“People tell me that that scene is burned into their memory,” laughs co-producer Jim Zatolokin.

But it also does for heights what Jaws did for sharks. The purpose of the scene, of course, is to leave Gabe haunted by the guilt, which causes him to mope around like an emotionally-bruised lump of rock. But the buckle on Sarah’s harness snaps and mountain rescue beefcake Gabe (Stallone) drops her. In the opening scenes, Sarah and Hal (played by Joyner and Michael Rooker) are stranded atop one of the summits and have to clamber across a zipline-like wire to the rescue chopper (a manoeuvre called a Tyrolean traverse). I think, ‘So, did I really need to risk my life like that?’” “There’s no way you can tell that he wasn’t.

And it holds up. “When I watch it now, it’s really convincing that Stallone was up there,” says Joyner. But Stallone was nowhere near the Dolomites’ Vajolet Towers – a cluster of dizzying summits – for the film’s defining stunt: actress Michelle Joyner dangling on a line between the towers at 4,000ft. Indeed, any mention of Cliffhanger and Michelle Joyner’s big moment is almost certainly the scene that comes to mind – before it plunges gut-ward and triggers some primal, blood-freezing terror within. A promotional making of feature was keen (a bit too keen, perhaps) to persuade viewers that Stallone had indeed done plenty of real climbing. Leaving the relative safety of those generously-heeled boots, Stallone did ultimately muck in by doing some climbing and dangling off ledges. As expedition leader, Harlin had another job to add to those demands: coaxing Stallone higher and higher up the mountain. There were lightning storms at 13,000ft, helicopter evacuations, and – back in the US – a record-breaking aerial stunt. The crew spent months in the Italian mountains (which doubled for the Colorado Rockies) with a team of world-class climbers performing stomach-lurching ascents. Stallone – Rambo himself – swore he wouldn’t go any higher than the heels of his cowboy boots.Ĭliffhanger was as much an expedition as a film production.

But the actor admitted to being scared of heights. In the film – which dropped into cinemas 30 years ago – Sly would play a rescue ranger who battles a gang of hijackers. That’s where he planned to shoot Cliffhanger: at the top of the mountain. In the Dolomites – a vast mountain range in northern Italy – director Renny Harlin led Sylvester Stallone to the foot of an 11,000ft peak.

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