The Last Action Hero’s Cliffhanger
END OF THE CENTURY I
How the early 90s redefined the action movie genre, ended the muscled action star era, and promoted average Joe’s to action stars
The first action movie ever made is a hotly contested title. There’s no definitive answer. Film genres are fluid and often derivative, borrowing elements from other categories as they evolve. Still, we can safely state that the “modern” action movie originated in the 1970s when the likes of Clint Eastwood, Lee Marvin, and Charles Bronson dominated the silver screen. The Nixon-era icons frequently depicted independent, stoic mavericks who took matters into their own hands. Most action titles featured gritty plots, graphic and violent visuals, and characters whose moral compass was clouded at best.
The action movies from the early to mid-1970s were broadly appealing due to their simplicity. They employed simple plots, straightforward action, and easy-on-the-eye cinematography. Titles such as Death Wish, The French Connection, and Dirty Harry connected with audiences by catering to an underserved audience segment, the silent majority. These movies offered portrayals of a brand of people who had received little favor in New Hollywood entries like The Graduate and Easy Rider.
With the blockbuster’s advent, audiences’ aspirations and their definition of relatability changed. As a result, action movies had to adapt to keep up with the industry trends. That meant more spectacle, impressive stunts, larger budgets, and newer, younger faces. Enter Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.
The 1980s were, arguably, the golden age of action films. The reasons behind the genre’s success during the “Greed decade” go far beyond the advancements in special effects and the new blood (no pun intended) both in front and behind the camera. On the one hand, creatives kept pushing the envelope in the presentation of violence and blood. On the other hand, the plots became simpler and (even) less cerebral. There were no gray areas, just a simple dichotomy of good and evil.
This storytelling approach required a new type of superhero. Gone was the cadre of Vietnam and Watergate cynic heroes. In was the Herculean male action hero, a patriotic Übermensch that fully embodied the values of Reagan’s America. The kind of character who connected with the audience’s newfound relatability and aspirations. Nobody represents this transition better than two of Stallone’s iconic roles: John Rambo and Rocky Balboa. In just three years, Rambo went from the PTSD-ailing Vietnam vet archetype in First Blood to a flag-waving one-person army in Rambo: First Blood Part II. Rocky followed a similar path. The 1976’s tale of an underdog attempting to make it to the top in Rocky eventually became a franchise that led Rocky to face Ivan Drago in 1985’s Rocky IV.
The evolution of both characters mirrors Stallone’s career and explains how he became a megastar. He embodied America’s vox populi and personified the political, social, and economic evolution between his debut in 1976 and his commercial apex in 1985. Rocky Balboa started as a product of his time: a ne’er do well with a dream, fighting against the odds during Jimmy Carter’s “malaise” years. Audiences merged their hearts with Rocky’s and saw in the actor a voice and an inspiration, sharing the triumph and glory of a real-life underdog. Even before America turned right, before the optimism of a new administration settled in, Stallone was already a cultural ambassador, “leading” millions. The actor continued to pursue roles with which viewers could relate. By 1985, he had become a reminder of the hardships and struggles many went through to achieve newfound prosperity.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was another action icon that was very much a product of his era. The Austrian-born first-generation immigrant came to personify the “American Dream” concept. But it wasn’t through his background that he connected with the public. The body-builder turned actor had projected a larger-than-life aura from the get-go. By the time Schwarzenegger started to become noticed, there was already a high demand for muscled tough guys.
Schwarzenegger’s filmography in the 1980s was also remarkably different than Stallone’s. The former starred in his fair share of “traditional” shoot ‘’em-up action extravaganzas such as Commando, Raw Deal, and Red Heat. However, his name was closely associated with sci-fi action thrillers (The Terminator and Predator) and fantasy action adventures, like the Conan series. Both action heroes would compete at the box office, trying to outperform each other in ticket sales, body count, and the supreme title of de facto action hero.
Still, not even the two mega stars could satisfy the audience’s appetite for more guts and glory. The then-nascent “straight to video” market and independent studios such as Cannon Films helped to produce the output necessary to satisfy viewers. This output increase transformed ripped, intimidating action heroes such as Chuck Norris, Michael Dudikoff, Dolph Lundgren, Jean Claude Van Damme, and Steven Seagal into household names.
