Cliffhanger Improbability- Total Harness failure.
Thomas Morrow
One of the scenes in Cliffhanger involves a person's Black Diamond Bod
Harness completely coming off of them. Here is how it works:
1. The front metal cracks.
2. Both of the leg loop straps slide out of their buckles.
This happens within the first few minutes of the movie. It is my
opinion that they added this scene to completely overload viewers'
reality monitors, so that all the later improbable climbing situations
are practically unnoticed. From the start they are telling you that
this is not a reality movie.
By the way, how does Black Diamond feel about having their harnesses
portrayed this way? If I were them I would be in court.
--
-Tom
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Reid Kuhn
>One of the scenes in Cliffhanger involves a person's Black Diamond Bod
>Harness completely coming off of them. Here is how it works:
>1. The front metal cracks.
>2. Both of the leg loop straps slide out of their buckles.
I have not seen the movie, but that happening is more unrealistic than Sly
climbing a 5.14.
>This happens within the first few minutes of the movie. It is my
>opinion that they added this scene to completely overload viewers'
>reality monitors, so that all the later improbable climbing situations
>are practically unnoticed. From the start they are telling you that
>this is not a reality movie.
Obviously!!
>By the way, how does Black Diamond feel about having their harnesses
>portrayed this way? If I were them I would be in court.
I agree whole heartedly. I might take them to court just because I HAVE a
Bod.
Peter O'Leary
> tmo...@oracle.com (Thomas Morrow) writes:
>>By the way, how does Black Diamond feel about having their harnesses
>>portrayed this way? If I were them I would be in court.
>
> I agree whole heartedly. I might take them to court just because I HAVE a
> Bod.
Near the end of the credits there is a note stating that the harness used
in that scene was modified in order to set up the accident.
Pete.
--
Pete O'Leary * 'That is not it at all,
pe...@netcom.com * That is not what I meant, at all.'
David Spencer
>
>One of the scenes in Cliffhanger involves a person's Black Diamond Bod
>Harness completely coming off of them. Here is how it works:
>
>1. The front metal cracks.
>2. Both of the leg loop straps slide out of their buckles.
>
>This happens within the first few minutes of the movie. It is my
>opinion that they added this scene to completely overload viewers'
>reality monitors, so that all the later improbable climbing situations
>are practically unnoticed. From the start they are telling you that
>this is not a reality movie.
>
>By the way, how does Black Diamond feel about having their harnesses
>portrayed this way? If I were them I would be in court.
>
If you look hard, during the final credits there is a disclaimer that
they modified the harness to fail and that it doesn't do such things.
Eugene N. Miya
>
>By the way, how does Black Diamond feel about having their harnesses
>portrayed this way? If I were them I would be in court.
This is interesting.
On what basis would you sue them? Slander? I'm serious.
BTW: it was buckle failure.
I could not identify a logo on said piece of equipment.
Are you the type to sue your climbing partners?
--eugene miya, NASA Ames Research Center, eug...@orville.nas.nasa.gov
Resident Cynic, Rock of Ages Home for Retired Hackers
{uunet,mailrus,other gateways}!ames!eugene
Second Favorite email message: Returned mail: Cannot send message for 3 days
A Ref: Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning, vol. 1, G. Polya
Eugene N. Miya
>From article <1993May30.0...@henson.cc.wwu.edu>,
by n914...@henson.cc.wwu.edu (Reid Kuhn):
>> tmo...@oracle.com (Thomas Morrow) writes:
>>>By the way, how does Black Diamond feel about having their harnesses
>>>portrayed this way? If I were them I would be in court.
>>
>> I agree whole heartedly. I might take them to court just because I HAVE a
>> Bod.
>
>Near the end of the credits there is a note stating that the harness used
>in that scene was modified in order to set up the accident.
Good observation.
The NBC Dateline of climbing film.
Artistic license.
Garry N Ray
>I could not identify a logo on said piece of equipment.
Looked like a BD buckle to me.
>Are you the type to sue your climbing partners?
No, please, not again.
Sean Cleary
>>
>>By the way, how does Black Diamond feel about having their harnesses
>>portrayed this way? If I were them I would be in court.
>
eug...@wilbur.nas.nasa.gov (Eugene N. Miya) writes:
>This is interesting.
>On what basis would you sue them? Slander? I'm serious.
>BTW: it was buckle failure.
>
>I could not identify a logo on said piece of equipment.
A recent climbing rag had a couple of pages on the rigging and
stunts for the film. The said that Black Diamond was steamed
about the harness failure scene but that they had come to some
kind of agreement. I presume that included the bit at the end
about the harness being modified to fail and the removal of
the BD label from the harness. BTW, they made a replica
of the buckle from lead for the failure shots.
Sean Cleary 154 Kerr Hall; UC Davis Dept of Math; Davis CA 95616
cle...@math.ucdavis.edu UUCP:!{ucsd,ames,rutgers,uunet}!math.ucdavis.edu!cleary
John Dalbey
>this is not a reality movie.
>
>By the way, how does Black Diamond feel about having their harnesses
>portrayed this way? If I were them I would be in court.
According to June/July issue of _Climbing_ magazine:
"The movie producers have dealt with an angry Black Diamond
on the issue, to come to an agreement."
Also quoted was Mike Weis of Boulder, the film's technical director,
"No climber should go to this movie with a critical sense
that this is a climbing film. It's always the case
in filmmaking. Things are done which have absolutely no basis
in climbing or reality, something is needed or compromised because
of a look the director was looking for."
for more, see "Real Cliffhangers: climbers are key players behind
the scenes at Cliffhanger" by Alison Osius in Climbing 138.
--jd
Nancy Jensen
>One of the scenes in Cliffhanger involves a person's Black Diamond Bod
>Harness completely coming off of them. Here is how it works:
> ...
>By the way, how does Black Diamond feel about having their harnesses
>portrayed this way? If I were them I would be in court.
The film's credits & disclaimers include a statement by BD explaining
that the harness was modified for the scene. They probably still
don't like it, though. (Especially given their predecessor's history
with buckles and being in court. Ironic that the guide involved in a
certain incident worked on the film.)
About the film in general... not a climbing movie, but I enjoyed
parts of it: The plane crash, the base jumpers (or whatever they're
called), the bunny rabbit.
-Nancy