Greatest Trailer Ever?

This dialogue-free Cliffhanger teaser — an arty-looking music video to the strains of Mozart’s Requiem “Dies Irae” — is without question one of the greatest and most inspiring film trailers ever cut by a mainstream Hollywood studio. The reason is that it made a mediocre and needlessly brutal action movie look classy and cool. Most trailers try to reach the lowest-common-denominator dolts. This one went for the PBS wine-and-cheese crowd, selling the choreography, Alex Thomson‘s awesome photography and the splendor of northern Italy’s Dolomite mountains.

I was totally sold on Cliffhanger after seeing it. And then, of course, I saw the film.

Was the Cliffhanger teaser-trailer included in IFC.com’s “50 Greatest Trailers Ever Made” article, which went up yesterday? Of course not. Does this omission call the legitimacy of the article into question? Yes, it does somewhat. Especially since it salutes this Zabriskie Point trailer, which has one of the most comically awful ad-copy narrations ever heard.

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42 thoughts on “Greatest Trailer Ever?”

  1. Yeah I remember this. Genuinely brilliant trailer. It pretty much inspired every other action trailer in the last 15 years to throw in opera/classical to try and class things up, didn’t it?

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  4. I suppose it is needlessly brutal, coming off the heels of all the other violent 80′s action flicks. Lots of bloody squibs and even explosions at high altitudes. Not to mention that one scene where they mow down that kind, old helicopter pilot.

    These days the studios would have demanded a film like this be PG-13.

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  5. Come on Jeff, you can be a better snob than that. PBS is seen by most truly cultured people as decidedly middlebrow.

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  6. Huh. In just the other thread I praised the Pearl Harbor trailer to all heaven and it doesn’t even make the list. Morons.

    I also don’t get the Unrbreakable trailer being there– it’s a fantastic trailer to a great movie, but I think that the trailer for The Sixth Sense is better (“He died.” “How do you know?” “Because he’s standing outside your window.”)

    Actually, looking at that list. . . there are PLENTY of choices missing. . .

    Here’s an alternative list, allegedly from Empire Magazine: http://www.movie-list.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11257

    Not only does that one have Pearl Harbor on it, it also includes the REAL best trailer of all time: Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace.

    You watched that, millions thought they were going to get the greatest cinematic experience of their adult lives.

    Anything that can oversell a piece of crap that bad is a brilliant trailer (and that’s what the IFC list doesn’t get– the best trailers are often for the worst movies).

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  7. Kind of bizarre. I have never seen this trailer for Cliffhanger. For some reason I like Cliffhanger. The finale gets me everytime where Stallone shoots the guy through the ice — freaking amazing. Also, shouldn’t the trailer for Congo be mentioned? That trailer made Congo look like it was going to be awesome. What a let down. Also, I do agree with you crazynine about the Phantom Menace trailer. I thinked I liked it better then the actual movie. I still have the original Phantom Menace trailer saved on my old computer. I still watch it from time to time it is that great.

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  8. Cliffhanger’s trailer definitely did a great job of making a not-so-good movie seem great. The movie is downhill after the harrowing opening sequence.

    Bubble might be the best trailer I’ve seen in a while. I recall an early “Aliens” teaser that was great, too.

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  9. Yes, I remember this trailer kicking ass — right up until the very final shot of Stallone doing that gravity defying leap across the chasm. I remember sitting in the theater and right then knowing that this was going to be nothing but another ridiculous, stupid-ass action movie.

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  11. “Yes, I remember this trailer kicking ass — right up until the very final shot of Stallone doing that gravity defying leap across the chasm.”

    And about a million people shared your scorn, which is why the shot never appears in the final film.

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  12. I think my favorite trailer is the first teaser for Terminator 2, showing the “creation” of Schwarzenegger. I just remember the absolute rush through the entire crowd when it debuted.

