- This is an article about a movie. For the Nintendo game, see Top Gun.
Top Gun is a 1986 American movie starring Tom Cruise as Lt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, a young United States Navy F-14 Tomcat pilot.
Cruise's character, the son of a fighter pilot who was shot down during the Vietnam War and remains (as of the film) MIA, is selected for the Navy's elite "TOPGUN" fighter pilot school (US Navy Fighter Weapons School, now known as US Navy Strike Fighter Tactical Instruction) at Miramar, near San Diego, California. He falls in love with a beautiful female civilian instructor played by Kelly McGillis. His back seat crewmate in his F-14 Tomcat fighter aircraft (or "RIO") is killed in a training accident. The death of his close friend Nick "Goose" Bradshaw (played by Anthony Edwards) causes him to lose his nerve until the climactic air-to-air combat sequence at the end.
Trivia
- Goose's real name, Nick Bradshaw, is never spoken in the film (even by his wife and son); it can only be seen (briefly) on his and Maverick's fighter jet, on his flightsuit's name badge, and on his dog tags as Maverick throws them into the ocean.
- The romantic comedy Sleep With Me (1994) includes a sequence in which a character, played by Quentin Tarantino, describes in detail his theory that Top Gun has a gay subtext. The sequence was written by Roger Avary.
- Bryan Adams was approached to allow his song "Only the Strong Survive" on the soundtrack. He refused because he felt the film glorified war and he didn't want any of his work linked to it.
See also
Historical incidents similar to those in the film's climax:
External link
