Cliffhanger (Superbit Collection)

SHE WAS AN INEXPERIENCED CLIMBER, SHE TRUSTED HIM TO RESCUE HER.BUT SOMETHING WENT WRONG HIGH ABOVE THE VALLEY FLOOR, AND GABEHAS BEEN BLAMING HIMSELF FOR HER DEATH EVER SINCE. UNABLE TODEAL WITH THE TRAGEDY, HE QUITS HIS JOB WITH THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN RESCUE TEAM. NOW HE MUST RETURN TO THOSE DREADED PEAKS.

Cliffhanger was a 1994 comeback of sorts for action hero Sylvester Stallone, this time thanks to director Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2 and Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master) and some spectacularly rugged and vertigo-inducing high-mountain terrain. The opening sequence alone delivers what the title promises, and there's a doozy of an 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 U.S. Treasury plane and crash landed in the Rockies (played by the Italian Dolomites) with millions of bucks. --Jim Emerson