27 Fun Facts About Tom Cruise's TOP GUN, a "Making Of" Video, and VH1's BEHIND THE MOVIE Episode
There’s a ton of excitement surrounding director Joseph Kosinski’s and Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick, and it’s one of my most anticipated films of the year! I’m also a huge fan of the original 1986 Tony Scott-directed movie, and with the sequel supposed to be coming out at some point in the near future, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at Top Gun and find some fun behind the scenes trivia to share with you.
You may know some of these fun facts already, but there’s a good chance that you might not. I’ve found 27 of them that I think you might find interesting.
When I first saw this movie as a kid, I walked out of the film wanting to be a fighter pilot! Flying in a fighter jet is something that I would still love to do! I’ll probably never get the opportunity, but it’s a dream I’ve always had that I suspect will never go away.
Top Gun starred Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards, Kelly McGills, Tom Skerrit, Tim Robbins, and more. Here are 27 things for you to look over. I also included the original trailer, a Making of video and VHI’s episode of “Behind The Movie” that focuses on the film.
The real Top Gun School imposes a $5 fine to any staff member that quotes the movie.
During the scene where Maverick explains that he gave "the bird" to a MiG, Charlie asks how he saw the MiG up close, and he says he was flying inverted. At that moment Ice coughs "bullshit" and everyone laughs. The "bullshit" line was ad libbed by Val Kilmer, and everyone's reactions are genuine.
Jerry Bruckheimer talked about convincing Cruise to sign on to the film after his initial reluctance saying, "So they (the Navy) take Tom up there, and they do five Gs. They do barrel rolls, they do everything. He's heaving in the plane. He gets on the tarmac, runs to a pay phone ... and he said, 'I'm in. I'm doing the movie. I love it. This is great.'"
Kilmer initially didn’t want to be in Top Gun, but was forced to by contractual obligations. However, it became one of the most iconic roles in his career.
The tension between Maverick and Iceman isn't just down to good acting, Cruise and Kilmer kept their distance from each other and never socialized.
Anthony Edwards is the only actor who didn't vomit while in the fighter jets.
Charlie's "older man" date at the officer's club is the real-life "Viper", Pete Pettigrew. He is a retired Navy pilot and TOP GUN instructor, and shot down a MiG during the Vietnam War. He served as the technical consultant on the film.
54-year-old Stunt pilot Art Scholl was killed during the production of the movie. He died when his Pitts S-2 camera plane failed to recover from a flat spin and plunged into the Pacific Ocean. Scholl's last words over the radio were "I have a problem - I have a real problem." The exact cause of the crash was never determined, and neither the aircraft nor Scholl's body were ever recovered. The film is dedicated to him.
Riding on the back of this film's success, the U.S. Navy set up recruiting booths in the major cinemas to try and catch some of the adrenaline-charged guys leaving the screenings. They had the highest applications rate for years as a result.
The Navy only authorized two actual missile shots to be filmed for the movie. You can pick out these two shots, ultimately shot from several angles each in order to use both shots repeatedly during the dogfighting scenes, because the aircraft firing the missile is holding a steady altitude and heading, something that would never happen in a real close-in dogfight. All other missile shots shown in the movie were conducted using miniatures of both the planes and rockets. The company that produced and fired the model missiles did such a good job that the Department of the Navy conducted a preliminary investigation into whether any additional live firings of missiles, beyond the two originally authorized, were done for the filmmakers.
When Charlie tells Maverick that she didn't want anyone to find out she was falling for him, Maverick originally had a line to say. Cruise forgot the line and "ad libbed" by kissing Kelly McGillis instead. Tony Scott liked it so much, he left the scene like that.
Cruise had to wear lifts in his scenes with McGillis. Cruise is 5'7" while McGillis is 5'10". Also, In the last scene, in which Maverick is sitting at the counter, and you see someone go to the jukebox and put in a quarter for "You've Lost That Loving Feeling," when he and Charlie walk up to each other, McGillis is actually standing in a trench that was dug by the Hollywood technicians because they wanted the two to look like they were the same height.
Most of the actors who portrayed F-14 crewmembers received backseat rides in the F-14, and several of the scenes which appear in the film were filmed with the actors in the air.
The character portrayed by McGillis is based on Christine Fox, a civilian flight instructor the producers met on a visit to Miramar while doing research to prepare for the movie. Fox eventually rose through the ranks at the Pentagon, retiring in May 2014 as Acting Deputy Secretary of Defense, the highest post ever held by a woman at the Department of Defense.
All of Maverick's stunt flying in the film was done by Scott Altman, who later went on to become an astronaut.
For the opening of the film, Scott wanted to shoot aircraft taking off and landing on the aircraft carrier, back-lit by the sun. The carrier captain had changed course of the ship, and when Scott asked if the ship could continue on the previous course and speed, he was told that turning the ship cost $25,000. Scott then wrote the captain a quick $25,000 check so the ship could be turned and he could keep shooting for another five minutes. According to Scott, the check bounced.
The film was inspired by an article in the May 1983 issue of "California" magazine about the U.S. Navy's Top Gun School.
Cruise had never ridden a motorcycle until this film. He went to House of Motorcycles in El Cajon, California, to learn. They taught him in the parking lot of their shop.
Kenny Loggins was not the first choice to record the song "Danger Zone" for the film. TOTO and REO Speedwagon were two of the groups considered prior to Loggins.
Matthew Modine, Patrick Swayze, Emilio Estevez, Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, Matthew Broderick, Sean Penn, Michael J. Fox, John Travolta, Scott Baio and Tom Hanks all turned down the role of Maverick before Cruise was cast. Charlie Sheen, Jim Carrey, Rob Lowe, Kevin Bacon, Eric Stoltz, and Robert Downey, Jr. were also all considered for the role of Maverick.
Ally Sheedy turned down the role of Charlie Blackwood because she didn't think that anyone would want to see a movie about fighter pilots. She later regretted this decision. Brooke Shields and Debra Winger were also considered.
A test audience, who saw the movie before it was released, were annoyed that there was no love scene. The producers obliged, and five months after the production had wrapped, they brought in Cruise and McGillis to Chicago to film the infamous elevator scene and the sex scene. During their time away from the set, McGillis had lost approximately sixteen pounds, and Cruise was actually filming The Color of Money, so his hair was much longer in those two scenes. McGillis' hair was also much darker, hence why she hid it underneath a cap in the elevator scene.
Two video games based very loosely on the movie were released on the Nintendo NES. While the first game really had no storyline, the second actually served as a "sequel" storyline, regarding Maverick going up against a new group of villains.
Both John Carpenter and David Cronenberg turned down the chance to direct.
The film was originally going to have a scene near the end where Maverick visited Goose's grave. A filmed version of this scene was never released, however still screen shots from what such a scene would have looked like are available on the special edition DVD.
Goose saying "You kill me" when he laughs about Iceman's joke about the plaques for the alternates is on display in the ladies room is a foreshadowing of Goose's death. When Goose is killed in the jet wash, Maverick flew into Iceman's jet wash when Iceman rolled out for the chase of Jester's aircraft causing both engines to go out and Maverick going into a flat spin.
The Pentagon demanded script approval to ensure that the Navy was portrayed in a positive light. They demanded the cause of Goose's death be changed from a midair collision to an ejection mishap because the Navy was concerned that it looked like too many pilots were crashing.
Below you’ll find the original trailer for Top Gun, a “Making of” video, and the episode of VHI’s “Behind The Movie” to enjoy: