Release Year: 1986

Genre: Action, Drama, Romance

Director: Tony Scott

Writer: Jim Cash, Jack Epps Jr., Ehud Yonay (magazine article entitled "Top Guns")

Stars: Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis

Tom Cruise wasn't always Tom Cruise.

His real name, i.e. the name he was born with, is Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (can you see why he dropped that last bit?). 

But what we really mean is Tom Cruise wasn't always the edgy, action-oriented, do-it-my-way-and-watch-me-win kind of actor he's now known as. Before Days of Thunder (1990), A Few Good Men (1992), and Mission Impossible (1996), Tom Cruise was just another up-and-comer, looking for his big break. 

That big break? It was Top Gun.

Top Gun, with it's crazy flying stunts, macho dialogue, and awesome aviators was a starmaker from the get-go. And it wasn't just Cruise who had a veritable coming out party in 1986 (the year the film was released). The movie was also Val Kilmer's first big role, a breakout part for Meg Ryan, the first screenplay turned into an actual film for writers Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr., and a huge success for the blossoming production duo of Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer.

The moral of the story: Top Gun made a huge splash. The film, which is mostly about one semi-insane Navy pilot's struggles with the rigors of the elite Navy fighter pilot program—that would be Top Gun—and his road to redemption, is stocked with frenetic, fast-paced jet flying (all real footage, no digital here) and tons of awesome Navy swag (dog tags, bomber jackets with patches, cool helmets—oh, and did we mention the aviators?).

The film more than earned back its estimated $15 million budget, grossing something in the $170 million plus range (in 1986 dollars no less). It was the most successful movie in 1986, and it crushed the video rental market, cashing in to the tune of around $80 million.

Heck, even the Navy was jazzed about the film. They had their best recruiting season in years as a result of Top Gun. In fact, they actually set up recruiting booths at theaters where the film was being shown in an attempt to capitalize on the viewer excitement and morale post-Top Gun (source). If you had bet a billion dollars that every boy between the ages of 5 and 30 wanted to become a fighter pilot after the film, you would have won.

So what was it about Top Gun that so enamored audiences? Let us count the ways:

• A ton of great aerial footage
• A great cast (Cruise, Kilmer, Ryan, Anthony Edwards, and a magnificently mustachioed Tom Skerritt)
• Enviable characters (there's something so cool about Maverick) 
• Memorable lines ("I feel the need, the need for speed" anyone?)
• A country that was rediscovering its patriotism and pride during the peak years of the Reagan administration
• Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer without their shirts

So sit back and hold on to your seats—you're in for one heck of a ride.

In 1986, there were an estimated 40,000 nuclear weapons ready to go worldwide.

Yes, that's 40 with three extra zeros. 40,000, folks.

The combined firepower of these weapons? Oh, about the equivalent of 1,000,000 of the same bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945.

Who had all these weapons, and why were they building them? Mostly the United States and the Soviet Union. They were involved in what has come to be known as the Cold War, "cold" because the two superpower never actually went to war, but amassed weapons like it was going out of style.

1986, you may or may not recall, was also the year Top Gun was released. So what does Top Gun have to do with the Cold War anyway?

The short answer: everything.

In a lot of ways, the fact that the bulk of the movie takes place at a special school for elite Naval aviators is the perfect depiction of the Cold War, the war that never actually happened: a whole lot of getting ready as if war were imminent. The word of the day in Top Gun, and of the Cold War, is (and was) preparation. As Viper says during the first Top Gun classroom session: "Although we are not at war, we must always act as though we are."

Okay, so what about the fact that Top Gun is framed by two big-time engagements with enemy fighters? Well, those aren't really what the movie is about. The first engagement is there to show that during the Cold War there was an enemy out there, an enemy that was dangerous and could really ruin your day (ask Cougar about that one). The second engagement is there so that Maverick can redeem himself (and prove that he's the top gun), and so that the pilots can show off their newly acquired skills. But you may have noticed that no one ever bothers explaining much about whom they're shooting at and why.

Speaking of those pilots, in a lot of ways Top Gun is really one big bromance. The Navy pilots are like brothers, albeit brothers who all have huge egos (we're looking at you, Maverick and Iceman) and an unquenchable competitive drive. In the end, it's really a sports movie, where the sport is aerial combat maneuvering (ACM) and where the team's two biggest starts (Maverick and Iceman) have to learn to work as a team and get along (which they finally do).