Top Gun | |
---|---|
Created by | Jim Cash Jack Epps Jr. |
Original work | "Top Guns" (1983 article) by Ehud Yonay |
Owner | Paramount Pictures |
Years | 1986–present |
Films and television | |
Film(s) |
|
Games | |
Video game(s) | List of video games |
Audio | |
Soundtrack(s) |
|
Original music | "Danger Zone" "Take My Breath Away" "Heaven in Your Eyes" "Mighty Wings" "Playing with the Boys" "Top Gun Anthem" "Hold My Hand" "I Ain't Worried" |
Top Gun is an American action drama multimedia franchise based on the 1983 article "Top Guns" by Ehud Yonay, which was adapted into the eponymous 1986 film, written by Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr. The original film portrays Tom Cruise as Lieutenant Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, a young naval aviator aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, who with his radar intercept officer, LTJG Nick "Goose" Bradshaw, are given the chance to train at the US Navy's Fighter Weapons School at Naval Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California.
Produced and released by Paramount Pictures, Top Gun became a cultural phenomenon and, despite receiving mixed reviews, was acclaimed for its groundbreaking visual effects and energetic soundtrack. It was followed by the 2022 sequel film Top Gun: Maverick , which takes place 36 years after the events of the first film and depicts Maverick's reluctant return to the United States Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program, where he must confront his past as he trains a group of younger aviators, among them the son of his deceased best friend. Top Gun: Maverick was met with greater critical and commercial success than the original, with praise for its story, performances, emotional weight, and flying sequences.
Film | U.S. release date | Director | Screenwriters | Story by | Producers |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Top Gun | May 16, 1986 | Tony Scott | Jim Cash & Jack Epps Jr. | Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer | |
Top Gun: Maverick | May 27, 2022 | Joseph Kosinski | Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer & Christopher McQuarrie | Peter Craig & Justin Marks | Tom Cruise, David Ellison, Jerry Bruckheimer and Christopher McQuarrie |
In May 2022, Miles Teller stated that he had been pitching a follow-up film centered around his character to the studio. The actor referred to his pitch as Top Gun: Rooster. [1] By July of the same year, he stated that he has been having ongoing discussions regarding a sequel with Tom Cruise. [2]
This section includes characters who will appear or have appeared in the franchise in main roles.
Character | Films | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Top Gun | Top Gun: Maverick | |||||||
Pete "Maverick" Mitchell | Tom Cruise | |||||||
Tom "Iceman" Kazansky | Val Kilmer | |||||||
Charlotte "Charlie" Blackwood | Kelly McGillis | |||||||
Nick "Goose" Bradshaw | Anthony Edwards | Mentioned | ||||||
Carole Bradshaw | Meg Ryan | Mentioned | ||||||
Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw | Aaron and Adam Weis | Miles Teller | ||||||
Mike "Viper" Metcalf | Tom Skerritt | |||||||
Rick "Jester" Heatherly | Michael Ironside | |||||||
Bill "Cougar" Cortell | John Stockwell | |||||||
Leonard "Wolfman" Wolfe | Barry Tubb | |||||||
Ron "Slider" Kerner | Rick Rossovich | |||||||
Sam "Merlin" Wells | Tim Robbins | |||||||
Marcus "Sundown" Williams | Clarence Gilyard | |||||||
Rick "Hollywood" Neven | Whip Hubley | |||||||
Tom "Stinger" Jardian | James Tolkan | |||||||
Charles "Chipper" Piper | Adrian Pasdar | |||||||
Penelope "Penny" Benjamin | Mentioned | Jennifer Connelly | ||||||
Beau "Cyclone" Simpson | Jon Hamm | |||||||
Jake "Hangman" Seresin | Glen Powell | |||||||
Robert "Bob" Floyd | Lewis Pullman | |||||||
Chester "Hammer" Cain | Ed Harris | |||||||
Solomon "Warlock" Bates | Charles Parnell | |||||||
Natasha "Phoenix" Trace | Monica Barbaro | |||||||
Reuben "Payback" Fitch | Jay Ellis | |||||||
