Point of Impact
Author	Stephen Hunter
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Bob Lee Swagger series
Genre(s)	Thriller
Publisher	Bantam Dell
Publication date	March 1993
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	451 pp
ISBN	ISBN 0-553-07139-4 (hardback edition)
OCLC Number	26633980
Dewey Decimal	813/.54 20
LC Classification	PS3558.U494 P65 1993
Followed by	Black Light

Point of Impact is a 1993 thriller novel by award-winning author Stephen Hunter.

Contents 1 Plot introduction 2 Plot summary 3 Inspiration 4 Film adaptation

[edit] Plot introduction

The plot revolves around a former Vietnam sniper named Bob Lee Swagger or Bob 'the Nailer'. This character is loosely based upon the real Vietnam sniper and Marine Corps legend Carlos Hathcock. He is referred to directly under a slightly changed pseudonym as "Carl Hitchcock" (perhaps intentionally, a character refers to him correctly as "Hathcock" but Swagger 'corrects' her (Mrs. Fenn), saying "Hitchcock"). He is also likely the subject of the book's dedication.

[edit] Plot summary

Bob 'The Nailer' becomes involved in a plot by dirty big-government types and the story is about how he is first approached and used by them, and their subsequent attempts to end his life.

Disenchanted with warfare when invalided out of the Marine Corps in the 1970s, Bob retreats to a small town in Arkansas, where he lives in a trailer and devotes himself to firearms.

Here he is approached by representatives of RamDyne, a black-bag government organization whose personnel commit off-the-record atrocities as needed. The RamDyne people, masquerading as employees of Accutech, a high-end ammo manufacturer, enlist Bob's help. He detects their untruthfulness and confronts them, at which point they "reveal" to him their true motives: foiling an attempt on the life of the President of the United States at the hand of the same Soviet sniper who ended Bob's military career.

Bob agrees to work for them but in the end, is framed into the crime of attempted assassination. He escapes the frame and finds himself friendless, pursued by every law enforcement agency in the nation, pursued by RamDyne, and suffering two bullet wounds, nearly fatal.

The major portion of the book details how he escapes the frame, wins absolution for the crime of which he was accused, and wins the love of a woman.

[edit] Inspiration

In the 2007 film adaptation DVD special features short titled "Survival of the Fittest: The Making of Shooter", the author states

“

I wanted to write a novel about a sniper. I'd read a biography of Carlos Hathcock, a Marine sniper. It's a very provocative book. It struck me that he was kind of the Faustian intellectual of war, in the sense that he learned things that no man ever learned, but at great cost. And the cost was his exile and his bitterness and his grief. Carlos Hathcock lost a spotter in Vietnam. So, I had Bob lose a spotter in Vietnam. Of course, the movie has been updated, so Vietnam hasn't figured in it. But there's still - I love that the sniper is a man of grief, with something that I don't think anybody had ever gotten before.

”

[edit] Film adaptation

A film adaption of the novel was produced by Paramount Pictures in 2006, titled Shooter, starring Mark Wahlberg as Bob Lee Swagger, and was released on March 23, 2007.

The 1993 film titled "Point of Impact" (starring Michael Pare, Barbara Carrera, Michael Ironside) is not related.

This article about a thriller novel is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e