Director Renny Harlin shares his hopes for more practical action in the announced Cliffhanger 2, which will see the return of star Sylvester Stallone.
Cliffhanger director Renny Harlin shares what he hopes to see in the announced Cliffhanger 2. Released in 1993, the original film stars Sylvester Stallone as Gabe Walker, a search-and-rescue mountain climber who becomes entangled in the botched heist of a U.S. Treasury plane in the Rocky Mountains. It was announced last spring that Cliffhanger 2 is officially in the works, with Stallone set to reprise his role and Greenland director Ric Roman Waugh to direct.
Now, as news on Cliffhanger 2 remains scarce, Harlin reveals in an interview with ComingSoon.net how he hopes the sequel takes after his original. In particular, the filmmaker celebrates the focus on real, practical action in his 1993 movie, expressing how much of a mistake it would be for the follow-up to switch to a more CGI-heavy approach. Check out Harlin’s full comment below:
“To be honest, I’ve tried for decades. I always felt the movie was hugely successful, and it was crazy that there wasn’t a sequel. There was more story to tell.
“Now, of course, it’s a long time later, so I have no idea what kind of a story they are planning to tell or what Sly’s role in it is. But I wish them the best of luck. I hope they don’t try to replace what we did with a lot of CG. Because I think the audience will be able to tell that we did everything for real. We shot at 12,000 foot peaks in the Italian Alps. It was real stuff, like the opening sequence with the girl falling. It was done for real. That was at 8,000 feet, that wire.
“It’s so easy for the studios to say now, ‘We’ll do everything blue screen and create everything digitally.’ I hope they don’t do that because it deserves a sequel with the same spirit of the original.
Renny Harlin Is Right About Cliffhanger 2
Sylvester Stallone’s Return Needs Practical Action
Stallone’s movie career features a number of major highlights, including a handful of standout action scenes. The opening sequence in Cliffhanger is certainly among these standout moments, following Walker as he embarks on a mission to rescue his friend Hal (Michael Rooker), and Hal’s girlfriend, Sarah (Michelle Joyner). The most memorable part of the sequence features Stallone dangling from a wire stretched across a wide mountain range as he holds onto Sarah, with the latter character ultimately falling to her death.
This opening sequence in Cliffhanger isn’t just memorable because the hero fails to save someone, but because it feels real. The scenes out on the wire hold up today because they were largely filmed using practical methods. Had the sequence been accomplished using mostly blue screen and visual effects, it probably wouldn’t have the same impact. The rest of the film continues this same trend, presenting action that was accomplished mostly using practical methods.
Visual effects certainly have their place, and, indeed, Cliffhanger also relies on them for key moments, including during the opening cliff rescue. The key for the sequel will be to once again strike this balance, using VFX to enhance or otherwise complement footage that was captured practically. This way, Cliffhanger 2 can potentially recapture the magic of the original, presenting action that feels high-stakes and real.