Perlich as Evan, a thrill-seeking young man who is friends with Gabe and Hal
- Paul Winfield as Walter Wright, A treasury agent who discovered Qualen's plot to rob the money from the U.S. Treasury
- Ralph Waite as Frank, a search-and-rescue pilot working for Gabe, Jessie and Hal
- Trey Brownell as Brett, Evan's friend who is also a thrill-seeker
- Vyto Ruginis as Mathesen
- John Finn as Agent Michaels
- Jeff McCarthy as Pilot
Production
-The mountain scenes were filmed in the Cortina d'Ampezzo area of the Dolomites, Italy.
Reception
-Most people enjoyed Lithgow's acting, only he was criticised for his inauthentic sounding British accent, especially when 2 of his costars were British actors, Craig Fairbass and Caroline Goodall.
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