Feel the need for speed?
In a surprising change of pace, thanks to the long weekend, it’s already Wednesday. But although we’re one step closer to Friday, the speed of the week might mean that your Wednesday ritual of binge watching feels rather rushed. That’s why we’re eliminating all the guesswork of what to watch and serving up our weekly Executive Decision, fresh from the tarmac.
Released in 1986, Top Gun follows aerial pilot Maverick after being sent to a high-performance flying school, where he fraternises with fellow pilots and ultimately gets the chance to redeem himself after losing his friend. With the action film’s sequel currently in cinemas, we’re counting down five reason why you should (re)watch the original Top Gun tonight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xa_z57UatDY
The aerial scenes
Everyone’s most coveted superpower is flight, which makes watching Top Gun both a vicarious thrill and a technical marvel. For a film made in the ‘80s, Top Gun boasts some pretty impressive aerial shots, which is essential for a story that largely takes place in the skies. It’s true that audiences have to sit through the same shot of a missile being fired 10 times (because the real US Navy would only allow one live missile firing for filming), but the film was nonetheless ahead of its time in the practical effects department, a feat only doubled when considering there’s no use of CGI.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvFc0EPRSI4
The Cruise-isms
Trawl through Tom Cruise’s filmography and you might feel as though Top Gun is interchangeable with any of his other action films. But while the likes of The Mummy and Mission Impossible might bank solely on the actor’s star power, it was Top Gun that introduced Cruise’s signature. The film birthed the Cruise catchphrase “I feel the need…the need for speed,” and basically coined the term “wingman.” Cheesy as it may be, there’s fun to be had in looking back at a pre-megafame Tom Cruise.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEEHN9eyR18
The call signs.
Just as cheesy as Cruise’s dialogue is Top Gun’s call signs, or the code names given to its cast of pilots. They’re the sort of monikers that you’d conceive as a kid playing imaginary spy games, which mean that they are equal parts badass and childish. So integral are the names that Top Gun superfans have created a call sign generator, which you can discover for yourself here. Among the most memorable call signs in Top Gun are ‘Iceman,’ played by Val Kilmer, ‘Goose,’ ‘Wolfman,’ ‘Hollywood,’ and of course, ‘Maverick,’ which forms the title for the film’s sequel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MdmUjC2hk4
It made Aviators cool
Leave it to Tom Cruise to birth an entire sunglasses renaissance. Maybe it’s the fact that he dons them while motorbiking to a Kenny Loggins soundtrack, or that the frames themselves are timeless, but nowhere are Aviators more stylish than on the ears of Maverick himself. Couple them with the pilot’s notorious fur-collared jackets and you’ve got yourself an easily-identifiable Halloween costume.
To prepare for the long-delayed sequel
It’s taken Hollywood over three decades to return to Top Gun, but a long-awaited sequel just hit screens late last month. It’s fair to say that my Dad’s excitement level at the newly-released Top Gun: Maverick exceeds that of my little brother’s brith. Maverick has been described as rolling all of Cruise’s films into one, which should excite superfans the world over, especially since it’s earned Cruise his highest-grossing film of all time.
