Drop Zone (1994)

Starring: Wesley Snipes, Gary Busey, Yancy Butler, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, and Michael Jeter
Grade: C+

It’s crazy how few skydiving movies exist, but somehow in 1994, we got this film and Terminal Velocity. What are the chances of that?

Summary

In a Florida prison, Earl Leedy (Jeter) feeds some stray cats in the yard until another prisoner tries to stab him. Just before it looked like it was over for Leedy, the guy is beaten down by a guard.

U.S. Marshal Pete Jessip (Snipes) and his partner and brother Terry (Warner) drive and talk about relationships, with Terry noting how Pete usually sticks to short-term girls who are unexciting. Pete prefers them to be quiet and even dull, criticizing Terry for setting him up recently with some “Mongolian feminist”. Because of Terry’s pestering, Pete assumes Terry has another girl to set him up with on advice from Terry’s wife. Terry confirms it, as he comments about a girl named “Shanandra” for him. Pete isn’t too interested simply because of the name alone. The two get through the gate and meet with Gordon Maples (Tim Powell) of the US Attorney’s Office. Reminding them when the DEA started electronically confiscating drug money from all the banks, Gordon talks about how Leedy was the computer whizz for the Chang Triad. Leedy figured out a way to hide their money, so the authorities couldn’t find it. Apparently, Leedy breaks codes that can’t be broken. The only reason he got caught was his own ego, as he felt unappreciated. Gordon cut Leedy a deal to testify, and Gordon kept him out of sight for a year and a half. Two weeks before trial however, they found him. Gordon needs Pete and Terry to take Leedy to the penitentiary in Atlanta to keep him alive long enough to testify. They take Leedy on the plane and store his pet cats below. Terry sits next to Leedy while Pete is in another aisle. Hearing Leedy complain about the cats’ welfare to Terry, Pete lets a random guy take the aisle just so he is further away from the two. Also on this plane is Ty Moncrief (Busey). He tells the flight attendant he’s afraid of flying and would like some water to take a doctor-prescribed sedative. During the overnight flight, the flight attendant offers Pete some wine, but he jokes that he only has it by candlelight. She says she can help with that and invites him to the front of the plane, surprising him and Terry. In reality, she’s only inviting him back because the pilots wanted to speak with him.

They show Pete a message that says they are about to be taken over by “Posse Commitus”, to “stay on your flight plan and no one will be hurt”, and they will be given further instruction in five minutes.

Just then, Ty and his group put on masks and hijack the plane, even shooting a flight attendant for trying to use the phone. Ty shoots the man next to Terry, and he shoots Terry once he tries to pull out his gun. Ty snatches Leedy and brings him to the others. As Pete pops out of the cockpit, Ty tries to make a little speech to the passengers while one of the hijackers bites off one of Leedy’s fingers. The wounded Terry shoots Ty in the back a couple of times and he falls on the ground. Ty gets up to kill him, but Pete sprints over and tackles Ty, prompting Ty to ask for help just as the rest of the group blows off the door. Several passengers fly to their deaths out of the opening, and Ty and his group escape. Terry is able to save some young girl from flying out of the plane, but the force pushes him nearly out the side. Pete is able to grab onto Terry, but it’s not enough. Terry’s sleeve rips and Pete’s grip loosens. Terry flies out of the plane and to his death. Afterwards, FBI Agent Glenn Blackstone (Charles Boswell) and Bob Convington (Clark Johnson) meet with US Marshal Tom McCracken (Andy Romano) who is asking where Pete is at, so they point him in Pete’s direction. McCracken talks to the shell-shocked Pete, and Pete gives him all the devastating details on what happened. Taking a look at the records on the computer, Blackstone has the person take a look at the passenger list and the seating assignment to try and figure out who hijacked the plane. A virus overtakes both computers as they search, and Pete knows it’s Leedy doing it. He sees the whole thing as a setup, a prison break from the plane. He remembers how the man he tackled, Ty, had padding on his back, so it means it could have been a parachute that allowed him to escape. Blackstone doesn’t buy it because nobody saw a parachute, but Pete argues that everyone had their heads down and the plane was filled with smoke. Blackstone argues that the passengers did see Terry fire at a man wearing explosives. Pete says this is a lie and wants an investigation.

