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Top Gun: How a Single Flight Changed the Course of the Movie

Top Gun screenwriter Jack Epps Jr. tells us what inspired the movie, why his sequel was abandoned, and how a single flight changed Tom Cruise forever.

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Screenwriter Jack Epps Jr. took the assignment to write a movie called Top Gun in the mid-1980s for one reason: he wanted to fly in a fighter jet.

“I have my private pilot’s license that I got when I was an undergraduate at Michigan State, so as a private pilot, I said, ‘Well, that’d be fun,’” Epps tells Den of Geek during a recent Zoom chat. “At least I’ll get a jet ride out of it, if nothing else.’”

Epps and his writing partner, the late Jim Cash, got a lot more out of it than that out of Top Gun . The story of a rogue fighter pilot named Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, who joins the Navy’s elite Fighter Weapons School at Miramar base in southern California and must learn the hard way how to fly and fight as part of a team, Top Gun became the highest grossing movie of 1986. It also made a superstar out of rising talent Tom Cruise while influencing decades’ worth of buddy-action films, often set against military backdrops.

The initial idea for the film came from an article called “Top Guns,” written by Ehud Yonay for the May 1983 issue of California magazine, which focused on the lifestyle of the Navy pilots and the personal and professional challenges they faced as they risked their lives every time they took to the skies. The article came to the attention of producing team Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, who had already scored with hits like Flashdance (1983) and Beverly Hills Cop (1984).

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“I was working on Dick Tracy , ” recalls Epps about how he and Cash got involved in the project. “Jeffrey Katzenberg was head of production at Paramount, and he wanted to basically do another picture with us, because he really liked the script we had done for Dick Tracy . So I had the famous 8 a.m. breakfast meeting with Jeff Katzenberg. He pitched out six ideas, and one of the ideas was Top Gun .”

Epps says that the “Top Guns” article was merely a launching pad for Cash and him to write their own original story.

“The article basically just said that there’s a school, it’s called TOPGUN, the guys have fun, it’s a cool place, that’s all,” Epps recalls. Yet that gave a lot of latitude to Epps and his co-writer, even if only one of them liked to actually be up in the air.

Indeed, for a man about to co-write a movie about jet pilots, Cash did not like to fly at all.

“I said, ‘Don’t worry about it. I’ll fly planes,'” Epps remembers saying. “‘You don’t have to get in the plane. I’ll tell you all about it. Then I met with Simpson and Bruckheimer. One of the things I said to them initially was, ‘I don’t want to do this unless we get the actual planes. If we don’t get the real planes, I’m not interested.’ And they agreed.”

Bruckheimer and Simpson deployed lobbyists from the Motion Picture Academy to get a meeting with high-ranking officials in the Navy and gain their cooperation in making the film. “After a day of meetings there, they agreed to cooperate with us and support the vision we were pitching to them,” Epps says, “and they told me I’d have to ride in a jet, which is what I wanted all along.”

Epps says that doing the research on the ground and in the air was key, with the writer going through some of the same training that the pilots had to undertake. That included having to swim with a heavy pack out of a simulated helicopter crash in the water, and of course going up in the air with the pilots. But Epps, who also interviewed around 25 pilots and Radar Intercept Officers (RIOs) to learn their personal stories , says that the one thing he didn’t get to do was fly in an actual F-14 Tomcat.

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“At that time, the F-14 was classified, so I couldn’t even look in the cockpit,” he explains. “So I flew in what they call their aggressor squadron plane, which is an F-5F, and that was an amazing experience. Flying in a Navy jet is like nothing else . You’re off the ground and up there at 10,000 feet in 10 seconds. We went with pilots named Boomer and Hollywood, and they said, ‘We’re not supposed to do this,’ but then they did a bunch of close passes and rollovers and dogfighting while pulling six, seven, eight G’s, gravitational force, which was amazing. We had a blast.”

Epps adds that his experience of flying with the pilots changed his conception of what Top Gun was actually about.

Says the writer, “I called my partner and said, ‘Jim, this is not the movie we thought it was.’ This is a sports movie. These guys are amazing, top-level athletes because you have to be in great shape to withstand all those pressures and to be able to control that. So that became sort of our metaphor—as both of us were athletes in high school and I was in college a little bit—through which we could find our way into the movie to help us personally relate to what they were doing.”

From the start, Epps maintains that he and Cash had Cruise, who was already on his path to stardom at the time thanks to the success of 1983’s Risky Business , in mind for the role of Pete “Maverick” Mitchell.

“I basically dropped the script off to Jerry Bruckheimer and I said, ‘Think Tom Cruise when you read this,’ because we wrote it for Tom,” says Epps. “Tom was in our mind as the perfect young American pilot. He was ascendant in his career, and because Maverick is a bit of a jerk, you need a guy who you’re really going to like even though he’s not acting in his best interest. So two days later, I get a call from Don Simpson, and he said, ‘I will kill to get this movie made.’”

Top Gun: Maverick – Do You Need to See the Original Movie First?

Tom Cruise: The Last Movie Star Who Gets Better with Age

Ironically enough, Epps says that Cruise was initially hesitant to do the movie, although he was eventually persuaded to get involved after getting a chance to fly with the real-life pilots—just as Epps did—an experience that also launched Cruise’s own lifelong interest in flying planes.

“When it was offered to him, he didn’t get it,” says Epps. “So Jerry smartly said to his agent, who wanted him to do it, ‘Why don’t you have Tom go take a flight?’ So they worked it out that he could fly out of Point Mugu . Tom had just finished Legend with Ridley Scott, so he had long hair. He drives up on his motorcycle to the base, and all these Navy guys look at him and they don’t know this guy—-this isn’t the Tom Cruise that we all know today. So they take this long-hair up in the plane, and they just do what they like to do, which is shake him around, and he threw up all over the plane, but he got out and went, ‘I love this. I’ve got to do this!’ So that’s how Tom got involved and hooked on flying.”

Once filming on Top Gun started, Epps and Cash were already involved in the pre-production for their next script, Legal Eagles , with director Ivan Reitman . So they were unfortunately not able to visit the set of Top Gun or participate in any rewrites during the shoot. Epps says that while “a couple of things got cut out,” including a graduation dogfight over the Mojave Desert, the script stayed essentially unchanged. Epps credits late director Tony Scott, for whom Top Gun was just his second film and first commercial success, with bringing the flying sequences to life onscreen.

“Tony Scott should get a tremendous amount of credit for creating a visual style of the fighting and how they did it,” Epps says. “In the original movie, all the dogfighting was choreographed by the TOPGUN pilots. They were using the world’s greatest pilots to choreograph the flights. They set these cameras up on mountaintops over valleys where they could do high speed passes right near the camera. So they really worked out a whole series of carefully choreographed fight sequences with the top pilots in the world flying those sequences. It was really a very rare thing to have happen.”

Although Top Gun was largely panned by critics upon its release, it was an instant smash with audiences and played for almost six months in theaters. Some 47 million tickets were sold in North America alone, with the film grossing $180 million on its home turf and another $177 million internationally. Its global total of $357 million made it the biggest box office hit of 1986.

Although it may seem strange that it took 36 years for a sequel to arrive in the form of the new blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick , Epps says that he and Cash actually penned a follow-up just a few years after the first film’s release.

“We wrote a sequel in the early ‘90s, and then Tom decided to do Mission: Impossible instead, which I think was a good career move,” explains the screenwriter. He adds that the story was set just five years after the first movie and was “a very different type of story,” although he declines to go into further details about the plot since the movie ended up not getting made at the time.

“It took it to a different level of competition,” Epps hints. “We added some female pilots, which was definitely overdue. It was just taking it to a higher level. But Tom moved on, and they were never going to make it without Tom. That’s just all there was to it. By that time they did get to it, Tom had writers he knew and people he had worked with, and that’s how that moved forward.”

Development of a Top Gun sequel began in earnest around 2010 with the involvement of Tony Scott (before his tragic passing in 2012), Bruckheimer, and of course Cruise. The result, Top Gun: Maverick , is not only getting a rapturous reception from fans and even critics but looks set to become one of the biggest films of the year , eclipsing even the mammoth success of its predecessor.

That, no doubt, is certainly due to the way that Top Gun became ingrained in pop culture from the moment it was released with its then-innovative action sequences , themes of loyalty, courage, and loss, and its unabashedly patriotic tone. Epps believes that the original movie was the right film at the right time at that moment in 1986.

“Timing is one of the most important things in the success of anything,” he muses. “I think the timing was perfect. We were exactly the right people to write the script, Don and Jerry were exactly the right producers, Tony Scott was exactly the right director, Tom Cruise was exactly the right star. Then you have all these young actors… whether it’s Meg Ryan or Anthony Edwards, here’s an amazing group of actors. Where we were at that time as a culture when it was released, I think that we hit a deep emotional chord. It all just happened at the right time.”

Top Gun: Maverick is in theaters now.

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Don Kaye | @donkaye

Don Kaye is an entertainment journalist by trade and geek by natural design. Born in New York City, currently ensconced in Los Angeles, his earliest childhood memory is…

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'Top Gun' turns 30: 8 facts you may not know about the Tom Cruise blockbuster

Thirty years after its release, "Top Gun" fanatics still have the need — the need for speed.

Arriving in theaters nationwide May 16, 1986, the high-flying thriller starring Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis and Anthony Edwards soared with audiences, landing almost $180 million in domestic ticket sales en route to becoming the country's top-grossing movie that year. With its quotable one-liners, steamy love scenes and, yes, that gratuitous shirtless volleyball match, the fighter-pilot flick nearly doubled its box-office take when accounting for worldwide totals, collecting more than $356 million overall.

But if you think you know everything there is to know about "Top Gun," we're here to look at you with intensity and mimic Val Kilmer's intimidating teeth-clench thing (whatever that was).

1. The movie's based on a real fighter-pilot school.

It's now part of the American military's Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center , where, according to AMC, there's a $5 fine for staffers who reference the movie .If you worked there, you probably don't want to lead your peers in a rousing rendition of "You've Lost That Loving Feeling," unless you all felt like donating piles of Lincolns for every song stanza. That might be enough to buy Lt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell a brand-new F-14 Tomcat, though, so, hey, by all means.

2. Tony Scott wasn’t the studio’s first choice but the movie made him a breakthrough director.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Scott had been pursuing a project called "Man on Fire" (which he'd direct some 20 years later) when producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer followed up on a previous conversation and offered him the job. Scott (whose previous film "The Hunger," starring Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie, had flopped ) accepted, despite knowing nothing about fighter school. "Out of the blue, Don and Jerry approached me about making 'Top Gun,'" recalled Scott, who passed away in 2012. "And I jumped at it."

3. Matthew Modine reportedly was considered for Cruise's role of Maverick.

A star on the rise through performances in "Birdy" and "Mrs. Soffel," Modine "famously turned down the Tom Cruise role in 'Top Gun' because he didn’t agree with the film's politics," according to New York Magazine .

4. Cruise told Rolling Stone he helped edit the screenplay — before deciding if he would do the movie.

"I liked it," Cruise told the magazine back in 1986, "but it needed a lot of work. I was worried." That's when he made an unusual offer to work with producers to punch up the script. "I said, 'After two months, if I don't want to do it, the script's gonna be in good enough shape, and you'll have more of a sense of what you want to do. And there are other actors,'" he said. Of course, they wouldn't need another actor to play Maverick.

5. Toto and REO Speedwagon were offered the chance to record "Danger Zone" before Kenny Loggins snagged it, according to MSN .

In retrospect, there were far worse alternatives than Loggins, arguably the most ubiquitous movie-soundtrack artist of the early- to mid-'80s, thanks to "I'm Alright" from "Caddyshack" (1980) and "Footloose" from, well, “Footloose” (1984), and "Danger Zone."

6. Berlin's "Take My Breath Away" wasn't just a monster hit, it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song .

It also won the hearts of hopeless romantics dancing at late-'80s proms and homecoming events, but sadly there's no trophy or ceremony for that honor.

7. "Top Gun" made Kelly McGillis a star, but — at least in retrospect — that's not what she wanted.

"I don't think anything prepared me for what I guess was becoming a household name kind of thing," the actress told the LA Times in 2013 . "It was really intimidating to me. I don't aspire to be famous. I just aspire to be an actress, and that movie kind of startled my reality in a big way. I got very insecure. I didn't know who I could trust to be my friend anymore."

8. After being in limbo, a sequel (with Cruise!) is cleared for landing.

It's being written by Justin Marks , who penned the screenplay for the current, live-action "Jungle Book" movie that continues to be blockbuster . And, yes, Cruise reportedly is on board for the "Top Gun" sequel — although there's no word on whether he's chatted with Marks to punch up this script.

Follow TODAY.com writer Chris Serico on Twitter .

'Top Gun' Cast and Characters (And What They're Doing Now)

Feel the need. The need for speed.

It’s been 36 years since we first felt the “need for speed” when Top Gun was released in theaters. Produced by the dynamic duo of Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson , and directed by the late great action filmmaker Tony Scott , Top Gun took the action war movie into the “danger zone” with its thrilling aerial action scenes, iconic moments that have forever been forged into pop-culture history, and one of the most popular movie soundtracks of all time.

Above all Top Gun was the movie that saw burgeoning actor Tom Cruise become the world's biggest movie star in his role as the hotshot Navy pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell , leading a cast of upcoming talent who would go on to make a mark on the film industry for years to come. And now in 2022, we've been treated to Top Gun: Maverick , a soaring sequel that has gone on to break box office records for Paramount Pictures .

If you'd like to revisit the world of the original Top Gun , the movie is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video and Paramount+. Now without further ado, here’s a look at the cast of Top Gun over three decades after they last took our breath away.

Related: 'Top Gun: Maverick' Featurette Highlights the Cast's Intense, Real-Life Flight Training

Tom Cruise – Pete “Maverick” Mitchell

Top Gun starred Tom Cruise as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, a Naval Aviator whose excellence as a pilot is often undercut by his naïve cockiness. When Maverick is sent to attend Top Gun, the Naval Fighter Weapons School, he finds himself in a rivalry with the equally talented Iceman ( Val Kilmer ), while he begins a relationship with civilian instructor Charlie ( Kelly McGillis ).

