Brian and I did some research about writing blurbs for our books, those short descriptions of what a reader should expect when they read the book. We were mostly looking at how other action books did it, but when we looked for examples in movies too, we found this amazing gem.

Drop Zone, starring Wesley Snipes, is a 1994 action movie about skydiving and, uh, bad guys, and– I don’t even remember. I watched the movie when it first came out, and I couldn’t tell you two things that happened in it.

What caught my eye all these years later, as we were looking for examples of action movie blurbs, was the back cover design.

Look at this:

How nuts is this? It says Drop Zone is a chute-to-thrill adventure. The villains are a cadre of techno-terrorists. Look how the text is lovingly wrapped around a free-falling Wesley Snipes. And I am only now noticing, as I type this, that he’s not even wearing a parachute!

Before you say, “This sounds like Point Break,” and, “Point Break is better,” I have two things to say.

  1. Yes, you’re correct.
  2. Point Break’s back cover is nowhere near this good, I checked. Otherwise, this blog post would be about Point Break.

To everyone involved in creating the Drop Zone DVD cover, I want to shake your hands. Or give you that enthusiastic, exaggerated, military salute some guy does at the end of the President’s motivational speech in Independence Day.