Top Gun (1986)
June 11, 2024 6:05 PM - Subscribe

Trailer. As students at the United States Navy's elite fighter weapons school compete to be best in the class, one daring young pilot [Tom Cruise] learns a few things from a civilian instructor [Kelly McGillis] that are not taught in the classroom.

Also starring Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards, Tom Skerritt, and Michael Ironside.

57% fresh with an 83% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Roger Ebert: "Top Gun" settles fairly quickly into alternating ground and air scenes, and the simplest way to sum up the movie is to declare the air scenes brilliant and the earthbound scenes grimly predictable. This is a movie that comes in two parts: It knows exactly what to do with special effects, but doesn't have a clue as to how two people in love might act and talk and think.
Gene Siskel: ... “Top Gun” makes us idolize jet pilots, and surely that’s one of its goals. If the Navy brass had any brains, they’d have a jet pilot school recruiter in the lobby of every theater where “Top Gun” is playing.
JustWatch.

A mere 38 years later, Cruise returns in Top Gun: Maverick.
posted by wnissen (26 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
It has been long enough that I might not have seen this movie, or might have watched only part of it on TV. I certainly had never seen it on a nice screen, it is one of the prettier movies. Jeffery L. Kimball really takes advantage of the close-up look on a carrier that the Navy gave him. I got a bit motion sick during some of the scenes, but I'm also very prone. Lots of fun, especially since the Russian MiG fighters make great enemies. Lots of sexism, too.
posted by wnissen at 6:16 PM on June 11


The best part of this film is the end of Hot Shots where he throws his father's eyes into the ocean
posted by phooky at 7:30 PM on June 11 [7 favorites]


The first time I had COVID, I had brain fog like you wouldn't believe, for about a week. I could barely read a sentence, I had trouble following other people's conversations, I'd walk into a room having forgotten why I went there, it was very strange and not very pleasant. Forget about sitting in bed and reading a book. This movie was pitched exactly at my then state, and I'm really grateful for it.

I want some butts!
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 8:44 PM on June 11 [2 favorites]


Haven't seen it since it came out, don't feel the need to watch the sequel, but still have some thoughts...

- Not sure if this post is timed for Pride Month, and couldn't possibly imagine any connection. (Bonus: the ad that played before the clip when I pulled it was for supplements, with a bunch of dudes ripping off their shirts and flexing. Sometimes the algorithm does seem self-aware...)

- The real star of the movie is Giorgio Moroder, who won an Oscar for "Take My Breath Away", his second after "Flashdance."

- Speaking of Hot Shots, my favorite bit from that movie is undoubtedly "Dead Meat."

- It's really weird to remember that Iron Eagle, which seems like a cheap knockoff of this, came out months before.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:13 PM on June 11 [5 favorites]


I'm old enough to have seen TG during its original release, and watched it several times throughout the late 80s in one form or another -- it was a fun movie for its time! But actually my primary memory of it has to do with exploring a Navy career a couple years after its release as I was casting about for what I wanted to do as I approached college graduation.

The recruiters I was talking to were pretty happy to indulge me as I tested pretty high on their aptitude tests, even though they were at a loss as to what to do with my anthropology degree. When I told them I'd always been interested in learning to fly helicopters they informed me I couldn't be a helicopter pilot b/c of my eyesight (and iirc all flight officers on helicopters in the Navy are pilots), but I could be a flight engineer on other aircraft, "you know, like Goose in Top Gun!" one of them exclaimed very enthusiastically. Ummm, yeah... you do know that Goose dies in Top Gun, right?

That interview process ended up fizzling out for other reasons, mostly having to do with me being unwilling to lie about being a college student in the 80s so of course I'd smoked marijuana, but a big factor was also me realizing that these shitguzzlers who thought pimping TG was great recruiting propaganda were exactly the same kind of assholes I'd be contractually obligated to work with all the time for years, quickly killing any enthusiasm I had for the project.

I didn't feel any need to watch the sequel either, Halloween Jack.
posted by Pedantzilla at 11:00 PM on June 11 [5 favorites]


Top Gun Anthem
posted by porpoise at 12:06 AM on June 12


Though Danger Zone may be more icon.
posted by porpoise at 12:13 AM on June 12 [5 favorites]


This movie is such an part of my childhood I am probably unable to rate it objectively.
I was exactly the right age of adolescent boy for it to take deep root.