Covington chimes in to say that two hours after the explosion, an airline maintenance man was gunned down at the Miami Airport running away from MPD detectives. Blackstone adds that in that man’s apartment, they found Posse Commitus literature and homemade C4 explosives. The maintenance man put the explosives on board. Apparently, Det. Fox (Ed Amatrudo) of Miami PD recognized the man from the preflight inspection. Covington tells Pete they feel bad about what happened to Terry, but the fact is that he open fired, panicked, and now 14 people are dead. Just then, they get a call about the remains of one person being a positive ID match with Leedy. On the news, Convington talks to the press about everything being figured out for the most part regarding the hijacking. A reporter asks if it was true that a marshal set of an explosion, but Covington just says they are investigating it. At Ty’s secluded house, he shows up in a boat with the crew of hijackers to meet another one of his crew guys in the house in Deuce (Mickey Jones). Deuce can’t wait to tell them how the authorities bought their setup. The wounded Leedy is brought off the boat, but he’s still complaining about his bitten-off finger. Ty slaps Leedy and thinks he should be thanked for getting him off the plane. Leedy wonders how he’s supposed to do his computer hacking, but Ty points out how he has already crashed the entire airline computer system with one hand. They are interrupted by Deuce showing them the news report about how Terry is being blamed for setting off the explosion when he was attempting to shoot the hijacker in Ty. They also believe Leedy is dead, so Leedy asks if he’s free. Ty denies this, as Leedy is now working for him, though he will make it worth his while. Leedy points out how the other marshal is still alive, but Ty says he shot him dead. Leedy says he was in the bathroom, but Ty promises that he saw nothing because of all the smoke. He does get mad at the girl who saw Jagger’s (Luca Bercovici) face though, and he tells Jagger to throw her out the door next time.

McCracken goes to see Pete in his home, and Pete invites him in to show him what he’s found so far. He’s nailed it down to a 2 square mile radius where the hijackers could have landed. McCracken points out the bodies they have, but Pete counters with the fact that the bodies that are burned beyond recognition are that of Leedy and the terrorists. This is no coincidence, though McCracken still doesn’t think anyone could jump from a 747 at that altitude and speed and live. Pete has information about a SEAL time that jumped out of a 727 3 years ago and is adamant about this being a setup. He just has to figure out how Leedy fits into all of this. McCracken changes the subject to say the board of review is looking at this case in two weeks to determine Pete and Terry’s responsibility of the accident. Since the FAA and the airlines are dealing with hell from the media, nobody wants to hear about his skydiving theories. They just want someone to blame for what happened, and they are looking in Pete and Terry’s direction. With this, McCracken is forced to suspend Pete and Pete is forced to give up his badge and gun. Pete doesn’t care though. He’s not done with his investigation. Sometime after, he meets with a military officer who led the SEAL team on a 727. It can be done, but the drill he took his team on were at 20,000 feet and there were no explosions. He doubts someone could pull off a jump from a 747 at 38,000 feet. He brings over a petty officer to point out certain details to Pete. He shows Pete the high-density metal “D” ring on his uniform. The hijackers may have stashed a few guns behind a seat, but not five parachute rings, as five rings going through x-rays and metal detectors would set off the whole airport. It is possible if you have the equipment, but you have to be either skilled or “dick brained”, according to the officer. When referring to skill, he is talking about Don Jagger, a world champion skydiver. The “dick brained” one is his old partner Jess Crossman (Butler). They don’t jump together anymore, but Jess lives close to the base they are at. With this, Pete goes to the Crossman Skydiving School to meet Jess.

