Cliffhanger (film)

Carolco Pictures had originally signed Sylvester Stallone to appear opposite John Candy in a comedy about feuding neighbors titled Bartholomew Vs. Neff, which was going to be written and directed by John Hughes. When that project was dropped, Stallone became involved in another two Carolco projects. The first one was futuristic science fiction horror Isobar, which was about a genetically created monster who gets loose on a high speed runaway train. Between 1987, when Carolco first bought the original script by Jim Uhls for $400,000, and 1991, directors Ridley Scott and Roland Emmerich were each at different points in time attached to direct the film which would have $90 million budget and Stallone and Kim Basinger were going to play the main roles. However, due to disagreements between them and Carolco and producer Joel Silver about the script changes and lack of artistic freedom, both Scott and Emmerich gave up on the project, which in the end was cancelled.[2][3][4]

The second Carolco project in which Stallone was involved was an action disaster thriller entitled Gale Force, described as "Die Hard in a hurricane", which Renny Harlin was going to direct, and in which Stallone would play an ex Navy SEAL who has to fight against a group of modern pirates who attack a coastal town during a large, catastrophic hurricane. The first version of the script for the film was written by David Chappe in 1984, who then wrote six more drafts between 1987 and 1989, and after his final draft received some praise and following the bidding war between several studios for it in 1989, Carolco bought his final draft for $500,000, with a promise of an additional $200,000 if the movie gets made. Harlin was paid $3 million for directing the film, but because his contract also gave him full control of the project, he demanded many re-writes of the script to, amongst other things, increase the action sequences and make them bigger. Between 1990 and 1991 while they were working on the project, Carolco spent over $4 million on all the different screenwriters and versions of the script. One of the screenwriters who worked on it was Joe Eszterhas who was paid $500,000 to write his version of the script. However he re-wrote it into an erotic thriller, similar to his previous screenplays, so it was rejected. Because they thought that the intended $40 million budget would be too big, and since they couldn't figure out how to make special effects for the film, Carolco cancelled the project two weeks before production was supposed to begin, but Harlin still kept his $3 million, and he and Stallone and everyone else involved in it then moved to Cliffhanger, another Carolco project, which had a budget of $70 million, almost double that of Gale Force.[5][6][7][8][9][10]

Half of the film's budget was provided by TriStar Pictures in exchange for complete distribution rights in North America, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, and France.[11] Other funding was provided by Rizzoli-Corriere della Sera, Le Studio Canal+, and Pioneer Electric Corporation. The financing arrangement was the result of Carolco's serious debt issues, and as a result, the studio would ultimately receive very little of the box office gross.[12]

The large majority of the film's scenes were shot in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Dolomites, Italy. For example, the bridge scene was shot on Monte Cristallo in the via ferrata VF Ivano Dibona, which was reconstructed immediately after the movie. The climbing was mostly on the Tofane cliffs, and in some scenes toward the end of the movie the audience clearly sees the three Tofane, the Croda da Lago, the village of Cortina; the location of this is on top of mount Faloria, at the arrival of the funivia Faloria. In other scenes viewers may recognize the sentiero ferrato Astaldi, over the Rifugio Dibona. The small house has been constructed on the sand of the river Boite, in Fiames, close to the heliport. Little filming took place in Durango, Colorado. The credits of the film also thank the Ute Tribe for filming in the Ute Mountain reservation.[13]

Cliffhanger is in the Guinness Book of World Records for the costliest aerial stunt ever performed. Stuntman Simon Crane was paid $1 million to perform the aerial transfer scene, where he crossed between two planes at an altitude of 15,000 feet (4,600 m).[14]

The principal climbing doubles were Ron Kauk and Wolfgang Güllich. The latter performed as Stallone's climbing double before Güllich died, in a car accident, in 1992.[15]

When asked about the directors cut Stallone explained "the director's cut was met with a lot of disapproval at the screening and received some alarmingly low scores. Mainly because the stunts were absurdly overblown. For example, the average man can jump maybe twelve feet across a gorge, and the stunts had me leaping maybe three hundred feet or more, so situations like that had to be pared down and still then were fairly extreme… so you’re probably better off with this cut. By the way, the 2nd unit crew that filmed the majority of the action was extraordinary."[16]

The film was a box office hit.[19] For its British cinema release, the film was cut by over a minute, then by a further 16 seconds on video and DVD to gain a '15' certificate. Chief victim was the scene where Delmar beats up Tucker, but other cuts included aggressive strong language and other moments of violence. However, the 2008 DVD release was passed '15' with no cuts made.[20]

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 68% based on 53 reviews, with an average rating of 6.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "While it can't escape comparisons to the movies it borrows from, Cliffhanger is a tense, action-packed thriller and a showcase for the talents that made Sylvester Stallone a star."[21] On Metacritic the film has a score of 60 out of 100 based on reviews from 16 critics.[22] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.[23]

The film was screened in out of competition at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival.[24] The film was nominated for three Academy Awards, Best Sound (Michael Minkler, Bob Beemer, and Tim Cooney), Best Sound Effects Editing (Gregg Baxter), and Best Visual Effects all losing to Jurassic Park.[25]

It was nominated for Worst Picture, Worst Supporting Actor (John Lithgow), Worst Supporting Actress (Janine Turner), and Worst Screenplay at the 14th Golden Raspberry Awards.[26] Roger Ebert gave the film 3 out of 4 stars.[27] Although most people enjoyed Lithgow's performance, he was criticized for his inauthentic-sounding English accent, especially when next to native English actors Fairbrass and Goodall.[28][29][30]

The film has been criticized for its unrealistic portrayal of rock climbing. One example is the feature of the Piton gun which fires pitons directly into rock, forgoing the usual rock-drilling and piton-hammering used in rock-climbing. This ignores certain material properties of rock that should cause the piton gun's impact site to shatter and explode with flaky projectiles. The piton gun is considered the most serious of the film's technical inaccuracies. Further examples are showing athletic moves, which have no use in real climbing, or free soloing with – then also completely useless – gear.[31][32]

The scene where Hal's girlfriend, Sarah, falls to her death, was spoofed in the films Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls and Spy Hard.

The video games based on the film of the same name were released on November 17, 1993.

Around 1994, TriStar Pictures planned to make a sequel of the film titled The Dam (or Cliffhanger 2: The Dam), which would have Stallone's character Gabe Walker fighting against terrorists who took over Hoover Dam, but it never went beyond development stage. In 2008, once again there were plans to make this sequel, and even Stallone was interested, but it was cancelled.[36]

In May 2009, it was announced that StudioCanal would be overseeing a remake of Cliffhanger. Neal H. Moritz was set to produce, with filming due to begin in 2010.[37] In May 2014, Joe Gazzam was set to write the script for the film.[38]

In 2015 on his official Instagram, Stallone stated he would love to make a sequel to Cliffhanger, which puts doubt on whether a reboot will actually happen.[39] In 2019, a female-fronted ‘Cliffhanger’ reboot was announced, written by Sascha Penn, to be directed by Ana Lily Amirpour and Jason Momoa in talks to cameo.[40]