OK its time for me to do a bit of post revisiting once again as I quite fancy extending one of my previous posts of one of my favourite action movies from the 90s, Cliffhanger starring Sylvester Stallone.
So with that let's get that mountain gear on brave this film (or rather just take another look!).
And as usual the obligatory warning follows: PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!
STORY
So the film begins with the main character, Gabriel "Gabe" Walker (Stallone) a mountain rescuer who is sent to pick up his friend and fellow mountain ranger, Hal (Michael Rooker) who is stranded with his girlfriend, Sarah (Michelle Joyner) up on a narrow peak in the Rocky mountains. Hal manages to transfer himself on a steel cable line over to a rescue helicopter piloted by Jessie (Janine Turner) who is also Gabe's girlfriend. However after Gabe fixes the harness for Sarah as she transfers over the line, the harness begins to break and she is left dangling on the line. Gabe goes to rescue her and he grabs just as her harness breaks off but he loses his grip as her glove slips off, Sarah falls to her death 4000 feet below. After this the story shifts to eight months later and Gabe returns to town since Sarah's funeral, and he is now racked with guilt and no longer climbs. Gabe asks Jessie if she will come with him but she refuses to leave town as she says this is her home and she is annoyed at Gabe's insistance on feeling guilty over Sarah's death as she feels he did all he could.
Meanwhile the story moves to the US Treasury Department where treasury agent Richard Travers (Rex Linn) is assigned the task of transporting three suitcases of 30 million dollars via plane. On the plane however Travers turns out to be a turncoat as he kills two of the other agents and wounds an undercover agent who twigs what Travers is up to. Travers then get's in contact with another plane which is manned by a team of thieves lead by a former military intelligence member, the pyschotic Eric Qualen (John Lithgow). Travers arranges to transfer the cases by a zip line between the two planes and he goes over himself onto the other plane, however before the cases can be transferred (by Travers pilot who is in on it as well) the undercover agent shoots the pilot and at the thieves plane. The agent is soon killed however as Travers has rigged explosives on the plane to blow, however as a result the zip line is broken and the thieves lose the cases which fall among the mountains. The plane makes a crash landing and three of the group die as a result of the crash.
In the meantime as Gabe is about to leave, Jessie informs him of a distress call, which soon turns out to be from the thieves. Gabe relucantly agrees to go and help find them and he meets up with Hal while climbing up the mountains, who is still angry at Gabe over Sarah's death for which he blames Gabe, but despite that they move on to the thieves location. On arriving at the plane crash, Qualen and Travers force Gabe and Hal to help them find the cases which they agree to, however as Gabe helps them find the first one, they attempt to kill him but he manages to escape by cutting the rope he was tied to, just as one of the thieves causes a landslide by using a grenade launcher, one of their party is killed. Gabe then continues to use his skill and knowledge of the mountain areas to try and keep ahead of them as he rejoins with Jessie they work together to try and find the remaining two cases. Meanwhile Hal is forced to help Qualen's men and Travers find the remaining two cases, although unbeknownst to them he takes them the long way round to by Gabe some time. And from here its up to Gabe and Jessie to try and save Hal and find a way to stop Qualen's men and Travers from getting what they want.
THOUGHTS
After making a string of mediocre films during the late 80s and very early 90s such as "Over the top", "Cobra", "Tango and Cash", and "Stop or my mom will shoot!" not to mention the disappointing "Rocky V" Sly returned to form here with Cliffhanger, which is still a very entertaining and suspenseful action thriller. It also sees a nice change from the cocky action heroes that Stallone had played previously to this as Gabe is morely an everyday good guy, who has to overcome his own guilt at failing to help save his best friend Hal's girlfriend from dying as well as confront his own fears and get back into climbing. The setting of the film in the Rocky mountains in Colorado also allows for some spectacular scenery (in reality it was shot in the Dolomites mountain range in Cortina, Italy) and the high altitude sequences also add much suspense to the film and its a nice contrast to the city based action films so overly used today and even of that time.
PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES
Performance wise things are pretty good in Cliffhanger, with Stallone giving a pretty good account of himself in his role as Gabe Walker, the guilt ridden mountaineer who is forced into a situation where he must fight against a group of ruthless thieves. Stallone also get's some good dialogue in the film and despite his character being less cocky and flashy then what we've seen from Stallone before, he still get's some good quips. As for a few examples for starters there is the scene where Gabe burns the money they found from the first case to keep a small fire going and Gabe says to Jessie "It costs a fortune to heat this place! Bad humour I know!". Another good scene comes when Gabe is confronted by one of Qualen's group Kynette (Leon Robinson) who asks him where the money is, Gabe replies "I burned it. Never could save anything!". And this leads into the next scene where Gabe get's his ass kicked by Leon who asks him where the money is, he weakly replies "Sissy! You hit like a sissy!".