Bits of the dialogue pepper my speech to this day, unlike at the actual TOPGUN where quoting the movie will get you a fine.
Dialogue where, a little unusually in moves like this, some of the best lines go to the ensemble.

Is it cheesy? Yes.
Jingoistic? Yes.
Full of stunts that would get you turfed out of the real military before you landed? Absolutely, yes.

But I don't care, if Danger Zone comes on, I'm watching.

(Iron Eagle had a better soundtrack, though.)
posted by madajb at 12:19 AM on June 12 [9 favorites]


Mav would have absolutely flown the Snake, with Goose bitching the whole time.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:53 AM on June 12


I feel like the only thing I really remember from this movie, other than a handful of images, is how Tom Cruise licked Kelly McGillis's neck. It was just so profoundly unsexy that it was somehow outside of the realm of sex, like a dance move or something.

I liked the song so much as a kid, and now it just feels weird.
posted by Countess Elena at 6:56 AM on June 12 [2 favorites]


I grew up on Top Gun, though, admittedly, I haven't watched it in a number of years. It may be why I think Hot Shots! is a very fine movie, but no, Hot Shots! is just a fantastic movie, minus Charlie Sheen's later years. One thing I have stuck with since I was a kid in the 80s was the score. I listen to it at least once a year and Kenny Loggins just lives rent free in my head thanks to it. Without it, we probably would never had gotten Archer (this statement cannot be backed up in anyway).

I was young enough when I first saw it that I really didn't appreciate what was going on in the sex scene other than I thought the music was great and people were kissing. And I'm okay sticking with that interpretation years later.

Big fighter jets, an aircraft carrier, and Tom Skerritt's mustache did a lot of lifting in this movie, but as 80 action movies went, it was something different than the typical fair of Arnold, Stallone, and so on. So many actors showed up in the film that popped up later, such as Meg Ryan, Anthony Edwards, and Val Kilmer. Val was already on his ascendancy, granted, but he came in as a great supporting role.

I actually enjoyed Maverick that came out a couple years ago, which narrowly tread the path or totally retreading the path.

In my old life, as an attorney, I had a witness/victim who I needed to testify in a proceeding. Except, after the incident they were in, they up and joined the Navy and so I began this process of touching base with JAG officers to get him to appear via telephone. I cannot express the secret delight I had when it turned out that my witness was going to participate from an unknown location in the Indian Ocean from his aircraft carrier. Muwahaha, career highlight.
posted by Atreides at 7:32 AM on June 12 [7 favorites]


I can' think about TG without hearing Quentin Tarantino explaining it in Sleep with Me
posted by OHenryPacey at 8:40 AM on June 12 [4 favorites]


the Russian MiG fighters make great enemies

US Navy F-5s painted black for extra evil
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 10:11 AM on June 12 [4 favorites]


Michael Ironside's "Jester" is the standout character for me.

I was also old enough to see this in theaters in original release. Big, flashy airplane stunts, awesome music, and immensely quotable lines - what's not to love here?

Between this and an earlier aircraft-carrier-centered movie, I seriously considered enlisting in the Navy but didn't, for two reasons - my eyesight meant I'd never be pilot and my dad (a Korean War vet) was adamant about his kids not entering military service.
posted by hanov3r at 12:53 PM on June 12 [5 favorites]


This and Iron Eagle is what sent me into the Falcon series of simulators, and getting my computers to run it and program peripherals for it is what first really caused me to realize that I wasn't bad at tech just because I was bad at math.

The recent re-litigation of the Fighter Mafia era on the 'tubes has been interesting; in terms of the development of the F-14 and F-16 (and F-20).

(The story of Falcon and Gilman Louie---->In-Q-Tel--->Alsop Louie is also v. interesting)
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:16 PM on June 12 [1 favorite]


I can' think about TG without hearing Quentin Tarantino explaining it in Sleep with Me
Tarantino's monologue here is apparently courtesy of his Pulp Fiction co-author Roger Avery.

