10 Movie Scenes That Will Give You Vertigo

Sylvester Stallone’s mountain rescue ranger Gabe opens this action film with some insane overhanging cliff climbing in the Colorado Rockies before we even get to the really terrifying part of the scene. The long-range helicopter footage helps to hammer home how crazily high the stranded mountain climbers are before he reaches them.

Things start to go wrong after they manage to get injured Hal into the helicopter and girlfriend Sarah starts winching across the wire. Her harness starts to break, and Gabe desperately pulls himself across the wire to save her, managing to grab her hand just as she falls, but losing his grip on her glove, sending her hurtling into the abyss.

The scene is so effective because of the set up of the beautiful scenery and the jokey way in which the characters interact up until the climax. We are made to feel slightly uncomfortable because of the height and situation, but it’s ok because they are all happy, so we trust that the rescue team are capable and used to this kind of occurrence.

Then suddenly the rug is pulled from under us when the harness starts to break and we are thrown into panic, with the camera shooting down, and touches like Sarah’s cuddly dog falling foreshadowing what is going to happen.