He asks mechanic Selly (Corin Nemec), who points Pete into the building behind him. Pete goes inside. While he waits, he finds a framed picture of Jagger, so he steals it. Pete peaks outside and sees Winona (Grace Zabriskie) land a pink plane that is in shambles. She flips out on Selly for the shape the plane is in and forces him to take a look at it again. Jess shows up, and she can tell Pete is in law enforcement immediately, adding how she hates cops. After Pete points out how Jess only hates them because she breaks the law so often, she admits she went out of state without calling her parole office but argues it was an emergency. He explains he’s not here for that but rather the big fiasco on the 747, which she’s aware of because its major news. He suggests it wasn’t a screwup but rather a setup to steal a prisoner he was escorting, and she says it’s a cool idea. Pete tells Jess she’s not a suspect because he checked and she was with her parole officer, but she was being asked because her skills were noted when Pete asked around, which she correctly guesses. She makes light of someone trying to pull a “John Wayne” on the flight referring to Terry, so Pete is quick to stop this and tell her that’s not what happened and that person was his brother. He still wants to know details about the possibility of the jump, but she has to go to work and is losing money if she wastes time. With this, she invites him on the plane, so he comes with. As they walk to Winona’s plane, he questions why he has to wear the uniform if he doesn’t have a parachute. Jess says, “It’s my drop zone. It’s my rules”. She messes with him by asking if he’s scared, but he assures Jess he’s not and gets on the plane. Jess and Winona glance at each other with a sly look. When it’s time to jump, Jess coaches a couple of guys on when to jump and they do so. Pete isn’t too impressed, but he doesn’t realize that it’s a partial lesson for him too. Jess points out how the way the wind forces the body open at only 80 knots. A 747 at 500 knots could rip a jumper clean apart. That is where the skill comes in. Pete still makes fun of her for being such an expert but working in a shithole, so Jess pushes a lever that opens a trap door under Pete. He free falls out of the plane, and Jess waits a second before chasing after him.

She catches him in the air and parachutes the both of them to safety directly into the body of water below. On the shore, Pete punches her in the face and drops her. She just laughs. In the parking lot, Winona and Selly are riding together, and Winona tries to apologize to Pete, though he doesn’t want to hear it. He just wants to know where he can find Jagger. Selly says his best bet is Ocean Reef because there’s a big jump there this weekend. Winona adds how skydivers are a tough group and he could run into issues breaking in by himself. Pete doesn’t care. Selly apologizes on Jess’s behalf because she’s been touchy ever since Jagger went south on her. Apparently, Jagger argued that he got conned into doing some “drug jumps” and did time. Jess did too. They never patched things up, and she’s still bothered by it because she’s loyal to a fault. Back at Ty’s house, his group watches and waits for Jagger and Leedy. Leedy is attached to Jagger, and the two skydive to Ty’s place to prepare for their upcoming mission. The test is to go from the jump straight to the computer, so they are trying to get Leedy accustomed to the timing of it all. Jagger and Leedy land and run inside, but Leedy is too mentally shaken from the jump and can’t get his mind right to jump onto the computer. Since they only have seconds to pull off such a mission, Ty is frustrated with the progress and demands Jagger take Leedy up to jump again until he gets it down. After they leave, Ty takes a look at a 3D model of the structure they are going to bust into on his computer and is convinced they are going to pull it off. Elsewhere, Pete meets with Joy Willins (Melanie Mayron). She was on the 747 plane with her daughter Lena (Natalie Jordan). Pete gives Lena a stuffed animal to replace the one she lost on the plane and uses it as a segue to talk about if she remembers him from the plane. He tries to get her to remember how she bumped into him on the plane and mentions other vague details, but she says she fell asleep and woke up when they landed, which is a total lie. Pete pulls up some photographs and mentions further details and it’s obvious she recollects some of it. Asking if she remembers one of the men, she does remember pulling off the mask of Jagger momentarily and seeing him because she gestures that she saw a scar on his face.

Hearing this, Pete pulls out a picture of Jagger and asks if this was the guy she saw. Lena gets emotional and hugs her mother Joy. Joy gets upset and calls the Miami PD detectives who were outside to come get Pete. Despite the abrupt end, Pete essentially got his answer that Jagger was involved. Det. Fox calls Ty concerning the plane accident Ty and reveals to him that the other marshal that was there acquired new information. He’s speaking of Pete and how he got Lena to partially ID one of the hijackers because of his scar. A frustrated Ty knows Fox is talking about Jagger and hangs up.

