‘It looked like Star Wars on Earth’: the making of Top Gun at 40

I t would be one of the most important flights in film history. When a young 5ft 7in actor with long hair and ponytail rocked up on a motorcycle, a group of US navy pilots were all too happy to test his need for speed. “They look at him and they don’t know who Tom Cruise is,” recalls screenwriter Jack Epps Jr.

“They do what they like to do: they took him up, they shook him around, he barfed on himself, and he came out and said, ‘I love this.’ From that moment, he was on.” Cruise’s experience that day with the Blue Angels, the US navy’s premier flight demo squadron, would inspire him to become a licensed pilot. He would also accept the role of Maverick in Top Gun , a movie about cold war flying aces that redefined the modern blockbuster. Co-written by Epps and Jim Cash, directed by Tony Scott and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, it turns 40 on Saturday. Top Gun charts reckless navy pilot Maverick’s rivalry with Iceman (Val Kilmer), romance with instructor Charlie ( Kelly McGillis ) and guilt over the death of co-pilot Goose (Anthony Edwards) in a training accident. He is sent on a dangerous rescue mission, saves Iceman and gains redemption, with Iceman telling him: “You can be my wingman anytime.” The high-testosterone slice of Ronald Reagan-era Americana – with a homoerotic game of beach volleyball thrown in – made 23-year-old Cruise a star and drove a spike in military enlistment; the navy even set up recruitment tables in cinemas. It eventually spawned a hit sequel in 2022, with a third instalment now on the way. It all began in 1983 when Bruckheimer was flicking through the May issue of California magazine. “Top Guns” read a headline , with a big photo from inside the cockpit of an F-14 fighter jet. The article began: “At Mach 2 and 40,000 feet over California, it’s always high noon.” Speaking from Los Angeles, Bruckheimer, 82, recalls: “I saw the magazine article and it looked like Star Wars on Earth and I threw it to my partner, Don Simpson, and then he called in one of our executives and said, ‘Let’s get the rights to this,’ and that’s how it started.” The pair pitched the idea to producer Jeffrey Katzenberg , then head of production at Paramount, and he was impressed. When Katzenberg floated five or six ideas to screenwriters Cash and Epps over breakfast one day, Top Gun was among them. Epps, who had a private pilot’s licence, seized on it. The 76-year-old, based in Santa Monica, recalls: “I said, ‘Wow, this will be great, I get to fly in the jet plane!’ We didn’t have a movie made yet.

Key points

• “They do what they like to do: they took him up, they shook him around, he barfed on himself, and he came out and said, ‘I love this.’ From that moment, he was on.” Cruise’s experience that day wit…
• He would also accept the role of Maverick in Top Gun , a movie about cold war flying aces that redefined the modern blockbuster.
• Co-written by Epps and Jim Cash, directed by Tony Scott and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, it turns 40 on Saturday.
• Top Gun charts reckless navy pilot Maverick’s rivalry with Iceman (Val Kilmer), romance with instructor Charlie ( Kelly McGillis ) and guilt over the death of co-pilot Goose (Anthony Edwards) in a…
• He is sent on a dangerous rescue mission, saves Iceman and gains redemption, with Iceman telling him: “You can be my wingman anytime.” The high-testosterone slice of Ronald Reagan-era Americana – w…