The upcoming reboot of the 1993 action thriller Cliffhanger, which starred Sylvester Stallone in its lead role, has been through development hell for years but finally appears set for release in 2026. The movie’s pre-production has been fraught with problems and has seen a huge turnover of the key personnel involved in making it down the years. Nevertheless, with Jaume Collet-Serra confirmed as the movie’s director, we have good reason to be excited about the Cliffhanger reboot, following his 2024 action thriller that proved to be one of Netflix’s biggest hits last year.
Collet-Serra’s Carry-On is a sleek and stylish action movie that demonstrates how the director could add a new dimension to the new Cliffhanger film. His input should actually improve this reboot, which initially seemed in jeopardy when original Cliffhanger star Stallone’s exit from the project was announced. We shouldn’t read too much into Jaume Collet-Serra’s disappointing new horror release The Woman in the Yard when trying to discern what the new Cliffhanger will be like. Carry-On, on the other hand, is far more similar to Cliffhanger in style and theme.
The Cliffhanger Reboot Director Made Netflix’s Megahit Carry-On
The 2024 Movie Carry-On Is Jaume Collet-Serra’s Biggest Career Success
Carry-On was a major career turning point for Jaume Collet-Serra, who’d achieved middling success with a mixed bag of horror and action flicks prior to 2024. The movie stars Taron Egerton as an airport security officer disillusioned with his work because his father’s criminal convictions have prevented him from working for the police. But baggage security proves to be far more thrilling than he could have anticipated.
Egerton’s central hero Ethan Kopek is up against a dangerous mercenary played by Jason Bateman, who tries to use him to smuggle chemical weapons onto a flight. Their conflict drives Carry-On’s topsy-turvy plot, which admittedly contains significant holes, although it does manage to work in an interesting political angle that provides a wider context to the events enveloping Ethan’s work. Collet-Serra directs the movie’s engrossing story skilfully, turning a sharp script into a scintillating action movie worthy of topping box office charts at the height of the blockbuster season.
Carry-On Shows What Jaume Collet-Serra Can Do With An Action Thriller
The Movie Illustrates What Collet-Serra’s Cliffhanger Remake Might Look Like
Jaume Collet-Serra nailed the filming of Carry-On precisely because he put his own stamp on the movie. He captures action sequences and fight scenes between Egerton and Bateman’s characters with close, handheld sH๏τs, emulating the gritty realism of a classic crime movie. Meanwhile, his direction helps frame Ethan Kopek as a typical young airport employee whose transformation from an understated workaday figure to an action hero is thrust upon him as much as it reflects his dream of being a police officer.
There’s no question that the formal elements of Collet-Serra’s most recent action thriller suit the overall premise of Cliffhanger down to the ground.
The realism and intensity of Collet-Serra’s directing style in Carry-On would work especially well for Cliffhanger, which is also a story about an undistinguished mountain rescue officer forced to reckon with criminal mercenaries involved in hijacking a plane. It remains to be seen whether the Cliffhanger remake retains these plot elements from Sylvester Stallone’s 1993 original, as well as the tragic backstory of Stallone’s character that made him disillusioned with this work. Still, there’s no question that the formal elements of Collet-Serra’s most recent action thriller suit the overall premise of Cliffhanger down to the ground.
Cliffhanger’s Reboot Should Be More Like Carry-On Than The Woman In The Yard
Carry-On And Cliffhanger Have Little In Common With Collet-Serra’s Latest Horror Movie
The story and setting of Cliffhanger clearly have a lot in common with Jaume Collet-Serra’s Carry-On, yet neither of these action thrillers has very much in common with the director’s latest work. The Woman in the Yard is a minimalist horror movie that has disappointed audiences and critics alike because of its lack of genuine scares. The Woman in the Yard‘s Rotten Tomatoes score shows that it has failed to stand out from Collet-Serra’s other hit-and-miss horror movies, and it pales in comparison to his 2016 shark-themed scarefest The Shallows.
The sooner Collet-Serra puts The Woman in the Yard behind him the better, as he looks to remake Cliffhanger in a different vein from the 1993 original. The director should be building on the success of Carry-On by incorporating elements of his directorial style in the Netflix hit into his Cliffhanger reboot and leaning on the talents of the movie’s cast, just as he did with Taron Egerton and Jason Bateman.
Cliffhanger
- Created by
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John Long, Michael France
- First Film
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Cliffhanger
- Latest Film
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Cliffhanger
- Upcoming Films
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Cliffhanger 2
- Cast
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Sylvester Stallone, John Lithgow, Michael Rooker, Janine Turner, Rex Linn, Caroline Goodall, Leon, Craig Fairbrᴀss
Summary
“Cliffhanger” is an action thriller franchise that began with the 1993 film directed by Renny Harlin and starring Sylvester Stallone. The story follows Gabe Walker, a mountain climber haunted by a past tragedy, who is drawn into a high-stakes heist in the Rocky Mountains. The film is known for its intense action sequences, breathtaking mountain scenery, and suspenseful plot. A sequel has been announced, aiming to revive the franchise with new adventures in the action genre.