Ty joins his crew for a test jump. They all parachute out of the plane, but Ty takes his over to Jagger’s and uses his legs to guide Jagger’s parachute into an electrical power plant. Jagger smashes up against it, is electrocuted, and dies instantly. Now, Ty has reduced his group to four strong. At night, Pete goes to a bar and sits at a table by himself. A group of regulars and skydivers are bothered by Pete sitting at their table, and they try to attack him. Pete takes most of them out until Jess gets in-between to stop them, giving Pete and the other guy, Bob, a beer. Jess sits down with Pete to talk. Pete wants to get to Jagger, but she wants to go to this big exhibition jump in Washington DC next weekend but her parole officer won’t let her. If Pete wants to learn anything further, Jess knows he has to hang out with the best in skydiving. He’s just sticking out too much because his inexperience shows. He agrees to talk with her parole officer if she can get him with this skydiving crew. Just then, the whole bar does a traditional toast for a fallen skydiver. It’s something they do every hour for a recently passed skydiver who crash-landed. Selly reveals it was Jagger. They found him with cocaine when he was hung up in the powerlines. Jess is distraught and almost leaves but turns back to Pete. If he wants her help, she wants a payment of $15,000 for herself and the airplane. She doesn’t see the big deal because it’s the government’s money, but he reveals he doesn’t work for the government anymore. Regardless, an emotional Jess goes outside of the bar to sob to herself over Jagger’s death. Ty meets with some other criminal associates and they are interested in his deal, but they are concerned with the fact that Ty used to be a DEA agent. Even so, Ty knows it’s not that much of a concern because they wouldn’t be meeting with him otherwise. He’s confident in what he offers and is willing to prove it by doing it one time for free. Then, they’ll meet again and he’s sure their boss will bring his wallet, payment in full.

That night, Ty and his group, along with Leedy, skydive to the top of a high-rise and break-in dressed as cops. They kill some guards, and Ty gets Leedy into a computer room to hack files. They have two minutes. As this happens, the other two steal money from a vault. A guard goes into the elevator to run stuff to the evidence locker, and Torski (Sam Hennings) spots the woman and notifies Ty through his earpiece. Leedy is able to transfer money into the groups’ accounts, and Ty rushes them out the door. Before Ty exits, he leaves a crumbled up piece of paper on the desk. The woman goes into the evidence room and finds the body of a guard. At the same time, Ty and his group skydive into a truck drove by Deuce and escape. The next morning, Ty and Torski watch the news report of the theft on TV and see how they talk about the criminals escaping with $50,000 worth of drugs. Since access to the areas they got into could only be accessed by station personnel, Internal Affairs is launching an investigation within, clearing them of wrongdoing. Leedy interrupts to print off IDs for deceased Miami undercover agents. He gives them to Fox in an envelope, and Fox hands Ty an envelope and leaves. Leedy asks if he’s done, but it’s not over yet with Ty. Once Leedy confirms the picture of Pete being the other marshal on the plane, he gets mad because Ty was supposed to take care of it. Leedy know Ty killed Pete’s brother, but Ty insists he doesn’t need to worry about it. Meanwhile, Pete meets with Jess at a drop zone in Key Largo, Florida. He hands her the cash payment. It’s time to get to work. The only way to do that is for Pete to begin training and get in with the skydivers, as it will lead to figuring out who Ty and his group are.

My Thoughts:

Though it goes without saying, Hollywood needs to make more skydiving movies. Due to the rarity of the premise in consideration with general cinematic history, Drop Zone succeeds at giving audiences exciting action in the sky to entertain fans of action cinema, Wesley Snipes, and those who are enthralled with stunt work in film. For these reasons alone, Drop Zone is worth the watch in terms of passable entertainment, especially during a decade where any action movie with some sort of variety in its story sparked viewing interest. Really, in a sea of run-of-the-mill thrillers, this one does stand out. Without the skydiving backdrop, it’s your typical action movie from the 90s with nothing holding it up other than star power, some decent chemistry between the protagonist and the others to magnify the fish-out-of-water setup, and Gary Busey just being himself. However, with the skydiving, it makes what could be an average movie a lot of fun. If you don’t count Point Break since it was arguably more about surfing, John Badham’s film might be the best movie centered around skydiving ever made, though it should be noted how there aren’t many features that fit into this category to begin with.

