Drop is a fairly simple concept: Kill your date or your son dies. Sure, you can go into more details but those 7 words are intriguing enough that it almost doesn’t need further explanation.

Drop is a new film by husband/wife writers Chris Roach and Jillian Jacobs and directed by Christopher Landon, a frequent Blumhouse collaborator. This team accomplishes a lot with a little: small cast, 1 main location and a relatively low budget.

The movie follows a widow who hasn’t been on a date in years, meeting a man she met on a dating app. Nervous even before she leaves the house, Violet (Meghann Fahy) soon finds herself in a deadly game in which some mysterious person keeps messaging her with demands. Failure to comply means her 5-year-old son will be killed. This tension-filled thriller starts with a heart-pounding scene and doesn’t let go until the very end.

If you’re looking to write a nonstop suspenseful thrill ride, here are 5 lessons you can take away from Drop.

1. Run with a Ridiculous Concept

I don’t mean a ridiculous concept in a bad way. When you think about it, most movies sound ridiculous, but that also can be what makes them fun or intriguing.

• Speed – A bomb on a bus cannot go under 50 miles-per-hour (in Los Angeles!) or it will explode.
• Beetlejuice – A deceased couple uses the tools of the afterlife to haunt their house and get rid of its new inhabitants.
• M3GAN – An AI robot doll programmed to protect her child goes on a killing spree.

Drop is also a ridiculous, yet exciting, concept. The plot centers around a woman who must kill her date or he will have someone kill her child. Surely, there are a million ways to kill this guy than go through this extensive process. But what’s the fun in that?

What screenwriters can take away from Drop is to lean into the ideas if they seem far-fetched or, at least, not be afraid of something that seems a little absurd. Letting that “ridiculous concept” flow opens up an exciting sandbox to play in as a writer and an original adventure to take your audience on.

Meghann Fahy in 'Drop'

2. Lean into the “Phone Problem”

The 1990s were a great time for movies and cell phones. They were around but not enough to ruin a perfectly good plot. As accessibility increased, so did problems that could be easily solved with a call. Recent movies like Opus, Heretic and Blink Twice had to create ways for the characters to lose access to their phones.

Meanwhile, movies like Drop are taking advantage of the technology to drive the story and keep tensions high. It’s a major part of the film because it’s the only means of communication between the protagonist and the antagonist. It’s through her phone that Violet receives these drops and messages as well as access her security camera to see someone ready to kill at her home. 

The phone is a device like any other weapon or vehicle and audiences won’t simply accept that your characters can’t use it unless there is a specific reason (no mobile phones in Wicked or The Brutalist). It’s the writer’s job to determine how much a phone matters in the story.

Drop is a great example of how storytellers can use mobile devices as a means to drive story and use applications that today’s audiences are familiar with.

3. How to Make Use of a Single Location

Almost 90% of Drop takes place in a single location: the restaurant. Trying to fit a story into one location that is exciting and doesn’t feel constrictive or overused is a challenge for any screenwriter. Drop shows how screenwriters can make use of all the space within the location to make the film feel more dynamic and keep the story cruising without the audience feeling claustrophobic. So, how did the filmmakers do this?

They broke down the restaurant into different areas.

• Host Stand
• Bar Area
• Bathroom
• Dining Area

By splitting the restaurant up, the filmmakers could have Violet move into different areas to break up the scenes so she’s not stuck at the table with her date. Another aspect that provides immediate tension is that the restaurant is located on the 38th floor of a Chicago high rise. Unlike a house, this location is similar to an island making escape significantly harder. Violet is essentially trapped.

Drop shows screenwriters how they can maximize a single location (which also helps keep budgets low) and how to make use of all the space available.

4. High Tension Needs Comic Relief

Tension and comedy go hand-in-hand. If the whole film is driving on tension, the audience will get exhausted. Like filling up a balloon, if you don’t let the air out it will pop.

Whether it’s a joke, a character or a situation, to build tension and suspense, you have to let the audience breathe. It’s called comic relief for a reason – you’re providing relief through comedy.

Alfred Hitchcock understood this and frequently had moments of levity in his most thrilling films. In more recent thrillers/horror like Barbarian and Get Out there is a character or moment that gives the audience a way to break the tension.

Drop has this in the form of a waiter. Once the characters (and the audience) meet this comic relief, it’s expected to get that breather whenever he appears. Screenwriters can see how this one person’s presence is all one needs to create comic relief.

Violett Beane in 'Drop'

5. Remember Chekhov’s Gun

You may not know the works of Anton Chekhov (he did die in 1904) but there is one rule he had to storytelling that you want to abide by: “If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise, don’t put it there.”

Drop has a few seemingly meaningless introductions to items in the first act that return throughout the film. I’m not going to spoil anything here but screenwriters can see the importance of subtle setups that return throughout the movie.

One example is in The Shawshank Redemption and a series of posters of beautiful actresses that Andy has hanging in his cell. It’s a perfect example of introducing something at one point that has significant meaning later on.

Surprisingly, writers will accidentally do this when writing a script. They’ll realize they did something in Act 1 that works later in their story. If not, reverse engineer the process. Find the pieces in the end that you can introduce earlier in the script – that’s what rewrites are all about!

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What if Drop occurred at a resort hotel and not a restaurant? In a recent interview, the writers admitted that that was the original intention and even wrote a considerable amount of a first draft before changing directions. When writing, you won’t get it all right in the first draft or sometimes the story you want to tell isn’t coming together how you hoped. Don’t be afraid to change directions – the work involved might mean the difference between seeing your screenplay on the big screen or as just a file on your computer.