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| “ | Kill a few people, they call you a murderer. Kill a million, and you're a conqueror. Go figure. | „ |
| ~ Qualen explaining his philosophy. |
| “ | Qualen: Do you know what real love is, Kristel? Kristel: No. Qualen: Sacrifice... |
„ |
| ~ Qualen before killing his girlfriend. |
| “ | Qualen: I must say, you're a real piece of work. Walker: I must say, you're a real piece of shit. |
„ |
| ~ Gabe insulting Qualen during an exchange. |
Eric Qualen is the main antagonist in the 1993 action-thriller film Cliffhanger and the arch-nemesis of Gabe Walker. A former intelligence officer turned criminal mastermind, Qualen is a sadistic and psychopathic terrorist who is perfectly willing to kill innocent people and his own accomplices to achieve his own ends. For his actions and personality in general, he is considered by far the darkest and vilest out of all the antagonists in the film.
He was portrayed by John Lithgow, who also played Burke in Blow Out, B.Z. in Santa Claus: The Movie, Lord John Whorfin in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, Glenn Motch in The Campaign, Carter Nix and Carter Nix, Sr. in Raising Cain, Earl Talbot Blake in Ricochet, Arthur Mitchell in Dexter, Jean-Clause in Rugrats in Paris, Lord Farquaad in Shrek, and Lamar Blackburn in The Accountant.
Biography[]
Qualen holding his Desert Eagle on Hal.
Before the film's events, Qualen was a British military intelligence officer who decided to become an international thief instead, hijacking diamonds in South Africa, and committing multiple acts of industrial espionage. In the film, Qualens leads a highly skilled band of international thieves who intend to steal $100 million dollars in uncirculated $1,000 bills, initially printed for international banking transactions, from a US Treasury transport plane flying over the isolated Rocky Mountains during a midair heist.
Qualen succeeds in destroying the Treasury plane, but the three cases full of the currency are lost in the mountains and their own plane crashes. However, there are tracking devices in the cases, but because they need expert help locating them in the mountainous terrain, Qualen has his pilot and partner, Kristel call for a rescue helicopter, so they can hijack it, use its mountain ranger to find the money, and get out of the mountains.
Because it is too windy for helicopters to fly, Rocky Mountain Rescue is forced to send troubled Gabe Walker and his disgruntled former friend Hal Tucker into the mountains on foot to escort them out of the mountains, only to be captured by the terrorists, who demand the whereabouts of the helicopter. After using the tracking device to locate the first of the three cases, Qualen takes off Gabe's coat to make sure he comes back to the group. He is tethered to a rope and ordered to scale a steep wall in order to retrieve it. Knowing that he will be killed once Qualen gets his way, Gabe frees himself from the rope, and the terrorists react by firing up the mountain, causing a landslide which takes one of Qualen's thugs, Heldon. Qualen presumes Gabe dead and orders the group to proceed to the second case.
Gabe finds the case before the terrorist group, takes every bill except for one, on which he wrote "Want to trade?" An infuriated Qualen demands the group to split up and find Gab who uses his environment to his advantage and kills the mercenary, Ryan, and burns the money to keep warm when he is safe to.
Hal encounters two adolescent friends of his and warns them, but Qualen orders one of his mercenaries, Kynette, to kill them. He kills one with his MAC-10 submachine gun, but the other gets away by parachuting off a cliff with injuries. While Gabe is busy fighting Kynette in a cave below the terrorists, Qualen plants C4 explosives directly above him. Gabe uses one of the cave's stalagmites to impale Kynette, and Hal manages to break away from the terrorists and uses a radio to alert Gabe of the C4.
Qualen threatening a terrified Kristel moments before killing her.
By now, the winds have died down enough for a rescue helicopter pilot to fly into the mountains. Having not received any response from Gabe or Hal, Rocky Mountain Rescue alerts the authorities. Krystal flags down the rescue helicopter and pulls a gun on the pilot but is stunned when fellow mercenary Delmar shoots and kills the pilot against Qualen's orders. This causes Richard Travers, a turncoat U.S. Treasury agent, to brandish a firearm on Qualen, telling everyone that he is now in charge.
