Before green screens ruled Hollywood and CGI became the norm, there was Cliffhanger. Sylvester Stallone’s 1993 high-altitude thriller didn’t just push the limits of action, but rewrote the record books, literally, with one of the most gravity-defying sequences of all time. The jaw-dropping aerial stunt cost a million dollars to pull off, and has found a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the ‘Most expensive film stunt performed in the air.’
This amount was outrageous for its time that Stallone reportedly took a pay cut to help cover the expense. This million dollar expense wasn’t spent on visual effects or post-production wizardry – it was all done practically, with two real planes flying at 15,000 feet and a legendary stuntman dangling between them, no safety wires, just a parachute, and nerves of steel.
The man behind the madness was Simon Crane, a veteran stunt performer with more than 90 films under his belt. His mission was to cross from a DC-9 aircraft to a trailing Lockheed JetStar using a cable, mid-air, at 150 mph. No CGI. No backup. Just real wind, real altitude, and a very real risk of being pulled into a jet engine.
As fate (and physics) would have it, things didn’t quite go as choreographed. Crane bounced off the side of the JetStar multiple times, narrowly missing the engines before cutting loose and parachuting safely to the ground. Despite the heart-stopping close call, Crane was unfazed.
“I would definitely, 100% do it again,” he later told Behind the Stunts.
The description on the official site of Guinness World Records reads, “Simon Crane (UK) performed one of the most dangerous ever aerial stunts when he moved between two jets at an altitude of 4,572 m (15,000 ft) for Cliffhanger (USA, 1993). The stunt, performed only once because it was so risky, cost a record $1 million (£568,000). Sylvester Stallone, the film’s star, is said to have offered to reduce his fee by the same amount to ensure that the stunt was made.”
While USD 1 million might not raise eyebrows today, back in 1993 – when Cliffhanger had a USD 70 million budget – that was a huge deal. Adjusted for inflation, the cost would be closer to USD 2.2 million today.
Though countless action films have since raised the bar, this moment remains a classic. It’s the kind of old-school, jaw-clenching movie magic that modern filmmaking rarely attempts anymore, especially with today’s heavy reliance on digital effects and CGI.
Want to relive the madness? The scene from Cliffhanger is still up on YouTube—and it’s just as wild today as it was three decades ago.