Cliffhanger

Question: What was Hal's plan in the beginning? He wanted to send an harness to his girlfriend who was hanging in midair, so his girlfriend has the strength to lift herself and tie herself from that position. She was dangling in midair.

Question: Why was Hal mad and blamed Gabe for Sarah's death? It wasn't his fault. Also, how did Sarah get to that height at the beginning of the movie with no climbing experience? I mean, I can barely climb an indoor climbing wall, but she can climb a mountain like a walk in the park. (02:16:00 - 02:16:35)

Answer: There was no realistic reason. First, the steel buckle on the safety harness would never just bend and break like that. The accident was not Gabe's fault, but Hal is supposedly so angry and grief-stricken that he unfairly claims Gabe ignored his advice when rescuing her. The movie uses melodramatic plotting to contrive a conflict between the two men. It's also unrealistic that Sarah, an inexperienced climber, was able to make such a difficult climb, even with Hal's help. The movie had many plot holes.

raywest

Question: I'd like to know who performed the stunt near the end of the movie where Gabe jumps from the cliff as he runs from Qualin in the helicopter, and then catches the ladder on the way down. I thought that looked incredible.

Answer: There are two stunt doubles for Mr Stallone on imdb.com, their names are Mark De Alessandro and Jeff O' Haco. The site doesn't specify who did what.

The-Immortal

Question: Why was Qualen impressed by Crystal saying that they needed insulin?

Answer: He's praising her for how she spontaneously added an extra element of distress to further deceive the rescuers. Mostly, he was mocking his accomplice, Travers, by implying he couldn't have thought of something as clever.

raywest

Question: How much money was in the cases the bad guys lost?

Answer: It totalled more than $100 million.

Super Grover

Uh, wouldn't a stack of $100 million in cash be too big to fit in a case?

The money was in 3 cases.

Super Grover

This, plus it's also worth noting that they were $1,000 bills, which would greatly cut down on the size.

jshy7979

Question: How the did the cases carrying the money survive intact after being dropped from so high?

Answer: For one, they fell into snow which would have softened the blow. Also, as common in aviation or even just cases that are meant to contain valuables like money, they are designed to withstand impacts or attempts to break them open.

Quantom X

Wouldn't the bad guys have to spend what could be weeks trying to find the money if the cases were to break open?

Probably yes.

Quantom X

Potentially, yes. However, in the film they remained intact.

Snow softened the blow? I thought objects went through snow.

Question: Why did Walker destroy the money instead of letting the villain have it?

Answer: As soon as the villains had the money they would have immediately killed Tucker, Walker's friend. The money was a bargaining chip. He also didn't want them to win.

raywest

Continuity mistake: When the jet crashes, we see a shot from below showing a large portion of it poking out over the cliff. We then cut to the parachutists, and when we cut back to the jet, we see that very nearly all of it is safely on rock.

More mistakes in Cliffhanger

Sarah: Help me! I don't want to die.
Gabe: You're not gonna die.

More quotes from Cliffhanger

Trivia: In an interview with GQ, John Lithgow revealed that he was originally supposed to be the film's secondary villain, with Christopher Walken playing the main antagonist. However, Walken exited the project, leading to Lithgow being promoted to main antagonist.

Phaneron

More trivia for Cliffhanger

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