The role of Maverick blasted the then 24-year-old Cruise into the stratosphere, the Risky Business actor bringing that wide-grinned star wattage to a role that brought Cruise’s confidence and intensity to the fore. Cruise would go on to become a consistent force as a box-office king with movies such as Rain Man , Minority Report , and War of the Worlds , as well as scoring Oscar nominations for Born on the Fourth of July , Jerry Maguire , and Magnolia .

Top Gun began Cruise’s ascent atop the Hollywood ladder as not only a premier actor but a successful producer as well, with the first Mission: Impossible movie marking Cruise’s first foray into producing , resulting in a billion-dollar franchise that continues to grow strong with every new installment. After Maverick , audiences can next see Cruise in the two-part Mission: Impossible movies Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One and Part Two .

Kelly McGillis – Charlotte “Charlie” Blackwood

Kelly McGillis starred in Top Gun as Charlotte “Charlie” Blackwood, an astrophysicist and Top Gun civilian instructor whose interest in Maverick’s hotshot flying abilities leads to a romance with the thrill-seeking aviator. It is with Charlie that Maverick opens up about the death of his father who was killed in action during the Vietnam War.

McGillis came to Top Gun hot off a BAFTA and Golden Globe-nominated performance alongside Harrison Ford in the acclaimed thriller Witness . While McGillis would later star in acclaimed films such as The Accused alongside Jodie Foster , the Julliard-trained actress would instead focus on the stage and was a featured actress at the prestigious Shakespeare Theatre Company.

A return to film and TV during the 2000s saw McGillis star in acclaimed horror films such as Stake Land and Ti West ’s The Innkeepers . As of writing, McGillis’ last on-screen appearance was in the TV series Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story .

Val Kilmer – Tom “Ice Man” Kazansky

Val Kilmer made his mark in Hollywood with his role as Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazansky in the 1986 smash Top Gun . The adversary to Tom Cruise’s Maverick, the cool under fire Iceman views Maverick’s cocky attitude as dangerous and foolish yet would become best friends with Maverick when they fight alongside one another against a hostile enemy.

One of the most acclaimed actors of his generation, the Julliard trained Kilmer first broke into Hollywood with top-notch comedic performances in Top Secret! , and Real Genius . With Top Gun confirming Kilmer’s action man bona fides he would star in the 1988 George Lucas produced fantasy adventure Willow , before establishing himself as an in-demand leading man throughout the 1990s with notable performances such as Jim Morrison in The Doors , gunslinger Doc Holiday in Tombstone , and Bruce Wayne/Batman in Batman Forever .

Transitioning to a prolific character actor throughout the 2000s, Kilmer would face his toughest challenge when diagnosed with throat cancer which practically rendered him voiceless. In 2021, Kilmer’s voice was recreated through AI technology, the debut of which on the big screen came with his reprisal as Iceman in Top Gun: Maverick .

Anthony Edwards – Nick “Goose” Bradshaw

Maverick’s Radar Intercept Officer and best friend, Nick ‘Goose’ Bradshaw proved to be the steady hand to Maverick’s cheeky bravado both in and out of the cockpit, only for Maverick’s once unshakeable confidence to dim after Goose died during a dogfight.

Anthony Edwards already had a hit under his belt with the 1984 comedy Revenge of the Nerds , yet it was his role as Goose in Top Gun that is perhaps his most recognizable, with the line “talk to me Goose” one of the most repeated from the film. While Edwards amassed a solid filmography on the big screen with the 1988 cult classic Miracle Mile and a memorable supporting role in David Fincher ’s 2007 serial killer opus Zodiac , it was in TV where Edwards would shine with his multiple award-winning performances as Doctor Mark Greene in the medical drama ER .

It is in TV where Edwards would continue to mostly work of late, with recurring roles in Netflix hits Designated Survivor and Inventing Anna , and Apple TV+ miniseries WeCrashed . Edwards’ next big TV gig will be in the upcoming The Walking Dead spin-off anthology series Tales of the Walking Dead .

Tom Skerritt – Mike “Viper” Metcalf

The commanding officer and instructor of Top Gun, Mike ‘Viper’ Metcalf takes a shine to Maverick due to his having served with Maverick’s father in the Vietnam War. Viper sees potential in Maverick and tries to break through the young Navy pilot’s self-doubts and ego, so he can be the best he can be.

Tom Skerritt has long been a fixture on screens big and small with over 200 credits to his name. Before his role as Viper in Top Gun , Skerritt was known for his roles in the 1971 war comedy MASH , the sci-fi horror Alien , and the horror thriller The Dead Zone . While Skerrit was as prolific as ever on the big screen post- Top Gun , his most popular and acclaimed role to date was Sheriff Jimmy Brook in the TV series Picket Fences , for which he won an Emmy. Skerritt continues to work at a prolific pace, with a recent turn in the independent drama East of the Mountains receiving high acclaim.

Michael Ironside – Rick “Jester” Heatherly

A hard-nosed Top Gun instructor, Rick “Jester” Heatherly views Maverick as a gifted pilot, but also a “wildcard” who cannot be trusted. Playing the role of Jester is Canadian actor Michael Ironside , one of the great genre actors who first came to prominence as a homicidal telepath in David Cronenberg ’s Scanners . A string of villainous and tough-guy performances would follow in both film and TV, highlights including Walter Hill ’s underrated 1987 action thriller Extreme Prejudice , and Paul Verhoeven ’s beloved sci-fi action films Total Recall (1990) and Starship Troopers (1997).

Ironside is still as prolific as ever in both film and TV, with recent credits including the TNT series The Alienist , the acclaimed action comedy Nobody , and the Hulu miniseries The Dropout . Ironside has also forged a career as a voice artist, notably as the voice of Tom Clancy ’s character Sam Fisher in the Splinter Cell video games.

Related: 'Top Gun' and 8 Other Times The Government Worked With Hollywood

Rick Rossovich – Ron “Slider” Kerner

Iceman’s Radar Intercept Officer and partner in crime, Ron “Slider” Kerner is often a thorn in the side of Maverick and Goose, as the battle for who is in Top Gun increases in stakes, even during a game of beach volleyball.

Playing the role of Slider is Rick Rossovich , who was previously known as the man who tried to take on Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator and met his doom. After Top Gun , Rossovich landed a big part in Roxanne , the Steve Martin -led adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac . He would then go on to star in Navy SEALs alongside Charlie Sheen and his Terminator co-star Michael Biehn .

Where the 1990s saw Rossovich branch out into TV with recurring roles in the hit medical drama ER and the “ Baywatch on bikes” TV series Pacific Blue , the 2000s and beyond proved to be very quiet for the once prolific Rossovich, with the last project of note the 2012 independent film Sandbar .

The Untold Truth Of Top Gun

"Top Gun" is one of the most iconic films of the 1980s, making a mark with everything from its memorable soundtrack to its role in the development of Tom Cruise as one of Hollywood's most bankable movie stars . Inspired by a 1983 article in California Magazine, "Top Gun" is a fictional story based on life at the real US Naval Air Station Miramar in San Diego County, CA, which until 1996 was the home of the United States Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program, nicknamed TOPGUN. As in the film, TOPGUN was where the top 1% of US naval aviators were sent to train in the most advanced and intense aerial combat maneuvers, making it one of the most spectacular collections of piloting talent — and egos — in the world.

Using the California article and extensive on-base research as their guide, producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, director Tony Scott, and screenwriters Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr. crafted the story of Lt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, a hotshot naval aviator who's driven to prove himself as the best pilot alive. Part military drama, part sports film, and part romance, "Top Gun" captured the attention of filmgoing audiences worldwide, and for better or worse, it launched a new era in the American war film. As with any movie this big, there's a lot of behind-the-scenes melodrama to explore, enough that even avid fans of the film might not know the whole story.

The US Navy was involved with Top Gun from the very beginning

It's no secret that "Top Gun" was produced in close cooperation with the United States Navy. Hollywood studios have collaborated with the United States Department of Defense since the birth of the movie business, but "Top Gun" is one of the most obvious products of that relationship. Most of the film was shot on location at Naval Air Station Miramar in California, home of the real-life TOPGUN program. According to Time , the production got to shoot using real F-14 Tomcats, four actual aircraft carriers, and some of the most skilled combat pilots in the world. The Navy offered access to these resources essentially at the cost of fuel and pilot hours, charging only $1.8 million total. ( Top Gun 's total budget was $15 million .)

What's less well-known is that the US Navy was involved in Top Gun before there was even a script. Producer Don Simpson had recently been involved in the production of 1982's "An Officer and a Gentleman," to which the US Navy refused access to facilities , costing the production millions. Simpson was determined not to have this happen on his next project, so he and Jerry Bruckheimer visited Navy headquarters in Washington  to gauge their interest in a TOPGUN movie before even commissioning the screenplay. In fact, the duo hadn't worked out the story yet, and they had to improvise one on the spot. After receiving their enthusiastic approval, they worked closely with the Navy's Information Office throughout the production.

The Navy rewrote Goose's death

Securing the cooperation of the US Department of Defense (DoD) for a film involving the military can save a production millions of dollars, but it comes with strings attached. The DoD will only cooperate with productions that portray the military favorably and may  aid recruiting efforts , and it will insist on revisions to the script in order to bring it in line with the image it wants to project. This can include omitting or revising historically accurate depictions that the Pentagon finds distasteful. Productions that refuse to make the required edits –  such as Tom Cruise's military drama  "Born on the Fourth of July"   – must make do without those resources, which can significantly inflate their production costs.

Since "Top Gun" was written with pleasing the Navy in mind to begin with, the film's Navy-selected technical advisor and retired TOPGUN instructor Pete "Viper" Pettigrew had to request relatively few substantive changes to the script. Most of Pettigrew's revisions were in regard to the accuracy of the aerial combat maneuvers or life at Naval Air Station Miramar.

But one story change that the Navy insisted upon was the death of Nick "Goose" Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards), who would've perished as the result of a mid-air collision between two F-14s. According to the official documentary "Danger Zone: The Making of Top Gun," Pettigrew had to devise another realistic cause for Goose's deadly crash that would involve only one aircraft, which is the version that was filmed.

The real Charlie is a big deal

The romantic subplot  of "Top Gun" went through a number of revisions during the writing process, with Maverick's romantic foil changing several times between drafts. According to the making-of documentary "Danger Zone," a later draft had a love story between Maverick and a Navy non-commissioned officer serving on base with him, but the real-life Miramar base commander refused to allow filming to commence unless this was changed, since fraternization within Naval ranks is against regulations. When Jerry Bruckheimer asked for plausible alternatives, the commander suggested a civilian instructor and analyst, introducing Bruckheimer to Christine Fox, a mathematician and civilian contractor with the Center for Naval Analyses.

According to People , Fox became the direct inspiration for Charlotte "Charlie" Blackwood, the romantic lead portrayed by Kelly McGillis . Like Charlie, Fox was an air superiority analyst who worked at Naval Air Station Miramar and took part in evaluating and training aviators in the TOPGUN program. Fox also socialized — though never romantically — with TOPGUN aviators at the Officer's Club, where Charlie first meets Maverick in the film. (Fox's opinion of the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" is not a matter of public record.)

In the decades following her assignment at Miramar, Christine Fox rose up the ranks at the US Department of Defense, and for a period of six months between 2013 and 2014, she served as acting deputy secretary of defense, becoming the highest-ranking woman in the history of the Pentagon.

Top Gun's flying is more dangerous than the real thing

Like any Hollywood movie, the commitment to accuracy in "Top Gun" has its limits. Some of the storytelling liberties are about creating character stakes — for instance, there is not, nor has there ever been,  a TOPGUN trophy . The trophy is an invention of screenwriters Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr., created to give Maverick and rival aviator Iceman (Val Kilmer) something to compete over, establishing sports-style stakes for a war film without a war. In the "Danger Zone" documentary, former TOPGUN instructor Pete Pettigrew recounts explaining to the screenwriters that if a trophy really existed, "No one would ever graduate. You don't understand the intensity of these guys ... Everybody would die."

Oddly enough, "Top Gun" did inspire more dangerous flying than would normally be conducted at Miramar, not because of competition but because of cinematography. As explained in "Danger Zone," the aerial combat maneuvers captured in the film were performed at closer range and at much lower altitude than normal. The lower altitude kept the nearby mountain range in frame, giving the aircraft a sense of speed that would be lost against a plain sky blue background. Planes flew far closer together than necessary for modern dogfighting, since using more realistic ranges would almost never allow two planes to be in frame at the same time, draining the scenes of any drama. TOPGUN's pilots were up to the task, but these maneuvers fell well outside their usual rules of engagement.

Val Kilmer didn't want to be in Top Gun

Val Kilmer's performance as Lt. Tom "Iceman" Kazansky is as memorable as Tom Cruise's Maverick, and it helped to transform him into a legitimate movie star. But according to his 2020 memoir " I'm Your Huckleberry ," Kilmer had no interest in the role or in the script, and he only met with director Tony Scott out of pressure from his agent, who told him that Scott was "absolutely obsessed with [him]." Kilmer did everything he could to make a bad first impression at the meeting in the hopes of getting out of the gig, deliberately dressing awkwardly and sandbagging his line readings. It didn't work — Scott overwhelmed Kilmer with his enthusiasm for his acting and for the project, and Kilmer came on board.

The character of Iceman didn't give Kilmer a lot to work with, but he came up with a few ideas of his own to chew on — including the literal ice chips he's seen crunching in the film, an improvisation on this part. To give Iceman an inner life upon which to draw for his performance, Kilmer invented a Shakespearian backstory for Iceman, involving a cold and distant father who expected perfection from his son.

Kilmer changed his tune  about "Top Gun" when he finally saw the film for the first time and saw how it all came together. Kilmer came to respect the work that went into making  Top Gun into such a massive hit, and he recalls the experience fondly.

