Drop Zone (1994)

Director:

John Badham

Writers (WGA):

Tony Griffin (story) &
Guy Manos (story) ...

Release Date:

9 December 1994 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Thriller

Tagline:

Taking crime to new heights

Plot:

A team of skydiving crooks led by DEA-agent-turned-bad Busey specialize in landing on police roofs and...

Plot Keywords:

Dea | Parachute | Skydiving | Plane | Washington D.C.

Cast

Wesley Snipes	...	Pete Nessip
Gary Busey	...	Ty Moncrief
Yancy Butler	...	Jessie Crossman
Michael Jeter	...	Earl Leedy
Corin Nemec	...	Selkirk
Kyle Secor	...	Swoop
Luca Bercovici	...	Jagger
Malcolm-Jamal Warner	...	Terry Nessip
Rex Linn	...	Bobby
Grace Zabriskie	...	Winona
Robert LaSardo	...	Deputy Dog
Sam Hennings	...	Torski
Claire Stansfield	...	Kara
Mickey Jones	...	Deuce
Andy Romano	...	Tom McCracken

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:M | Iceland:16 | Philippines:PG-13 | Argentina:13 | Peru:14 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (Manitoba) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | France:U | Finland:K-16 | Germany:16 (w) | Netherlands:16 | Norway:15 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 (cut) | USA:R (certificate #32964) | South Korea:15 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Florida, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

The character of Jess Crossman was originally written as a man. After the character was made a woman and Yancy Butler was cast in the role, the filmmakers wanted to remove the part where Nessip hits her after she drops him out of the plane. However, Butler insisted that the "hitting" scene be left in, and it was.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: Right before the DC qualifying jump begins, a camera operator can be seen filming the crowd underneath the canopy. Although one could argue that he might just be filming for a news crew or making a documentary about the jump, the Panavision film camera he's clearly using is not suited for that sort of work.

Quotes:

[after learning the identities of three undercover DEA agents]
Ty Moncrief: These narcs are walking around somewhere thinking they're alive!
[laughs]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Naked Fear (1999)

Soundtrack:

The Strangest Party

Solid action movie without too many frills

Pete Nessip and his brother are escorting a federal prisoner to trail. The prisoner is a top code breaker. On the plane terrorists take over, kidnap the prisoner and sky dive out of the plane – Nessip's brother is killed in the raid. Nessip pursues the gang to uncover what really happened, joined a group of skydivers led by Jessie Crossman. Meanwhile Moncrief is working out his plot to secretly uncover the identities of all DEA agents and sell them to a local drug lord.

After the disaster of Passenger 57 you could understand if Snipes had passed on any more airplane related movies, but this is much better than 57 was. The story is daft of course, but it does allow plenty of good aerial photography and some good action scenes. However it takes itself a bit too seriously. It came out in the same year as Terminal Velocity (Charlie Sheen's skydiving movie), where TV was much more fun to watch as it never took itself seriously, Drop Zone loses the fun a bit by taking it all as a serious movie.

Despite that Snipes is really good – as in 57 he is able to rise above the material and give a strong central performance. His charisma carries him even when his lines are weak and as usual his fight scenes are impressive. Busey does his usual bad guy stuff easily and is so-so and the rest of the cast are ok. The most interesting thing about the cast for me was the `Homicide, Life on the Street' connection that saw tow great actors from that cast in small roles here, namely Kyle Secor (who played Bayliss) and Clark Johnson (who played Lewis).

Overall this is a solid action film. It's nothing special and not overly impressive but it passes 90 minutes without leaving any negative (or positive) marks!