Trivia / Cliffhanger

• California Doubling: Set in Colorado, filmed in the Italian Alps.
• Completely Different Title:
  • Summit Warrior (Taiwan)
  • Total Risk (Mexico)
  • Total Hazard (Argentina/Peru)
  • Infernal Storm (Portugal)
  • Low Pressure (Greece)
• Colbert Bump: Earned a flock of First-Person Shooter fans in recent years due to Craig Fairbrass's presence in the film. It was even referenced as a name of a game level in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 which also featured Fairbrass (though he was not in the aforementioned named level itself). Then is upgraded to seeing Fairbrass duke it out with Michael Rooker, who would also be part of the Call of Duty video game franchise in Call of Duty: Zombies As Himself and subsequently Call of Duty: Black Ops II as Mike Harper (the former being modeled after his current aged self and the latter modeled after his younger self from the late 1980s and early 1990s complete with the haircut that resembles one Rooker has as Hal Tucker in this movie).
• Creator Backlash: John Lithgow likes the film, but he thinks he was "dreadful" in it.
• Deleted Scene:
  • "Ice Climb": Right after Gabe survives the avalanche and before he meets with Jessie at the cabin, he climbs up a frozen waterfall. According to Renny Harlin, the scene was cut because it didn't look real enough (The waterfall was a fiberglass wall and the background was optically inserted) and they didn't want Gabe to appear invincible and be able to do anything.
  • "King's Leap": Right after the scene where the bridge which connects the two mountain faces is destroyed, Gabe does a running jump between the two mountain faces and safely lands on the wall of the opposing cliff. According to Harlin, this was cut because while climbers actually jump between mountain faces, the jump they had him doing was a little too far to be believable. They then got around the part of how Gabe and Jessie got around the mountain by having them backtrack and go all the way around. Some audio was also re-recorded for that after the scene was cut.
• Fake Brit: American John Lithgow playing Evil Brit Eric Qualen. Lithgow was actually offered the option to play the character as either American, British, or South African. He ruled out American because he thought playing it with his real accent would be boring, and he ruled out South African because he didn't think he could pull off the accent. Therefore, he decided to go, in his own words, "the Alan Rickman route."
• In Memoriam: The film is dedicated to Sylvester Stallone's mountain climbing double Wolfgang Güllich (who ironically passed away in a road accident unconnected to the film) and Carolco head Mario Kassar's mother.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Sylvester Stallone partly took on this project in an effort to help him conquer his fear of heights.
• Missing Trailer Scene: In the original cut of the film shown to test audiences, there was a 40-foot jump from one cliff to another that Walker performs. This scene appears in the theatrical trailers to the film. It was cut because test audiences laughed out loud when they saw it and thought it was totally impossible. The clip of the jump was redone and used for a shorter jump off a cliff near the end of the film using computer graphics and special effects.
• Stillborn Franchise: TriStar planned a sequel in 1994, called The Dam, but it never went beyond the development stage, likely due to Carolco's ongoing issues.
• Stunt Double:
  • The late Wolfgang Güllich, widely regarded as one of the most skillful, daring and popular rock-climbers of all time, performed as a climbing double of Sylvester Stallone.
  • Ron Kauk was Stallone's stunt double, and really had to bulk up. He ate five carbohydrate-heavy meals a day, and pumped a lot of iron. The trainer wanted to have him eat a sixth meal in the middle of the night. Kauk also doubled for Leon and Janine Turner.
• Throw It In!: The stuffed puppy that falls off the cliff in the opening scene was not scripted but was added at the last minute. Renny Harlin liked the dog so much he bought it so that the audience would have a clear idea of what would happen and how horrific the fall was.
• Troubled Production: Production was shut down twice when Carolco, desperate for a hit to get it out of its deep financial hole, could not make payroll. The film neverthless went $40 million over budget, costing Sylvester Stallone about $2 million of his substantial salary. Carolco wound up selling domestic rights to the film to TriStar to pay everything off, meaning they saw little profit out of the film (and this means it's also the only Carolco film owned by Sony via TriStar, as otherwise TriStar only distributed Carolco's films theatrically in the US, with Carolco handling home media and international releases; in turn StudioCanal took over distribution when they bought Carolco's library in 1996).
• What Could Have Been:
  • The film was originally called Gale Force and was going to feature Stallone taking on terrorists in a coastal town during a hurricane. However, it would have been too costly and difficult to make.
  • Christopher Walken was originally cast as Qualen, but pulled out just before filming started. Bryan Ferry was briefly considered for the role, while Renny Harlin wanted David Bowie.
  • Brad Dourif was considered for either Qualen or Travers.
  • Dana Delany was considered for Jessie Deighan.
  • In the original script, Qualen was an ex-East German military intelligence member (possibly The Stasi), however, in the film, if his Evil Brit accent indicates, he is instead implied to be a former member of either MI-5 or the Secret Intelligence Service.

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