30 Fun Facts about Top Gun That You Probably Didn’t Know About

Top gun was the most hitting movie of the time, released 30 years back in 1986. It was the most expensive movie having real Navy air crafts, drones and took about $5 million for its production. Fortunately, the high production cost made this film the top grossing film of the year making $357 million worldwide.

Let’s look at the 30 amazing facts about the making of Top Gun that you probably know:

Most of the aerial scene was captured by a stunt pilot, Art Scholl. He lost his life while his plane crashed into the Pacific Ocean, during the production. This film is dedicated to the brave stunt pilot.
Top gun is based upon a real flight school located in San Diego. It was created in the 1960’s to combat the loss of Vietnam War.
The creators got the idea of story plot from an article published in California magazine highlighting the life of fighter pilots at the actual Top Gun academy.
Many directors like David Cronenberg and John Carpenter were asked to have the privilege, but finally, Tony Scott was selected to direct the film and share his expertise.
Tom Cruise was given the lead role after a tough and nail-biting competition since many famous actors were begging for the role including Sean Penn, Patrick Swayze, Nicholas Cage, and John Cusack.
Many great singers like Bryan Adams, Judas Priest, Toto and Reo Speedwagon were considered, but all of them backed out at the last moment which resulted in Kenny Login signing the final contract. Bryan Adams rejected saying the film was supporting a cold war, while Judas Priest supposed the film would be a flop. Hence, Kenny login presented the soundtrack, which won at the Oscars and still remembered today by the movie lovers.
The female lead character was inspired by an actual woman, Christian Fox, who served as the acting U.S Deputy secretary of defense. Christian Fox got great personality having blond hair, a tall height of 6ft. clacking high heels and was the highest-ever ranking female officer.
Kelly McGills, the actress, was very tall having beautiful height of 5’10. She was three inches taller than the male lead and faced great difficulty since she had to bent and lower down to fit with the actor. Many times she used to act barefoot to look good as onscreen couple.
The actor, Tom Cruise,was often mocked about his short height. He was only 5’7. Since in Navy, men having a height less than 5’8 are not selected. He used to wear lifts and had to practice for landing an aircraft carrier for many months.
The dialogues of this movie are still remembered today and the most famous dialogue “I feel the need…the need for speed”, is added in the AFI list of 100 Years 100 Movie Quotes.
The soundtracks of this movie are epic. They went nine times platinum and more than nine million copies were sold. The song “Take My Breath” won an Academy Award for the best original soundtrack.
It was the most expensive film that’s why its sequel is not yet made. The Navy aircraft and drones were the most exciting part of this movie and took a heavy chunk of money. The great F-14 planes cost $10,000 for every hour.
In addition, if the director wanted to shoot an extra scene, he needed to pay additional cash. For turning the side of the plane or for changing the route, the director was charged extra $2,500 to just allow five more minutes of shooting.
The filmmakers were compelled to cooperate with the Navy and fulfill their demands. The navy in return discounted the charges of its aircraft and guided with their skills. But there was too much military domination, they were given free hand at editing the script.
The director was fired three times by the production house. Sometimes he was blamed for bad looks and appearance to the actress while other times he was accused of the film running out of the budget.
There were few romance scenes added after the makers wrapped up the shooting for satisfying viewers demands.
Navy used the film as recruiting drive by setting up booths for actual selection of the Navy cadets, and it helped very well even for promotion purpose.
Although the film is based on a real flight school, but unfortunately Navy charges $5 fine if anyone in actual top gun academy talks about the movie or quotes any dialogue.
Top gun was the most inspirational movie and drew a closer picture about life at military schools. Thus it was very motivational and young people became more excited to join the Navy and other forces. This movie is credited to boast up the military recruitment over 500%, after its release.
There was a lot of tension seen between the two major actors Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer, they never got friendly and felt bitter rivalry against each other.
There were many technical mistakes in the movie script which people observed throughout the movie. Several military websites published articles indicating the 79 major blunders in the movie plot.
China inspired from the movie also showed many scenes from the movie and cheated saying they were shoots from the Chinese air force.
The film director wanted the cast to go friendly so that they can have a better on-screen chemistry. So he promoted many socializing activities including long night dinners and made them spent quality time together.
The bars in which the artist sang are still present today and open for public. Although it was burnt and destroyed by the fire, people now even go and enjoy the piano and the scenery associated by this film. They also distribute the movie merchandizes in the bars such as the Top Gun Jacket and t shirts.
Top gun was Tom Cruise’s first movie that made him a star, being his highest paying film till 1988. Tom Cruise was introduced to the public by this film and earned about $2,000,000.
In actual, there is no trophy in the Navy as depicted in the movie. Either people are selected or straight away rejected and thrown out.
Anthony Edwards who played the character of Goose was the only actor who remained well physically and did not vomit or faced health issues during the shooting.
The movie got mixed remarks, people were not fully satisfied initially and the great critic Robert Elbert gave this movie 2.5 out of 4 stars. While the Paramount studio remarked the movie as “too much flying”.
As the military got a good boost after this movie, similarly Ray-Ban’s glasses got great hype and people followed the trend and loved to buy the glasses for a long time.
In the end, it was a difficult decision for the makers to kill the character of Goose, but it was essential to add emotions and make the movie memorable.

The Top gun movie has a great impact on the audience and now people are desperately waiting for its next sequel. The sequel is on its way, but after the death of director in 2012 the script is handed over to other artists. Let’s hope the next sequel maintains the same spirit and momentum for this generation.