Rick Rossovich was booted off the Enterprise

According to the making-of documentary "Danger Zone," the beginning and ending of "Top Gun" were shot aboard the USS Enterprise (CVN-65), a fully manned and in-service nuclear aircraft carrier. Despite the presence of the film's cast and crew, normal operations continued aboard the  Enterprise , to the extent that the cast wasn't allowed to know what the real Naval crew was up to or even the ship's exact location. For much of the film crew's five-day stay aboard the  Enterprise , they simply shot the sailors and aviators going about their duties (though Tony Scott did essentially rent the  Enterprise  for about five mines— costing him $25,000 — to keep the captain from steering her out of ideal lighting).

During their stay, the cast and crew was allotted space in the crew quarters, and Rick Rossovich, who plays LTJG Ron "Slider" Kerner, was uncomfortable with his sleeping arrangements. Rossovich's bunk was positioned near a cautionary sign regarding the  Enterprise 's nuclear reactor, which spooked Rossovich into leaving his assigned area and crashing in someone else's. (In fact, Rossovich was in no danger of radiation exposure .) When the bunk's proper resident — an officer — arrived to find a Hollywood actor sleeping in his bed, Rossovich refused to vacate. Rossovich was sent to the captain for a talking to, which apparently didn't do the trick, as Rossovich's attitude got him choppered off of the ship a day ahead of the rest of the production.

Kenny Loggins lucked into singing 'Danger Zone'

The soundtrack album to "Top Gun" was a massive hit, going certified Platinum nine times over . Competition to participate in the soundtrack was fierce. Paramount set up a "cattle call," inviting established hitmakers to screen a rough cut of the film and indicating particular scenes in which they wanted to place music. Singer-songwriter Kenny Loggins, who'd already contributed a smash single for the film "Footloose,"  attended one such screening and was intimidated by the wealth of Top 40 talent in the room. Rather than try to go head to head with the other heavy hitters, Loggins and producer Peter Wolf chose, as Loggins puts it in the making-of documentary "Danger Zone," "the path of least resistance" and wrote a song for the scene they thought there would be the least competition for — the now-iconic beach volleyball scene.

The decision worked out better than he could've imagined. Standing out against the  more than 300 submitted songs , Loggins' "Playing with the Boys" successfully won its place in the film. Not only that, but when negotiations fell through with several other Columbia Records artists to perform "Danger Zone," the song written by Giorgio Moroder and lyricist Tom Whitlock to close out the film, Loggins was approached at the 11th hour to record the lead vocal since he was already involved in the soundtrack. Loggins' "Danger Zone" would reach #2 on the Billboard charts and become one of the most iconic songs of the 1980s.

'Take My Breath Away' broke up Berlin

The biggest hit off the "Top Gun" soundtrack was "Take My Breath Away," written by Giorgio Moroder and Tom Whitlock and performed by American new wave band Berlin. Berlin, centered around singer Terri Nunn and songwriter John Crawford, was already an established major label act that had recently  broken into the Billboard Top 20  with their 1984 single "No More Words," produced by Moroder. Having been impressed with Terri Nunn's vocals during their earlier session, Moroder  invited Terri Nunn to record the vocals for "Take My Breath Away." Nunn jumped at the chance to record with Moroder again, but John Crawford was uneasy about the proposition of recording a high-profile song written by someone else.

Both Nunn's enthusiasm and Crawford's cynicism were vindicated. "Take My Breath Away" launched Berlin suddenly into the stratosphere, as the  single reached #1 in six countries  and won an Academy Award . The flipside of this good fortune was that the popularity of "Take My Breath Away" outshined all their previous recordings, and it became the definitive Berlin song to most audiences, which frustrated Crawford and other band members since they had little interest in a song they would now be expected to play at every show for as long as the band existed. This created a creative schism in the band that Nunn believes was the catalyst for their breakup in 1987.

Attempts at a Top Gun sequel stalled several times

"Top Gun" was the biggest box office hit of 1986 , so it's no surprise that Paramount was interested in a sequel. First, Paramount considered a fast and cheap path to making "Top Gun II," reusing footage shot for the first film. In "Danger Zone: The Making of Top Gun," editor Billy Weber describes a phone call from a Paramount executive asking for him to provide all the unused airplane footage left over from the making of "Top Gun" for use in a hypothetical "Top Gun II." Weber explained that there  was no leftover footage. The first film had included every usable frame of the hours of aerial combat maneuvers that were shot.

Navy Maj. David Georgi has also revealed (via Operation Hollywood ) that Paramount pitched the Navy a "Top Gun" sequel in the early 1990s, and that this time, the Navy wasn't interested, as the criminal conduct of real TOPGUN aviators at a 1991 pilot convention had brought such public shame to the Navy that it led the secretary of the Navy to resign . According to Maj. Georgi, TOPGUN was "not something the Navy wanted to brag about" at the time.

Development on a sequel resumed in 2010 , with plans to reunite producer Jerry Bruckheimer, director Tony Scott, and star Tom Cruise, but it  stalled again after Scott's death in 2013. The eventual sequel, "Top Gun: Maverick,"  finally began shooting in 2018  with director Joseph Kosinski at the helm, once again utilizing real US Navy hardware .

After Top Gun, the military went Hollywood for good and vice versa

The impact of "Top Gun" can't be measured only in terms of its box office success. The release of "Top Gun" also  correlated to a sizable boost in Navy recruitment, and these two factors combined led to a massive increase in the number of films being considered and approved to receive military assets in exchange for script approval. This trend has only increased.  Hundreds films and television shows have been produced under this arrangement since "Top Gun," and as Hollywood studios have become more dependent on military support, the military has gained more leverage over studios to cave to their conditions. According to Mace Neufeld, producer of 1990's "The Hunt for Red October," the unwritten rule for Hollywood movies depicting the military is either get military cooperation  "or forget about making the picture."

For Hollywood, cooperation with the Pentagon is an opportunity to show off stunning visuals of expensive military assets in their films and trailers without having to break the bank on props, sets, and CGI. For the Pentagon, cooperation with Hollywood is cheap advertising, the chance to curate a favorable impression of military service for generations of viewers. It's mutually profitable for the two entities — whether or not it's any good for the state of art or the viewing public is a matter for further debate.

Maverick and Charlie's biggest scenes were added later

"Top Gun" certainly is an action-drama before it's a romance, with Charlie and Maverick's love story riding shotgun. However, two of the duo's most memorable moments — the love scene and elevator scene — were added after filming wrapped. Kelly McGillis confirmed to Yahoo! Entertainment that something felt off during screenings of the movie, so she and Tom Cruise were called back to add the two scenes. WBUR reported that those in attendance at one of the screenings felt the couple's romance needed to play out more on screen.

McGillis also noted that she was well into production on another film — "Made in Heaven" — when these reshoots came around, and she was sporting an entirely different hairstyle and color. If you're wondering why that rather awkward love scene looks the way it does, it's because of the whole hair situation. The actor's silhouettes were used to hide McGillis's dark hair, and it's also why she's wearing a black baseball cap in the elevator scene.

Why Kelly McGillis and Meg Ryan weren't invited to the Top Gun: Maverick party

Kelly McGillis played a much more significant role in "Top Gun" than Meg Ryan, but both played important parts in the Navy flick. As such, it was somewhat shocking to hear neither woman was asked back to star in "Top Gun: Maverick." It's not just that they weren't asked back — they weren't even considered. Director Joseph Kosinski spoke with Insider about why McGillis and Ryan were never on his radar.

"Those weren't stories that we were throwing around," Kosinski told the outlet. The director seemed more focused on moving forward and not reflecting on the past. "I didn't want every storyline to always be looking backward," Kosinski said. "It was important to introduce some new characters." McGillis didn't seem too surprised about not being asked to participate and gave a straightforward response to Entertainment Tonight when the topic arose back in 2019. "I'm old, and I'm fat, and I look age-appropriate for what my age is. And that is not what that whole scene is about. To me, I'd much rather feel absolutely in my skin and who I am at my age as opposed to placing a value on all that other stuff," McGillis proclaimed.

Traning for Top Gun and Top: Gun Maverick was no joke

The original "Top Gun" training wasn't as intense as its sequel, but Tom Cruise noted on " The Graham Norton Show " that it wasn't easy. The actor was able to fly with the Blue Angels, and he had to experience hitting heavy Gs. He recalled at one point hitting 9.5 Gs, meaning you're being hit with nine and a half times your body weight while flying. 

For the sequel, the training was put into the hands of Cruise himself — as if that would surprise anyone these days. The stunt master extraordinaire designed the entire program the actors would go through, according to Military.com . The training took about three months and included drills underwater, as aviators needed to be well-prepared in case they had to eject over an ocean. This was also crucial for the cast to learn, which Cruise confirmed to ET Canada , noting he and his co-stars went through ejector seat training, which he also confirmed he did for the original. The actors also had to feel the pressure of 7 Gs, which can be seen all over their faces in an incredible behind-the-scenes training video shared by Paramount Pictures .

Tom Cruise knew exactly what he wanted regarding effects in Top Gun and its sequel

In another interview on " The Graham Norton Show " before "Top Gun: Maverick" was confirmed, Tom Cruise revealed that one of his stipulations for the original was that he be filmed in the F-14 Tomcat. He said he made a deal with Paramount Pictures for this to happen, as that was the only footage he wanted to be used in the movie. If it weren't real, he simply wasn't interested.

For "Top Gun: Maverick," Cruise was adamant about there being no CGI in the film, relying solely on practical effects. When he and producer Jerry Bruckheimer caught up with Empire in 2020, Cruise hinted that he didn't want to do the film if they couldn't achieve everything they wanted without the help of CGI. "We just started talking," Cruise said of he and Bruckheimer's early discussions. "And I realized that there were things that we could accomplish cinematically. And I started getting excited about this big challenge of, 'How do we do it?' So I said to Jerry, 'I'll do it if...' meaning, I'm not going to do the CGI stuff."

Cruise and Bruckheimer were more than successful in their venture, with the former saying no movie has even been made like this before and probably never will be again.

Inside the Original ‘Top Gun’: How Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer Assembled the 1986 Tom Cruise Classic

By Cynthia Littleton

Cynthia Littleton

Business Editor

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The original “Top Gun” is a study in Hollywood moviemaking of a certain era — an era captured in the pages of Variety as the movie was birthed starting in mid-1983 until its triumphant release by Paramount Pictures three years later.

The movie came together during the period when Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer were at the peak of their powers as red-hot producers of culture-shaking films such as 1983’s “Flashdance” and 1984’s “Beverly Hills Cop.” The film that the pair crafted with numerous screenwriters (more on that in the clips), director Tony Scott and veteran producer Bill Badalato launched Tom Cruise to a new level of stardom and created a legacy sturdy enough for Cruise, Bruckheimer and Paramount to leap back to the top of the box office nearly 40 years later with the long-delayed, made-for-movie-screens sequel “Top Gun: Maverick.”

As demonstrated by the steady pace of news about “Top Gun,” Simpson and Bruckheimer had a ton of clout with Paramount and the industry at the time. They even were able to control the rights to the soundtrack for the film — something they learned from the success of “Flashdance” and “Beverly Hills Cop.” Simpson-Bruckheimer Prods. cut a deal with Columbia Records for the soundtrack that spent several weeks at No. 1 in the summer of 1986 and yielded hits for Kenny Loggins (“‘Danger Zone”), Berlin (“Take My Breath Away”) and Harold Faltermeyer (“Top Gun Anthem,” “Memories”).

A trip through the Variety archives shows the first reference to the movie in nascent form came about two months after California magazine published the article that inspired the movie. “ Top Guns,” penned by Ehud Yonay, told the story of derring-do by top-tier young pilots at the Naval Air Station Miramar training facility near San Diego.

The project was mentioned as one of several in development in the Aug. 3, 1983 edition of Daily Variety , which included a page 1 story about Simpson and Bruckheimer signing a rich new three-year production pact with Paramount, which was eager to keep its dynamic duo on the Melrose lot. (In classic slate-story fashion, the other early-gestating projects cited are worth a read-through for ’80s movie obsessives.)

The “Top Gun”-related clips shared here follow the nuts-and-bolts process of assembling a movie, from landing Cruise and director Tony Scott to the hurdles in selecting the film’s female lead to the tragic 1985 death of ace pilot Art Scholl,who crashed while capturing aerial footage for the movie.

A look back at the transactional history of “Top Gun” also adds telling details to the legend of the late Don Simpson. Variety’s coverage of the voluble producer is a window on how the master showman worked every lever — he was on the phone with Variety ‘s Army Archerd at least once a week — to lay the groundwork for a blockbuster that would stand the test of time.

Simpson had his demons that led to his death in January 1996 at the age of 52. But before tales of his personal behavior overtook his professional accomplishments, he spent years as a movie marketing and advertising executive. He knew what to do with a massive hit. And he had a lot of thoughts about what it takes to make a great movie.

As Simpson told Variety in August 1983 when he and Bruckheimer inked what would be a fruitful, multi-picture deal with Paramount:

Interestingly, all of the 11 films Simpson and Bruckheimer now have in development are original ideas rather than scripts based on novels or film remakes. “One of the problems and reasons behind movies failing is that they’re not based on new ideas, ” Simpson offered. “We have much more on the upside working this way and I think our personal aptitude is more in that area.”

August 3, 1983: 'Top Gun' the Movie is Born

The first reference to “Top Gun” as a movie project came in the Aug. 3, 1983, edition of Daily Variety .

Producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer parlayed their success with “Flashdance” into a lucrative multi-picture deal with Paramount Pictures — a pact that would pay off nicely for both sides with “Beverly Hills Cop” and “Top Gun,” for starters.

The above-the-fold page 1 story in Variety cemented their status as hot-shot movie producers. It’s full of pearls of wisdom from Simpson, who had previously been president of production at Paramount before stepping down to produce “Flashdance.”

The story also features Paramount president Michael Eisner vowing that the pair would “be productive in both films and television.” What’s more, Eisner assured, in a quote that is now a time capsule, the TV marketplace was wide open for the pair: “We have two of the three networks interested in them (Simpson and Bruckheimer) as a team,” Eisner told Daily Variety ‘s Steven Ginsberg.

