Netflix Officially Adds Sylvester Stallone’s Explosive ’90s Survival Thriller

There was a time when Sylvester Stallone was seemingly incapable of making a movie that didn’t involve putting himself through some sort of extraordinary physical punishment. Whether he was taking punches as Rocky Balboa or single-handedly dismantling entire armies as John Rambo, the action icon spent decades proving that there was almost nothing he couldn’t survive. But in 1993, he decided to take things to an entirely different level, quite literally, by heading thousands of feet into the mountains for one of the most spectacular action thrillers of the decade.

Stallone’s iconic action thriller Cliffhanger has officially arrived on Netflix in the United States, joining the platform on November 1, more than 33 years after its original theatrical release. Directed by Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2), the movie became an enormous box office success, earning $255 million worldwide against a reported $65 million production budget, and became one of Stallone’s signature action films.

For Gabe Walker (Stallone) of Rocky Mountain Rescue, the mission sounds almost routine: locate five climbers lost among the icy peaks. But the distress call is really a trap set by merciless international terrorist Eric Qualen (John Lithgow). Now millions of dollars and the lives of Walker and the ones he loves hang in the balance. Against explosive firepower, bitter cold, and dizzying heights, Walker must outwit Qualen in a deadly game of hide-and-seek in this high-altitude avalanche of action and suspense.

• The first film not in the English language to win Best Picture, in the Academy’s
  92-year history to that point.
• It took four Oscars in one night: Picture, Director, Original Screenplay and International
  Feature.
• It won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2019 by a unanimous jury vote, the first Korean film
  to do so.
• The Park family’s modernist house was not a location. It was built from scratch on an
  outdoor lot.

• Seven Oscars, including three acting wins for Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee
  Curtis.
• Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian woman to win Best Actress.
• The visual effects were handled by a team of fewer than ten people, most of them
  self-taught.
• Ke Huy Quan had all but left acting for two decades before this role brought him back.

• Seven Oscars, including Nolan’s first wins for directing and for Best Picture.
• Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. both took their first Academy Awards for it.
• Kodak engineered a black-and-white 65mm stock that did not previously exist so Nolan could
  shoot those sequences on IMAX.
• A three-hour, R-rated drama about theoretical physics that passed 950 million dollars
  worldwide.

• Four Oscars, among them Best Picture and Best Director for Iñárritu.
• Emmanuel Lubezki’s win here was the middle of three consecutive cinematography Oscars,
  after Gravity and before The Revenant.
• Antonio Sánchez’s improvised drum score was ruled ineligible for the score category,
  which caused a minor uproar.
• The long-take illusion was built from a handful of extended shots joined by hidden cuts.

• Four Oscars: Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, and Supporting Actor for Javier Bardem.
• Adapted from Cormac McCarthy’s 2005 novel, with much of his dialogue carried over
  intact.
• Carter Burwell’s score runs about sixteen minutes and is nearly inaudible by design.
• Roger Deakins was nominated twice that year, for this and The Assassination of Jesse James,
  and won for neither.

Who Stars in ‘Cliffhanger’?

The cast includes Sylvester Stallone (Rocky) as Gabe Walker, John Lithgow (Dexter) as Eric Qualen, Michael Rooker (Guardians of the Galaxy) as Hal Tucker, Janine Turner (Northern Exposure) as Jessie Deighan, Rex Linn (Better Call Saul) as Richard Travers, Caroline Goodall (Schindler’s List) as Kristel, Leon (Cool Runnings) as Kynette, and Craig Fairbrass (Rise of the Footsoldier) as Delmar. It holds a 67% critics’ score and 53% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

A reboot, featuring Lily James and Pierce Brosnan, is scheduled for release in 2027, directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. The remake was originally developed as a sequel to Stallone’s original film, but after the star dropped out of the film’s production, attached director Ric Roman Waugh left as well. In September 2025, a sequel was announced to be in development.

Cliffhanger is streaming now on Netflix in the United States.

Cliffhanger