33 Years Later, Sylvester Stallone's 112-Minute Action Movie Is Still His Biggest Risk

Decades before becoming the schlockmaster behind movies like 2026’s Deep Water, Renny Harlin crafted many of the great works of 1990s action filmmaking. Besides Die Hard 2, the Finnish filmmaker also directed the amnesiac spy classic The Long Kiss Goodnight and the genre-killing Cutthroat Island, but his finest work was 1993’s Cliffhanger. A Sylvester Stallone vehicle set among the mountains, Cliffhanger had everything: magnificent vistas, avalanches, and an internationally organized theft of U.S. Treasury bonds during a Dark Knight Rises-esque plane hijacking. Cliffhanger might be “Die Hard in the mountains,” but Harlin got the most from the setting and its star.

Compared to Die Hard’s famously vulnerable portrayal of then-comedy star Bruce Willis​​​​​​, Sylvester Stallone’s 1980s run of action films had turned him into an invincible cartoon character. With massive muscles, immaculately coiffed hair, and a seeming inability to lose any fights onscreen, Stallone’s only real competition for the title of ‘80s action king was the similarly unbreakable Arnold Schwarzenegger. Even movies punctuated by sentiment or pain, like Rocky and First Blood, grew into franchises where those qualities were gradually phased out in favor of (mostly pretty awesome) adolescent power fantasies. But Cliffhanger was almost a classy take on the traditional Stallone character, with a screenplay that received the actor’s traditional rewrites.

Inside Sylvester Stallone’s Rewrite of ‘Cliffhanger’

Despite being best known as an action star, Sylvester Stallone has a strong history of writing and directing his films as well. From his mainstream breakthrough with writing and starring in 1976’s Rocky, Stallone took all creative elements of filmmaking seriously. It’s hard to miss his writing credits on ‘80s movies as varied as Rhinestone, Cobra (one of Stallone's most brutal films), and Over the Top (as well as every entry in the Rocky and Rambo franchises). He could use his script-rewrite privilege on certain films to give himself more to do as an actor — bigger action scenes, punchier one-liners — while making sure the movies fit his public image as an actor. But by the early ‘90s, Stallone’s career was seeing as many lows as highs, especially in comedy films where he had little to no creative influence. Cliffhanger had been slowly brewing all the while. Before Cliffhanger came together, Renny Harlin and Carolco had spent years developing Gale Force, which would have cast Stallone as a man defending a seaside town against marauders at the peak of a hurricane.

As a film from the Carolco company that had produced all three Rambo films, it would have been right up Stallone’s wheelhouse. According to Entertainment Weekly, after spending nearly $2 million on scripts and treatments, Carolco scrapped Gale Force in favor of Cliffhanger.

Gabe is a classic Stallone character — stoic, isolated, and capable.

‘Cliffhanger’ Saved Sylvester Stallone’s Career

Cliffhanger’s long development and rough road to production (including multiple production stops due to Carolco’s failure to pay crew, according to the June 1993 issue of Spy magazine) followed several poorly performing movies for Sylvester Stallone. His attempts at branching out into comedy with movies like John Landis’ surprisingly funny flop, Oscar, and 1992's notorious naughty old lady comedy Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (a '90s so-bad-it's-good classic) revealed his limits. Cliffhanger, casting him as a tough and reliable mountain ranger fighting thieves in icy caves, reminded audiences of what made him such an effective action hero. In the movie’s vertigo-inducing prologue, we see what makes Gabe Walker tick, and why he walked away from the mountain ranger lifestyle, as his decision-making inadvertently leads to the death of his best friend Hal’s (Michael Rooker) girlfriend. As ridiculous as the scene can be, it announces the movie’s massive sense of scale and lets Stallone’s emotions anchor the whole film.

With a script majorly rewritten by Stallone, you might expect Cliffhanger to feature numerous scenes of Gabe Walker as an untouchable killer with remarkable survival instincts. And you’d be right — the reveal that he survived an avalanche plays like a gag. But the movie’s strength is spending time with its ensemble. Besides Stallone’s future Guardians of the Galaxy co-star Rooker, John Lithgow’s villainous Qualen is a great Hans Gruber type, and his henchmen are memorable too. Cliffhanger’s generosity of spirit, disaster movie energy, and excessive touches ensure that while Stallone comes off best, the entire film clicks as an ensemble action thriller. Considering how the ‘90s had gone for him up to that point, Cliffhanger’s a redemption story for Stallone, one he had to write for himself.