Those who are intrigued with skydiving, whether it be legitimately or have had passing thoughts about it because of the excitement surrounding the concept, will enjoy a lot of Drop Zone. Everything about the movie can be criticized in one way or another, but the selling point of introducing the sport to mainstream audiences, the details involved in the process of it, and how wonderful some of the sequences are shot that put the viewer right in the midst of the action are fantastically done, especially for the time period. Even if certain elements surrounding the story or the characters aren’t as great in comparison, the skydiving stunt work and parachuting action are done well enough to carry the movie to the finish line. A great example of this was the night skydiving with the light-up suits in Washington D.C. during the July 4th fireworks display. That looked like so much fun! At the same time, the little insights given by Jess, Scoop, and the other skydiving characters who live and breathe the sport are insightful and cool. They present enough to make even the most novice of people understand how there is much more to it than just diving out of a plane and pulling a latch. Small but crucial scenes like Jess investigating Jagger’s parachuting equipment and explaining how “when a skydiver burns in, the cops bring the rig to a safety officer for inspection”, how there was nothing wrong with Jagger’s stuff to indicate he could screw up and float into a bunch of powerlines, and how his chute had a smuggler’s rig (“Drug runners custom make them and have high density fabric to escape radar”), which doesn’t have metal and would pass through airport security, are all explained thoroughly without losing the viewer and lets inexperienced audiences in on all the intricacies involved and how these characters reach the conclusions they do. Wesley Snipes plays the role of U.S. Marshal Pete Jessip, essentially a stand-in for said novice viewer with passive interest over the subject who doesn’t think skydiving is all that serious.

With Snipes’s wit, attitude, and charisma, he finds a good way to balance the role of serious government official trying to clear his deceased brother of wrongdoing, cocky amateur who doesn’t want to show his lack of knowledge or experience in the sport and attempts to overcompensate, and eventual team member who wins over the others through trust and dedication. Truth be told, Snipes’s run in the 90s was underrated. He was a star, and he always attracted interest in any project he attached his name to. Action movie fans are well aware of this, as he was one of the best action heroes of the decade. Though Drop Zone might not be as good as Demolition Man, Passenger 57, Boiling Point, Rising Sun or others, it fits seamlessly with them when discussing or viewing the prime of the movie star’s career. If you were on a Wesley Snipes binge marathon, Drop Zone would be much more appreciated when watched alongside the others in comparison.

At this point in the 1990s, all you need is Wesley Snipes, and there’s a lot of people who will want to watch it. He doesn’t disappoint either, as he’s easily the shining light of the movie. Along with his trademark fashion sense, Snipes kicks ass, is serious when he needs to be, and is quite amusing in some of the light-hearted scenes where he’s mixing in with the skydivers or goes through training. Because of the film’s fun-loving energy throughout during the amusing training montages, where Snipes excels at since he doesn’t mind being the butt of the joke and has quite a few moments where he crashes and burns, along with some well placed humor (“Are you dating that Mongolian feminist again?”), I cannot see how Steven Seagal was the original choice to star in this film. He takes himself way too seriously. There’s no way the original screenplay looked the same when he was attached to star. Seagal acting like he has no experience in skydiving and having to work his way up and getting some laughs along the way is inconceivable when taking into account the man’s real personality. It’s hard not to have fun in a skydiving movie, so inserting Steven Seagal into it would not mesh. Watching him kick Gary Busey’s ass again post-Under Siege would be funny though.

The dynamic between Pete Jessip and Yancy Butler’s Jess was also a compelling one, mostly due to how different Jess is compared to most female co-stars of this era of action movies. She’s no damsel in distress and isn’t even a love interest. These were two easy outs the screenwriters could have taken and no one would have batted an eye, but they make Jess Crossman a female character with unexpected depth. She’s tough but doesn’t overcompensate, she’s a “wild child” who has run-ins with the law but loves what she does too much to back down to authority of any kind, and her tendency to be loyal to a fault is a strong quality to have. It’s not that she was dating Jagger beforehand, at least not officially. However, they were close friends, they loved skydiving, and they got into some bad situations that led them both to prison. It’s something she never got over and it’s hardened her up to strangers. Pete doesn’t try to intimidate Jess nor does he attempt to flirt upon meeting her. It’s a genuine meeting focused strictly on business, and Jess’s skills and connections in the underground world of skydiving culture are noted, which is why he forces the conversation. In this time of her life, she’s just a difficult personality to deal with and Pete has to act accordingly without backing down entirely. Again, it’s the rarity that helps Drop Zone set itself apart from other action movies of its time. Some production notes on the film have said that Jess was originally written as a male character. If this is true, it shows in spades. It’s not that Jess is masculine or anything, it’s just that she’s given so much more attitude, depth, and personality than what would usually be reserved for a female character in a movie like this. It’s also probably why we can laugh off a moment like Pete punching Jess in the face after she drops him out of a plane before parachuting him to safety just to mess with him. Jess laughs it off, and it strangely works in the context of the film because of how Jess is presented to the audience as this free flowing, reckless, adventure-loving personality who can’t be told what to do by anyone. At the same time, her willingness to fight is handled just as well.