(Bruckheimer, of course, was destined for big things in TV, but it would take another 17 years before he found his first smash hit, CBS’ “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”)

Read the story in two parts below.

December 7, 1984: 'Top Guns' Gets the Greenlight

Paramount Pictures gave Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer an early holiday gift in December 1984 with the formal greenlight for what was dubbed “Top Guns,” as the tale was titled in the original 1983 magazine article on the Miramar Naval Air Station, aka “Fightertown, U.S.A.” It’s no coincidence that the good news came to Simpson and Bruckheimer as the pair’s Eddie Murphy starrer “Beverly Hills Cop” was beginning its strong run that same month.

Simpson vowed to Variety that the movie about hot-shot naval aviators would be akin to “this generation’s ‘From Here to Eternity.’ ”

Read the story below.

March 28, 1985: 'Top Gun' Lands Its Star and Director

A new regime at Paramount Pictures (Michael Eisner had moved on to run Disney by this point) threw even more money at Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer in 1985, as “Top Gun” readied for lensing and as “Beverly Hills Cop” fired up the box office. News that the producers had landed Tom Cruise to star and Tony Scott to direct made page 1 on March 28, 1985.

May 20, 1985: 'Top Gun' Gets a Quick Rewrite

Producer Don Simpson kept beloved Variety columnist Army Archerd regularly apprised of the trajectory of “Top Gun.” Here it’s clear he was doing some proactive damage control on rumors that the studio was unhappy with the script just as filming was about to begin.

June 3, 1985: Casting Call for 'Top Gun' Female Lead

“Available part: 26-28, femme, physics proficiency, intelligent, starring role.”

With cameras getting ready to roll in San Diego, Paramount sought submissions for the female lead on “Top Gun” as late as the June 3, 1985, edition of Daily Variety .

But in reality, the “Top Gun” team wasn’t waiting on general submissions to land in Marge Simpkin’s office at Paramount. Two days after that item ran, Variety columnist Army Archerd reported in “Just for Variety” that Kelly McGillis had landed the plum part opposite Tom Cruise.

McGillis was on a roll in her career at the time, coming off a well-reviewed performance with Harrison Ford in 1985’s “Witness.” But she did not return for sequel “Top Gun: Maverick.”

September 18, 1985: Top Hollywood Pilot Killed While Working on 'Top Gun'

“Top Gun” came face-to-face with the danger of flying during production when veteran Hollywood film pilot Art Scholl was killed while shooting second-unit aerial footage for director Tony Scott.

Daily Variety , in the Sept. 18, 1985, edition, reported that Scholl, 53, was believed to have died after his “prop-driven biplane crashed into the sea off the northern coast of San Diego.” A Paramount rep told Variety that Scholl had been working with a remote control camera.

Scholl’s previous credits include 1983’s “Blue Thunder” and “The Right Stuff” and 1975’s “The Great Waldo Pepper,” among other films. He was survived by his wife, Judy, and two sons, David and John.

May 9, 1986: 'Top Gun' Review -- 'Revved-Up But Empty Entertainment'

Let’s be frank: Variety did not love “Top Gun” on first viewing. Our reviewer deemed it “revved-up but empty entertainment” and observed that “watching the film is like wearing a Walkman” thanks to its propulsive soundtrack. But we did allow that “audiences prepared to go with it will be taken for a thrilling ride in the wide blue yonder.” (According to Variety ‘s unusual custom back then, the reviewer stayed mostly anonymous under the abbreviated byline “Jagr.”)

Read Variety ‘s original “Top Gun” review in two parts.

May 21, 1986: 'Top Gun' Soars at the Box Office

The verdict was in after opening weekend. “Top Gun” was a hit.

Variety reported on the film’s “big bow,” which ranked as the second-best of the year and helped boost overall receipts over the previous weekend by 37%. Simpson/Bruckheimer Productions and Paramount Pictures also made sure the industry didn’t miss the big numbers with a double-truck grosses ad that featured an instantly iconic shot of star Tom Cruise.

See the story and advertisement below.

January-March 1987: 'Top Gun' FYC Ads

“Top Gun” lived up to its name and stayed aloft as the top-grossing movie of 1986. Producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer and Paramount Pictures took a shot at the Oscar race, but they were practical.

Variety ‘s pages during the heat of the early 1987 campaign season (for movies released in 1986) demonstrate that Team “Top Gun” wisely focused its efforts on competing in song and score categories as well as film editing. The movie wound up earning a total of four Academy Award nominations: for sound, film editing, sound effects editing and original song, for tunesmiths Giorgio Moroder and Tom Whitlock for “Take My Breath Away,” as performed by Berlin. The film’s sole win came for song.

Here’s a sampling of “Top Gun” For Your Consideration ads.

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Film Details

• Articles & Reviews

Brief Synopsis

Cast & crew, kelly mcgillis, anthony edwards, tom skerritt, technical specs.

A cocky Navy pilot, Maverick, and his co-pilot, Goose, are chosen to attend the Top Gun school. Training begins against other hot shots, and Maverick falls for one of the instructors.

Michael Ironside

Adrian Pasdar

Randall brady, richard villalobos, linda rae jurgens, clarence gilyard, troy hunter, duke stroud, frank pesce, whip hubley, brian sheehan.

Tim Robbins

James tolkan, john stockwell, rick rossovich, pete pettigrew, admiral t j cassidy, nick alavarado, julianna arenson, diana austin, bill badalato, pamela bentkowski, robert r. benton, otis blackwell, larry blanford, michael w blymyer, jerry bruckheimer, peter cairo, james campana, david carothers, james cavarretta, richard childs, richard f clark, lisa clarkson milillo, sam comstock, john j connor, virginia cook, jack cooperman, patrick cosgrove, steve cropper, stuart cudlitz, john de cuir, dan delgado, jim destafney, john dexter, michael dilbeck, teri e. dorman, john michael eaves, craig dennis edgar, ron eiseman, juno j. ellis, emilio estefan, julia evershade, harold faltermeyer, john paul fasal, rick fichter, claudia finkle, daniel f. finnerty, stacey foiles, steven foster, roy freeland, john gazdik, barbara gerard, john gilbert, franne golde, whitney green, jeff greenberg, larry greene, william groshelle, gary gutierrez, allen l hall, cecelia hall, david hallinger, jack hammer, donald r hansard, jack hansard, thomas r harmon, c j heatley, jan heyneker, steve holladay, jake hooker, john horton, frank howard, george howe, joey ippolito, sarah jacobs, michael jay, wingate jones jr., william b. kaplan, donna keegan, william kelly, david kelson, jeffrey l kimball, catalaine knell, david knoll, dan koblash, dan kolsrud, george leahy, chris lebenzon, stephen lighthill, kenny loggins, sharon mann, teena marie, stacey s mcintosh, marghe mcmahon, scott metcalfe, donald o mitchell, ted moehnke, giorgio moroder, michael moskowitz, earle murphy, jon napolitano, ralph nelson, bob nichols, martin nicholson, kenneth nishino, david nowell, jon o'connell, kevin o'connell, ron oberman, allessandro palladini, andrew g patterson, gayle peabody, bruce pearson, randy peters, peter pettigrew, joe pizzulo, gary platek, thomas prophet, chip proser, bobbie read, otis redding, brian reeves, david robertson, mitch romanauski, r.a. rondell, ward t russell, earl sampson, june samson, steven sanders, greg schmidt, alan roy scott, margery simkin, don simpson, warren skaaren, donald smith, matthew snyder, phil spector, sandy stairs, stephen stalheim, jeffery d stanman, edward steidele, steve stephens, richard t stevens, randy stiles, peter stolz, david stone, sally syberg, wes takahashi, peter thomas, don thompson, gary tolbert, james w. tyson, joe valentine, marietta waters, george watters, billy weber, cynthia weil, barbara weintraub, d michael wheeler, tom whitlock, christine whitney, robert willard, erick willenbrock, robert winder, marshall winn, award nominations, best editing, best sound effects sound editing.

Miscellaneous Notes

Released in United States Spring May 12, 1986

Wide Release in United States May 16, 1986

Re-released in United States February 8, 2013

Released in United States on Video March 1987

The film was converted to 3-D by Legend 3D for an IMAX® 3D re-release, beginning on February 8, 2013.

To achieve its widescreen effect film was shot in Super Technicscope/Super 35, instead of the fully anamorphic widescreen process Panavision, due to the smaller, more manageable shooting lenses afforded.

Began shooting June 26, 1985.

Additional love scenes between Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis were shot in Chicago, Illinois March 1986 after a sneak preview in Dallas, Texas.

According to the July 1991 issue of Esquire magazine, Warren Skaaren contributed to the screenplay.

aspect ratio 2.35

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How the Blue Angels Convinced Tom Cruise to do Top Gun

• December 24, 2023
• Mike Killian

It’s hard to imagine a world without the movie Top Gun. AvGeeks watch it at least once a year despite the 80s corniness, because the flying scenes are as cool now as they were 30+ years ago. Top talent was hired to ensure a successful production, but the star of the movie needed convincing from the Blue Angels to finally decide to become Maverick.

In another fantastic interview by Ryan Notthaft at Blue Angel Phantoms on YouTube , the Blue Angel pilot who flew Tom Cruise, Curt “Griz” Watson, talks about his experience.

A thin script with no story, yet

Reading the script alone Cruise was not amused. He was a serious actor still making a name for himself, and there was a lot of apprehension about how the public would receive an aviation movie. Because the truth is no aviation movie was ever truly a big time blockbuster before Top Gun.

But the producers knew they had a winner. They considered Top Gun like “Star Wars on Earth”, inspired by a story years earlier in California Magazine. But Cruise didn’t initially share their vision, and neither did many production companies before Paramount. They had no real characters or story, just cool flying jets.

“When I first read it I thought they had a very thin story and script,” recalled Cruise in a old Behind the Scenes feature on the making of the movie, which you can watch here . “I thought yea, I don’t know about this.”

Help us Admiral

In a last desperate attempt to convince Cruise to join, producer Jerry Bruckheimer put in a call to Navy Admiral Peter Garrow, requesting the Navy fly Cruise to convince him to do the movie. Garrow, naturally, called the Blues with the orders.

Grizz rung out Cruise pretty good in the team’s #7 jet, an A-4 Skyhawk. With a bag full of vomit Cruise was hooked, and his love affair with aviation began. Upon landing he walked to the closest payphone, called Bruckheimer and said “I’ll do it”.

But he wasn’t satisfied with just the Blue Angels A-4 ride. After all, Mav is an F-14 Tomcat pilot. So Cruise requested flight time in the F-14 as part of his character development. Which made perfect sense. Cruise even put it in his contract. The producers and Navy happily accommodated.

His first F-14 flight kicked his butt good too. His pilot, call sign Bozo, put him through the wringer. You can watch the interview above about some of that flying, or better yet, watch this video where both Cruise and Bozo talk about it.

He loved flying the F-14 so much, that he even told his pilots “let’s get these scenes shot and then go rip it up. I’m gonna rate you on who is the best pilot.” Each pilot wanted to know how his other pilots did, and would then compete to see who could kick Tom’s butt in the sky the hardest.

Cruise has been in love with flying ever since. He’s now an accomplished pilot himself, rated for numerous airframes. He even owns a WWII P-51 Mustang fighter.

Killian is our Assistant Editor & a full time aerospace photojournalist. He covers both spaceflight and military / civilian aviation & produces stories, original content & reporting for various media & publishers. Over the years he’s been onboard NASA's space shuttles, flown jet shoots into solar eclipses, launched off aircraft carriers, has worked with the Blue Angels & most of the air show industry, & has flown photo shoots with almost every vintage warbird that is still airworthy.

Related Topics

• A-4 Skyhawk
• blue angels

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NEWS... BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT

Where to watch the original Top Gun movie from 1986

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Top Gun fans have been waiting a staggering 36 years for a sequel to the blockbuster action movie, but it is finally almost time to take back to the skies.

The wait for Top Gun: Maverick was made even longer due to the Covid-19 pandemic , as its original June 2020 release date was moved to Christmas 2020.

It was then moved again to July 2021, before finally setting on May 25, 2022 (in the UK) – so it is fair to say it’s been a long time coming.

Moviegoers are keen to get reacquainted with Tom Cruise’s hotshot pilot – Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell – as he heads back to Top Gun academy to train a new generation of fighter pilots.

But it may have been some time since you last saw Tony Scott’s 80’s classic – so just where can you watch the original Top Gun film ahead of the long-awaited sequel’s release?

Can you watch Top Gun (1986) online?

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Top Gun is available on Amazon Prime Video – but it is not one of the 20,000+ free movies and TV shows for Prime members.

To rent the action movie for two days will set you back £3.49 – or £5.99 if you to keep it.

The film is also available on the streaming service Chili , where you can rent it for £2.49 or buy and keep the movie in 4K for £5.99 – the same price as Amazon.

The film is available to stream for those that have a Sky Cinema, Virgin Go or Now Cinema subscription.

If you’re a Sky customer but don’t have Sky Cinema on your package, you can get the same deal as Amazon – £3.49 rental for 30 days or £5.99 to buy the film and keep it. As an optional extra, you can also buy the digital copy and the DVD for £10.99.

The classic – co-starring Val Kilmer, who makes a return in the sequel – is not currently on Netflix in the UK but is available in the US, so if you feel the ‘need for speed’ to watch it before the sequel is released then best get on the next flight to JFK.

Where can you watch Top Gun: Maverick when it releases?

Maverick sees Cruise star alongside Jennifer Connelly and Jon Hamm , as Mitchell ‘[trains] a detachment of graduates for a special assignment’ and embarking on a ‘mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those who choose to fly it’.

The blockbuster is being given a wide release at the end of May, meaning it will feature in just about every mainstream and independent cinema you can imagine.

In the UK, you will be able to watch it at your local Odeon, Cineworld, Vue and other cinema chains and venues. It will also be screening in IMAX and 4DX screens.

It has been widely reported that the Hollywood action star blocked the production team from making deals to get Top Gun: Maverick on streaming platforms straight away.

Asked about why, the actor said he only ‘makes films for the big screen’.

Make sure to check your local cinema listings to see when you book your tickets and head back on the highway to the danger zone.

