Cliffhanger- Movie Review

A Brief Review of the Cliffhanger Movie

Introduction

‘Cliffhanger’ is a 1993 American adventure thriller movie that  runs for about one hour and forty-five minutes staring Sylvester Stallone, John Lithgow, Michael Rooker, Janine Turner, Rex Linn, Caroline Goodall, León, Craig Fairbrass, Gregory Scott Cummins, Denis Forest, Michelle Joyner, and Max Perlich.

‘Cliffhanger’ was written by Alan Marshall and Renny Harlin and produced by Michael France and Sylvester Stallone based on story by Gene Patrick Hines and John Long. It was directed by Renny Harlin and it remains one of the best action thrillers of the 1990s.

The Synopsis Summary

The movie begins with a clever mid-air theft and crash-landing: sort of a cross between "The Pursuit of D. B. Cooper" and "Alive!" A gang of expert criminals, led by John Lithgow, hijacks a U.S. Treasury plane carrying millions of dollars in large bills. Their cockeyed plan is to transfer the money to another plane, and indeed one of the crooks transfers from one plane to another on a wire rope. This feat, which was actually performed by a stunt man, is one of the movie's most breathtaking moments.

Expert climber and Rocky Mountain rescue worker Sylvester Stallone drops a climber to her death during a rescue but he must face the mountain by himself to save his friends from criminals in the action-packed thriller. In the movie, a well-armed gang of international thieves lures a rescue party with a fake call for help after their getaway plane crash-lands in the Rockies, and their loot is lost in the snow-covered wilderness. They need the mountain experts to locate the cash and will stop at nothing in this suspenseful, danger-filled adventure.

Brute force is the deciding factor as Stallone attempts to beat the villain and save his friends on the mountain top. For Rocky Mountain Rescue, the mission is almost a routine: locate five climbers. With the woman he loves and his best friend, Gabe Walker braves the icy peaks only to discover that the distress call is really a trap set by merciless international terrorist Eric Qualen. Now millions of dollars and their own lives hang in the balance. Against explosive firepower, bitter cold and dizzying heights, Walker must outwit Qualen in a deadly game of hide-and-seek.

That sets up the main thread of the plot, as the crooks and the good guys chase each other over the mountainside and through a series of bluffs, showdowns and fights to the finish, all taking place on the edge of suitably vertiginous precipices.

Movie Review

 "Cliffhanger" has all those ingredients and remains one of the best action thrillers of the 90s. The opening 10 minutes contain more tension than most action blockbusters can muster in their total running time. Director Renny Harlin hits the viewer hard with a bravado scene that's tough to top. (Haflidason, 2001)

This movie shows action filmmaking at its best – a career high for director Harlin and arguably Stallone as well. The cinematography is stunning, with the aerial shots, the mountain vistas and the climbers hanging thousands of feet in the air, all combining to make this a visually amazing film. Stallone turns in his usual stoic performance, slim on dialogue but huge on action. Janine Turner's performance is a joke, but Michael Rooker helps out with a good effort as Stallone's partner. John Lithgow makes a great villain, and, along with his gang, is responsible for the brutally offensive content with the bad guys getting what they deserve.

Like a lot of recent movie villains (most of them played by Alan Rickman or Charles Dance), Lithgow seems subtly effete and dangerously intellectual, and speaks with a slight British accent. He also of course cares for nothing but the money and his own skin, and in the great tradition of all cliffhangers he eventually has to face Stallone. It is one of the achievements of the movie to convince us that Lithgow and Stallone are a good match.

"Cliffhanger", taken as an entertaining movie, is effective, especially during those moments when Stallone is hanging by his fingernails over a three-mile fall, and the bad guys are stomping on him (Ebert, 1993). However, extremely offensive dialogue and brutal violence destroy the entertainment value of the movie. This is attested by the existence of 62 obscenities an15 profanities; graphic violence in the form of multiple bloody, sadistic killings and brutal beatings; and, murder, theft & corruption of law enforcement.

Cliff Hanger is not a movie about climbing. It's a Stallone Hollywood action flick, pure fiction, with about 1 minute tops of actual climbing footage, most of it fake. It does have some nice mountain scenery, and is entertaining enough if you're into action movies, but as a climbing movie it plainly leaves a lot to be desired. Lots of people get shot, killed, beaten up, fall out of planes, helicopters and cliffs. There are also ample explosions to satisfy the masses. In it's day, Cliff Hanger was probably a highly popular movie, but it's got little or nothing to do with climbing.

References

Almar, H. (1993). BBC Moview. A Review of Cliffhanger. City, Publisher. e.g New York: Cengage)

Haflidason, R.  (1993). Moview Review. Cliffhanger (City, Publisher. e.g New York: Cengage)

Wolf. (2005). Stallone’s Best. City, Publisher. e.g New York: Cengage)