They don’t try to overdo it to the point of unbelievability like Kee Nang in The Golden Child, where she’s doing handsprings and beating everyone’s ass when you know it’s just carefully constructed shots and a stuntwoman doing all the work. Jess is aggressive to begin with and is in an emotional state after she gets the news of Jagger’s death. When Ty’s group sabotages her parachute, but she gives it to Selly to build his confidence, which almost leads to his death after a devastating fall during a jump in DC, she takes it upon herself to confront Ty’s group to set up the third act. It’s hard not to be pissed after she looks at Torski when she revives Selly, and Torski just shrugs at her, implying he was responsible and doesn’t care. She’s outnumbered but takes her rarely-used gun to confront them. It’s just pure unbridled anger and she wants them to answer for what they did, following them onto the plane. It fits the character well, and the fight choreography matches it realistically considering the placement of the actors and the characters’ abilities. Remember, with the exceptions of Pete and Ty, none of these people are trained fighters or law enforcement officials. They are just aggressive and scrappy skydivers, so the fighting scenes match the energy well, like with Jess and Kara in the DEA office and the copy machine getting involved. By not insulting the intelligence of the audience when it came to these fight sequences, it was appreciated as a result, though it’s nearly lost when Jess somehow has enough strength to hold onto the foot rail of the plane after falling out. Nevertheless, some may find it difficult to fully buy into the story and why Pete has to become a full-fledged skydiver to pull this mission off. It wasn’t impossible to suspend your disbelief for it, but it did raise some eyebrows. Really, a lot of the encounters Pete has seem avoidable if he just keeps a low profile and plays a bit nicer in public situations, but the character refuses because of ego or whatever else, which complicates things for himself unnecessarily. Considering he’s a U.S. Marshal, you would think he’d be better at keeping his feelings out of this and staying focused.

Though he’s at a heightened state of emotion to start because of Terry’s death, he would need more examples of being in said emotional state to explain why he can’t just be chill in some of the scenarios he finds himself in. A big part of the drama is that Pete has to act like he’s been there before and is well versed or is at least trying to become a skydiver, allowing Jess to bring him in to make connections. Wouldn’t it be more obvious to the professional skydivers that he isn’t one when going through the practices and clearly knows jack shit? Wouldn’t his general attitude and responses to others not help, especially since the goal is to be a part of one of the hardest jumps in the entire country that everyone strives for? Wouldn’t all of this in combination blow his cover further since he sticks out in this crowd like a guy wearing deodorant at an anime convention? I still don’t get why Pete couldn’t let Scoop, Selly, and Robby in on the mission either because it would just make things go by much easier. What’s the issue if they know his real job? They were going to find out anyway and didn’t care when he revealed the news to them. It would have saved a lot of time had he told them all to begin with after Jess agreed to work with him. Is it because he didn’t want to pay them? I suppose that’s fair, but he probably should have said that to fill this plot hole. Also, why are they treating these skydivers and this world as if they are scary bikers or gangsters that Pete has to work to earn their trust? Do they really take themselves that seriously in real life or is this just to serve the story? They imply how rough of a crowd the skydivers can be, but it’s like, “Come on, really?”. I can accept them being a bunch of pricks who don’t like outsiders but acting like they could take a prime Wesley Snipes is far-fetched unless more is revealed about their exploits outside of skydiving. Regarding the rest of the plot, it’s not as gripping as you’d like it to be. Following the thrilling plane hijacking that leads to Terry’s death, the details regarding the case, the villains, their motives, why Ty even decides to do all of this knowing that he had a great career as a DEA agent, the business they are trying to attract, and even everyone’s names become so muddied in how they are revealed to the audience or presented in general that it’s hard to care.

