Why It Ranks
Cliffhanger has one of the greatest openings in action cinema and uses its mountain setting better than any other film. Stallone’s physicality at altitude is impressive, Lithgow’s villain is delightfully menacing, and the vertigo-inducing stunts are genuinely thrilling.
The Film
Cliffhanger is Stallone’s mountain Die Hard, and the opening sequence — where a woman falls to her death from a cable between two peaks — is one of the most terrifying openings in action cinema. The Rocky Mountain setting is used to spectacular effect, with Stallone climbing, leaping, and fighting across genuine alpine terrain. John Lithgow plays the villain as a refined psychopath, and the contrast between his cultured menace and the savage landscape is compelling. Renny Harlin stages the action with a confidence that masks the formula, and the film’s $255 million worldwide gross proved Stallone was still bankable in the 1990s.
Fun Facts
Stallone performed many of his own climbing stunts without safety wires for close-up shots.
The opening cable crossing scene was performed by a real stuntman over a genuine 1,000-foot drop in the Italian Dolomites.
John Lithgow was cast against type as the villain and described the role as the most fun he ever had on a film set.
The film was originally developed for a different star, but Stallone rewrote the script to better suit his action persona.
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