Trailer
Plot summary
Eric Qualen leads a crew that hijacks a plane carrying more than $100 million in uncirculated bills bound for a Denver credit union. The plan is to pass three suitcases across in midair to a second aircraft. The transfer goes wrong and the plane carrying the money comes down in the Rockies, scattering the three cases over the slopes. The men radio for help. Gabe Walker, guilt-stricken over a rescue on a Colorado peak that ended in a fatal fall, has left the ranger service, and Hal Tucker blames him. Gabe returns to collect his belongings and to persuade Jessie Deighan to leave with him; she refuses. A distress call comes in from the mountain, and Gabe and Hal answer it.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Cliffhanger (1993)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Carolco canceled Gale Force two weeks before production was supposed to begin, believing its $40 million budget too big and unable to work out how to do the special effects; Harlin still kept his $3 million, and he and Stallone moved on to Cliffhanger, which had a budget of $70 million.
- David Bowie and Bryan Ferry were both wanted for the role of Eric Qualen, but scheduling problems prevented Bowie from taking it, and the role eventually went to John Lithgow.
- Before production began, Stallone rewrote Michael France's script, and his work changed the film significantly enough that Carolco petitioned the Writers Guild of America for him to get credit.
- Production was shut down twice when Carolco could not afford to pay the crew, and the movie went $40 million over budget. Stallone reportedly had to forego $2 million of his $15 million salary as a result.
- 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, crossing between two planes at an altitude of 15000 ft.
- The principal climbing doubles were Ron Kauk and Wolfgang Güllich, and Kauk took over after Güllich died in a car accident in 1992. The doubles filled in for Stallone on most of the climbing because of his fear of heights, and an injury to his hand, reported to have happened on a cliff, actually happened on a soundstage.
