"If you can survive those beatings and the exposition doesn't excessively bore you, the beauty of the Italian Alps' Dolomite range (which doubled for Colorado in Alex Thomson's crisp photography) and those action sequences (including dizzying climbing and some exceptional midair antics, which are not sadistic) all function as advertised. "Cliffhanger" no doubt makes for a great coming attraction, but as a two-hour movie its claims are much more problematic."

"Sylvester Stallone as Gabriel "Gabe" Walker"

"Dialogue is the only real drawback, since the screenplay by Michael France and Mr. Stallone tends to be as drab as the mountains are beautiful."

"Until it takes a turn toward nasty sadism in its later stages—one character is impaled on an icicle, for instance -- "Cliffhanger" remains relatively bloodless and crisp, preferring to concentrate on sheer gamesmanship and clever effects."

"Gregory Scott Cummins as Ryan"

"Craig Fairbrass as Delmar"

"John Lithgow as Eric Qualen"

"Paul Winfield as Walter Wright"

"Someday they'll make an action picture that manages to do without a plot. Someday they'll figure out how to squeeze so much mayhem into two hours that it won't matter who is doing what to whom. But for now, no matter how spectacular the stunts are, they still have to be connected to a scenario, and as long as that's the case, films like "Cliffhanger" (citywide) are going to continue to fall short. Make no mistake, the high-flying stunts in director Renny Harlin's film are definitely state of the art, and while they're going on, the film works up a serious level of excitement. But as soon as the action stops and the inevitable talking begins, "Cliffhanger" falls to earth with a considerable thud."

"Michael Rooker as Hal Tucker"

""CLIFFHANGER," the new high-altitude thriller starring Sylvester Stallone, wastes no time in establishing its first priority, that of sending its audience into a cold sweat. This effect is achieved spectacularly well with a long, death-defying credit sequence set somewhere near the ozone layer. Mr. Stallone, playing a pumped-up Rocky Mountain rescue worker with an incongruously Presidential haircut, does his best to save a young woman who hangs precariously from a rope across a terrifyingly deep abyss. You will be in no hurry to mountain-climb after watching this scene. At such moments, and "Cliffhanger" has many of them, thoughts about life insurance come to mind. Was Sylvester Stallone really filmed atop the dizzyingly high, needle-shaped peak that figures prominently in the film's opening? Did he really scale the kinds of cliffs and mountainsides that are seen here? Did he hang in midair from a fraying rope, cross great chasms via rickety bridges or battle over a helicopter about to plunge into oblivion? Obviously, a great deal of credit goes to stunt doubles and optical tricks, but the illusion is still astonishingly effective. "Cliffhanger" really seems to be set somewhere up in the sky."

"Another problem for Stallone, as well as "Cliffhanger's" most offensive aspect, is the way he insists on playing average guy Gabe as if he's more invulnerable than the Terminator. Both Gabe and Hal receive horrendous beatings from the bad guys that are extended well beyond the point of sadism, beatings of a ferocity that would kill almost anyone, yet they survive with hardly a noticeable aftereffect. It is not a pretty picture and, if there was any sense in the ratings system, it would earn this picture an NC-17 instead of its timid R (for violence and language)."

"...the director's cut was met with a lot of disapproval at the screening and received some alarmingly low scores. Mainly because the stunts were absurdly overblown. For example, the average man can jump maybe twelve feet across a gorge, and the stunts had me leaping maybe three hundred feet or more, so situations like that had to be pared down and still then were fairly extreme… so you’re probably better off with this cut. By the way, the 2nd unit crew that filmed the majority of the action was extraordinary."

"Ralph Waite as Frank"

"IGNFF: What was the development process for Cliffhanger? It wasn't written with Stallone in mind, was it?"

"Laura Avakian (as Laura)"

"Henry Luciani as Duke"

"Cindy Leadbetter as Diana"

"Fausto Lombardi as Deus (as Tony Lombardo)"

"Katharine Troth (as Kat)"

"Jean-Christophe Brétigniere as Lucifer (as Christoph Bretner)"

"Ottaviano Dell'Acqua as Kurt (as Richard Raymond)"

"Geretta Geretta as Chocolate (as Janna Ryann)"

"Gianni Franco as Video (as Richard Cross)"

"Ann-Gisel Glass as Myrna"

"Massimo Vanni as Taurus (as Alex McBride)"

"Enrico Blasi"

"Anselma Dell'Ollo"

"Sandra Monteleoni"

"Stefania Casini - Feminist Actress"

"Francesca De Sapio"

"Mimsy Farmer - Feminist Actress"

"Abigail Clayton - Angelica (as Gail Lawrence)"

"Marcello Mastroianni - Luigi Nocello"

"James Coco - Andreas Flaxman"

"Avon Long - Miko"

"Geraldine Fitzgerald - Mrs. Toland"

"[to Lafayette about the monkey] If you want him to live, you'll have to keep him warm."

"Gérard Depardieu - Gerard Lafayette"

"Luciano Pallocchia"

"Nathalie Bernart"

"Achille Antonaglia"

"Carlo Ninchi — Constantius Chlorus"

"Vittorio Sanipoli — Apuleius"

"Tino Carraro — Maximian"

"When the Might of the Sword and the Sign of the Cross Unite in the Most Thrilling Story of Faith Ever Told on the Screen!"

"Cornel Wilde — Constantine"

"Belinda Lee — Fausta"