Top Gun: Maverick is in UK cinemas now.

MORE : Top Gun: Maverick producer reveals biggest challenge to making sequel and Tom Cruise mantra that pulled them through

MORE : Top Gun: Maverick review: Tom Cruise’s tour de force offers a pulsating ride well worth the 36-year wait

MORE : Top Gun: Maverick star Monica Barbaro ‘convinced’ she’d been recast after table read for sequel

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A Detailed Look At The Kawasaki Motorcycle That Tom Cruise Rode In Top Gun

The Kawasaki GPZ900R that Maverick rides in Top Gun is one of the most iconic movie motorcycles of all time.

Hollywood movies have always seen extravagance taking a center stage. The more the action, the more the entertainment and, of course, more money coming in for studios. Motorcycles have always added to the drama unlike anything else, from heroes to villains . That's because motorcycles are cool! Right? Well, motorcycles have impacted the lives of many young people, so that says a lot right there. Many people would agree that motorcycle are indeed cultural icons.

Some movies that have featured motorcycles, and which have made a huge cultural impact include the Wild One starring Marlon Brando and of course Top Gun that sees Tom Cruise racing an old Kawasaki superbike.

Tom Cruise is a person who had enough screen time with a number of motorcycles . The Hollywood action hero’s influence on bikes goes a long way. With the number of bikes he’d cast in movies along with owning a few, it’s better said that when it comes to motorcycles, Tom Cruise and Hollywood go hand in hand, and everybody remembers the Kawasaki GPZ900R Maverick rides in Top Gun.

Update November 2022: Tom Cruise may have had another big blockbuster with the new Top Gun: Maverick movie, but we still can't stop talking about the old Kawasaki GPZ900R motorcycle he rode in the original Top Gun movie, and which also made an appearance in the new one.

RELATED: Here's What Top Gun Got Wrong About Planes As Well As Flying Them

The Kawasaki GPZ900R Is Special

One of the reasons that made the GPZ900R a legend is the fact that it was considered as the predecessor of the modern-day sportbikes, much like how the Lamborghini Miura is to supercars . Part of the reason why this Kawasaki superbike rose to fame was its cameo in Top Gun. Setting that aside, the bike alone was very innovative for the mid-1980s. Kawasaki launched the GPZ900R, affectionately called ‘GPZ’ in 1985 . It was a sub-liter sports bike, regarded as the spiritual successor to the Kawasaki Z1. A year prior to launching the GPZ, the ZX750 Turbo caught a lot of attention for the amount of engineering it brought to the table. But, the GPZ was a closely kept secret for almost six years, while the ZX750 saw development start in 1981.

The ZX750 was brought in much earlier despite its short development period, while Kawasaki took its time for the GPZ900R. When the GPZ came out, the bike left everyone awestruck with the amount of sophisticated technology it had for that time. It was so capable that six months after being unveiled to the press, dealers entered three works GPZ900R bikes in the Isle of Man Production TT, and finishing in first and second on the podium.

Given that Isle of Man is one of the prestigious yet notoriously dangerous motorcycle races known to mankind, excelling in that race was an incredible feat for the bike. This along with an important factor, which we’ll dive into later, made Tom Cruise choose the Kawasaki GPZ900R for Top Gun. In the Top Gun: Maverick, Tom Cruise has been spotted on a Ninja H2R; the fastest Kawasaki to date , and which is heavily influenced by the GPZ900R, which also makes a nostalgic appearance in the film.

The Kawasaki GPZ900R Was Made To Go All-Out

Right off the bat, the Kawasaki GPZ900R used a 908cc 16-valve inline-4 engine with liquid cooling. The GPZ made an astonishing 115 hp at 9,800 rpm! Remember this was in 1985 where numbers like these are rare for race bikes let alone a homologized production bike.

The turbocharged ZX750 (often called the GPZ turbo) , often compared with the GPZ900R, made 112 horsepower but, used a whole different setup entirely. The GPZ900R used a steel frame, 16-inch front, and 18-inch rear wheels, air suspension, and an anti-dive fork as part of its chassis along with using the engine as a stressed member.

Importantly though, Kawasaki positioned the engine lower in the frame, allowing it to maintain a lower center of mass, and enabling blistering levels of performance. The Kawasaki GPZ900R can do the standing quarter-mile in under 11 seconds - 10.976 to be precise! It’s an astonishing feat for a production bike with license plates to achieve such levels of performance during the 1980s.

Despite its tire-shredding performance, the GPZ was a comfortable urban bike, owing to the new suspension and a crankshaft counter-balancer that eliminated secondary vibration. Along with this, the cleverly designed aerodynamic fairing along with the comfortable riding position meant the Kawasaki GPZ was a good companion for long-distance rides.

RELATED: Yamaha VS Kawasaki: Which Offers The Best Bang For Buck?

A Lot Of Firsts Were Seen In The Kawasaki GPZ900R

Being the grandfather of modern-day superbikes, the GPZ brought in a lot of industry firsts. For starters, the Kawasaki GPZ900R was the world’s first production motorcycle to cross the 150-mph mark. With a top speed of 155 mph, Maverick had no doubts as to which bike he’ll be riding in Top Gun, especially when he is more accustomed to flying supersonic fighter jets .

In addition to this, the GPZ was the first production bike to feature liquid-cooling and 4-valves per cylinder with an overhead valve design. The list doesn’t end there, the GPZ is the first bike to introduce a variable damping system that was used in the forks and marketed as anti-dive forks. The GPZ900R also had an aircraft-inspired flush-fitted, spring-mounted fuel cap that replaced the bulky, twist cap. To top it off, the GPZ900R was the very first Kawasaki motorcycle to rock the Ninja badge. The GPZ900R was certainly one of the most exciting motorcycles on the planet during the era of the first Top Gun movie, and that is why it made its way to the silver-screen. It also touched the hearts of many young motorcycle enthusiasts, and has certainly been a huge influence for young people all across the world.

Sources: Cycle World, Kawasaki

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See the ‘Top Gun’ Cast, Then and Now (Photos)

Catch up with the stars of the original 1986 hit now that “Top Gun: Maverick” has made Hollywood history

“ Top Gun: Maverick ” is, without a doubt, one of Hollywood’s biggest success stories. The long-awaited follow-up to the 1986 cult classic film “Top Gun,” “Maverick’s” domestic theatrical gross soared over $700 million ; making it one of the top 5 highest-grossing North American films of all time, alongside “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” “Avengers: Endgame,” “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and “Avatar.”

There are a lot of things about “Maverick” that make it worthy of such sweeping success: epic, adrenaline-pinching stunts performed by the franchise’s frontman Tom Cruise, whip-smart dialogue and heartwarming friendships and relationships that are impossible not to root for.

But one of the elements that audiences are most taken with in the new film is that it is a great throwback experience that provides the perfect dosage of nostalgia from “Top Gun.” With that in mind, we saw it high time we look back at the characters in the ‘86 film and see what the actors playing them are up to today.

Tom Cruise (Lieutenant Pete “Maverick” Mitchell)

After enrolling in one of the world’s top fighter schools, Lieutenant Pete “Maverick” Mitchell’s gutsiness is pushed to its limits by his peers/fellow daredevils, including the cutthroat Lieutenant Tom “Iceman” Kazansky (Val Kilmer).

In the decades after his appearance in “Top Gun,” Cruise has remained one of the best-known actors in Hollywood. He has earned three Academy Award nominations, which include Best Actor noms for the 1990 film “Born on the Fourth of July” and the 1997 film “Jerry Maguire,” as well as one for Best Supporting Actor for 2000’s “Magnolia.” Cruise is known for performing many of his own stunts in action films, including the wildly popular, box office-dominating “Mission: Impossible” franchise, which has a new entry coming out in 2023 — and, of course, in “Top Gun: Maverick.”

Kelly McGillis (Charlotte “Charlie” Blackwood)

Charlie is Maverick’s love interest… and his instructor. Yes, things quickly get steamy and awkward.

McGillis appeared in a couple of big films after “Top Gun,” the most notable being 1988’s “The Accused,” in which she starred alongside Jodi Foster. Most recently, the actor has primarily appeared in TV movies like “Love Finds You in Sugarcreek” (2014), “An Uncommon Grace” (2017) and “Maternal Secrets” (2020). The actor noted that “Maverick” filmmakers did not ask her to return for the reboot, stating “I’m old and fat, and I look age-appropriate for what my age is, and that is not what that whole scene is about.”

Val Kilmer (Lieutenant Tom “Iceman” Kazanksy)

A fellow student at the fighter academy, Iceman starts off as one of Maverick’s biggest rivals, and turns into one of his best friends. Yes – it’s exactly as heartwarming as it sounds.

After “Top Gun,” Kilmer remained a big-name movie star, appearing in Hollywood hits such as “True Romance” (1993), “Batman Forever” (1995) and “Heat” (1995). Tragically, the actor’s career was put on pause when he was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2015 – a battle that was chronicled in the documentary “Val.” However, Kilmer’s struggles didn’t stop him from reprising his role as the iconic Iceman for a cameo in “Maverick.”

Anthony Edwards (Junior Lieutenant Nick “Goose” Bradshaw)

Another one of Mav’s besties, Goose is a radar intercept officer and overall a top-notch dude.

Since “Top Gun,” Edwards has been keeping busy. The actor recently made the switch over to primarily TV roles, appearing in popular shows such as “Blue Bloods,” “Billions,” “Designated Survivor,” “Inventing Anna,” “WeCrashed” and, most recently, “Tales of the Walking Dead.”

Tom Skerritt (Commander Mike “Viper” Metcalf)

The top instructor at “Top Gun,” Viper is fittingly a top-rate mentor to his students.

Skerritt has boasted a fruitful career since appearing in “Top Gun” – one that earned him an Emmy Award for Actor in a Drama Series for 1993’s “Picket Fences.” More recently, the actor has appeared in indie films like Kim Bass’s “Day of Days” (2017), a 2019 short film called “The Phantom 52” and Michael Feifer’s “Catch the Bullet” (2021).

Michael Ironside (Lieutenant Commander Rick “Jester” Heatherly)

Another great instructor in “Top Gun,” Jester takes no nonsense from no one.

After appearing in “Top Gun,” Ironside continued to have a successful film career, appearing in films like “Total Recall” (1990), “Free Willy” (1993) and “Starship Troopers” (1997). In recent years, his acting plate has remained full. The actor has appeared in everything from “X-Men: First Class” in 2011 as the Captain, to the 2016 “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” TV series as Emperor Zanmaron, as well as the hit series “The Dropout” just this year.

Sadly, Ironside’s recent jobs don’t include a reprisal of his role as “Jester.” The actor said he thinks that has something to do with his less-than-rosy relationship with the film’s producer Jerry Bruckheimer. “The one person still in charge is Jerry Bruckheimer, and Mr. Bruckheimer and I didn’t really get along,” Ironside explained in an interview with Movieweb . “He offered me a project 10 or 12 years ago and… I said no to it,” Ironside said, noting that the next time he saw Bruckheimer was at a hockey game, and the producer gave him the cold shoulder.

Meg Ryan (Carole Bradshaw)

The wife of Goose, Carole doesn’t have the biggest role in “Top Gun” – but she is certainly a scene stealer.

One of the most popular rom-com darlings of the 1990s, Ryan skyrocketed to fame after her relatively small role in “Top Gun,” appearing in classic films like “When Harry Met Sally” (1989), “Sleepless in Seattle” (1993) and “You’ve Got Mail” (1998). More recently, Ryan has made guest appearances on shows like “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Web Therapy,” and voiced the narrator on the scrapped “How I Met Your Dad” pilot. Ryan will also return to her rom-com roots with the film “What Happens Later,” which she both directs and stars in (alongside David Duchovny).

John Stockwell (Lieutenant Bill “Cougar” Cortell)

“Top Gun,” at its heart, is all about brotherhood and loyalty, and it’s hard to think of a more loyal wingman to our Maverick than Cougar.

While his performance as Cougar captivated audiences back in ‘86, Stockwell is more than just an actor. In fact, he actually earned an Emmy nomination for writing the 2000 film “Cheaters.” Stockwell’s most recent credits include an acting cameo in the 2018 series “Escape at Dannemora,” as well as the director title on the 2017 film “Armed Response,” starring Wesley Snipes and Anne Heche.

Tim Robbins (Lieutenant Junior Sama “Merlin” Wells)

Radar intercept officer to Cougar, and later to the one and only Mav.

Robbins enjoyed a fruitful career as a leading man after appearing in “Top Gun.” Some of his most well-known post-Merlin roles include “The Shawshank Redemption” (1994), “Mystic River” (2003) and “Jacob’s Ladder” (1990). Recently, the actor appeared in Hulu’s Stephen King-based TV show “Castle Rock” (2019) and Todd Haynes’ 2019 film “Dark Waters.”

James Tolkan (Commander Tom “Stinger” Jardian)

Stinger is an essential piece of the Top Gun Academy puzzle: he’s the commander of the USS Enterprise Carrier Air Group.

Perhaps best known for his roles in the “Back to the Future” series as Mr. Strickland, Tolkan is still acting to this day. Recently, he appeared in the 2015 film “Bone Tomahawk” and a fun 2020 “Back to the Future” fan remake.

Rick Rossovich (Lieutenant Junior Ron “Slider” Kerner)

Loyal radar interceptor to the one and only Iceman.

Since appearing in “Top Gun,” Rossovich has acted in a number of varying projects, including the 1990 action flick “Navy Seals,” and the laugh-out-loud Steve Martin-starring comedy “Roxanne” (1987). Recently, Rossovich’s on-screen appearances have been few and far between, and he has only appeared in five projects since the year 2000. His most recent role was in a 2016 short film called “A Beautiful Day.”

Whip Hubley (Lieutenant Rick “Hollywood” Neven)

If there was ever a suitable sidekick for the illustrious Iceman, it’s the ever-eager Hollywood.

After “Top Gun,” Hubley turned largely to TV series such as “Murder, She Wrote” (1994-96), “The Practice” (2000) and “CSI: Miami” (2003). The actor took a bit of an acting hiatus in 2013, but returned to the screen this year for a film called “Alchemy of the Spirit.”