    And it was almost matched by the subsequent trailer – at the line “These were taken today.” This was, of course, before we knew Arnold played a good guy.

    Remember when you didn’t know every plot detail of a film a year beforehand? That was nice.

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  14. That list was a load of crap for not including The Phantom Menace. Say what you want about the film itself, but that trailer built up the anticipation to an almost unbearable level.

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  16. The worst thing about that article is the fact that each of the 50 trailers is on a separate page. Yeesh. Talk about desperate for clicks.

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  17. I remember seeing that in the theater and getting jacked. “Holy shit! A decent-looking Stallone movie!”

    On another, less summer action movie note, the original trailer for “Philadelphia” was one of the best I’ve even seen. Makes me cry like a child.

    Conversely, the IFC list failed by showing “The Matrix” on their list. It’s really only a good trailer in hindsight because we all recall what a balls-out kick-ass movie it is. Before it opened though, the buzz was kind of weak. I saw the trailer at the Chinese Theater and everybody laughed as soon as they saw that Keaunu was in it. (same thing for “Speed”, which, in its own way, ended up kicking ass, too)

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  20. “Cliffhanger” certainly had one of the best / most harrowing opening ten minutes of any movie I’ve seen in the past 20 years.

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  21. BTW, Cliffhanger’s legally free on Youtube.

    “I was totally sold on Cliffhanger after seeing it. And then, of course, I saw the film.”

    But what about Judge Dredd?

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  22. That was awesome, movie was very entertaining, great concept, thriller on ice. I see the black guy at the urth cafe….

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  23. My favourite trailers: The Abyss, Die Hard With A Vengeance (the classical music one), Schindlers List and Star Wars Episode One.

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  24. Actually, the trailer for THE TWO JAKES could count as another classic example of making a disappointment look like a mouthwatering must-see.

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  25. My favourite trailers: The Abyss, Die Hard With A Vengeance (the classical music one), Schindlers List and Star Wars Episode One.

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  26. Wait, I thought “Cliffhanger” was the only decent Die Hard ripoff flick of the late-80′s, early-90′s, No?!?!?

    Talking about great trailers, I caught the one for “Dr. Strangelove” on TCM. WOW! That was fantastic!!!!

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  28. Hell yeah! Nice call Jeff. I brought this very trailer up in a conversation just a couple of days ago. The person/people who cut it deserve a medal.

    I saw Cliffhanger at a theater in Alpine, TX that was hands-down the most pathetic venue I have ever encountered in my life. Imagine the New Beverly’s screen (no knock on the New Bev, we all know it’s small), but smaller, with about half the audience capacity, about six or seven HOME STEREO speakers lined up under the screen for the Memorex experience, and a concession booth that was pretty much like the one Kramer ran in Seinfeld – I think there were three or four boxes of candy, canned drinks, and the popcorn machine was broken. Saddest theater ever.

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  31. Reni Harlin should be praised for directing 2 of the best action movies of the past 2 decades. Everything else he’s done was shit but Cliffhanger and Die Hard 2 were terrific. The action was expertly designed, shot and cut together, was quite imaginative in many instances, and did not cost 100 mil.

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  32. “If summer movies nowadays were as GOOD as Cliffhanger I would be VERY happy!”

    Totally agree. Cliffhanger isn’t the greatest movie, but it’s a hell of a lot better than most of the summer popcorn flicks coming out the last decade or so.

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  38. Not only does that one have Pearl Harbor on it, it also includes the REAL best trailer of all time: Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace.

    You watched that, millions thought they were going to get the greatest cinematic experience of their adult lives.

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  42. Is true that all you have seen and read,sometime when it is raining I have to move my office in the walk to keep working.
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    I had a put up a couple of very droll comments but they were “accidentally” erased by Jeff. I’m sure that my saying that if the grain monks ever got together with the 1.85 fascists they could make Jeff feel sufficiently oppressed to write his own “Darkness At Noon.”

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