Cliffhanger

Director Renny Harlin follows-up Die Hard 2 with another snowbound action adventure, this time enlisting the services of Sylvester Stallone and his army of sweating stunt men. Viewed thirty years out of time, and with that aforementioned Bruce Willis sequel wearing grooves in your imagination, Cliffhanger obviously feels like a subordinate, even repetitious, experience. It's not just that both films featured tanned Hollywood musculature straining against curtains of fluffy crystalline snow, Harlin's latter feature even replays and remixes specific beats from its predecessor. These instances range from incidental acts of violence to full-blown special effects set-pieces. 

So where Die Harder's sub-zero environment allowed John McClane to pluck an icicle from a frozen awning then dagger it into an assailant's eye, Cliffhanger's chilly confines offer Stallone's Gabe Walker the opportunity to gorilla press his opponent into dripping stalactites. Cliffhanger, or rather Michael France and Sylvester Stallone's screenplay, also permits Harlin another pass at a plane crash. Die Hard 2's ill-fated Windsor airlines flight saw screaming civilians quickly burn up in a massive petrol detonation as a way to demonstrate the ruthlessness of that film's terrorists. Cliffhanger's take isn't over so quickly, we rattle around inside the downed Gulfstream as it grinds to a halt on snowcapped plains. 

The aircraft's windows burst, showering the passengers with glass, while the miniature jet hammers - nose first - through rows upon rows of splintering saplings. It's a terrific sequence, the scale effects enhanced by an especially violent sound mix that assigns iceberg cracks to snapping trunks. Another delightful spot of carnage occurs towards the end of the film: Gabe is trapped under ice and stalked by a turncoat treasury agent. Although Michael Rooker's Hal is racing to the rescue with a shotgun, Gabe uses a fictional piton gun to blast his foe. Clearly shot to account for Hal making a pellet-packing save, Cliffhanger instead replays the moment of Stallone firing his one-shot pistol, triggering umpteen soupy squibs on his attacker. As is often the case with Stallone's oeuvre, we are reminded that people aren't paying to see second-stringers rescue the guy at the top of the bill.