Gabe Walker (Sylvester Stallone) is a mountain rescue worker haunted by the memories of a friend whom he failed to rescue, and who perished on the ice peaks. Having quit his job and fled the mountains, Gabe must return to the scene of his undoing to track down nefarious villain Qualen (John Lithgow), who is searching the snow for stolen money. Things get more complicated with the arrival of Gabe's ex-girlfriend Jessie (Janine Turner).
Cliffhanger was a 1994 comeback of sorts for action hero Sylvester Stallone, this time thanks to director Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2) and some spectacularly rugged and vertigo-inducing, high-mountain terrain. The opening sequence alone delivers what the title promises, and there's an extraordinary airplane stunt that was later reprised, with modifications, in Air Force One. Stallone, looking as tough and craggy as the mountains themselves, is a rescue climber who finds himself going after a gang of crooks (headed by John Lithgow in his bad-guy mode) who've hijacked a US Treasury plane and crash landed in the Rockies with millions of bucks. Outrageous action-packed, snow-packed and scenery-packed chase sequences (featuring whirring helicopters, whooshing skis, popping gunfire and clanging pitons that earned the movie Oscar nominations for sound and sound editing) abound. --Jim Emerson,