Kelly McGillis and Tom Cruise
May 16, 1986, 40 years ago: Top Gun premieres, directed by Tony Scott -- at this point, better known as the younger brother of director Ridley Scott. It was produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, and would prove to be typical of Bruckheimer fare.
This was not a film to watch while you were actually on a plane. Unfortunately, I did, on a flight from Orlando to Newark the following November, which was nearly as rough as the flight scenes.
The name "Top Gun" refers to the U.S. Navy's Fighter Weapons School, at Naval Air Station Miramar in San Diego.
This was a typical 1980s movie. It is full of swagger and smiles and patriotism, like the man then President of the United States. And, just like said President, it is all phony as hell. Including the fact that, had these events actually happened, it would have meant World War III.
Yes, Top Gun, like so much about the 1980s, is phony. Right down to the main couple: Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis. At least Kelly now admits that she's gay in real life.
The critics were mixed -- sometimes with themselves. Gene Siskel, like his At the Movies TV partner Roger Ebert, liked the action scenes, but he didn't like the romantic subplot, writing that "It belongs in a teenage sex-fantasy film, and not in a movie that deserves the genuine romantic value of An Officer and a Gentleman." And Pauline Kael said the film suggested that it was "as if narcissism is what being a warrior is all about."
Nevertheless, Top Gun was the highest-grossing film of 1986. It helped inspire the spoof films Hot Shots! in 1991 and Team America: World Police in 2004, but also the series TV series Pensacola: Wings of Gold and JAG -- and, indirectly, the NCIS franchise that started as a spinoff of JAG.
Nostalgia can be a powerful thing. The sequel, Top Gun: Maverick -- named for the call sign of Cruise's character, Pete Mitchell -- became the highest-grossing film of 2022. Apparently, it's okay for Cruise to still play Maverick at the age of 60, but it wasn't okay for Roger Moore to still play James Bond in his 50s.
The sequel even worked Val Kilmer's fatal illness into the plot, as, with the aid of a voice replicator, Kilmer was able to play one final role, returning as former "Iceman" Tom Kazansky, and give Maverick his dying approval.
In the 2023 film The Flash, the titular superhero's messing with the timeline resulted in a rearrangement of some classic 1980s films: Eric Stoltz was not replaced as Marty McFly by Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future, Fox played Ren McCormack in Footloose instead of Kevin Bacon, Bacon played Maverick instead of Cruise in Top Gun, and Cruise was not mentioned, although Top Gun was hardly his first big movie, so he likely still had a big career.
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