Behind the Scenes: Cliffhanger (Harlin, 1993) with Sylvester Stallone and John Lithgow

I haven't been this excited about a film for a long, long time. I did films that were experimental things that I thought would be interesting, but sometimes they don't quite live up to one's expectations. This one, everything that I had hoped it would be is coming to fruition, and I'm very, very happy about that. He really is. He's a battle-hardy Viking. He really has that mentality. He's out there in the wind and the rain and the sleet, and he doesn't complain, and he's held us together, and he's got a great vision, and he's brought tons of equipment over here to get shots that are physically impossible. You say, how'd they do that? Well, he did it through a great deal of ingenuity. So it's been a pleasure. We have not had one millisecond of friction or problems. It's really been a tough but wonderful experience. Yeah, it is a tough one, but it's different. It's different. It's a film not for the faint of heart. It's a film that visually I think will be spectacular, and for me, it offers me a great, great challenge. It really does. And challenges, as you get older, get harder to come by. Matter of fact, it's about reclaiming one's confidence, sacrificing for a higher ideal, your friendship, your love, whatever, and then packaged with that is the spectacular grandeur and ominousness of the Alps, which really ties into almost everyone's innate fear, fear of falling. I mean, we've all gone down in our lives, and it's not nice, especially when you're doing it from 10,000 feet. So it's really going to be, I think, an extraordinary, extraordinary venture. We're not talking about whistles and bells and sparks and rocket ships. We're talking about just man against an element. I've done that theme a few times with Rocky, I mean with Rambo, but this puts it, this is like rock bow, man, this is... They told me we were doing a movie called Atlantis, not Antarctica. Action. Now moving in for the first shot here. And you didn't have to explain to her. And you didn't have to look into her eyes when she fell. Let's just drop it. Nobody. It was you. I got the lead. Why? We just got an emergency phone call. Hal's a good climber. What? What's that supposed to mean? He can handle it. He's got a soft face. You can catch him, no problem. What has happened to you? Don't you feel anything anymore? Feel anything? Jessie, I came back for you. I'm not talking about yourself. Go ahead. Leave. But if you don't do this now, you're going to be stuck on that ledge for the rest of your life. Action. All right. We'll use the chopper to locate the third case and get the hell out of here. No. There's not enough fuel to snatch her out. Only enough to get us down. We're not running things. As soon as he finds the money, he's getting me. Now, what's the code? I told you, Coyle. 50,000 possible key code combinations in 15-second intervals. So what's the code? Look what agent Travis got. Yee-haw. Rennie, just for a second here. Let go. There you go. Rennie. Guess what? Forget the harness. There's no time. I'm going for her. Sylvester Stallone plays mountain climber Gabe Walker, who loses his nerve and leaves the mountains when something goes wrong high above the valley floor. Sarah, reach up. Come on, honey. Hurry, Gabe. You're almost there. Janine Turner, and I play the character of Jessie. She's a mountain ranger, and she climbs mountains, but also she's a helicopter pilot, and she's a love interest of Sylvester Stallone, as they call him here. Almost a year later, Gabe comes back for Jessie and also gets a chance to reclaim his confidence if he can overcome the odds. John Lithgow, and I play Qualen. He's about the baddest of the bad guys. He's the leader of the bad guys. Do you know what love is, Crystal? What a guy. Qualen's gang hijacks a U.S. treasury jet carrying $100 million, but they lose the money and their plane crashes. Gabe and his friend Hal, played by Michael Rooker, climb to their rescue, only to be forced to find the money cases. Did you get all that? Well, it's a good story, and, well, I recommend it too, I have to admit. And here's how we made it into a movie. I want to do one more rehearsal. Cut. Okay, pictures up. And stop. Yeah. Maybe if the left hand is holding. If the right hand goes up. Like it. And save. Yeah, thank you. Okay. Where are you, Walker? And this is really his big comeback to the genre where he is the strongest. Keep your arms and legs in the vehicle. Hello? You all right? Let's go. Now, what I was looking for, really, was something that was extraordinarily difficult and also had kind of a fresh premise. I think taking risks in your life as well as in your career is what makes it interesting, and this is how great fortunes or great accomplishments are achieved. Well, after Die Hard 2, I was looking for another movie that could give me the same kind of thrills, yet give me more in terms of the characters and relationships, and Cliffhanger was the perfect movie because it is an old-fashioned action-adventure movie. Good pieces. Yeah, I think we are done with this. I think we have so many good pieces. Thank you, Sly. Okay, Mark, I think we got it. Prince, everything. Damn you, Walker! It's snowing! It's actually quite great. That is what we want in the movie. Fifteen floors. Not bad. Well, I think movie-making doesn't get harder than what it was in Cortina. It was always snowing, blowing, very cold. We're in very high altitudes where it's very hard to breathe, and it's very hard to get the equipment there, very hard to get the actors to actually go on the edge of the mountain. This is like walking cryonics. No one's going to age up here, you know that. I'd probably have to say this is one of the ten most beautiful spots in the world, I would think, seriously. I've been to a lot of mountain ranges around the world, but this one has it all. I mean, this really has great, majestic, poetic quality about it, serenity, and it's very well environmentally protected. We chose the Italian Alps because they are the most spectacular mountains in the world, the highest, most dangerous, most beautiful. In this movie, the mountains, really, they are one of the characters, and the backdrop of the movie is gigantic. And, of course, when you're doing a movie about the mountains and people and the adventure taking place on the mountains, you have to play with the altitude, the height, and the danger of falling. Hold on, hold on, I got you! What makes it so hard is, first of all, I don't like heights. Big problem when you're doing a mountain movie called Cliffhanger. I despise them, you know, to the very core of my being. The character can't, so you literally have to psych yourself out, say, look, you are not you. When you sign down to do this, you have to be somewhat schizoid. So when we get up to the heights, after an hour or so, I find myself going out to the edge, hanging one foot over the edge, and I'm saying, I'm not afraid of this, to the character. The minute he yells cut, I go, yo! Are you crazy? The people in the audience say, you know, is that real? I mean, could that be? Nah! Yes, yes. The best part of being in an action-adventure is that I'm portraying a woman that pretty much is doing what the men are doing. They had us hooked to the side of the cliff at 12,000 feet with a 5,000 vertical drop straight down. I couldn't look down too much. When you're making a big action-adventure movie, you have to somehow top at least what you've done before, hopefully what the others have done before, too. As soon as you say I've made it, it's the death knell. I always thought that I didn't have to have any more validation. What keeps me going is not Sylvester Stone in the actor, it's Sylvester Stone in the man. It's the challenge.