Point of Impact

Infobox Book |
name = Point of Impact
title_orig =
translator =


author = Stephen Hunter
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series = Bob Lee Swagger series
genre = Thriller
publisher = Bantam Dell
release_date = March 1993
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 451 pp
isbn = ISBN 0-553-07139-4 (hardback edition)
preceded_by =
followed_by = Black Light

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

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". He is also likely the subject of the book's dedication.

Plot summary

Bob 'the Nailer' becomes involved in a plot by dirty big-gov't types and the story is about how he is first approached and used by them, and their subsequent attempts to end his life.

Inspiration

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

Cquote|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 sense of grief. The sniper is a man of grief, with something that I don't think anybody had ever gotten before.

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.