Sylvester Stallone stars as Gabe Walker, a Rocky Mountain Rescue ranger shattered by guilt and trauma. A year after losing his friend in a tragic 4,000-foot fall during a rescue he led, Gabe has sworn off climbing forever. He is reluctantly pulled back into service when he and his estranged former partner, Hal, receive a distress call from the same treacherous peaks. They set out to rescue a group of stranded climbers, only to learn the climbers are actually ruthless international thieves, led by the sadistic Eric Qualen (John Lithgow). The "rescue" becomes a deadly trap, as Gabe and Hal are forced into a high-stakes cat-and-mouse game to help the hijackers locate boxes full of stolen U.S. Treasury money scattered across the mountain range. *Cliffhanger* earns its place among the best thrillers by perfectly fusing the high-octane energy of an action film with the raw, visceral terror of a survival story. The film is a masterclass in creating sustained, vertigo-inducing tension, using its breathtaking real-world locations not just as a backdrop but as a primary antagonist. The constant threat comes as much from a potential avalanche or a broken carabiner as it does from a villain's bullet. Director Renny Harlin stages some of the most memorable and genuinely heart-stopping practical stunts of the era, grounding the explosive plot with a palpable sense of physical danger. This relentless combination of human menace and environmental peril ensures the stakes feel impossibly high, making it a pure, adrenaline-fueled spectacle that keeps its audience breathless from its devastating opening to its explosive finale.