Barry Tubb (Lieutenant Junior Leonard “Wolfman” Wolfe)

Yet another loveable sidekick, this time to the character Hollywood (Whip Hubley).

After appearing in “Top Gun,” Tubb snagged roles in big projects like 1989’s “Lonesome Dove,” and 2001’s “American Outlaw.” However, he hasn’t acted in almost 10 years, with his last project being a 2014 TV movie called “Deliverance Creek.”

Clarence Gilyard (Lieutenant Junior Marcus “Sundown” Williams)

What’s that? Another radar interceptor? This one belongs to Chipper (Adrian Pasdar), and migrates to Mav’s side toward the end of “Top Gun.”

After playing “Sundown,” Gilyard had a fruitful career in film and TV, which included roles in “Die Hard” (1988), and the popular TV series “Walker, Texas Ranger” (1993-2001). More recently, the actor has been in a couple of short films and acted as the chair of the film program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Sadly, Gilyard passed away on Nov. 28, 2022, at the age of 66.

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Top Gun: Maverick is better — and nicer — than the 1986 original

The long-awaited sequel cements Tom Cruise’s place as a blockbuster auteur and a clever builder of brands

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“I don’t like that look, Mav,” says Warrant Officer Bernie “Hondo” Coleman (Bashir Salahuddin) as Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) settles into the cockpit of an experimental plane early in Top Gun: Maverick . Just as in the original 1986 Top Gun , Maverick is about to disobey orders. This time, he intends to take his sleek black aircraft on a Mach 10 test flight. The look Hondo doesn’t like to see in Maverick’s green eyes is one of daring, heedless resolve, and one thousand percent commitment. “It’s the only one I got,” Maverick replies.

That statement describes Cruise as well. It’s hard to think of another actor who has so relentlessly chiseled away at his on-screen personality over the course of a career until there’s nothing left but a single-minded, single-sided icon.

Cruise was always protective of his image, but he used to be ambitious and hungry enough for recognition as an actor that he was willing to take risks. In his 1980s heyday, he had a “ no guns, no sequels ” rule to force himself to keep moving, and to keep a dramatic impulse at the heart of his work. He worked with such legendary directors as Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, and Steven Spielberg, and challenged his self-image in the likes of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia and Michael Mann’s Collateral . But the Oscar he craved never came.

Seeing the future of franchise entertainment coming, Cruise built the Mission: Impossible series around himself as both star and producer. The guns and the sequels started lining up. After Cruise’s spasm of self-parody in Tropic Thunder and Rock of Ages , his attempts to interrogate his own persona or to convey human qualities beyond heroism and determination dried up. In films these days, he clenches his jaw, runs fast, and jumps off things. He hand-picks journeyman directors, exerts obsessive control over the productions he stars in , and orchestrates death-defying practical stunts with himself at the center. He’s more a deluxe modern daredevil than an actor now — a superstar showman who catapults himself into oblivion while a planet looks on and gasps.

For those of us who miss him bringing his weird magnetism to dicey dramatic roles, it’s a shame. But he’s also gotten very good at what he’s been doing instead. The Cruise brand, as expressed in the last two Mission: Impossible films in particular, is now a rarefied kind of big-ticket movie spectacle: bygone craft and no-expense-spared production values in the service of jaw-dropping practical action, high suspense, and cathartic release. It’s a guaranteed good time at the movies. Top Gun: Maverick applies this modern Cruise formula to a revival of his star-making 1986 role, bringing epic nostalgia into the mix.

It wasn’t guaranteed to work. Top Gun , a hyped-up sports drama about competitive young naval fighter pilots, was a massive hit, and must be one of the most famous films of the last 50 years to never have had any kind of follow-up. Its iconography is hard-baked into pop culture. But it’s also a bizarre cultural relic, a kitschy portal to the vacuous subconscious of 1980s America. Nowadays it’s more notable for its subtexts of sweaty homoeroticism and military propaganda than for its qualities as a film, which, aside from some stunning aviation scenes, are few.

For Cruise’s filmmaking team — including director Joseph Kosinski ( Tron: Legacy , Oblivion ), original Top Gun producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and Cruise’s right-hand man Christopher McQuarrie on script and production duties — retreading this empty-headed hyper-masculine nonsense for a modern audience wasn’t an option. But distancing themselves from it wasn’t, either. Branding is very much the point, to the extent that the opening minutes of the film are an exact, shot-for-shot copy of Tony Scott’s aircraft-carrier montage from the original. The hits keep coming: “Great Balls of Fire” on a bar piano, Cruise riding his Kawasaki bare-headed as a jet screams past, shirtless beach sports, romance in bomber jackets, vintage Porsches, smoldering sunsets, young bucks squaring off, and superior officers chewing Maverick out again and again.

It’s a slavish tribute to the first Top Gun . But it’s also a better film, and perhaps more importantly, a much nicer one: more grown-up, more generous, and more lighthearted, in line with its more mature star.

More than 30 years after the action of the first film, Maverick has become a hotshot test pilot, but he’s never been promoted past the rank of captain, and he’s at risk of being left behind in a brave new world of remote warfare. His old rival Iceman (Val Kilmer, who makes a surprisingly moving cameo), now an admiral, summons Maverick back to the Top Gun fighter-pilot training base to school a squadron of young pilots in the skills they’ll need to fly a dangerous mission behind enemy lines. Among those pilots is Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw (Miles Teller), son of Nick “Goose” Bradshaw, Maverick’s late friend and co-pilot. Rooster resents Maverick for his father’s death and for stalling Rooster’s Navy career by pulling his flight-school application papers. Maverick, for his part, doesn’t know whether to challenge or coddle the younger man.

These are the bones of a simple, sturdy Hollywood drama, predictable perhaps, but with a heart where the first film didn’t have much more than aggressive striving. By contrast, Top Gun: Maverick is almost tender. Teller and Cruise find a lovely, devil-may-care rhythm together, and the film takes as much time as it can with a bustling supporting cast. Among the other trainees, Glen Powell gets a slightly rough deal as Iceman stand-in Hangman, but Monica Barbaro and Lewis Pullman blaze with charm as earnest pilot duo Phoenix and Bob. (Yes, his callsign is just Bob.) Jon Hamm gamely scowls through the role of the hard-ass admiral, doing the heavy lifting on behalf of elder statesmen Ed Harris and Kilmer, whose poor health and faint rasp of a speaking voice preclude anything more than one touching scene with Cruise.

Jennifer Connelly, as Maverick’s old flame Penny, shoulders the burden of a romantic subplot that’s not only redundant on its own terms, but forced to echo the legendarily mismatched, chemistry-free pairing of Cruise and Kelly McGillis in the first movie. Cruise, whose intense hunger has always been directed inward, has never made for a natural romantic partner. If Connelly fares better with him than most have, it might be because Cruise seems almost relaxed in this movie. He smiles a lot, more than he has in years. Riding his motorbike, flying his plane, playing football with the younger cast members in the surf — he just keeps uncorking his dazzling, weapons-grade grin. Sometimes it seems involuntary, like he’s just having that much fun.

On one level, it’s strange that Cruise has held out against a Top Gun sequel so determinedly and for so long. He’s an aviation enthusiast and a skilled pilot. This world clearly gives him life. He’s always maintained he was waiting for the right story, but perhaps he was also waiting until he came into his own as an action-movie impresario, and had the clout and the vision as a producer to stage the show he wanted.

That show is an absolute barnstormer. The aerial action sequences, shot practically with real aircraft, are astounding. Kosinski lacks Tony Scott’s stylistic eye (though he can crib Scott’s sultry look well enough when he needs to), but he’s a formidable technician and a careful architect. The sheer veracity of the footage, much of it captured by the cast in-cockpit as they physically strain through high-G maneuvers, will — sorry, there’s no other way to put it — take your breath away . The compositions are sharp, the editing propulsive. The sound design and music (credited to the unimaginable power trio of Hans Zimmer, Harold Faltermeyer, and Lady Gaga, with Lorne Balfe on production) are huge. It’s overwhelming, immersive, thrilling action filmmaking.

The film does eventually turn toward a mission into enemy territory, but the nature of that enemy — the geopolitics of this story in general — is all kept vague. The talk isn’t about political conflict; it’s just about duty, comradeship, and survival. Top Gun: Maverick will be scrutinized for its politics, and rightly so — it’s the offspring of a notorious slice of military propaganda from the height of the unquestioning Reagan era. What place could it possibly have in today’s world, which already looks very different from the world in which it was filmed four years ago?

Watching the film, though, its political dimension doesn’t feel that relevant. This is obviously a work of cultural rather than political nostalgia. Kosinski & co. wrap themselves up in the fantasy of the first film while taking pains to place it in a more caring, inclusive context. The filmmakers also understand, and occasionally refer to, the fact that this romantic fantasy of daring airmen is about to become obsolete, as drone warfare replaces live pilots. But that doesn’t mean there are no consequences to invoking it.

If there’s something worth salvaging from that era — and from Top Gun — it’s the sense of optimism that used to dominate ’80s action movies. That and the belief that the simplest, corniest story, if told with enough skill and conviction, can delight everyone in the world. Top Gun: Maverick has both these qualities in abundance. They’re embodied in Tom Cruise, who is the auteur of his own myth, and might be the last true movie star. He wants to show you a good time, and he will. But more than that, he wants to take off and never come back down.

Top Gun: Maverick arrives in theaters on May 25.

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Tom cruise in ‘top gun: maverick’: film review.

The ace fighter pilot returns 36 years after first feeling the need for speed in Joseph Kosinski’s sequel, also starring Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly and Jon Hamm.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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As inescapable a pop-cultural totem as 1986’s Top Gun became, Tony Scott’s testosterone-powered blockbuster has all the narrative complexity of a music video crossed with a military recruitment reel. It’s hard to think of many more emblematic products of the rah-rah patriotism of the Reagan years, with its vigorous salute to American exceptionalism and triumph over a Cold War enemy left purposely vague — hey, don’t want to shut out a lucrative foreign market.

All that has only continued to toxify in the post-Trump age, with patriotism curdling into white supremacy. So depending on where you sit on the political spectrum, your enjoyment of Top Gun: Maverick might depend on how much you’re willing to shut out the real world and surrender to movie-star magic.

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Cannes film festival hopes "collective" talks can prevent strike action, french #metoo film to open cannes un certain regard, top gun: maverick.

Venue : Cannes Film Festival (Out of Competition) Release date : Friday, May 27 Cast : Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Ed Harris, Val Kilmer, Lewis Pullman, Charles Parnell, Bashir Salahuddin, Monica Barbaro, Jay Ellis, Danny Ramirez, Greg Tarzan Davis Director : Joseph Kosinski Screenwriters : Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, Christopher McQuarrie

Which this superior sequel — directed with virtuoso technical skill, propulsive pacing and edge-of-your-seat flying sequences by Joseph Kosinski — has in abundance. Every frame of Tom Cruise ’s Maverick is here to remind you, soaking up the awestruck admiration of the young hot shots ready to dismiss him as a fossil and the initially begrudging respect of the military brass who try and fail to pull the cocky individualist into line. “He’s the fastest man alive,” one of the slack-jawed hero worshippers in the control room says early on. And that’s even before he does his signature robotic “Cruise Run.”

“It’s not the plane, it’s the pilot,” we hear more than once. And Cruise leaves no question that he’s the pilot, despite hiring a pro craft team and a solid ensemble cast who were put through extensive flight training. Even the relic F-14 Tomcat, Maverick’s tactical fighter plane of choice in the first movie, gets fired up for a glory lap, a salute to aged movie stars and old technology in one. Cruise’s character is somehow positioned by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer and Christopher McQuarrie’s screenplay as simultaneously a rule-breaking rebel and a selfless saint. That makes this a work of breathtaking egomania outdone only by the fawning tone of Paramount’s press notes.

Starting when Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone” accompanies footage of new-generation F-18 hornets slicing through the clouds and swooping down onto an aircraft carrier amid a sea of high-fives, fist-pumps and thumbs-up, the sequel follows the original beat for beat, to a degree that’s almost comical. And yet, as formulaic as it is, there’s no denying that it delivers in terms of both nostalgia and reinvention. Mainstream audiences will be happily airborne, especially the countless dads who loved Top Gun and will eagerly want to share this fresh shot of adrenaline with their sons.

Pete “Maverick” Mitchell lives alone in a Mojave Desert hangar with a photo shrine on the wall to his former radar intercept officer and best buddy Goose, who died during a training accident in the first film. (Anthony Edwards and Meg Ryan are seen in a helpful recap framed as Pete’s tortured memories.)

Maverick zooms into the Naval base on his Kawasaki each day and continues to get his kicks as a daredevil test pilot, resisting the advancement in rank from captain that would have grounded him by now. But when his aerial showboating pisses off Admiral Cain (Ed Harris), who’s pushing to transition to drone aircrafts and make stick jockeys obsolete, Maverick gets his wings clipped.

Despite having lasted just two months as an instructor almost 30 years ago, he’s reassigned to the elite Fighter Weapons School, aka Top Gun Academy, in San Diego, which was established in 1969 to train the top 1 percent of Naval aviators. Neither Cain nor the academy’s senior officer, call sign “Cyclone” ( Jon Hamm ), wanted him for the job. But Maverick’s former rival and eventual wingman Iceman (Val Kilmer), who went on to become an admiral and command the U.S. Pacific Fleet, convinced them he was the only man who could prepare pilots for a top-secret mission.

A uranium enrichment plant has been detected on enemy soil — once again, exactly which enemy is unclear — and two pairs of F-18s need to sneak in, bomb the bejesus out of it and then get out fast, overcoming a near-impossible quick climb over rocky peaks and then surviving the inevitable blast of enemy missiles and aerial dogfights.

The candidates for that mission are “the best of the best,” former star graduates who are pretty much a repeat of the 1986 bunch aside from being more culturally diverse. There’s even — gasp! — a woman, Phoenix (Monica Barbaro). The two that matter most, though, are swaggering blowhard Hangman (Glen Powell) and Goose’s son Rooster ( Miles Teller ), still carrying around the ghost of his father and hostile to Maverick for stalling his career by taking his name off the Naval Academy list.