Why would Ty try to become a criminal after retiring from the DEA? What was the inciting incident? He just saw he could make a lot of money and could potentially get away with it? Isn’t his pension plan enough? Had they given more screentime to Ty to either show his crazy side, or show why he has decided to turn to this life, or how he was corrupt the whole time so this isn’t out of the ordinary for him, the events could be digested much easier. Unfortunately, not enough is given on their end. Look, the plan to hack the DEA computers to update the guy in the sweater vest of every DEA operation and the names of all the undercover agents in the world is a cool “bad guy” plan, but why would Ty take such a risk now that he’s retired? His asking price of $2 million a month is worth it, but a moment or line or two to explain Ty having a screw loose was needed to show why his leap from retirement to this is even considered. Is it because he too is an adrenaline junkie that wants the challenge? Again, just a line or two would make the world of a difference to give us insight into the real Ty. Secondly, why would these skydivers risk breaking into a government facility? No one is arguing their ability to land on the building, but breaking into a major government building is a daunting task for a team of four who have only been involved in drug running previously. On the flip side, the team of heroes and how they all come together behind Jess and Pete are done well for an average action movie. It’s just the nitty-gritty of the two coming together that is the mess. Seriously, the names of Ty’s crew members are barely mentioned and you don’t care about any of them. Ty’s name isn’t even mentioned directly into well over half the film. Once they get the information on him on the government database towards the end, it sets up the ending immediately after.

To strengthen the wackiness of the movie, supporting characters like the unpredictable and erratic skydiver Scoop and the always slimy Michael Jeter as computer hacker Leedy do a good job in rounding out the teams of heroes and villains due to some underrated character work. Even with larger-than-life figureheads like Snipes and Gary Busey leading the charge, Kyle Secor and Jeter make the most of their roles and add a lot of entertainment value to the overall picture. Selly is even likable in small doses, and his near-death experience because of the rigged chute was a thrilling one. Scoop is a lot of fun in particular as this legend among his colleagues, and you can totally understand why someone like Jess loves having him on the team despite everyone knowing how much of a jackass he can be, as evidenced by him jumping off a scaffold from a building upon meeting and agreeing to Pete’s offer. On a side note, though it’s a throwaway line, Jess refuses to add the unknown “Burt” to the team because she doesn’t want to deal with him, which only begs the question how much of a jerkoff that guy is if Scoop is brought in without question. Anyway, the only thing I didn’t like was Scoop not looking Pete in the eye when talking about him and only speaking directly to Jess to bother him. I get that hazing would happen in this world of skydivers who are mad at anyone trying to break in for some reason, but it should have been dropped entirely after Pete saves Scoop’s life in the bathroom after taking out two of Ty’s guys. Following something like that, he should have been humbled and understood how Pete is a real one that was willing to go out of his way to fight for his teammate. For Scoop to hold onto his hazing by telling Jess to thank Pete when they are all a foot away from each other was groan-inducing. Dude, give it a rest. If this was intended to be humorous, it fell flat.

Gary Busey was a great choice for the antagonist. Considering all of these skydivers are adrenaline junkies and have to border on the crazy, there are very few choices who are better at teetering the line of insanity than Gary Busey. Even so, he still needed more screentime to do wackier or more evil stuff to do. He wasn’t underutilized per say, but the movie as a whole would have benefitted if they allowed Busey a little more room to showcase his villainous qualities and willingness to murder those in his way. Still, Busey did a solid job with what was given to him, and the climax between the two groups resulting in a showdown between Busey and Snipes was great. That ending tackle through the glass window was awesome. Plus, it gave us a wacked-out Gary Busey scream, which was hysterical. Actually, the climax as a whole is done really well and makes up for the convoluted plot, as Pete leads the team to the DEA building to stop Ty and his group in the act. With that being said, the immediate aftermath of Scoop parachuting onto Leedy while Pete was on a stretcher after being “injured”, even though he was completely fine, was overdone. So though the climax was great, the conclusion into the credits ended in a shrug-worthy, unfunny couple of minutes.

Admittedly, there was room to make Drop Zone an even greater feature than what it ended up being, but it makes good on its unofficial promise of being an adrenaline rush of a movie with great stunts, solid action, a great ending, and a cool battle between stars Wesley Snipes and Gary Busey. Seeing them come face to face while pointing unloaded pistols at each other is exactly what us action movie fans came to see. Unfortunately, the overall narrative within the production is too complicated in some aspects and uninteresting and unoriginal in others, turning the totality of Drop Zone into a missed opportunity. It’s obvious they weren’t reaching for the stars with this one, but it’s frustrating because they could have and should have. Standing as is, it’s a solid action movie, nothing more. Though the stuff it does do right, they do a great job with.

Fun Fact: As mentioned previously, Steven Seagal was originally attached to star and was rumored to be offered $15 million, which is certifiably insane. Andy Garcia turned down the role of Ty Moncrief, and Ellen Barkin was considered for Jess.