Mickey "Fanboy" Garcia | Danny Ramirez | |||||||
Javy "Coyote" Machado | Greg Davis | |||||||
Bernie "Hondo" Coleman | Bashir Salahuddin | |||||||
Billy "Fritz" Avalone | Manny Jacinto | |||||||
Logan "Yale" Lee | Raymond Lee | |||||||
Brigham "Harvard" Lennox | Jake Picking | |||||||
Neil "Omaha" Vikander | Jack Schumacher | |||||||
Callie "Halo" Bassett | Kara Wang | |||||||
Amelia Benjamin | Lyliana Wray | |||||||
Sarah Kazansky | Jean Louisa Kelly | |||||||
Jimmy | James Handy |
Film | Composers | Cinematographer | Editors | Production companies | Distributing company | Runtime |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Top Gun | Harold Faltermeyer & Giorgio Moroder | Jeffrey L. Kimball | Billy Weber & Chris Lebenzon | Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer Films | Paramount Pictures | 1 hr 50 mins |
Top Gun: Maverick | Lady Gaga, Lorne Balfe, Hans Zimmer & Harold Faltermeyer | Claudio Miranda | Eddie Hamilton | Skydance Media, Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer Films | 2 hrs 10 mins |
Film | Release date | Box office | Budget | Ref. | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
North America | Other territories | Worldwide | ||||
Top Gun | May 16, 1986 | $180,470,489 | $176,999,033 | $357,469,522 | $15,000,000 | [3] [4] |
Top Gun: Maverick | May 27, 2022 | $718,732,821 | $770,000,000 | $1,488,732,821 | $170,000,000 | [5] [6] |
Total | $899,203,310 | $946,999,033 | $1,810,919,866 | $185 million | [7] [8] |
Film | Critical | Public | |
---|---|---|---|
Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic | CinemaScore | |
Top Gun | 58% (76 reviews) [9] | 50 (15 reviews) [10] | A [11] |
Top Gun: Maverick | 96% (444 reviews) [12] | 78 (63 reviews) [13] | A+ [11] |
Category | 1987 [14] | 2023 [15] |
---|---|---|
Top Gun | Top Gun: Maverick | |
Best Picture | — | Nominated |
Best Adapted Screenplay | — | Nominated |
Best Film Editing | Nominated | Nominated |
Best Sound | Nominated | Won |
Best Sound Editing | Nominated | — |
Best Original Song | Won | Nominated |
Best Visual Effects | — | Nominated |
Title | U.S. release date | Length | Label |
---|---|---|---|
Top Gun | May 13, 1986 | 38:38 | Columbia Records |
Top Gun: Maverick (Music from the Motion Picture) | May 27, 2022 | 43:35 | Interscope Records |
The soundtrack to the original film reached number one in the US charts for five nonconsecutive weeks in the summer and autumn of 1986. It was the best selling soundtrack of 1986 and is still one of the best selling soundtrack albums of all time. [16] [17] The soundtrack spawned two top 10 singles on the US charts, with the song "Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins peaking at number two and the song "Take My Breath Away" by Berlin reaching number one, the latter of which would also go on to win both the Academy Award for Best Original Song [18] and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. [19] According to Allmusic, the album "remains a quintessential artifact of the mid-'80s", and the album's hits "still define the bombastic, melodramatic sound that dominated the pop charts of the era." [17]
The soundtrack to the sequel featured the singles "Hold My Hand" by Lady Gaga and "I Ain't Worried" by OneRepublic, with the latter becoming a top 10 hit. The score of the film harkened back to the original film's sound and was noted by Zanobard Reviews as a "thoroughly entertaining and incredibly nostalgic musical experience from beginning to end". [20]
Top Gun also spawned a number of video games for various platforms. The original game was released in 1986 under the same title as the film. It was released on Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, and Atari ST. Another game, also titled Top Gun , was released in 1987 for Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and Nintendo VS. System arcade cabinets. In the 1987 game, the player pilots an F-14 Tomcat fighter, and has to complete four missions. A sequel, Top Gun: The Second Mission, was released for the NES three years later.