The Hangman-Rooster dynamic more or less mirrors the Iceman-Maverick friction from Top Gun , just as the incongruously homoerotic shirtless volleyball scene is echoed here with a rowdy team-building football game on the beach.

The only notable place where the screenwriters don’t genuflect to the original model is with Kelly McGillis’ astrophysicist and civilian Top Gun instructor Charlie, who declined a plum Washington job to stick with her man but doesn’t even rate a mention here. Instead, Maverick sparks up an old romance with Penny ( Jennifer Connelly ), a single mom with fabulous highlights. She runs a local bar — its name, The Hard Deck, doubles as a tactical plot point — which apparently puts her in an income bracket to own a sleek sailboat and drive a Porsche. (Producer Jerry Bruckheimer never met a power vehicle he didn’t love.)

Maverick’s task during training is to test the limits of the super-competitive candidates, whittling them down from 12 to six and choosing a team leader. “It’s not what I am. It’s who I am,” he says of his aviator vocation during a rare moment of self-doubt. “How do I teach that?” Anyone failing to guess who’ll land the team leader spot and who’ll be their wingman isn’t paying attention.

The simmering conflict between Maverick and Rooster — who can’t see past his resentment to perceive the protective responsibility his dad’s friend feels toward him — provides an emotional core even if the role makes scant demands on Teller’s range. But that’s true also of Connelly, Hamm and everyone else in the cast; all of them get the job done while remaining satellites that merely orbit around Cruise’s glittering Planet Alpha, eventually having to acknowledge that Maverick’s a helluva guy no matter what stunts he pulls.

The film’s most moving element comes during the brief screen time of Kilmer’s Iceman, whose health issues reflect those suffered by the actor in real life, generating resonant pathos. There’s reciprocal warmth, even love, in a scene between Iceman and Maverick that acknowledges the characters’ hard-won bond as well as the rivalry that preceded it, with gentle humor.

Kosinski (who directed Cruise in Oblivion ), the writers and editor Eddie Hamilton keep a close eye on the balance between interpersonal drama and flight maneuvers; scenes intercut between field practice and classroom discussions during which Maverick points out fatal errors on a computer simulator are particularly sharp. This is all nuts-and-bolts buildup, however, to the mission itself, in which hair-raising action, seemingly insurmountable setbacks and miraculous saves keep the tension pumped.

This is definitely a film that benefits from the Imax experience and the big-ass soundscape that comes with it. The muscular score by Harold Faltermeyer, Lady Gaga and Hans Zimmer also pulls its weight, with Gaga’s song, “Hold My Hand,” getting prime romantic placement. Musical choices elsewhere tend to lean into a retro vibe — Bowie, T. Rex, Foghat, The Who — while Teller gets to hammer the piano keys and lead a Jerry Lee Lewis sing-along that pays direct homage to his screen dad.

The most memorable part of Top Gun: Maverick — and the scenes that will make new generations swell with pride and adulation for good old American heroism — are the dogfights and tactical maneuvers of the pilots. Just as they should be. The best thing this movie does is boost visceral analog action over the usual numbing bombardment of CG fakery, a choice fortified by having the actors in the airborne cockpits during shooting.

Cinematographer Claudio Miranda’s work benefits from the technological advances of the past three decades, with camera rigs allowing for you-are-there verisimilitude. Cruise’s insistence on doing his own flying is undeniably impressive, even if the headgear’s breathing apparatus gets in the way of his trademark clenched-jaw intensity. No one is going to dispute that he works hard in this movie, justifying the labor of love. But no one is going to come out of it concerned for his self-esteem, either.

Full credits

Venue: Cannes Film Festival (Out of Competition) Distribution: Paramount Production companies: Skydance, Jerry Bruckheimer Films Cast: Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Charles Parnell, Bashir Salahuddin, Monica Barbaro, Jay Ellis, Danny Ramirez, Greg Tarzan Davis, Ed Harris, Val Kilmer Director: Joseph Kosinski Screenwriters: Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, Christopher McQuarrie Story: Peter Craig, Justin Marks, based on characters created by Jim Cash, Jack Epps Jr. Producers: Jerry Bruckheimer, Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie, David Ellison Executive producers: Tommy Harper, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger, Chad Oman, Mike Stenson Director of photography: Claudio Miranda Production designer: Jeremy Hindle Costume designer: Marlene Stewart Music: Harold Faltermeyer, Lady Gaga, Hans Zimmer Editor: Eddie Hamilton Visual effects supervisor: Ryan Tudhope Aerial coordinator: Kevin LaRosa II Casting: Denise Chamian

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Top Gun Soundtrack [ 1986 ]

About the soundtrack.

Top Gun (1986) is an action-packed military drama directed by Tony Scott and starring Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, and Kelly McGillis. The movie follows the story of Maverick, a fighter pilot whose reckless attitude gets him reassigned to Top Gun - the Navy's premier school for elite fighter pilots. Maverick must face off against his rival Iceman while also grappling with his inner demons. As he deals with personal issues such as insecurity, regret, and ambition, he begins to develop a strong friendship with fellow pilot Goose and finds himself increasingly attracted to single mother Charlie Blackwood. Ultimately, Maverick learns that it takes more than just raw skill to be successful in the Air Force. With its high-octane aerial sequences and heartwarming character development, Top Gun stands out as one of the most beloved films of all time. "Top Gun" (1986) was a massive success both critically and commercially. It grossed over $356 million at the global box office, becoming the highest-grossing movie of 1986 worldwide. The film also received positive reviews from critics, praising its action sequences combined with a great soundtrack. Over the years, it has become one of the most iconic films of all time and is considered as one of the best action movies ever made. The soundtrack of Top Gun (1986) is timeless and unforgettable. Composed by the legendary Harold Faltermeyer, it contains memorable anthems such as Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone", “Take My Breath Away” from Berlin, and “Playing With The Boys” from Kenny Loggins. These songs perfectly capture the spirit and atmosphere of the film and make for a great workout playlist to this day. Additionally, the soundtrack also features romantic ballads such as Cheaptrick's "Mighty Wings" that add a layer of emotion to the story. With its perfect blend of rock and pop, Top Gun remains one of cinema's most iconic soundtracks.

List of Songs

Top Gun Anthem (The Intro)

Harold Faltermeyer

Opening Scene. Played mutilple times in the movie.

Danger Zone

Kenny Loggins

Aircrafts jetting off from the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. Later in the movie, Maverick can be seen riding his motorbike alongside these planes as they take to the sky.

Teena Marie

Maverick and Goose attend the party. Goose tells him the Iceman is the best pilot. Iceman and Maverick face off next to the bar. Maverick spots Charlie across the party.

Hot Summer Nights

The Miami Sound Machine

As Maverick attempts to flirt Charlie at the bar, she instead leaves with her male companion.

Playing With the Boys

Plays during the volleyball scene.

Take My Breath Away

Maverick rides his motorbike to Charlie's house for their date. He pulled into the driveway and she shouted from inside, beckoning him to come in through the back door.

(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay

Otis Redding

When Maverick is talking to Charlie about song his mom used to listen to for hours

Heaven In Your Eyes

Goose waits for Carole and Bradley at the airport with Maverick.

Great Balls Of Fire

Jack Hammer and Otis Blackwell

When Maverick and Goose are playing piano in the restaurant with Goose's Family and Charlie.

Radar Radio

Giorgio Moroder

Plays briefly on the jukebox while Maverick drinks a beer at the bar.

Top Gun Anthem

Harold Faltermeyer and Steve Stevens

Add scene description

You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling

The Righteous Brothers

When Maverick sings the music to Charlie in the bay and while the movie credits.

Mighty Wings

Cheap Trick

Second song in end credits

Trailer Songs

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Films with Similar Music

2015 • 63 songs

Over the Top

1987 • 20 songs

Top Gun: Maverick

2021 • 25 songs

Shirley (GUEST)

2 years ago

all I want is nothing more then you to hear you knocking at my door

top gun song all i want is nothing more then you knocking at my door

4 years ago

What is the song in the back ground when they are on the deck

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Was jennifer connelly in the original top gun.

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Top Gun 2: Why Maverick & Charlie Are No Longer Together

Top gun cast & character guide, jennifer connelly’s 10 best movies (including top gun maverick), according to metacritic.

• Jennifer Connelly plays Penny, a new character in Top Gun: Maverick , as Maverick's love interest.
• Connelly's character, Penny Benjamin, is romantically linked to Maverick, establishing a connection to the original film.
• Adding Connelly to the cast brought a mature dynamic to Maverick's character, elevating the romantic subplot in the sequel.

The Jennifer Connelly Top Gun: Maverick character is the love interest of Tom Cruise’s Maverick . Jennifer Connelly has had a long and successful career, including Hulk, Requiem for a Dream , and A Beautiful Mind. Her career in films dates back to 1984, two years before the release of the original Top Gun . In Top Gun: Maverick , Connelly plays Penny, a bartender who captures the romantic interest of Tom Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. Connelly joins a star-studded cast that includes, in addition to Cruise himself, Ed Harris, Val Kilmer, Miles Teller, Jon Hamm, and more.

The Jennifer Connelly Top Gun character, Penny Benjamin , is a new character in the franchise. Like most cast members, Connelly has no prior ties to Top Gun. The only other returning actor in the film aside from Cruise was Val Kilmer. Connelly herself is completely new to the Top Gun franchise, but her character does have a tangible connection to the original film. Penny was established as being romantically involved with Maverick before the movie, mentioned in conversations with Goose, which has led to some confusion over whether Jennifer Connelly was in the original Top Gun .

Top Gun: Maverick is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video and Paramount+. The original Top Gun is available to stream on Paramount+.

Why Top Gun’s Sex Scene Is So Bad

Even fans who love Top Gun cringe at its embarrassing love scene, but there is a behind-the-scenes explanation for how the sequence ended up so bad.

Jennifer Connelly Plays A New Character For Top Gun: Maverick

Penny benjamin didn't appear in the original top gun.

The Jennifer Connelly Top Gun: Maverick inclusion can be attributed to the absence of Kelly McGillis’ Charlie Blackwood.

It was explained in Top Gun that Penny Benjamin is an admiral’s daughter. When bringing up Maverick’s troublesome history, Stinger referenced their fling as the reason he received a disciplinary in the past. However, while Maverick’s relationship with Penny — which was obviously frowned upon by his superiors — may imply that viewers should already be familiar with her, that’s actually not the case at all. Though Maverick is certainly familiar with Penny ahead of Top Gun: Maverick’s story, she had no real role to play in the first movie, and there was no Jennifer Connelly Top Gun appearance.

The Jennifer Connelly Top Gun: Maverick inclusion can be attributed to the absence of Kelly McGillis’ Charlie Blackwood . Charlie’s romance with Maverick was, of course, a major part of the original movie but has since become a thing of the past. Since McGillis didn't play Charlie again, Top Gun: Maverick has moved on by bringing one of Top Gun’s unseen characters into the picture as Maverick’s love interest.

Top Gun: Maverick introduces viewers to Pete Mitchell's newest love interest, Penny, but why are he and Charlie no longer together in the sequel?

Why Do People Think Jennifer Connelly Was In The Original Top Gun?

Viewers thinking jennifer connelly was in the original top gun is down to her being an 80s icon.

Connelly was only 16 when Top Gun came out, meaning she was much too young to appear in the movie.

It must be a case of misremembering, as many believe that Jennifer Connelly was in Top Gun . However, the movie came out when her career was in its infant stages. It's been over 30 years since the original Top Gun came out, and Jennifer Connelly was working on the cult classic David Bowie film Labyrinth at the time. The confusion surrounding her involvement in Top Gun could be due to numerous factors.

The primary factor is the passing of time. Since Top Gun came out so long ago and Connelly was active during this time, it's possible that people thought she was making a return of sorts for Top Gun: Maverick . Another thing would be her overall aesthetic. Jennifer Connelly was partly responsible for creating a very specific 80s look for actresses during that time. She had a certain girl-next-door appeal that Top Gun audiences would've fallen for — especially those of a similar age.

Connelly was only 16 when Top Gun came out, meaning she was much too young to appear in the movie. However, it's truly a testament to the Top Gun: Maverick casting , as she feels exactly like an actress who would've appeared in Top Gun . The near-Mandela Effect some fans seem to be experiencing about Connelly being a returnee rather than a new cast member, however, is mainly in corners of the Top Gun fandom who saw the original 1986 movie when it released in theaters, back when they were around the same age as Jennifer Connelly herself when she appeared in Labyrinth.

The Top Gun cast has bona fide movie stars like Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer and '80s icons like Kelly McGillis and Meg Ryan playing its characters.

How Jennifer Connelly Crafted Her Top Gun 2 Character

The top gun: maverick actress ensured penny became integral to the franchise.

Despite Jennifer Connelly's Top Gun role only existing in the sequel, the actor used that brief mention of Penny in the original to help craft her character. Connelly claimed that knowing Maverick and Penny shared a past led her to explore what kept drawing these two together. Penny proves Top Gun: Maverick worked without Charlie and the original romance as she and Maverick felt like an ideal match. However, when speaking to Screen Rant , Connelly also insisted:

"it was really important that you feel Penny is someone who is in charge of her own life, who sets her own boundaries, who lives life on her own terms, who has agency."

Given the reaction to the character, it's fair to say Connelly succeeded.

Top Gun: Maverick has brought Jennifer Connelly one of her biggest critical successes. So what other movies did Metacritic reviewers rank highly?

Adding Jennifer Connelly Was One Of Top Gun's Best Moves

Penny was one of the top gun sequel's best new characters.

One of the things that worked so well about the Jennifer Connelly Top Gun: Maverick role was that it changed Maverick's character from a lothario who needed to find a good woman to settle down (Charlie) into someone who could have genuine feelings toward someone in a more pure way. The fact that Maverick and Penny had been seeing each other on and off for years helped Maverick grow up emotionally. The romantic subplot being so important in both movies added emotional depth and maturity to his character.

