Sylvester Stallone plays a mountain rescuer who is sent out in the most perilous places of the Rocky Mountains in order to help save hikers who have gotten in over their heads. The film starts off with Gabe Walker (Stallone) climbing up to the top of a spire to help one of his co-workers, Hal (Michael Rooker), and his new lady-friend get out of a tight spot. Flying alongside Gabe in a helicopter to help bring the couple to safety is Jessie (Janine Turner, known at the time for her role in Northern Exposure). The rescue goes as planned until Hal's girl starts having trouble on the line between their stranded location and the helicopter. When her harness starts to snap, Gabe goes out on the line (literally) and grabs her, but is unable to hold on.
Several months later, Gabe returns to town after needing some alone time to deal with the death that he feels he is responsible for. As he works to rebuild his relationship with Jessie and bury the hatchet with Hal, another event occurs that rocks the little town. Everything hits the fan when a group of thieves who have successfully stolen $100 Million from the US Mint lose the suitcases of money as they fly over Gabe's little patch of mountains. The thieves, led by a devious mastermind named Qualen (John Lithgow), send a distress call to the local rescue group and use Gabe, Jessie and Hal to find their money and get them out of the mountains safely.
It is hard to tell just how much of the film was actually cleaned up for the Blu-ray release of Cliffhanger, but the many vistas seen throughout the film look great. There are a few times when things seem fake, but from what I gathered from the special features, pretty much everything was filmed out on the Italian Alps and not in a safe sound stage or with green screens. Interestingly enough, one of the featurettes also talks about the fact that Stallone did about 95% of his mountain-trekking scenes, despite the action-star's aversion to heights. There did seem to be a bit of a sound-balancing issue though, as I found some of the climactic and explosive parts were deafening (especially when the background music kicks up), and the dialogue immediately following such scenes to be too low.
Cliffhanger doesn't come with any new special features. Everything included in this package can be found on the Cliffhanger: Special Edition, including a featurette hosted by Stallone in his Demolition Man uniform (which he was filming at the time of the DVD's release). What it has, though, is good. There are a couple of featurettes concerning how they made Hal's girlfriend fall, as well as a couple on the climactic helicopter explosion, and a slew of deleted scenes that were taken out because they didn't want Stallone's character to appear too super-human (they didn't want "Rambo in the mountains").
While not the best movie ever made, Cliffhanger is a great action film that lets you turn off your brain and watch Stallone take on the bad guys. Cliffhanger is worth watching, and the nice visuals makes it worth seeing in high definition. As for actually purchasing the movie on Blu-ray, there just doesn't seem to be enough incentive here to shell out the money.
