It’s been 40 years since we first felt the need … the need for speed.
Top Gun hit theaters exactly four decades ago, and in honor of the high-flying classic’s milestone, we’re breaking down 25 behind-the-scenes facts about the film that made Tom Cruise a superstar.
For instance, Val Kilmer — who played Iceman in the film — claimed that he was the only actor who didn’t have a certain physical reaction while up in the air.
Keep scrolling for 25 Things You Don’t Know About Top Gun, as seen in the latest issue of Us Weekly, on newsstands now:
1. Top Gun soared into theaters on May 16, 1986 — and quickly became the highest-grossing domestic film of the year.
2. Inspired by a 1983 California magazine article titled “Top Guns,” the film follows a group of young naval aviators who are given the chance to train at the Navy’s Fighter Weapons School.
3. Cruise was just 23 when he took on the role of Pete “Maverick” Mitchell.
4. Matthew Modine turned down the role of Maverick because it went against his politics, instead going on to star in Stanley Kubrick’s anti-war Full Metal Jacket.
5. Director Tony Scott helmed the film just three years after his feature debut, The Hunger.
6. Producers paid the military a reported $1.8 million for the use of Miramar Naval Air Station near San Diego, giving them unprecedented access to real fighter jets and aircraft carriers.
7. The Pentagon’s cooperation paid off: Navy recruitment reportedly surged after the movie’s release.
8. Future NASA astronaut Scott Altman was one of the pilots enlisted for stunt sequences, and he can be seen giving the finger in the film’s iconic opening sequence.
9. According to Altman, the pilots earned $23 a day for their work on set.
10. Kilmer, who played fan-favorite Iceman, claims he was the only actor who didn’t throw up when going for plane rides on set.
11. Kilmer didn’t want the part originally, admitting in his 2020 memoir that his agent “basically tortured” him to meet with Scott about the role.
Val Kilmer in ‘Top Gun’ Courtesy of Everett Collection
12. “None of us knew at the time what a crazy commercial success the film would be,” Kilmer reflected in his 2021 documentary. “All of a sudden I was being catapulted into the celebrity stratosphere, and for the rest of my life I would be called Iceman by every pilot at every airport I went to.”
13. The now-famous beach volleyball scene was only a paragraph in the script, but took a full day to shoot, causing the studio to threaten to fire Scott, according to the late filmmaker’s colleagues.
14. Kelly McGillis’s Charlie was based on real-life civilian instructor Christine Fox, who rose through the ranks at the Pentagon and retired as the Acting Deputy Secretary of Defense in 2014, the highest post ever held by a woman in the Department of Defense.
15. Cruise reportedly had to wear lifts in his scenes with McGillis, since he is 5-foot-7 to her 5-foot-10.
Flying with a full heart! Tom Cruise was overcome with emotion while reuniting with Val Kilmer for the icon’s Top Gun: Maverick cameo. During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! earlier this month, Cruise, 60, opened up about getting to work with Kilmer, 63, on the highly anticipated sequel to the 1986 film. “I just […]
16. “Danger Zone” by Kenny Loggins became instantly synonymous with Maverick’s “need for speed.”
17. The soundtrack’s romantic anthem, “Take My Breath Away,” took home the Oscar for Best Original Song.
18. Cruise’s fearless performance helped cement his reputation for doing his own stunts.
Tom Cruise in ‘Top Gun’ Paramount / Courtesy: Everett Collection
19. In 2015, the United States Library of Congress selected Top Gun for preservation in the National Film Registry.
20. More than three decades later, Cruise returned for Top Gun: Maverick — and insisted on real aerial footage again.
21. The sequel became a box office phenomenon, earning over $1.5 billion worldwide and introducing a new generation of pilots.
22. The actors had to sustain up to eight Gs — up to around 1,600 pounds of pressure on the body — while shooting the flying sequences.
23. Cruise developed a rigorous five-month flight training program — dubbed “the Tom Cruise School for Being a Badass” by costar Danny Ramirez — for the cast of Maverick, which also included Glen Powell and Miles Teller.
24. Teller plays “Rooster,” the son of Maverick’s late best friend, “Goose.”
25. Paramount announced in April that a Top Gun 3 is in the works, with Cruise and producer Jerry Bruckheimer returning for the third installment in the franchise.