I've like to give full credit to the event management company who staged a drive in movie screening of Top Gun on Valentines night a few years ago. With Edinburgh Airport's runway as a backdrop. It was more the shuttle to Belfast than a darkstar - and more sleat than might be found in the Mojave dessert - but hey!
posted by rongorongo at 4:03 AM on June 14


The thing that has stuck with me all these years is the weird bit where the bad guy (Iceman?) snaps his teeth at Maverick. Why? Was this supposed to be some sort of aggressive and impressive move? He just looked ridiculous.
posted by The corpse in the library at 10:13 AM on June 14 [2 favorites]


I have always wondered about that, too, corpse. I think I have always just assumed something got lost in the edit. Some sort of flirty biting or dog joke.
posted by janell at 5:52 PM on June 14 [2 favorites]


It was basically a sports (or cop) movie locker room scene (down to them getting sent to Coach/Sarge's office) and yes it was ridiculous and sometimes I do it and laugh when I'm feeling especially ridiculous.*

Would've been a bit much even for Doc in Tombstone

(*also, "I want some butts!")
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:20 PM on June 14


The thing I like most about Top Gun is that Val Kilmer is in a totally different movie than the rest of the cast.
posted by the duck by the oboe at 7:20 PM on June 14 [10 favorites]


The Tarantino (Roger Avery?) monologue makes Top Gun great.. I saw the movie after seeing the monologue and therefore liked Top Gun. IMHO that monologue is the best thing Tarantino did too.
posted by latkes at 4:49 AM on June 15


we watched top gun to fill up some class time at the end of the semester in my high school german class, and to this day i have only seen it in german.

my most vivid memory of it is frau standing in front of the tv during the sex scene, frantically fast forwarding and repeating nein, nicht schauen! nein!
posted by emmling at 2:32 AM on June 16 [1 favorite]


I also saw this at just the right age, and tales of logging hours in Falcon, cursing at the eyesight requirements for pilots, and cringey interviews with Navy recruiters bring back lots of memories!

This was the first time I’d been “blown away” by a theater experience. I was lucky enough to see it on a 70mm screen, and the noise and power of the F-14 literally changed my brain. I remember afterwards seeing a car ad on tv, and marveling at how sad and pathetic were its attempts to make a 120hp consumer product seem exciting.
posted by bjrubble at 7:32 AM on June 16 [1 favorite]


Despite being not at all my thing, it's a really excellent piece of filmmaking, and it seems like everyone involved, from Cruise to Tony Scott to the people on the soundtrack to our good friends at the Department of Defense, was absolutely at the top of their game.

Two quotes about this movie (I'm thinking of a third, where somebody said something like ''Top Gun' is camp for straight men,' but couldn't quite find it):
“Some people felt that ‘Top Gun’ was a right-wing film to promote the Navy. And a lot of kids loved it. But I want the kids to know that’s not the way war is.” --Tom Cruise, 1990
“Because fuckin' 'Top Gun,' man, it was essentially a fascist movie. It sold the idea that war is clean, war can be won … nobody in the movie ever mentions that he just started World War Three!” --Oliver Stone, 1988
posted by box at 8:47 AM on June 17


Two quotes about this movie

I think both of those quotes are about the second movie, Top Gun: Maverick, which make them also about the first movie because they are both almost exactly the same, except the second also steals the bombing run finale from Star Wars because why not?

I'm not sure I'd agree it sells the idea that war is 'clean' when his best friend died in war practice, not even in war, but close enough I guess. It's a cheesy '80s action movie, with a lot of subtext.


Also: I have a relative through marriage who's a fighter pilot (and more) for the Air Force and my college roommate joined the AF because of Top Gun. He also wanted to be a fighter pilot, but instead flies battlefield communication airliners, basically. They are both exactly like Top Gun pilots.
posted by The_Vegetables at 11:57 AM on June 17


If I remember right, Roger Ebert said about Top Gun something like "It's not even an advertisement for the military, it's an advertisement for advertisements for the military."

I miss him.
posted by Pickman's Next Top Model at 10:24 PM on June 18 [1 favorite]


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