Drop Zone is a 1994 action film directed by John Badham, starring Wesley Snipes, Gary Busey, Yancy Butler and Michael Jeter.
US Marshal Pete Nessip (Snipes) boards a plane alongside his brother Terry (Malcolm-Jamal Warner) to escort computer expert Earl Leedy (Jeter) to prison when a group of terrorists led by Ty Moncrief (Busey) hijack the plane and take Leedy with them, which results in several people getting killed, including Terry. Moncrief takes Leedy and uses him to get access to computers and obtain the identities of undercover DEA agents, so he can sell them to criminal organizations. Pete learns how to skydive in an attempt to stop him.
Tropes
- Action Girl: Jessie Crossman is an ex-con turned skydiving instructor who helps Pete learn to skydive. And she even shows initiative and goes aboard Ty's airplane and demands answers for Jagger's death before being pushed out the plane. And later, when Ty and his men raid the DEA building, she even manages to fight and kill Ty's Dark Action Girl Kara Sellar.
- Actor Allusion: This wouldn't be the first time Gary Busey portrays a character that takes up skydiving.
- Artistic License: The fact that Ty and his men raid the DEA office on the Fourth of July, during the Independence Day Skydiving Exhibition in Washington, D.C., a typical no-fly zone area which has no security at all throughout the day.
- Big Bad: Ty Moncrief is a former DEA agent turned renegade who steals information about undercover DEA agents and sells them to criminal organizations, resulting in their deaths.
- Cassandra Truth: No one initially believes Pete when he recalls the events of the hi-jacking, only thinking it was Terry who acted like a loose cannon and no one would be able to make a parachute jump from a commercial airliner at 30,000 feet. Pete ends up being suspended as he does his own investigating over the hijacking.
- Chute Sabotage: Ty's men attempt to do this for Jessie's parachute. Unfortunately, it's one of her members of her team, Selkirk, that ends up grabbing it and during the jump, it fails to deploy, which results in serious injury for him.
- The Cracker: Earl Leedy is a criminal hacker whom Pete and Terry get tasked with escorting to a high-security prison. But then Ty and his men kidnap him and use him to access the DEA computers to get the information they need.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Swoop, the more ballsy member of Jessie's skydiving team, is a good and loyal friend to his team. Except he ignores and doesn't acknowledge Pete (because he only talks to people he's jumped with) and has to get someone to talk to him through Pete. After Pete participates in a practice jump, Swoop still ignores him. And even as Pete saves him from being beat up by Ty's man, he even has to get Jessie to express his thanks to him. But after they jump together and foil Ty's plans, Swoop finally talks to him.
- Disney Villain Death:
- Pete's brother Terry isn't a villain, but he dies after being sucked out of the airplane after Ty and his men escape.
- Ty himself meets his end after Pete jumps him out of the window. While Pete has a parachute, Ty isn't so lucky as he crashes through the windshield of his getaway truck.
- Extreme Sports Plot: Pete learns how to skydive so he can prove that the plane was really attacked and to bring down Moncrief.
- Fallen Hero: Moncrief used to be an exemplar DEA agent before turning evil.
- Faux Affably Evil: Ty is calm, cool and polite, even as he murders innocent people.
- Fingore: Ty Moncrief cuts off a pair of Earl Leedy's fingers for them to be "found" alongside the mangled remains of "Leedy" that resulted from being flung out of an airplane by Explosive Decompression. In a much later scene, we see Leedy working to regain keyboard dexterity on his mangled hand in some following scenes (taking place over a few weeks).
- It's Personal: For Jessie, when she finds out her ex Don Jagger gets killed by Moncrief. Despite Jagger still continuing his criminal activities and worked for Moncrief, Jessie is still nevertheless heartbroken by his death.
- It's Raining Men: Ty and his gang do this for their robberies.
- Karma Houdini: Subverted. After Ty and his group are all dead, Leedy poses as a DEA agent and nearly gets away, with Pete hollering for him while he lays on the ambulance stretcher and nearly gets away until Swoop comes in and knocks him down.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: Leedy loves his cats and is even seen taking care of them when a prisoner nearly kills him. And when he's being escorted to the high-security prison by plane, with the cats going with him, he shows great concern for them.
- Neck Snap: Pete kills one of Ty's henchmen that way after a fight on the stairs. And shortly after, both Swoop and Bobby kill Torski like this by wrapping a cord around his neck and then deploying his parachute.
- Never Trust a Trailer: There's a scene in the trailer that has Pete attending the funeral of his brother Terry, which isn't in the final movie.
- Sacrificial Lion: Subverted. It looks like Selkirk is going to get killed by the sabotaged parachute, but instead he's merely injured and hospitalized for the rest of the film.
- Significant Anagram: Pete Nessip is an anagram for his actor's last name, Snipes.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Earl Leedy is a criminal hacker good enough for Ty Moncrief to decide to poach him for his Evil Plan, and that "poaching" involves a demented scheme to break him out of custody in mid-air and fake Leedy's death by cutting off two of his fingers. Much to Moncrief's very notable annoyance, Leedy spends most of the rest of the film working to regain his keyboard dexterity after being maimed.
- Would Hit a Girl: Pete gives Jessie a big slug to the face right after she drops him out of the plane, which scares him nearly half to death due to it being his first time.
- You Have Failed Me: Ty and his men did what they can to keep the hijacking discreet, leading for everyone to believe it was Pete and Terry that went crazy in the plane. But after Pete investigates and questions a little girl that recognizes Jagger (who at the point before he jumped out was unmasked) and one of the FBI guys (who's secretly working for Moncrief) lets Ty know about it. And when they all go practice skydiving again, Ty goes with Jagger, who then guides him to fly into power lines, which gets him electrocuted.
- You Killed My Father: Pete gets the motivation to bring down Moncrief after his brother Terry gets killed in the hijacking.