Qualen, held at gunpoint, sneakily and calmly draws his Desert Eagle and holds it to Kristel's back, and shoots her dead. Now Qualen is the only one who can fly them off the mountains as he just murdered the only other pilot. Qualen tells Travers, Hal, and the last remaining mercenary, Delmar, to track down the third and final case while he goes off in the rescue helicopter. When they are nearing it, Delmar and Travers attempt to exterminate Hal when he has served his purpose for the terrorists, but instead are killed off by Gabe and Hal. Afterwards, Gabe's love interest Jessie signals the helicopter - only to discover that Qualen is the pilot.
Death[]
| “ | Meet me at the highest point from where you are. If you don't, we're going to find out if this little angel of yours can fly. | „ |
| ~ Qualen as he threatens Gabe and preapres to escape. |
Communicating by radio, Qualen and Gabe make a deal to exchange Jessie for the money Gabe collected from the third case. Qualen releases Jessie, but Gabe double crosses Qualen by throwing the bag of money into the helicopter's rotors, destroying it. Now enraged after seeing the shredded money, Qualen chases Gabe across the mountaintop in an attempt to kill him with the helicopter, only managing to survive by jumping off the mountaintop and grabbing onto an old steel ladder bolted into the rocks. Gabe had taken the helicopter's tow line and attached it to the ladder so it cannot get away, and Hal uses a shotgun to destroy the helicopter's rotors.
The helicopter falls until the helicopter's cable stretches itself out to its full length. Gabe and Qualen fight atop the dangling wreckage. When he sees the helicopter's tow cable beginning to give away under the intense weight of the aircraft, Gabe finally kicks a bloodied Qualen back into the helicopter as he jumps off to the cliff as it breaks free from its moorings falling to the rocks thousands of feet below. Now trapped in the falling wreckage, Qualen screams in horror as the wreckage plummets into a gigantic explosion.
Personality[]
Qualen was an extremely ruthless, manipulative, disrespectful, callous, psychotic, rude, manipulative, sadistic, unsympathetic, devious, and selfish terrorist with a complete and total disregard and contempt for the wellbeing of other people apart from himself. Qualen is also a charismatic and sophisticated yet somewhat arrogant individual who possesses a number of resourceful skills and applicable expertise.
Although little background information is given about Qualen's life prior to the events of the film, it is stated that he betrayed the British government and his former decorated career in espionage and counterespionage in favour of becoming one of the Western world's most wanted terrorists and using his extensive training in martial arts, explosives, special-weapons and tactics to orchestrate various global criminal and terrorist acts. Because of his background, Qualen was greatly deceitful and manipulative, capable of using charm, threats, fibs, bargains, or intimidation when he so desired.
Not only does Qualen show no remorse for his actions, but he enjoyed them immensely; for example, on two separate occasions in the film when one of his henchman murdered innocent bystanders, rather than feeling remorse or regret for what they had done and for not having done anything to stop them, Qualen instead only took delight in the carnage and reacted apathetically and mockingly to his hostage Tucker's distress.
Qualen never felt any genuine love for anyone, even for his closest acquaintances; for instance, when Travers confronted Qualen and held him at gunpoint due to his consistent bullying and condescension, Qualen used his lover Kristel as a human body-shield before threatening and terrifying her moments before shooting and killing her in order to regain control and power. Qualen also treated both his accomplices and people in general horribly especially towards his hostage, Hal, because he would psychologically and physically abuse him on many occasions.
It is strongly implied that if the events in the film had not taken place, then Qualen would have likely double-crossed his associates had the heist gone according to plan in order to keep the majority of the stolen cash to himself. Qualen had a ridiculously excessive sense of self-worth, as he felt that he was entitled to everything he wanted just because he wanted it, with no rational reasoning. Qualen was also simply put, more vicious than all of his minions combined because even though they were all dangerous in their own rights, they were deathly afraid of him and tried to get on his good side.
Henchmen[]
- Main article: Eric Qualen's Crew
| “ | I never underestimate the power of loyalty, when it comes naturally. Not like the kind that has to be paid for. | „ |
| ~ Qualen acknowledging how treacherous his henchmen could be. |
- Delmar
- Richard Travers
- Kynette
- Kristel
- Ryan
- Heldon
- Ray
- Mike
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Christopher Walken was originally cast as Qualen, but left the production before filming began, so Lithgow was cast.
- In the original script, Qualen was an ex-East German military intelligence member, however, in the film, he is instead implied to be a former member of either MI-5 or the Secret Intelligence Service.