History Film / Cliffhanger

** Matheson, as well. The man becomes entirely responsible for Qualen's predicament by killing two of Qualen's men and crippling Qualen's plane with a machine gun, [[NotQuiteDead all while at death's door from being shot four times in the chest]].

* DisneyVillainDeath: Ryan.

* PreMortemOneLiner: Delmar fights Tucker and announces it like a soccer game; finally, the beaten Tucker is dangling from a cliff with Delmar's shotgun in his face. Tucker manages to stab the sadistic Englishman in the ankle with Frank's dagger, grab his shotgun while he's distracted by the pain and...

** While planting a C4 booby trap, Qualen comments to her that she'll make a good wife one day, two years earlier Kristel's actress Creator/CarolineGoodall had indeed played a good wife in Creator/StevenSpielberg's family film and unofficial sequel to ''Literature/PeterPan'', ''Film/{{Hook}}'' (which was distributed by Creator/TriStarPictures, who distribute this film as well) as Creator/RobinWilliams' character's wife Moira Banning, [[IronyAsSheIsCast ironic considering the kind of totally opposite character she's playing in this movie]][[invoked]].

** While planting a C4 booby trap, Qualen comments to her that she'll make a good wife one day, two years earlier Kristel's actress Creator/CarolineGoodall had indeed played a good wife in Creator/StevenSpielberg's family film and unofficial sequel to ''Literature/PeterPan'', ''Film/{{Hook}}'' (which was distributed by Creator/TriStarPictures, who distribute this film as well) as Creator/RobinWilliams' character's wife Moira Banning, [[IronyAsSheIsCast ironically considering the kind of character she's playing in this movie]][[invoked]].

* BriefAccentImitation: Krystel affects a very convincing American accent during a fake distress radio call.

** While planting a C4 booby trap, Qualen comments to her that she'll make a good wife one day, two years earlier Kristel's actress Creator/CarolineGoodall had indeed played a good wife in Creator/StevenSpielberg's family film ''Film/{{Hook}}'' (which was distributed by Creator/TriStarPictures, who distribute this film as well) as Creator/RobinWilliams' character's wife Moira Banning, [[IronyAsSheIsCast ironically considering the kind of character she's playing in this movie]][[invoked]].

* ActorAllusion: The novelisation describes Gabe Walker as "[[Franchise/{{Rambo}} Rambo]] on ice".

* EvilBrit: John Lithgow played Qualen with a strangulated upper-class English accent whilst Krystel and Delmar were played by actual Brits.

* TheSquadette: The only member of his team Qualen actually admires is Kristel, who's smarter than the rest of his mooks (when making the fake distress call, she claims that one of their party is running out of insulin so the rescue team won't wait till after the storm). Despite this, Qualen ruthlessly kills her to force the hand of Travers.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Threatened, but never actually done. Mainly because the characters take steps to ensure that they don't (two good examples would be Qualen ordering Walker "[[DeadlyEuphemism retired]]" once he comes down with the first case, only for Tucker to thwarted it and Walker escaping and during the mid-air robbery, Travers decides to come down to the jet first before the money out of a gut-feeling that Qualen would leave him behind if he send down the money first).
** [[spoiler: Played straight when Qualen shoots his loyal pilot Kristel just to show Travers who's boss when the latter attempts to become TheStarscream.]]
*** Well, that and [[spoiler: Qualen was now the only person alive in the group who knew how to pilot a helicopter. Which made killing him a less than desirable option]].
** Also played straight when Qualen throws out an injured mook in mid-air during the robbery.

* KarmaHoudini: Technically both Tucker and Walker could've been sued, or had charges pressed against them by Sarah's family, for their roles in her untimely death, and although both of them [[LaserGuidedKarma suffered for it]], neither of them received any legal comeuppance.

* NeverMyFault: Tucker brought his girlfriend--who has absolutely zero experience climbing--on a climbing trip to one of the most insanely difficult and tough-to-reach locations in the canyon. He also has a recurring knee injury which strands them both on one of the most dangerous cliffs possible. He also gives her defective equipment that fails halfway through their rescue. She's left dangling exactly halfway between cliffs, where nobody except Gabe has any hope of reaching her. She completely freaks out and is blatantly unable to climb back up to save herself, so Gabe climbs out to try and save her. Gabe nearly succeeds--grabbing her and holding on for as long as humanly possible before she slips out of her glove and falls. Likely out of judgement-clouding grief, Hal naturally blames Gabe entirely for her death.

* ObfuscatingDisability: When placing the fake distress call, Kristel claims that "we need insulin" so that the mountain rescue team will not wait until the snowstorm has ended to rescue them. Qualen himself considers it a stroke of genius.

* ObfuscatingDisability: When placing the fake distress call, Kristel claims that they need insulin so that the mountain rescue team will not wait until the snowstorm has ended to rescue them. Qualen himself considers it a stroke of genius.

* BondOneLiner: "''Remember shithead! Keep your arms and legs in the vehicle '''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis At All. Times!]]'''''"
* BondVillainStupidity: Especially in the fight scenes.

* TooDumbToLive: Kynette and Delmar might have lived to steal and terrorize another day if they had just done away with Gabe and Hal quickly and quietly instead of [[SmugSnake dragging out their fights just for thrills]]. [[spoiler:Instead Kynette receives a very karmic attack on his privates before being impaled and Delmar gets a knife in the leg before Hal shoots him.]]
** Heldon fires a grenadelauncher at Gabe, and when that starts an avalanche, Heldon continues to fire until the snowfall throws him clear off the ridge and falls to his death instead of taking cover like everyone else.

* SelfDestructDevice: The Treasury plane notably has one of these, which is an important part of Travers' scheme to steal the money and delays the authorities' efforts to find them (who knows, maybe Matheson would have been able to warm them if he hadn't been blown up). [[InventionalWisdom Makes you wonder who the hell thought that it was a good idea.]]

* WholePlotReference: Other than being a ''Film/DieHard'' on a mountain, the action film also shared similar traits to Creator/WesCraven's horror directorial debut ''Film/TheLastHouseOnTheLeft'' as it involves an AxCrazy HateSink group of criminals (which even includes the token female DarkChick amongst them) find themselves in the wilderness and both films showcased their graphic monstrous atrocities and the villains themselves explicitly meet their ends too as a result by the hands of the heroes. However, the prison transfer break is instead replaced by the botched air-to-air transfer robbery and the villains here are much more heavily armed. Both films even had trouble amongst the ratings system due to their graphic content and had to be ReCut to get the more markable "R" rating.

* AnyoneCanDie: Including a PluckyComicRelief and a [[spoiler:CoolOldGuy]].

* AxCrazy: Qualen, Kynette, Delmar and eventually Travers when he undergoes his VillainousBreakdown.

* ShortLivedAerialEscape: TropeMaker

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Delmar describes Kynette as a "black bastard."

...only to find the distress signal to be a ruse of Eric Qualen (Creator/JohnLithgow), a maniacal terrorist leader leading a CardCarryingVillain band of PsychoForHire mercenaries (which includes a [[RetroactiveRecognition pre]]-''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' Craig Fairbrass) who have just lost $100 million worth of Federal Bearer Bonds they hijacked during the crash. Gabe and Tucker are captured and forced to help the terrorists get their ill-gotten money...