Adding Jennifer Connelly to Top Gun: Maverick gave the movie dramatic weight, and their relationship was much more important than just seeing who replaced Charlie in Maverick's life. While Penny is Charlie's replacement as the hero's love interest, it is a much more mature look at love. This isn't about Maverick scoring with a hot woman. It is about Maverick finding someone who can help complete him, to steal a line from another Tom Cruise movie. Jennifer Connelly helps Top Gun: Maverick fly in more ways than one.

Top Gun: Maverick

Top Gun: Maverick is the sequel to the 1986 original film starring Tom Cruise as Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, a top-tier pilot in the Navy. Thirty years after the original film's events, Maverick is asked to head up a section of the TOP GUN program to embark on a dangerous mission. Things become personal when the program includes the son of Maverick's late friend, forcing him to confront his past.

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The Top Gun Motorcycle: 1985 Kawasaki GPZ900R

Enthusiast buys restored top gun kawasaki..

Growing up, Andrew Komurka was a self-professed gearhead fascinated by planes, trains, cars and motorcycles. It’s no surprise what his reaction was to this Top Gun motorcycle replica, a 1985 Kawasaki GPZ900R.

• Engine: 908cc liquid-cooled DOHC 4-stroke 4-cylinder, 72.5mm x 55mm bore and stroke, 11:1 compression ratio, 113hp @ 9,500rpm
• Top speed: 154mph
• Carburetion: Four Keihin CVK34
• Transmission: 6-speed, wet multi-disc clutch, chain final drive
• Electrics: Battery and coil ignition, electronically advanced timing
• Frame/wheelbase: Tubular w/engine as stressed member/58.9in (1,495mm)
• Suspension: Pneumatic telescopic front fork, swingarm rear
• Brakes: 11in (280mm) dual disc front, 10.6in (270mm) single disc rear, all single-piston calipers
• Tires: 120/80V16 front, 130/80V18 rear
• Weight (dry): 503lb (228kg)
• Seat height: 30.7in (780mm)
• Fuel capacity: 5.8gal (22ltr)

Because of this fascination, he and his friends watched movies such as Gone in 60 Seconds and Top Gun dozens of times, and they’d often joke and say, “Wouldn’t it be cool to own Eleanor, the Mustang from Gone in 60 Seconds, or the Top Gun motorcycle the Kawasaki GPz900R?” Then they’d all laugh.

Now 29, Andrew lives near Detroit but grew up north of Milwaukee in West Bend, Wisconsin. His dad, Van Komurka, was president of the Wisconsin chapter of the International CBX Owners Association. “My dad gets the credit, or the blame, for introducing me to motorcycles,” Andrew says. “He rides late 1970s and early 1980s Japanese bikes, like Honda CBXs and Suzuki GS1000Gs.”

While his dad was very interested in motorcycles neither Andrew nor his brother, Joel, rode their own machines when they were younger. Instead, they’d ride two-up with Van, and also helped work on the two classic cars in the family garage, a 1963-1/2 Ford Galaxie and a 1993 Mustang. They started out simply holding the work lights and transitioned to more technical tasks as they became confident with the tools. But for Andrew’s high school graduation, his parents bought him a suit to attend the ceremony, and also paid the fee for a Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) riding course. With his motorcycle endorsement, Andrew started riding a Suzuki 550 nicknamed Pablo because it’s essentially pieced together and reminds the family of a Pablo Picasso artwork — because nothing “quite matches.”

Soon, he was off to college to earn his mechanical engineering degree and didn’t fully establish his motorcycling career until 2015 when he bought himself a 1993 Yamaha FZR600. He put 1,500 miles on the odometer the first season, and about 3,000 miles in 2016. Late that summer, he found a Top Gun motorcycle replica 1985 Kawasaki GPz900R Ninja, just like the one actor Tom Cruise rode in the Paramount Pictures film, released in 1986.

“I was searching Craigslist ,” Andrew explains, “which is sometimes a dangerous thing to do. I was typing in ‘CBX’ and ‘GPz’ and I found this Top Gun replica Kawasaki for sale about three hours away from home. Uh oh, what do I do now? I wondered.”

At the time, Andrew was living in an apartment and his FZR was stored under a cover in the parking lot. He didn’t really have a place to land another machine, but he contacted the GPz’s seller and got more photos and information. “I talked to my dad because my logical engineering brain was telling me this wasn’t the time to be buying another bike,” Andrew says. “Then my dad said, ‘I’ve looked at a lot of motorcycles over the years, and I’ve never regretted going to see any of them. The ones I regret are the ones I never went to see.'” So, with that piece of advice, Andrew and his roommate got in the truck for the long drive from Detroit to the village of Shreve, Ohio, to see the Kawasaki.

The first Ninja

Introduced late in 1983 as a 1984 model, Kawasaki’s GPz900R was the first production motorcycle featuring a liquid-cooled, transverse 4-cylinder engine with dual overhead cams and four valves per cylinder. With a 72.5mm by 55mm bore and stroke, the powerplant measured in at 908ccs and made a claimed 113 horsepower at 9,500rpm. It featured internal counter-balancers and Kawasaki drove the dual hollow camshafts by chain on the left side of the engine.

Intake duties were handled by a bank of four Keihin 34mm CVK carburetors and exhaust gases were channelled through a 4-into-2 header system with mufflers each side of the machine. Chain final drive fed power from the 6-speed transmission to the 18-inch rear wheel, which used a single disc to help slow the plot. To keep the mechanical mass quite svelte, ancillaries such as starter and alternator were located aft of the cylinder block.

Instead of mounting this engine in a cradle-style frame, it was mounted lower to reduce the center of gravity and used as a stressed member in a hybrid three-piece chassis that combined a steel tube main frame with aluminum rear subframes. Also aluminum was the rear swingarm and its linkage to the single air-assisted shock. Up front, the air-assisted fork was fitted with new technology dubbed the Automatic Variable Damping System, or ADVS. A 16-inch wheel with dual discs fit between the fork legs. Five instruments were atop the fork, with a fuel gauge at lower left, a large tachometer above it (with voltmeter included in the face), smaller speedometer at top right and temperature gauge below that. A fairing that wasn’t quite full provided wind-cheating qualities and left enough of the black-painted engine visible to make it a prominent aspect of the bike’s overall visual appeal.

Big performances from the Top Gun motorcycle

That powerful mill made this a very fast production motorcycle, with Cycle magazine reporting an 11.08 second pass down the quarter-mile with a speed of 125.17mph. Kawasaki enlisted lightweight Jay “Pee Wee” Gleason to push the GPz900R down the strip, and he managed a 10.599 second pass.

That adrenalin-inducing speed and refined handling also added to the appeal, but it didn’t hurt that the Ninja moniker was bestowed on the bike thanks to efforts by U.S. distributor Kawasaki Motor Corporation. Since 1984, Kawasaki has used the Ninja name on a number of different sized models, but the GPz900R was the first to wear the tag. When Paramount Pictures needed a motorcycle for actor Tom Cruise, who portrayed Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in Top Gun, they selected the new GPz900R Ninja. Two identical machines were delivered by San Diego dealer Chris Dolan and all Kawasaki decals were removed. Replacing them were a selection of Navy Squadron and civilian stickers, which provide the iconic Top Gun visual. The film certainly helped promote the new Ninja in America, and even years later, as in Andrew’s case, the machine garnered significant interest.

Bringing it home

While Andrew and his friends might have been joking about owning one of the vehicles from their favorite movies, no one’s laughing anymore. That’s because after driving to Shreve to see the replica Top Gun Kawasaki that was for sale, Andrew bought the machine.

“I’m 6-feet 6-inches tall,” Andrew says, and continues, “and I fit on that bike. After I came back from the long test ride, my roommate said, ‘Well, you look comfortable on it,’ and that sold me. I haggled a little bit with the seller and got it with a box of spare parts and a matching Maverick jacket and helmet.”

Andrew was told the Kawasaki had recently been treated to a top end rebuild and the cooling system had been improved. And, with the deal concluded, Andrew rode the Kawasaki home, sticking to slower back roads to follow the engine break-in schedule. This meant Andrew didn’t get home until around midnight.

He says, “I still had to go to Walmart to buy a cover for the bike, because I had nowhere else to keep the Kawasaki but my apartment parking lot.”

Over the next six weeks, Andrew got used to the Kawasaki and added more than 1,000 miles to the odometer. Most of that time was spent riding two-up, with his then-girlfriend Elisabeth as a passenger. In fact, he says one of their early dates was her first real ride on a motorcycle when they toured through a local Detroit Metropark. A year and a half later, Andrew proposed to Elisabeth at the same spot. She said “yes,” and the pair were married late in 2018. “The Yamaha wasn’t comfortable two-up,” Andrew says, “but the Kawasaki is a surprisingly good tourer with a passenger.”

Andrew managed to store his two motorcycles in a friend’s garage over the winter of 2016 into 2017. During the summer of ’17, he rode them both frequently and, as he says, finally moved into a spot with a garage where he could store his two machines. That soon became three motorcycles, because after riding as a passenger with Andrew, Elisabeth decided she’d like to take up the sport. She took the MSF course and bought herself a 2007 Kawasaki Ninja 500.

Trouble ahead

However, all was not happy with the GPz900R. Late in 2017, as Andrew was riding the machine, it began to run rough, and would stumble badly under any application of throttle. He managed to limp the machine to Café Racer, a small shop in Ypsilanti, Michigan, that focuses on selling and servicing vintage and contemporary motorcycles and scooters. There, it was determined the GPz required another top end rebuild.

“To be honest, I don’t really know what happened,” Andrew explains. “I don’t know if it was that previous top end rebuild that was the problem, or if it was any break-in associated with it. But the bike is almost 40 years old, and things sometimes just need fixing.” While the Kawasaki was at Café Racer, the mechanic who was performing the work recalled owning a 1985 GPz900R that he’d bought from his father. And this is where the story gets a bit more interesting. The mechanic’s dad came to visit the shop while Andrew’s bike was on the bench. “He took a look at the throttle area, where there was a small threaded hole to accept some kind of cruise control mechanism,” Andrew says. “And he recalled doing something similar once to a GPz900R. When he got home, he checked his records and the VINs matched; my bike was indeed the Kawasaki he, and then his son, had owned.”

When the father/son duo owned the Kawasaki, it was not done up as a Top Gun replica. That conversion was done sometime between their stewardship and the Craigslist seller. “I think it might have a bit of a checkered past,” Andrew admits, but that doesn’t detract from the bike’s fun factor.

Shortly after getting the Kawasaki back from Café Racer, in 2019 he took it to the RADwood Detroit car show. According to their website, RADwood is “The premiere automotive lifestyle event celebrating the 80s and 90s,” and hosts displays in numerous cities across the U.S. When Andrew rolled up at the Detroit event on the Top Gun replica, he was promoted to RADwood Royalty parking and was aptly awarded Raddest Motorcycle. That’s fitting recognition of a machine that helped define the mid-1980s and added fuel to the then rising popularity of sport bikes.

Now, in this year’s release of the sequel Top Gun: Maverick, actor Tom Cruise is aboard yet another Ninja, this one a Kawasaki Ninja H2 Carbon. Equipped with a centrifugal supercharger, the 998cc H2 Carbon makes close to 200 horsepower — almost double that of the original Top Gun Ninja.

One of the limited-order $34,000 H2 Carbon examples isn’t likely in Andrew’s cards. He’s perfectly happy with his replica, and Andrew reports it’s running well after the Café Racer rebuild. He’s got just over 22,600 miles on it now, and given Andrew and Elisabeth’s courtship aboard the bike, it’s a machine she says he’s never allowed to sell.

To any gearhead, that ought to sound like a romance straight from the movies. MC

• Published on Aug 19, 2022

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Jennifer Connelly Is 'Ready' to Film “Top Gun 3” with Tom Cruise: 'I'll Be There'

T he actress also noted that she hasn't "seen anything" yet when it comes to 'Top Gun 3,' though she's discussed it with director Joseph Kosinski

Jennifer Connelly would love to return to the world of Top Gun again.

The Snowpiercer actress, 53, revealed in a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight that if she got the call to do a third movie in the popular franchise, she’d do it in a heartbeat. 

"I'll be there. I'm ready," Connelly told the outlet. 

She also pointed to her positive experience filming Top Gun: Maverick as the reason why she would return to the film series, saying, "We had such a great time shooting it. It was fun."

Related: Top Gun 3 Update: Jerry Bruckheimer Says Tom Cruise Has Been Pitched a 'Story He Liked' (Exclusive)

Despite her enthusiasm for the potential project, the actress noted that she hasn’t been privy to “anything” in the works yet. 

"I haven't seen anything," she said. "I had a casual chat with my friend, Joe Kosinski, who directed it, who I worked with twice now. I'm his biggest fan. I think he's so great. [I talked to him] about the possibility of it, but I don't know anything concrete."

Her comments come a month after Jerry Bruckheimer , the producer behind both Top Gun movies, confirmed to PEOPLE "we're working on" Top Gun 3 .

Related: Tom Cruise Feeling the Need for Speed Again in Top Gun 3 Movie: Report

"We pitched Tom [Cruise] a story he liked. But he's a very in-demand actor and he's got a lot of movies lined up, so we have to wait and see," Bruckheimer, 80, shared of the potential for a third installment.

He noted that part of what makes the Mission Impossible actor, 61, so popular is his work ethic, saying, "A lot of actors, they finish the day, they get in their car and they go home. Tom stays around, talks to the other actors, looks at the film that they shot, wants to know what's happening tomorrow. He's really engaged in every part of the process."

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Reports initially circulated in January that a third installment of the Top Gun movie franchise was in the works. The Hollywood Reporter reported that the film’s co-writer Ehren Kruger had been writing a script for the film and that Kosinski would be tapped once again to direct.

Miles Teller , who plays Lt. Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw in the film series, teased in July 2022 that he and Cruise had "been having some conversations" about the possibility of another movie . Though the actor, 36, noted at the time, "It's all up to Tom.”

He and costar Glen Powell , 35, both shared that they would be open to returning to the franchise again as well. 

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Read the original article on People .