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Speaker 1: Too Much Information is a production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome to Too Much Information, the show

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Speaker 1: that gives you the secret histories, little known fascinating facts

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Speaker 1: and figures behind your favorite TV shows, movies, music, and more.

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Speaker 1: My name is Alex Heigel, not Jordan. Run Talk. I'm

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Speaker 1: reading the wrong outline. Uh keep that in there, you know.

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Speaker 1: Today we are taking a mock five look at Top Gun,

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Speaker 1: Tom Cruise's beloved nineteen eighties fighter plane jingoistic extravaganza, currently

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Speaker 1: enjoying a new moment in the spotlight thanks to its

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Speaker 1: long in the making sequel, Top Gun Maverick Jordan's. As

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Speaker 1: we uncovered in the Air Force one episode, you're far

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Speaker 1: more of an expert in the aviation arts than I am.

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Speaker 1: What is your particular history with Top Gun? Very little,

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Speaker 1: I'm afraid, as we discussed in the Air Force one episode,

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Speaker 1: I'm more of a large plane guy rather than a

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Speaker 1: fast plane guy. Um. And Top Gun came out sort

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Speaker 1: of in my personal pop culture danger Zone, which is

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Speaker 1: nine six, the year before I was born, So it

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Speaker 1: wasn't old enough to fit in with my pensiant for

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Speaker 1: fetishizing old mid century entertainment. But it also wasn't new

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Speaker 1: enough that I lived through it, So all in all,

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Speaker 1: it really wasn't until this massive outpouring of affection for

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Speaker 1: the sequel that I kind of really reconsidered it. And

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Speaker 1: it's interesting to me to see how the original just

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Speaker 1: exploded in the popular consciousness because it's coming not long

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Speaker 1: after a string of movies colored by the war in Vietnam,

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Speaker 1: and I'm talking about good, very good, and but they're

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Speaker 1: also some of the most devastating movies ever made. I mean,

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Speaker 1: you've got Deer Hunter, you've got Coming Home, you've got Apocalypse,

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Speaker 1: now you've got Robert Altman's match. Tom Cruise was even

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Speaker 1: in one of them. He's in UM four. I think

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Speaker 1: that's after this. Yeah, you're right, that was eight nine.

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Speaker 1: Maybe he took this to heart and made that as

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Speaker 1: a corrective statement. Throughout most of the seventies, most of

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Speaker 1: the movies about the military, at least the ones that

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Speaker 1: weren't kind of reliving the supposed glory days of more

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Speaker 1: moral wars, which is a phrase we could debate the

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Speaker 1: meaning of some other time. But you know, World War

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Speaker 1: Two epics like Pattent and things like that. The rest

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Speaker 1: of the military movies from this period kind of took

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Speaker 1: the more of the war's hell ethos and played up

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Speaker 1: the horrors or at very at least the absurdity of

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Speaker 1: armed conflicts. So it's really fascinating to me to see

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Speaker 1: how quickly the tide turned. You know, the last helicopter

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Speaker 1: out of Saigon was just a decade before Top Gun

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Speaker 1: started filming. So it's really hard to imagine a movie

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Speaker 1: like this getting made at any other period, let alone

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Speaker 1: becoming such an enormous success. It's just such a perfect

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Speaker 1: product of Reagan's America. It's really funny too that you're

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Speaker 1: making that comparison between the seventies auteur era and this,

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Speaker 1: because those guys that you're talking about, like Coppola and

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Speaker 1: some of those guys were like real film school buffs,

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Speaker 1: and the guys who are making the stuff in the

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Speaker 1: eighties usually came from ads, as we'll find out with

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Speaker 1: Tony Scott and Jerry Bruckheimer. As we'll later find out,

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Speaker 1: it's the films are suddenly becoming less informed by these

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Speaker 1: traditional character beats and stories and suddenly more being informed

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Speaker 1: by car commercials just the US. Yeah, yeah, myself, I

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Speaker 1: don't give two tents of a about this movie. The

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Speaker 1: only extremely eighties movie I cared about is Karate Kid,

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Speaker 1: which is a movie. It's a semi autobiographical movie about me,

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Speaker 1: and I watched it fourteen to seventeen thousand times growing up. Um,

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Speaker 1: but yeah, it's it's worth adding that you are a

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Speaker 1: black belt. Yeah, so he got me into martial arts.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, so I don't really like Tom Cruise. I

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Speaker 1: think he's fine in Magnolia. I admire his steadfast commitment

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Speaker 1: to trying to kill himself with stunts every time a

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Speaker 1: new Mission Impossible comes out, and he is sort of

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Speaker 1: a fascinating like Uberman's character. He's a little short guy

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Speaker 1: who's trying to like remold himself as a king god,

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Speaker 1: and I admire that kind of mental dry I've But

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Speaker 1: most of my feelings on him can be distilled from

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Speaker 1: the fact that Christian Bale based his American psycho performance

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Speaker 1: on Tom Cruise. But I am nothing if not easily

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Speaker 1: swayed by popular opinion. And so as we travel through

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Speaker 1: the film's genesis as a magazine article written by a

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Speaker 1: guy who later became a farmer in Israel, the reason

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Speaker 1: the crews strongly believes in the film's iconic greasy beach

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Speaker 1: volleyball scene and the secret reason that the actor who

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Speaker 1: played Goose was the toughest guy in the film. I

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Speaker 1: think we might make a fast plane fan out of me.

