Danger. Perseverance. Nature. These are the themes that are immediately associated with the mountains. Many films have been made about the heroic and often tragic stories of real-life mountain climbers (think 127 Hours), some of them documentaries, others feature films. But this is not a compilation of melodramas. This is a collection of the other kind of mountain films, those which purely entertain, sometimes in a nail-biting way, often funny and in some cases historical and educational.

“I get vertigo in my cowboy boots!” exclaimed Sylvester Stallone. He found out about this affliction while shooting Cliffhanger and hanging off one of the most dangerous peaks in the Dolomites. Even though Cliffhanger (1993) takes place in Colorado – a bunch of good and bad guys run after suitcases full of money from a botched midair heist – none of that state’s mountains are as breathtaking as those of the Italian Alps, so most of the footage was shot high above Cortina d’Ampezzo. One of the main reasons being the fact that the area contains numerous “vie ferrate” – secured climbing trails, which basically means that there are steel ropes and ladders fastened to the vertical rocks. And who could have resisted that wonderfully scary looking hanging bridge on the Tofana? Certainly not director Renny Harlin, who sent the bad guys chasing after Sly across it.

For another nailbiter, look no further than to action director Martin Campbell’s Vertical Limit (2000), in which a climber tries to rescue his sister from K2, one of the world’s most dangerous mountains. Robin Tunney, Chris O’Donnell, Bill Paxton and Scott Glenn star in this one.

Mountain movies were attractive to filmmakers even before the invention of technicolor. For obvious reasons – geography! – many were made in countries like Switzerland, Austria, Italy and any Asian country with a mountainous terrain. Hollywood often picked up on stories about mountains that put together characters of different nationalities. In The White Tower (1950), Claude Rains, Glenn Ford and Alida Valli (a Hollywood import from the South Tyrolean Dolomites) reveal their innermost selves while trying to be the first ones to reach the top of a “virgin” mountain, as previously unclimbed peaks are called.

Where Eagles Dare (1968) has it all: bravery, charm, friendship and, of course, action. Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton star in this very entertaining World War II film, in which the two play allied spies on a rescue mission that turns out to be much more than just that.

Jean-Jacques Annaud’s Seven Years in Tibet is a film based on a true story, that ended, not in tragedy but in a lifelong friendship: Austrian mountain climber Heinrich Harrer became besties with the Dalai Lama just as China was annexing the country and he had to flee through the mountains. Brad Pitt as Harrer is as easy on the eyes as is the Nanga Parbat in the Himalayans.

We would be remiss not to include Stanley Kubrick’s horror classic The Shining, based on the Stephen King novel. Even though no one actually climbs mountains in the film, the atmosphere is that of the kind of isolation and helplessness only found in this treacherous terrain, in which a father, played by Jack Nicholson, is out for the kill in an abandoned hotel in the Colorado Rockies, driven by a sinister presence no one can explain. Shelley Duvall plays his terrified wife.

Many Bond films had memorable mountain scenes, but none stands out as much those in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), in which one-time Bond actor George Lazenby impersonates a noble Scotsman, Sir Hilary Bray, in order to gain access to Blofeld’s Swiss fierce mountain compound. In this film, Blofeld is played by Telly Savalas. In one scene in which a baddie chasing Bond on skis runs into a snow blower which then spews blood mixed with snow, 007 quips: “He had a lot of guts,” proving that the campy one-liner was invented way before The Terminator uttered “I’ll be back.”

Speaking of ski scenes: some very entertaining films can be found in this sub-genre of mountain movies. Take Eddie The Eagle (2016), a charming and heart-warming sports drama about Eddie Edwards (Taron Egerton), who is so passionate about skiing that he will do anything to get onto Britain’s Olympic team. Hugh Jackman co-stars.

Downhill is the remake of the hugely successful Swedish comedy Force Majeure about a family on vacation in the French Alps, trapped by an avalanche. In the US version, the Alps are Austrian, the family American, the avalanche got more help from special effects and the dialogue… well, let’s just say European audiences liked the original more. Nevertheless, fans of Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Will Ferrell enjoyed the characters’ banter, and Austrians especially enjoyed the familiar scenery of Ischgl, the famous ski town where the film was shot.

Not to be confused with the above mentioned 2020 film, Downhill Racer (1969) was made before Robert Redford became a superstar, affording him the luxury of playing an unlikeable, albeit highly charming, character in this film about a skier who will do anything to win. That he hooks up with a spoiled European woman adds sizzle to the ice. Gene Hackman co-stars, and the breathtaking backdrop of the mountains is almost a character in itself. No wonder – the film was shot in eight different ski resorts in four different countries: Wengen and Unterseen in Switzerland, Kitzbühel and Sankt Anton am Arlberg in Austria, Megève and Grenoble in France, and Boulder and Idaho Springs in Colorado.