Stallone also get's some amusing moments of dialogue in the film such as in the opening scene where Jessie asks Gabe whereabouts he is climbing as they search for Hal and Sarah and Gabe hanging by the rock face says "I'm just hanging out, Jess!". And in the next scene Gabe teases Hal by revealing how Hal got the bandage on his leg by saying "Oh yeah I remember you twisted it when you lifted that kid out of that hot tub!" and Sarah surprised says "I thought that was an old war wound from Nam!" and Gabe says sarcastically "Really??!". And lastly there is the scene where Gabe tells Qualen to meet him at the highest point of the mountain range in the helicopter and Qualen flies up there he sees Gabe and says to him on the radio "I must admit you are a real piece of work" and Gabe says "Yeah and I must admit you're a real piece of shit!".
John Lithgow is excellent in his role as the ruthless Eric Qualen, the leader of the thieves, even though he hams it up and puts on a rather questionable English accent, he is quite effective and creepy as the main villain. Lithgow's most potent scenes comes when he actually kills his own girlfriend, one of the thieves, Kristel (Caroline Goodall) in an attempt to force Travers to help them find their money (with the use of a tracking device). And in the scene he grabs Kristel and whispers in her ear "Do you know what real love is, Kristel? Sacrifice!" just before he shoots her and throws away her corpse like a rag dog as he says to a shocked Travers "Now take your toy and find our money!". Lithgow also get's some other good lines of dialogue such as when he first meets Gabe and Hal who ask what is the suitcases and he says "Suits, socks, 30 million dollars, the usual stuff!". And after Qualen has his men gun down two young skydivers who Hal knows of he says to Hal "Kill a few people they call you a murderer. Kill a million and you're a conqueror. Go figure!". And when Travers attempts to radio in his own people for a chopper, Qualen grabs him and says "You don't get it, do you?! We're in bed now, joined at the hip, partners in crime! You've crossed over, Travers, and there's no turning back". But my favourite line is near the end when Qualen get's a surprise radio call from Gabe and he says "Walker! You resilient bastard, so you are still alive!" and as Qualen holds Jessie hostage in the helicopter he says to Gabe "You get the picture, Walker. I wan't my money, or else I'll find it this little angel of yours can fly!" followed by "Love's a killer isn't it?".
Michael Rooker also puts in a good performance as Gabe's good friend, Hal, who at first holds a grudge against him, but he quickly put his differences aside as he tries to help Gabe escape whenever he can, by slowing down the thieves as he guides them to their cases. And its good to see Rooker, who usually plays the bad guys in his films, play a good guy for once. Rooker's best scene in the film comes when he faces off against one Qualen's thugs, Delmar (Craig Fairbrass) who is about to shoot, but when Hal goads him to, Delmar instead kicks his ass and yaks on about soccer. And in the scene Hal says "Hey Delmar, from me to you, you're an asshole!" and later "In a minute I'll be dead and YOU will always be an asshole!". And as Delmar is about to kick him off the cliff, Hal manages to surprise Delmar by quickly grabbing a knife he had in his trousers and stabbing it into Delmar's leg and Hal grabs the thug's shotgun and says "Season's over asshole!" just before he blasts him off the cliff. And as Hal deliberately misleads Qualen and Travers by taking them the long way round, Travers nearly twigs it at one point and Hal says "The fastest way to the case is up the east face. Of course there's only about twelve guys in the world who can do it. You wanna try it?!". And lastly Rooker has another good moment when Hal confronts Gabe for the first time since his girlfriend's funeral. In the scene Gabe angrily says "You didn't love her and you didn't have to explain to her family!" and Gabe says "And you didn't have to look into her eyes when she was falling! Now drop it!" and Hal grabs him and very nearly pushes him over a cliff edge and he says "No, buddy!! It was YOU who dropped it!". And as Gabe perilously stands over the egde he says to Hal "You wanna do it? Do it!" but Hal shakes his head and let's go of him "No! You live with it!".
Rex Linn is also pretty good in his role as the corrupt treasury agent, Travers, who is in cahoots with Qualen albeit somewhat relucantly, as they both despise one another. Linn also has some good moments in the film such as his opening scene where one of the treasury agents Wright (Paul Winfield) calls treasury agents the most superstitious prompting Travers to says "We should be! Everyone wants what we have!". And there is also the scene where he transfer between planes to Qualen's plane, but he does it before he sends the money and Qualen angrily asks "Why didn't you send the money first?!" and Travers replies "Somehow I didn't think you would wait for me if I sent it first!". And Linn's best moment comes when he finally snaps as he tries to locate the last case but instead he finds a bunny rabbit has the transponder device on it and he goes bananas with his machine gun and contacts Qualen and berates him on the radio. And Linn get's some good dialogue in the scene where he says to Qualen "They beat us! A couple of fuckin mountain rangers beat us! And I'm finding that pretty fuckin hilarious, Qualen!" and later he says "I gotta go. I'm goin on my last official manhunt. Adios motherfucker!!".