Another game, Top Gun: Fire at Will , was released in 1996 for the PC and later for the Sony PlayStation platform. Top Gun: Hornet's Nest was released in 1998. Top Gun: Combat Zones was released for PlayStation 2 in 2001 and was subsequently released for the GameCube and Microsoft Windows. Combat Zones features other aircraft besides the F-14. In 2006, another game simply titled Top Gun was released for the Nintendo DS. A 2010 game, also titled Top Gun , retells the film's story. At E3 2011, a new game was announced, Top Gun: Hard Lock, which was released in March 2012 for Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation 3.
Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels is a 1986 platform game developed and published by Nintendo. A sequel to Super Mario Bros. (1985), it was originally released in Japan for the Family Computer Disk System as Super Mario Bros. 2 on June 3, 1986. Nintendo of America deemed it too difficult for its North American audience and instead released an alternative sequel, also titled Super Mario Bros. 2, in 1988. It was remade and renamed The Lost Levels for the 1993 Super Nintendo Entertainment System compilation Super Mario All-Stars, serving as its first international release. It has been rereleased for Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Wii, Wii U, Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Switch.
Top Gun is a 1986 American action drama film directed by Tony Scott and produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, with distribution by Paramount Pictures. The screenplay was written by Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr., and was inspired by an article titled "Top Guns", written by Ehud Yonay and published in California magazine three years earlier. It stars Tom Cruise as Lieutenant Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, a young naval aviator aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. He and his radar intercept officer, Lieutenant Nick "Goose" Bradshaw, are given the chance to train at the United States Navy's Fighter Weapons School at Naval Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California. Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer and Tom Skerritt also appear in supporting roles.
"Great Balls of Fire" is a 1957 popular song recorded by American rock and roll musician Jerry Lee Lewis on Sun Records and featured in the 1957 movie Jamboree. It was written by Otis Blackwell and Jack Hammer. The Jerry Lee Lewis 1957 recording was ranked as the 96th greatest song ever by Rolling Stone. It is written in AABA form. It sold one million copies in its first 10 days of release in the United States making it one of the best-selling singles in the United States at that time.
Police Academy is a comedy franchise of seven theatrical films and two spin-off television shows. The 1984 film Police Academy followed the premise of a new mayor requiring the local police department to accept all recruits. The film franchise relies heavily on slapstick humor and physical comedy, as the misfit recruits attempt to prove themselves capable of being police officers, succeeding despite their eccentricities. The first four films follow Carey Mahoney, a repeat offender forced to join the police academy as punishment. The 1994 film Mission to Moscow marked the seventh installment, with cast members George Gaynes, Michael Winslow, and David Graf appearing throughout the film series.
Beverly Hills Cop II is a 1987 American buddy cop action comedy film directed by Tony Scott, written by Larry Ferguson and Warren Skaaren, and starring Eddie Murphy. It is the sequel to the 1984 film Beverly Hills Cop and the second installment in the Beverly Hills Cop film series. Murphy returns as Detroit police detective Axel Foley, who reunites with Beverly Hills detectives Billy Rosewood and John Taggart to stop a criminal organization after Captain Andrew Bogomil is shot and seriously wounded.
Hans Hugo Harold Faltermeyer is a German musician, composer and record producer.
Mega Man X is a 1993 action-platform game developed and published by Capcom for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was the first Mega Man game for the 16-bit console and the first game in the Mega Man X series, a spin-off to the original Mega Man series that began on the Super NES's predecessor, the Nintendo Entertainment System. Mega Man X was released in Japan on December 17, 1993 and was released in both North America and Europe the following year. Taking place a century after the original Mega Man series, Mega Man X is set in a futuristic world populated by both humans and "Reploids", robots capable of thinking, feeling, and growing like their human creators. Because of these complex attributes, many Reploids are prone to destructive, renegade activity and are thereafter referred to as "Mavericks". The plot of the game follows the protagonist X, an android member of a military task force called the "Maverick Hunters". With the help of his partner Zero, X must thwart the plans of Sigma, a powerful Maverick leader wishing to bring about human extinction.
Top Gun is the soundtrack from the film of the same name, released in 1986 by Columbia Records.