The summer of 1988 saw another cycle for the genre. John McTiernan’s sleeper hit Die Hard topped all expectations and catapulted Bruce Willis into A-list status. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Stallone were considered for the role (both turned it down) before producers settled on Willis. The movie’s success wasn’t exclusively due to Willis’ presence. It featured a high-concept plot set in modern times (the action took place in the headquarters of a US-based Japanese corporation that was taken over by German terrorists, reflecting 1980s globalization). The visuals and action sequences were impressive and believable. It also helped that John McClane was an exceptionally written character. Unlike Rambo or other action heroes of the era, McClane was closer to Harry Callahan or Paul Kersey: He is an average, vulnerable person that reacts when provoked. He takes action by being meticulous and resourceful. Again, this tapped into another shift in what people wanted from their entertainment: something more human than invincible powerhouses.
Choosing Bruce Willis for the lead role proved to be a pivotal move that shaped the upcoming decade. As an actor, Willis was known for his performance in ABC’s hit dramedy Moonlighting. Departing from his comedy schtick and convincingly stepping into the shoes of a man who was at the wrong time in the wrong place proved that virtually any actor could be an action star. Along with Bruce Willis’ casting, choosing Mel Gibson for the buddy cop hit Lethal Weapon and electing comedy actor Michael Keaton as Batman in 1989 led to a new approach in action filmmaking. Studios were able to produce action hits that audiences would pay to see while keeping costs low. Stallone’s Rambo III was a great contributor to this shift: The movie, released in the Summer of 1988, had cost roughly $60M, making it, at the time, the most expensive production ever. The action sequel begged the question: Why would you pay $12M to have Stallone when they could get Bruce Willis for $5M and reap higher profits?
As a new decade started, spiraling production costs were a key concern in Hollywood. Movie budgets were out of control, not only for action productions but also across genres. Industry pundits pointed the finger at the exorbitant salaries paid to lead stars. Both Bruce Willis’ Die Hard 2 and Schwarzenegger’s Total Recall, released in 1990, had surpassed Rambo III’s budget. Willis received $7.5M, and Schwarzenegger collected a whooping $11M paycheck.
The new decade also marked a turning point for the feuding action icons. Stallone and Schwarzenegger were no longer competitors. They were poles apart. After dominating the box office for over a decade, Sylvester Stallone signed a record-breaking contract worth $12M per movie with The Cannon Group in 1986. A slow-motion career decline followed. Sticking to over-the-top action vehicles, the actor starred in several consecutive box-office flops. Not even revisiting his iconic roles could turn his luck around, as Rambo III and Rocky V failed to bring in audiences. In the early 90s, Sly tried to follow in Schwarzenegger’s footsteps and diversify his roles, breaking into comedies. This move would prove to be unsuccessful, with both Oscar and Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot continuing the actor’s string of failures.
Schwarzenegger, on the other hand, was riding high. His successes in comedies and sci-fi/action hybrids cemented his status as a bankable star, paving the way to his biggest hit thus far, James Cameron’s Terminator 2: Judgement Day, 1991’s highest-grossing movie. The “Austrian Oak” dominated the box office. Audiences and producers alike were eager for his next hit. The success of Terminator 2: Judgement Day did little to appease the industry’s concerns with costs. The blockbuster was the first movie ever to carry a 9-digit price tag. At the same time, titles such as Point Break and The Hunt For Red October, starring Keanu Reeves and Alec Baldwin, respectively, were being produced at a third of T2’s cost.
Bartholomew vs. Neff may have saved Stallone’s dire comedy record. The unmade John Hughes production, co-starring John Candy, was canceled last minute. So were sci-fi horror Isobar and the Die Hard-inspired Gale Force. Finnish director Renny Harlin, who was also attached to Gale Force, and Stallone moved on to a new production: Cliffhanger. Harlin was a sought-after director after helming Die Hard 2 in 1990 and seemed like the perfect candidate to revitalize Sly’s career. Cliffhanger’s first draft screenplay dates back to the mid-1980s. After a character and plot rewrite, the script became more aligned with Die Hard.
In Cliffhanger, Stallone plays Gabe Walker, a mountain climber recovering from a traumatic experience. Walker answers a fake distress call only to be forced by a group of terrorists to retrieve three high-security briefcases filled with cash that got lost in the Rocky Mountains after a plane crash. The movie was advertised as a pure action vehicle, aiming to pave the way for Stallone’s comeback. The action-packed entry relied on traditional stunts, which included the costliest aerial stunt sequence ever performed.
