Regular readers of the site will know that earlier this year we ran a series looking at the classic films of Keanu Reeves. This was to co-inside with the release of the fantastic John Wick; now we turn our attention to another big name from the nineties, Tom Cruise. Each week from now until the release of the highly anticipated fifth Mission Impossible film, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, we’ll be taking an in depth look the films that we feel are his classics.
Tom Cruise, born Thomas Cruise Mapothor IV, got into acting during high school, abandoning his original plans of becoming a Catholic priest. He then moved to New York at the age of eighteen to start acting. His on-screen début came in Endless Love where he had a small role. He also has a starred in Taps, The Outsiders, Losing It, All the Right Moves, and Legend before studios started taking notice. Risky Business helped bump up his star power, but it wasn’t until Top Gun that he truly became a household name.
In Top Gun Cruise plays Peter ‘Maverick’ Mitchell, a fighter pilot who dreams of taking the number one spot at the prestigious Top Gun academy. The film was directed by Tony Scott and is seen as one of the late director’s best works. At the time of filming Cruise had only recently worked with Scott’s brother, Ridley Scott, in live-action fairytale Legend. Interestingly Scott had a fiery relationship with the studio and found himself fired from the job three times during production.
The idea for Top Gun came about from a 1983 article in California magazine about the real-life Top Gun academy. That’s right everybody, the academy is real, though it’s probably best that massive fanatics of the film don’t enrol as there is a $5 penalty for anyone who quotes the movie during their training.
Top Gun, much like Bill and Ted for Keanu Reeves, is the role that has been intrinsically linked to Cruise. There aren’t many Cruise movies where he isn’t seen sporting his trademark aviators, or riding on a motorcycle (preferably at first light). It could have been a lot different however, as a plethora of well known actors turned down the part first. So who was almost Maverick? Patrick Swayze, Emilio Estevez, Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, Sean Penn, Michael J Fox, Tom Hanks, Jim Carrey, Kevin Bacon and Charlie Sheen could have been Maverick instead. Sheen might have passed on Top Gun but he would later go onto star in the film that spoofed it, Hot Shots.
Another actor who turned down starring in the movie was Val 
Kilmer. Kilmer of course is still in the film, but plays Maverick’s rival pilot Iceman. As with Cruise it’s the film that he’s most remembered for, but Kilmer hated the idea and wasn’t interested in the project. Unluckily for him he was contractually obliged to take part. So it seems all that disdain and disgust that Ice exudes might not be acting after all.
Top Gun became an instant smash hit, making a huge $176 million dollars, not bad for a film which only cost $15 million to make. It made so much money that it became the highest grossing movie of 1986. As the years pass it seems that Top Gun‘s popularity continues to grow and grow. It’s hard to believe that next year it turns thirty as it still holds up today. It was such a hit upon initial release that the US Navy had a record high number of applications. Some portions of the organisation actually set up recruitment booths within cinema auditoriums.
A sequel was planned during the late eighties; the story would have seen Maverick, now an instructor, deal with a cocky young female cadet. This idea was scrapped as Cruise wasn’t ready for a sequel. Now though it seems that enough time has passed for the A-lister as it was recently announced that a second film is now finally in the works. Details are still very sketchy, but it is thought that the plot will involve drones in some capacity. We imagine that drones will begin to replace pilots, but then there’ll be a major problem/hijacking and only the best of the best can help save the day. So essentially it’ll be like Stealth, maybe.
In a way there has already been a Top Gun sequel. After the cinema release there were two games released by Nintendo. The first didn’t really have a storyline, but the second was a pseudo sequel seeing Maverick going up against a new group of villains.
So what makes Top Gun a Tom Cruise classic? As already mentioned Top Gun was the film that made Cruise and gave him some of his most iconic traits; Arnie has ‘I’ll be back’, Cruise has his aviators and motorcycles. It’s also crammed full of memorable scenes, songs, and quotes like ‘I feel the need, the need, for speed’. Top Gun has a disarming charm that somehow makes you instantly like it. Who does’t love that bar sing-song serenade to that volleyball scene?
The soundtrack is pure eighties gold, admit it you’ve got a soft spot for Kenny Loggins‘ Highway to the Danger Zone and you might have pretended to be in the film whilst driving when it came on the radio that time. The score is also epic and somehow manages to make you feel like your soaring through the clouds.
Without a doubt, Top Gun is a classic, not just for Tom Cruise, but for film in general.