"Danger Zone" is a song recorded by American singer-songwriter Kenny Loggins in 1986, with music composed by Giorgio Moroder and lyrics written by Tom Whitlock. The song was one of the hit singles from the soundtrack to the 1986 American film Top Gun. It was the best-selling soundtrack of 1986 and one of the best-selling of all time. According to Allmusic.com, the album "remains a quintessential artifact of the mid-'80s" and the album's hits "still define the bombastic, melodramatic sound that dominated the pop charts of the era". The song is also featured in the 2022 sequel film Top Gun: Maverick and its soundtrack, using the same original recording.
"Top Gun Anthem" is an instrumental rock composition and the theme of the Top Gun media franchise, including the original 1986 film Top Gun and its 2022 sequel Top Gun: Maverick. Harold Faltermeyer wrote the music with Steve Stevens playing guitar and Faltermeyer on the keyboard on the recording. In the film, the full song is played in the film's ending scene.
Toy Story is an American media franchise created by Pixar Animation Studios and owned by The Walt Disney Company. It centers on toys that, unknown to humans, are secretly living, sentient creatures. It began in 1995 with the release of the animated feature film of the same name, which focuses on a diverse group of toys featuring a classic cowboy doll named Sheriff Woody and a modern spaceman action figure named Buzz Lightyear.
Ice Age is an American media franchise centering on a group of mammals surviving the Pleistocene ice age. It consists of computer-animated films, short films, TV specials and a series of video games. The first five films were produced by Blue Sky Studios and distributed by its then parent company 20th Century Fox. The series features the voices of Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Queen Latifah, and Chris Wedge.
Joseph Kosinski is an American film director, best known for his computer graphics and computer-generated imagery (CGI) work, and for his work in action films. He has directed the films Tron: Legacy (2010), Oblivion (2013), Only the Brave (2017), Top Gun: Maverick (2022) and Spiderhead (2022). His previous work has primarily been with CGI-related television commercials including the "Starry Night" commercial for Halo 3 and the award-winning "Mad World" commercial for Gears of War.
Miles Teller is an American actor. He made his feature film debut with the independent drama Rabbit Hole (2010), and gained wider recognition for his roles in the coming-of-age film The Spectacular Now (2013) and the Divergent film trilogy (2014–2016). His breakthrough role came in the drama Whiplash (2014) which earned him critical acclaim.
Finding Nemo is a CGI animated film series and Disney media franchise that began with the 2003 film of the same name, produced by Pixar and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The original film was followed by a standalone sequel, Finding Dory, released in 2016. Both films were directed by Andrew Stanton. The film series received widespread critical acclaim from critics and audiences with two films released to-date, the series has grossed $1.9 billion worldwide.
An American Tail is a franchise based on the 1986 animated feature film of the same name directed by Don Bluth and produced by Sullivan Bluth Studios/Amblin Entertainment.
Top Gun: Maverick is a 2022 American action drama film directed by Joseph Kosinski and written by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, and Christopher McQuarrie from stories by Peter Craig and Justin Marks. The film is a sequel to the 1986 film Top Gun. Tom Cruise reprises his starring role as the naval aviator Maverick. It is based on the characters of the original film created by Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr. It also stars Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Monica Barbaro, Lewis Pullman, Ed Harris and Val Kilmer, who reprises his role as Iceman. The story involves Maverick confronting his past while training a group of younger Top Gun graduates, including the son of his deceased best friend, for a dangerous mission.
Top Gun: Maverick is the soundtrack to the 2022 action film Top Gun: Maverick by Lorne Balfe, Harold Faltermeyer, Lady Gaga, and Hans Zimmer. It consists of the film's score as well as two original songs, "Hold My Hand" by Gaga and "I Ain't Worried" by OneRepublic, which were released as singles prior to the album. The soundtrack contains the song "Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins, which was also featured in the first film. The soundtrack was released on May 27, 2022, by Interscope Records and Paramount Music through digital and physical formats.
Aaron Weis and Adam Weis are American former child actors and school teachers. They are known for sharing the role of four-year-old Bradley Bradshaw in the 1986 film Top Gun. Scenes with them were reprised in the 2022 sequel Top Gun: Maverick, featuring Miles Teller in the role of grown-up Bradley Bradshaw.