CLIFFHANGER (1993) | Behind the scenes of Sylvester Stallone Action Movie #2

Hello, I'm Sylvester Stallone. In my next movie I was thinking about shooting on a beach. A lot of palm trees, flat sunny. Something close to home and the hotter the better. Don't show anymore, it's a cliffhanger, remember? 15 below, not bad. 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 gonna age up here, you know that. Baxter, hold it! Where is it? There, on top of the peak. Hold it. Looks like a winding route to me. The fastest way is straight up the east face. Of course, there are only 12 guys in the world who can do it. Wanna try it? Let's stop there. Everybody has been exercising and working out for six months. To be able to work in this altitude and in these conditions and in this temperature and so on. It's tough for the actors, tough for the crew. And they say comedy is tough. The blizzard and the tank top, I mean, who could ask for more? I come to the edge to see where he is, is that what it is? Yeah. I mean, the motivation would be this. Right there. We are in the middle of the mountains, in the middle of nowhere. We have the most elaborate computers. I see him back up. Yeah, he knows approximately where you are. He does see you. He is firing. We move with this rig to him and then actually above him and look down to the valley. And in a seamless shot we get the impression that Mr. Stallone is about 4,000 feet off the ground. He is standing on a little ledge being shot with a machine gun. This is gonna be a great shot. It's very technical. It's extremely precise. Shoot up the side of the mountain, catching me in the shot, keep going. So you get a sense of elevation and a vertical ascent that never quite has been done before. Last dialogue there, I was really happy with that. It's snowing! It's actually quite great. That is what we wanted in the movie. Kind of like a survival school while you're at it. We saw that cliffhanger. I didn't know we were doing the diner pass we visited. Pretty soon we're all gonna be eating each other. No food, okay? Let's cook and grip. We already are planning a sequel for the movie. It's not gonna be called Cliffhanger 2, it's gonna be called Beachhanger. And it takes place in the Caribbean islands. No relief for Sylvester Stallone, Rennie Harlin and Cliffhanger. Temperatures below zero remain unchanged. It's still snowing. When will it end? Good luck, Sly. 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. Gabe? Gabe, where are you? I'm down, Jess. Well, I don't recognize the face, but the butt does look vaguely familiar. 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. 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 and 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 it be? No. Yes. Yes. On this piece of film here, this is Stallone. That is not a double, that is him. And he has no safety line. This rope that you see on him is a part of the scene, because he decided to jump across this cavern. And just in case it's a part of the scene, this is not a safety line. He did that climb himself. And it looks very easy, but it isn't. Number one, he's probably 10,000 feet when he did it. But that's just one of many things that he's done. You know, working with Sly's been fantastic, especially as a stunt coordinator, because we've put him in a lot of positions that are very dangerous. He's done most of his, I'd say 95% of his own stunts. He really does work hard, and we work him hard. But he's a fitness fanatic, and he's in wonderful shape. He's out there doing it, man, and I was impressed. Am I scared? Yeah, but it's a good scare, you know. It's kind of like saying, I do. 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. My knees and my legs would get a little, that feeling, that hot feeling that rushes through them. Gotta do it. Let me light the flare a little sooner before they get too close in. I have a fear of falling. Heights don't bother me at all. Roll, please. Wow! I'm having a great time doing it. I mean, it gets dangerous, yeah, it's kind of scary at times, but I'm having a good time. I'm making a clipping. The Inspired Conference! I'm not crazy about heights, but I'm not all that afraid of it. We have this sort of crack team of the best mountain climbers in the world, and they're all obsessed with safety. You immediately put people in the position where if they make a mistake, they're not clipped in or harnessed properly, that they're dead. The only buffer between you and death are those four or five guys. Period. I had to just beg him not to do everything because I had the danger of not having an actor the following day. Some of these shots that you see that are the pull-aways from way back, they're established, are stunt doubles for some of the finest climbers in the world. Their lives are, in fact, in jeopardy, but that's what they're hired for. That's their job. Wee-haw! Just let go. There you go. I've already tried it and loved it. I went on this wire and crossed 200 feet across about a thousand-foot drop under me, and it was a very exciting feeling. 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 Stallone the actor, it's Sylvester Stallone the man. It's the challenge. I came away from this project with a tremendous respect for the climbers. They are the masters of their own universe. And in case you're wondering why I'm dressed like this, I'm shooting another movie right now called Demolition Man, and guess what that's about. But that's another story. Anyway, thanks for watching and making a cliffhanger. I appreciate it. Rudolph! You're not still running, are you? Hi there, movie lovers. Did you know that while Sylvester Stallone was trying to break into the film industry, he even had to sell his beloved Doc Butkus for $40 so he could afford to eat. Don't worry, though. He got him back and even put him in the first Rocky film. Make sure to click below to subscribe, on the side for more great content, and you can get my t-shirt at the link in the description.