Hang On
Sly plays Gabe Walker, a skilled mountain climber who works for a Colorado based mountain rescue team. His team consists of Frank (Ralph Waite), Hal (Michael Rooker), and Jessie (Janine Turner). Together, this team rescues those adventurers who have become lost or stranded in the mountains. The beginning of the film has Hal taking Sarah, a love interest, to the top of The Tower, a very tall mountain. They reach the top, but need assistance getting back down as Hal has hurt his leg. Sarah is an inexperienced climber, making this rescue all the more dangerous. During the rescue operation, she falls to her death, an event that Gabe feels tremendous guilt for, even though it wasn’t his fault. Hal hates Gabe for what happens, and Gabe leaves the team, and town, for a year before coming back to try to convince Jessie (his love interest) to leave and join him in another city.
All of this is put on hold when a US government treasury plane is hijacked by a team of terrorists led by John Lithgow’s character, Qualen. With help from an insider, Qualen’s team almost manages to steal $100M dollars contained in three secure lockers. The money falls to the mountainous terrain below after the failed hijacking, and now the terrorist team must utilize tracking devices on the lockers to locate them and then secure a means of escape. At Jessie’s bidding, Gabe decides to help out after Hal answers what turns out to be a false rescue call alone. Now the trio of Jessie, Gabe, and Hal must work together to keep the terrorists from getting to each money locker and escaping.
Cliffhanger has a potent blend of action and adventure. There are a lot of familiar themes here, but they work to the movie’s benefit. It’s worth pointing out that Director Renny Harlin was also behind one of my favorite action movies of all time: Die Hard 2. There are some similarities between the two, including double crossing characters, a ruthless ring leader, and plenty of intense moments where it looks like the lead protagonist is going to die. For its nearly two hour duration, Cliffhanger doesn’t slow down but continues to push the envelope. It’s fun movie for a lazy weekend.
The Blu-ray
The Blu-ray version of Cliffhanger does not include any new features in terms of new cast or crew interviews or additional deleted scenes, but it does include an interesting BDLive feature that I will get to shortly. First, how about the presentation quality? Personally, I wasn’t expecting much, as often times studios will just take their 80s/90s action films and slap them onto Blu-ray without much of a thought. I was pleasantly surprised however with Cliffhanger — the video quality is outstanding, and the 5.1 DTS track sounds great. Expect a very sharp and crisp picture with textures and colors that stand out — from the pores on Sly’s face to the blood on the snow, detail is vivid and impressive.
As for the extra features, there are several, but just about everything is recycled from a previous Special Edition DVD release. Here’s what to expect:
-Full English and French 5.1 DTS audio tracks.
-BDLive – Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s BDLive portal. There isn’t anything specific to the movie here, but you can find other previews, trailers, and news here.
-Audio Commentary with Director Renny Harlin and Sylvester Stallone.
-Audio Commentary with the Technical Crew.
-A Personal Intro with Director Renny Harlin (5m, SD) – Renny talks about his goals for the film and basically gives a brief ‘making of’ interview.
-Deleted Scenes (8m18s, SD) – Optional introductions to each of the three deleted scenes with Renny are available.
-Stallone On the Edge: The Making of Cliffhanger (20m, SD) – An older making of feature with Stallone and crew talking shop. Plenty of film and production footage is shown.
-Special Effects (7m24s, SD) – Two scenes that used special effects are shown and broken down. These include “Sarah’s Fall” and “The Helicopter Explosion.”
-Storyboard Comparisons (12m, SD) – Picture-in-Picture comparison of storyboard and theatrical footage of three different scenes.
-Trailer (HD) – An optional introduction with Renny Harlin is available here as well.
-MovieIQ – Internet connection required; this is really the only new feature on this Blu-ray release, but it’s a neat one. If you like trivia tracks and pop-ups during a film, this is for you. MovieIQ is an optional feature that gives you access to a ton of information about the film as it plays. It’s kind of like Universal’s U-Control Blu-ray feature. You’ll see a small lightbulb icon appear on screen at various scenes. When you press enter, a window appears that gives you information about the scene being shown. You can also access other film information like soundtrack and cast details.
And there you have it. To the summary…