In the early 1990s Sylvester Stallone’s career was on the skids.
After the world tired of unending sequels to the Rocky and Rambo films, Sly made an ill-fated attempt to branch out into comedy. The resulting films, the dire screwball farce Oscar and the laughter-free Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot were notorious critical and commercial disasters.
Fortunately, the Italian Stallion was able to revive his ailing career by making a spectacular return to the action genre in Cliffhanger (1993).
The plot saw Stallone play a mountain rescue climber his coerced into helping thieves recover $100m dollars of stolen money that’s been scattered across the peaks of a mountain range after a mid-air heist goes wrong.
On its release the film was a smash at the box office with critics praising the spectacular stunts, action set pieces and vertigo induced tension.
The film’s qualities even saw it nominated for three Oscars: best Sound, visual effects, and editing.
So on their latest show, the Exploding Helicopter team put Cliffhanger under the spotlight to discuss the films outstanding action scenes, debate the merits of John Lithgow’s sneering villain, and of course examine a classic exploding helicopter scene.
Find the show on iTunes, Acast, Stitcher, Podomatic or listen to it right here.