The supporting cast are also very good including Janine Turner as Gabe's girlfriend, Jessie, who helps Gabe out in trying to find the cases of money and to try and reach Hal as well as fight off the baddies. Turner has some good moments in the film, and her funniest line comes when she flies the chopper at the start of the film up the mountains and she sees Gabe climbing and she says "I don't recognise him, but the butt looks familiar!". Turner also has another good scene with Stallone near the start of the film where Jessie says to Gabe "Why don't quit hoarding all the guilt! You held on as long as you could!". And as Gabe says "I don't think you understand" Jessie says "I think I'm the only one who understands! You know there were times where I didn't know what to do more, love you or hate you. But one thing I do know is that I understand you". And lastly there is the scene where Gabe and Jessie prepare to use the old rope they got to rappel down the mountain and in the scene Jessie asks "This rope is 60 years old, do you think it will hold?" and Gabe says "Don't think so" and Jessie says "Bad answer!".
Leon Robertson is also good as the brutal henchman, Kynette who in his best scene where he confronts and later beats up Gabe and demands where the money is. And at the start of the scene Kynette springs up on Gabe as he pops his head out of the cave he has just climbed up and Kynette says to him "Your life is on sale, Walker! The price is 30 million! Where is it?!". And as Gabe says he burned it Kynette says "Not even a dumb mountain boy like you would burn 30 million dollars!" and then he says "I don't make deals, Walker but I'll make one with you. Hand over the money and I'll just kill you and not the girl! Now give me the money!" which prompts Gabe to agree but then he lifts his pick axe out of the snow and slashes Kynette's leg with it as Gabe falls back down into the cave. And while Kynette beats up Gabe and is about to finish him off he get's the film's best line which is "It amazes me in this day and age that a man would put money before the personal safety of himself and his btich! I want you to go to your grave knowing, I'm gonna treat the bitch RIGHT!".
Craig Fairbrass (who was known in Britain for his role in Eastenders) also makes a decent impression as one of Qualen's thugs, Delmar and his best scene comes when he kicks the crap out of Hal and he says to him "You're a loud mouth punk slag, who is about to die!" followed "Do you like socceer? Its a great sport! I was a fucking good striker!". Fairbrass also has another good moment where Qualen's group loses another of their men and Hal smiles saying "Gravity is a bitch ain't it?" and Delmar shouts "Fuck the money and fuck you! I wasn't born to die on no fucking mountain!". And Kynette sarcastically asks "Where were you born to die? You gotta place picked out?!" and Delmar warns Kynette "I don't need to hear that fucking shit from you, boy!" causing Kynette to angrily grab Kynette by his hair and hold his knife to his throat yelling "Maybe this boy should make your mouth a little bigger!".
Ralph Waite also puts in a nice performance as the rescue team's search and rescue pilot, Frank, and he has an amusing scene where he does a painting of what appears to be a banana and he says to Hal "This is a banana eating a monkey! Nature in reverse!". Waite also has a good moment in the opening scene where he pilots the helicopter while they search for Hal and Sarah and as Jessies teases Gabe when she spots him climbing the mountain and says "I don't recognise the face but the butt does look familiar" Gabe says "Hey careful or you'll embarass old Frank!" and Frank replies "It would take a heap more than that, rock jock!". But its also worth noting in the opening scene of the film that Waite as Frank appears to have a rather mad looking grin on his face when Sarah falls to her death as its almost like he was enjoying it! Of course it is more likely just the expression that Waite had on his face in that given scene but even still it makes you think "Frank, what a sick bastard you are grinning at a time like this!".
Caroline Goodall is also good in her role as Qualen's girlfriend (although it is actually never explicitly stated in the film that she is) and as she rigs a mountain bridge with explosives, and as Qualen watches her he says "You'll make someone a fine wife some day" and she replies "You should see me bake a cake!". And lastly Paul Winfield makes a good albeit brief appearance in the film as a treasury agent, Walter Wright who later uncovers Qualen's plot to rob the US Treasury. And Winfield delivers one of the film's most ironic lines near the start when he reassures one of the undercover agents that "Armoured cars can be hijacked, trains derailed but nobody can touch us in flight!". Ahem!