Critics and mountain climbing enthusiasts criticized the movie for its lack of realism. Despite the lukewarm critical reception and fierce competition from other releases, Cliffhanger was a minor international hit becoming Stallone’s best-performing title in over eight years. While the movie showcased Sylvester Stallone’s acting attributes and focused on the kind of vehicle that made him a star, audiences felt the movie tried too hard to transform the former action icon. The action title wasn’t innovative enough and couldn’t compete with more grounded and realistic titles, such as In The Line of Fire and The Fugitive, and the consensus was that Stallone would never be McClane.
On paper, Last Action Hero sounded like the gathering of the action genre’s holy trinity: John McTiernan (the director behind the genre’s renaissance), Arnold Schwarzenegger (the biggest star on the planet), and Shane Black (Hollywood’s go-to action scribe). To say expectations were sky-high is an understatement. Before its release in June 1993, the movie was overhyped and grandiosely promoted (Last Action Hero was the first movie advertised in space!). But not even all the buzz surrounding the lavish production could silence the negative press that was slowly building up. Terrible test screenings and an intensive editing process followed a troubled shoot. It was a perfect storm that seemed to have doomed Schwarzenegger’s latest blockbuster even before its release.
Like most ambitious projects, Last Action Hero started with great intentions. Zak Penn and Adam Leff penned a screenplay that addressed all the excessive tropes (the violence, the always-loaded guns, and the hero’s invulnerability) from the 1980s titles with a critical tone. During the rewrites, Shane Black added new elements such as the magic ticket, the mafia, and the campy overtone. The final version that made it to the screen was a parody of a parody that was neither a Lethal Weapon action comedy nor Die Hard. The plot follows teenager Danny Madigan, a movie buff and action flick aficionado, who receives a magic golden ticket that lets him enter the fantasy world of his favorite movie franchise, Jack Slatter.
Audiences weren’t quite sure what to expect from Last Action Hero. Had it been a straight-out parody akin to Naked Gun or Airplane!, moviegoers would have loved it. But the movie’s extreme self-awareness brand mixed with diluted PG-13 action sequences failed to capture the audience’s interest. Hudson Hawk’s failure proved that duping audiences is a dangerous game. McTiernan’s latest movie showed that audiences take offense when you tell them what they like is stupid. After all, Scream was still years away, and metafiction didn’t have a broad appeal. It also didn’t help that the decade-defining Jurassic Park had premiered the week before. Not even Arnie could stand up to a mighty roaring T-Rex. Spielberg’s movie obliterated the Last Action Hero, relegating the action-adventure entry to box office oblivion.
Applying the Goldilocks principle: Cliffhanger wasn’t innovative enough. Last Action Hero was ahead of its time even. Jurassic Park was just right. The Summer of 1993 marked a turning point in both Sly and Arnie’s careers and status in Hollywood. But most importantly, a significant change in the action movie recipe for success. James Cameron would come to Schwarzenegger’s rescue with a subtler action satire, True Lies, a year later. The relief proved shortlived as 1996’s Eraser effectively killed the 1980s action trope-driven vehicle. Stallone wouldn’t fare much better commercially, even if he finally managed to transpose the everyman vulnerability onto the screen in the excellent Cop Land.
The remainder of the decade saw a gradual budget shift. CGI now accounted for the budget’s lion’s share. Visual effects would now provide the guarantee once exclusive to the action stars. Movies such as Independence Day and The Matrix obliterated the need for bankable names. As for content, the 90s saw an explosion of Die Hard-type high-concept vehicles. Speed, Con Air, Air Force One, and The Rock relied on talent, not muscles, to tell a story.
As the likes of Stallone and Schwarzenegger faded into box office obscurity, it seemed that the last action heroes had not survived the 1993 season cliffhanger. The truth is that the titles of the 1980s always found an audience willing to reminisce and revisit the classics. After all, the power of collective nostalgia turned 2010’s The Expandables into a minor hit. In the long run, the action icon of the 80s did what he knows best: survive to see another day. Considering the cyclical nature of movies, we can take reassurance in the words of one the greatest: “I’ll be back!”
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End of the Century is a three-part article series focused on the changes that took place in the movie and entertainment landscape during the last decade of the 20th Century.