Trivia for
Cliffhanger (1993) More at IMDbPro »

• Set in Colorado, but filmed in Italy. The American Environmental Protection Agency wouldn't allow filming in America for fear of the damage that could be left by the film crew. Italy was chosen because it had spectacular mountains that are similar to the Colorado Rockies. The production crew paid a very large deposit against clean-up costs.
  
  
• 31 well-known climbers were signed up, including Ron Kauk and Wolfgang Güllich. Güllich performed many of the film's stunts.
  
  
• Ron Kauk was Sylvester Stallone's stunt double and really had to bulk up. He ate 5 carbohydrate-heavy meals a day and pumped a lot of iron. The trainer wanted to have him eat a sixth meal in the middle of the night. Kauk also doubled for Leon, a 6'3" black actor, and Janine Turner.
  
  
• To demonstrate his faith in the safety equipment, director Renny Harlin put on a harness and flung himself out on a cable over a cliff.
  
  
• Electrical storms hit during filming, knocking down five crew members. Climber Earl Wiggins was hit three times, but was only slightly injured. During a later storm, crew members had fun taking pictures of each other with their hair standing on end while the climbers pointed out the wisdom of evacuating.
  
  
• The credits include a message which explains that the Black Diamond harness used in the opening scene was specially modified so that it would fail.
  
  
• Simon Crane, the stuntman who did the air-to-air transfer, actually couldn't get inside the second plane, but good editing gives the appearance that he does.
  
  
• The two-story high cliff built for the climactic battle sequence burned to the ground completely in eight minutes when the miniature helicopter explosion got out of control. The heat of the fire was so intense it melted one of the cameras.
  
  
• One of the buckles on the horse's bridle is a piece of climbing equipment.
  
  
• Director Trademark: [Renny Harlin] [Finland] one of the parachutes looks like the Finnish flag.
  
  
• Christopher Walken was originally cast as Qualen but left the production before filming began, so John Lithgow was cast at the very last minute.
  
  
• Paramount was forced to pay out an additional $750,000 to three separate writers who were all claiming credit for the story.
  
  
• Renny Harlin initially turned down the opportunity to direct as he "didn't want to make another Die Hard 2 (1990)".
  
  
• The plane-to-plane airborne transfer stunt was filmed in the USA as such a stunt is illegal in Europe. The stunt itself cost over $1 million to film.
  
  
• In the original cut of the film shown to test audiences, there was a 40-foot jump from one cliff to another that Sylvester Stallone's character performs. This scene appears in the theatrical trailers to the film. It was cut because test audiences laughed out loud when they saw it and thought it was totally impossible. The clip of the jump was redone and used for a shorter jump off a cliff near the end of the film using computer graphics and special effects.
  
  
• An avid golfer, Sylvester Stallone found that climbing roughed up his hands and consequently messed up his game. He had a net on the set for practice. The models he was dating complained about his rough hands.
  
  
• Sneak-preview audiences saw a scene where a rabbit gets killed by gunfire. Their reaction was strong enough for Sylvester Stallone to invest $100,000 of his own money to have the scene re-shot so that the rabbit escaped.
  
  
• In the opening scene where Sarah slips from Gabe's hand had to be done several times because Sarah's glove would not slip off as desired. In order to get it to slide off, director Renny Harlin had her wear a glove that was a couple of sizes too big and filled the glove with Vaseline and even then Sylvester Stallone's grip was too tight and the glove almost stayed on.
  
  
• The teddy bear that falls off the cliff in the opening scene was not scripted but was added at the last minute. Renny Harlin liked the bear so much he bought it so that the audience would have a clear idea of what would happen and how horrific the fall was.
  
  
• In the cave of bats scene, the 'bats' seen on screen were actually added after filming as a special effect. Real bats were brought in to fill the cave, but Sylvester Stallone and Janine Turner were too afraid to shoot the scene with live bats.
  
  
• Was originally titled "Gale Force" under the Carolco studio. The script concerned Sylvester Stallone fighting a band of terrorists/thieves in a coastal town during a hurricane. Deemed too expensive to produce (after investing roughly $2 million in script rewrites and the original), the plug was pulled. The basic concept was then carried over to this film with the same director (Renny Harlin) and star (Sylvester Stallone) attached.
  
  
• The movie is in the Guinness Book of World Records for the costliest aerial stunt ever performed. The scene in which Travers crosses from one jet to the other at a height of 15,000 feet was done without the aid of any safety devices or trick photography. The insurance company underwriting the film refused to insure a stunt man for this, so Sylvester Stallone offered to reduce his own fee for the movie by the amount that the stunt cost to produce in order that the film could be made. The stunt was performed by Simon Crane. Because of the extremely dangerous nature of the stunt, it was only performed once.
  
  
• During one climbing-scene director Renny Harlin complained that the safety-lines were visible, so the stuntman performed the climbing without any safety-lines.
  
  
• Dedicated to 'Wolfgang Gullich', Sylvester Stallone's double in the film, who was killed in a car accident shortly after filming had finished.
  
  
• Carolco had originally signed Sylvester Stallone to appear opposite John Candy in a comedy directed by John Hughes about feuding neighbors. When the project was dropped, Stallone was persuaded to appear in Cliffhanger.
  
  
• Carolco had originally signed Renny Harlin to direct Gale Force (1999), a "Die Hard-in-a-Hurricane" action movie. The special effects proved too difficult at the time, so he was persuaded to direct Cliffhanger.
  
  
• Three writers claimed that Cliffhanger was their idea. To avoid jeopardizing the film's release, they were paid $250,000 each to drop the case.
  
  
• The movie's most breathtaking scenes were shot in the Cortina d'Ampezzo area of the Dolomites, Italy. For example, the bridge scene was shot on Monte Cristallo. Further filming took place in Durango, Colorado. The credits of the film also thank the Ute Tribe for filming in the Ute Mountain reservation.
  
  
• 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 4,572 m (15,000 ft).
  
  
• The parachute that the base-jumper opens, on his escape from the villains, features the design of the Finnish flag, Renny Harlin's native country (he features the Finnish flag in most of his movies).
  
  
• The Denver Mint featured in the film as the producer of the cash stolen by Qualen and his associates actually only produces coins. $100 Million from the Denver Mint would weigh 2,500 tons.
  
  
• The late Wolfgang Güllich, widely regarded as one of the most skillful, daring and popular rock-climbers of all time, performed as a climbing double of Stallone.
  
  

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