DIRECTOR AND MUSIC
Getting onto the direction paragraph (or directing to it!) Renny Harlin (who was best known for directing Die Hard 2) does a fine job with Cliffhanger and he skillfully shoots the spectacular climbing sequences as well as handling the film's gritty action scenes and suspense very well. He also creates some interesting visual shots such as the scene where we see a distant shot of the mountain where on the top Hal leads the thieves and thousands of feet below we can see Gabe and Jessie work their way toward finding the remaining cases.
The film's music score is also pretty good which was written and composed by Trevor Jones, and it has several tense and dramatic passages which work very well and the film's main theme is also memorable. The score also has a resemblance to Jones's score for The Last of the Mohicans and it also even echoes part of his score for Mississipi Burning during the night time scenes where Qualen's men chase Gabe. So as a score it still holds up pretty well to this day.
FLAWS
As for flaws does Cliffhanger have any????? Yeah its not entirely perfect. To begin with I felt that the story in itself is pretty flimsy and there's nothing really new there, as its just another cliched story of bad guys wanting money, and the hero trying to overcome his own demons and adversity. I also thought some of the sequences in the film were a bit daft such as the scene where Gabe climbs up the mountain face having just escaped Qualen's men in the harsh freezing snowy conditions, wearing only a T-shirt on top, yet somehow he doesn't freeze to death in the process! And when Gabe finally reaches the top and the shack where Jessie is waiting and she gives him a jumper as soon as he puts it on he almost stops shivering immediately, which marks a pretty quick recovery for a man who almost certainly would have died from hypothermia due to being exposed to such cold temperatures only wearing a T-shirt!
The film's violence is also pretty strong and there are one or two moments that could leave an audience cold (no pun intended) such as the scene where Qualen shoots Kristel or the young skydivers being mercilessly gunned down by Qualen's men. The censors were also pretty strict on the violence in the film and in America they made several trims to the film's violent scenes and the initial DVD release over here was also heavily censored. The main cuts to the DVD release in the UK included the scene where Kynette beats up Gabe and where Delmar kicks Hal's ass.
The film also on some levels could also be accused of being a little racist, especially in its depiction of the character of Delmar, who in one scene (also initially edited in the British DVD release) harbours a grudge toward Leon (who threatened him with a knife earlier on) and he says to Kristel "Good, and blow up that black bastard while you're at it. Save me the time of doing it myself!". This scene and all the others cuts were of course restored in the UK Blu-ray release of Cliffhanger which is still uncut and rated as a 15, even though at the time those cuts were made in order for the film to prevent it from receiving an 18.
The film also features one or two redundant characters such as the two young sky divers Brad and Evan who provide us with some daft dialogue particularly in one scene where the two of them camp for the night. And in the scene Evan asks Brad "Where would rather be right now? Here at tent city or back home playing some righteous air hocket?" and Brad says "Air hockey got my vote" and Evan says "Exactly cheeshead, exactly!" leaving Brad to bemusingly say "Cheeshead?" and Evan confirms "Cheesehead!". Its a pretty pointless scene in itself and in the end the two young kids are used as gun fodder for the baddies but the film could easily have done without them even in it in the first place as it almost seems like they appeared to have been added as an afterthought for the sake of the MTV generation (well OK maybe not but its just my theory!).
Another scene which I found puzzling is where Kristel sets the explosives over the bridge and while she does it Qualen appears to be holding her at gunpoint! And you have to ask yourself: if he is then why??? I mean she is on his side after all and its not like she wouldn't be willing to do what he asks of her. It may of course just be a poor bit of perspective in terms of direction and in a earlier shot in the scene we see that Qualen has his gun held lower down to his side but in the next shot he clearly appears to be holding at Kristel like "Don't you screw this up!". Its nothing of great significance but its a small but puzzling niggle all the same.
I also thought the film had a pretty stupid climax with Gabe fighting with Qualen in the mountain rescue helicopter which has crashed and gone over the edge of the cliff and is hanging by the remaining rungs of the ladder (which Gabe wrapped around the helicopter's landing skids, which are steadily coming loose because of the weight of the helicopter. And the sudden ending (PLOT SPOILER) with Gabe having dealt with Qualen, they receive a call from the Treasury agents who are enroute to save them and Paul Winfield's character says "Just sit tight for now" and the credits role. So in this regard you wish you kind of saw some sort of aftermath for the characters having made it safely down, rather than, pardon the pun, just leave them hanging!
Anyway that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So to sum up Cliffhanger is still a very entertaining and suspensful action film which has some spectacular visuals and some good action in it as well. The film does of course have some cheesy action movie moments and a pretty hammy villain and it also stretches its credibility in quite a few places especially with its over the top climax but if you can forgive that then Cliffhanger is still one of the most enjoyable Stallone films you will see.
And on that note I shall leave yee there and bid goodnight!
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