Black Diamond suit against Cliffhanger movie

I'm a law nerd, but actually have a friend writing a Trademark paper for whom this case could be illuminating. In case you have no idea what I'm talking about, recall the opening scene in Cliffhanger which clearly shows the buckle on a BD harness failing. Legend has it that BD sued the studio for obvious reasons and won. Problem is, I can't find it on any of the legal databases, which leads me to believe that if they did indeed file suit it was settled out of court.
Anybody have any concrete info or, better yet, an actual citation to the case law?

furrymurry wrote:I'm a law nerd, but actually have a friend writing a Trademark paper for whom this case could be illuminating. In case you have no idea what I'm talking about, recall the opening scene in Cliffhanger which clearly shows the buckle on a BD harness failing. Legend has it that BD sued the studio for obvious reasons and won. Problem is, I can't find it on any of the legal databases, which leads me to believe that if they did indeed file suit it was settled out of court. Anybody have any concrete info or, better yet, an actual citation to the case law?

the name of the company was chouinard (sp?) when it made the suit. it changed to BD shortly afterward.

JASON A. wrote: the name of the company was chouinard (sp?) when it made the suit. it changed to BD shortly afterward.

I'm pretty sure your dates are out of order. BD was founded in late 1989, from the ashes of Chouinard Equipment Ltd, which was at the time embroiled in a bunch of frivolous lawsuits against them.

Cliffhanger came out in 1993. Any lawsuit would undoubtedly have been filed by Black Diamond.

Chris Drover wrote: I'm pretty sure your dates are out of order. BD was founded in late 1989, from the ashes of Chouinard Equipment Ltd, which was at the time embroiled in a bunch of frivolous lawsuits against them. Cliffhanger came out in 1993. Any lawsuit would undoubtedly have been filed by Black Diamond.

i wasn't even born in 1993

JASON A. wrote: i wasn't even born in 1993

touché

JASON A. wrote: i wasn't even born in 1993

does your mom know you're talking to strange men on the internet?

My recollection is that Chouinard was reorganized into BD after a harness related accident in the Tetons involving Exum Guides and Jim Bridwell, who was guiding. I also want to say that the incident was written up in Outside Mag and that it became something of a cause celebre case, with big hitters testifying on both sides as to the standard of care, etc. I never really read up on the incident so this is all from a vague recollection from years back.

A couple of other attorneys on this site, Shawn Mitchell and (I think) PRRose, might have heard something of it as well.

I know nothing. But kudos to His Funniness, Jon Paul Kowles, for witty posts!

EDIT: OK, I heard that BD sued the production company before the movie's release, and either by injunction or settlement, all visible brands and trademarks of BD were edited out. Don't know if it's true.

EDIT 2: Better add Reverend Schuller below to the list of funny holy men.

Fat Dad has the story right. The end of Chouinard Equipment had nothing to do with
"Cliffhanger." The only fatality that occurred during the production was a caterer had a brain aneurysm in his hotel room one night! The lawsuit regarding Chouinard forced the company out of business and as I recall the employees bought it and formed Black Diamond.

I believe all of Fat Dad's and Allen's info is correct regarding the genesis of Black Diamond. But that doesn't preclude an unrelated later action by BD to protect its professional reputation from being smeared by the absurd tearing buckle scene.

The cute little teddy bear that was clipped to her harness died too I think.....

IIRC, the suit against Chouinard centered around warning labels for doubling back through the buckle. I believe it was an experienced climber who failed to run the waist strap back through the buckle fell on a climb and was injured and sued Chouinard for insufficient labeling and/or instructions and won.

I remember watching Cliffhanger when it released in a theater in Boulder. The audience was straight out of Mystery Science Theater. It fell just short of real tomatoes being thrown at the screen...

Like others have said, I'm aware of all the Choinard/BD stuff that is completely unrelated to legal actions by BD against the production company.
Shawn, that's the story I've heard about suing them and getting logos removed, as well as adding the preemptive note at the beginning of the film which states the equipment was modified to fail. But like you said, I'm curious as to whether it was the result of injunctive relief or mere settlement.
Surprisingly, a court ordered injunction would be contrary to other jurisprudence. A slide company (or something like that) sued a David Spade film when he fell off and hurt himself in the movie. They lost, because consumers were not expected to presume the same level of product placement integration as with television and they know its just a movie yada yada yada...

Btw, I've read the Chouinard case opinion before. It was a Washington policeman doing training on rappelling from a helicopter. He failed to double back his harness and took a little tumble.

OMG WTF FWIW from IMDB (no mention of the specific lawsuit, though there was a $750k settlement for writers claiming it was their story):

The credits include a message which explains that the Black Diamond harness used in the opening scene was specially modified so that it would fail.

An avid golfer, Sylvester Stallone found that climbing roughed up his hands and consequently messed up his game. He had a net on the set for practice. The models he was dating complained about his rough hands.

In the opening scene where Sarah slips from Gabe's hand had to be done several times because Sarah's glove would not slip off as desired. In order to get it to slide off, director Renny Harlin had her wear a glove that was a couple of sizes too big and filled the glove with Vaseline and even then Sylvester Stallone's grip was too tight and the glove almost stayed on.

During one climbing-scene director Renny Harlin complained that the safety-lines were visible, so the stuntman performed the climbing without any safety-lines.

The teddy bear that falls off the cliff in the opening scene was not scripted but was added at the last minute. Renny Harlin liked the bear so much he bought it so that the audience would have a clear idea of what would happen and how horrific the fall was.

Budget $65M
Gross US $84M, Worldwide Total $255M



Always remember your bolt gun when climbing alone!

I'm pretty sure it was Jim Carrey, not Sly. And he dropped a raccoon, not some chick. The Horror.....

I don't know about a Washington police officer getting the chop but I do know that the accident in question was in the Tetons and did involve Exum.

Did that gal BASE the tyrol stunt?

Andy Kowles wrote: Of course you will all agree that Dr. Jonathan Hemlock would never have dropped the poor woman and her teddy. Then he would have scowled John Lithgow to death.

LOL. Hemlock and the woman never would have been on the climb. He either would have repelled her with some misogynistic utterance, or, they would have slept in en flagrante delictu the morning of the climb.

Snark Melon wrote:(no mention of the specific lawsuit, though there was a $750k settlement for writers claiming it was their story)

Yeah, I remember that, too. The plaintiffs also won a credit that said the story was "Based on a Premise by..." Wait...was it John Long? Yes, I think it was. Long sued claiming the movie paralleled a story he wrote. Right? Or am I hallucinating?

It was based on Long's "Angels of Light" which is about the plane that crashed in the Yosemite high country that was loaded with pot. That story is worthy of a thread in and of itself. Anyhow they replaced dope with money and dirtbag Camp Four climbers with a hero ranger. I worked on a very very early version of the script. It was my first job in the industry.

Is Mountain Project cool or what?