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Speaker 1: Yet you little fast plane. That's the first time that

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Speaker 1: bid will come in. Here is everything you didn't know

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Speaker 1: about top cut to begin with, what the hell a

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Speaker 1: top gun? Other than a state of mind we all

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Speaker 1: strive to occupy. Well, it's the U. S. Navy Strike

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Speaker 1: Fighter Tactics Instructor Program And from one to nine eight

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Speaker 1: three there was a guy named Ernie Christensen, Rear Admiral

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Speaker 1: U S. N retired and a former Blue Angels pilot,

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Speaker 1: which is the Navy's flight demonstration squad. He served as

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Speaker 1: commanding officer of the Top Gun program. His career was

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Speaker 1: predictably insane. He was the first Naval Academy graduate to

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Speaker 1: complete a tour with the Blue Angels, who I don't know,

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Speaker 1: have you ever seen the Blue Angels, not in person

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Speaker 1: though they're the wing of the Navy that just basically

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Speaker 1: go out and do like crazy loop deloops and fly bys.

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Speaker 1: It's propagandas to get people hyped on the Navy. But

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Speaker 1: before he did that, he flew three hundred sixty combat

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Speaker 1: missions in Vietnam, and he crashed over the Tonkin Gulf

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Speaker 1: in June of night after an engine flamed out, which

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Speaker 1: forced him to eject from an altitude of five thousand feet.

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Speaker 1: Then just two years later, during an air show with

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Speaker 1: the Blue Angels at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, his F four

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Speaker 1: belly landed after one of the engines remained stuck in

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Speaker 1: afterburner mode and drove itself off the runway as he

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Speaker 1: ejected from the cockpit. Anyway, while he was running Fighter Town,

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Speaker 1: which is the colloquial name for the Marine Corps air

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Speaker 1: Station Miramar in San Diego, California, Christison was approached by

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Speaker 1: a freelance writer named Ahud Yanna, who spent two weeks

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Speaker 1: embedded with the personnel there for an article for California

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Speaker 1: Magazine was published in May of nineteen eighty three. After

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Speaker 1: writing that piece, Yanna went back to Israel, where he

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Speaker 1: researched and wrote another military theme book called No Margin

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Speaker 1: for Air The Making of the Israeli Air Force. And

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Speaker 1: he developed a farm and then he died in two

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Speaker 1: thousand twelve, so good for him. Top producers Don Simpson

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Speaker 1: and Jerry Bruckheimer were at the peak of their powers

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Speaker 1: as a production unit after hits like nine eight three,

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Speaker 1: Flash Dance, n Everly Hills cop for Top Gun. Simpson

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Speaker 1: came by the aviation theme quite naturally when he was

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Speaker 1: born his dad as a boeing mechanic. Simpson grew up

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Speaker 1: in Juneo, Alaska, attending church four or five times a

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Speaker 1: week with his strict Baptist parents, and maybe that's why,

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Speaker 1: upon striking it big in Hollywood, he went absolutely batch

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Speaker 1: Looney Tunes for drugs and at one point was fired

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Speaker 1: from Paramount after passing out mid meeting due to the

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Speaker 1: combination of working on eight films at once and his

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Speaker 1: heroic drug intake. He apparently also nearly drowned at a

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Speaker 1: Top Gun cast party and w a bunch of pilots.

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Speaker 1: Rowdy pilots threw him into a pool. He could not

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Speaker 1: swim and his leather jacket and boots were weighing him down,

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Speaker 1: so he had to be pulled out of the pool.

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Speaker 1: Director Tony Scott recalled in a DVD commentary, now We're

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Speaker 1: going to do a quick lightning round in Don Simpson's

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Speaker 1: life because he exemplified the phrase coke adult Uh and

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Speaker 1: as you might imagine with that live moss mentality, Uh yeah,

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Speaker 1: he's that man, lived moss. He would wear black levies

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Speaker 1: one oh ones and throw them away after their first

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Speaker 1: wash or maybe before their first wash. I'm not clear

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Speaker 1: on that, because he wanted the blackest crispus jeans on

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Speaker 1: his body. Um, give them, threw them away through the

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Speaker 1: way way. Yeah. Uh, you know, l a huge homeless population.

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Speaker 1: None of those people could have used pants. Um. He

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Speaker 1: claimed he never had plastic surgery, but various rumor mill

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Speaker 1: churnings alleged that he went under the knife ten times

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Speaker 1: in a six year period from for allegedly, among other things,

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Speaker 1: a chin am plant, penis enlargement procedure, and placenta injections.

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Speaker 1: I didn't know the enlargement thing was a real thing.

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Speaker 1: I didn't know that that was a procedure one could have.

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Speaker 1: I read about this from him. Your penis actually stands

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Speaker 1: into your body, so what they do is is just

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Speaker 1: yank the part of it that's in your body. Out ridiculous, Yes, exactly. Um.

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Speaker 1: He was a pretty sex sponster. He hosted these wild

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Speaker 1: all night cocaine field parties. He was alleged to have

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Speaker 1: used the casting couch, which is the practice by which

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Speaker 1: young actresses are forced to sleep with the person casting

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Speaker 1: them on said couch. Um, and he would allegedly also

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Speaker 1: secretly film these women during this moment. A former receptionist

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Speaker 1: alleged that he was extremely verbally abusive to her, while

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Speaker 1: also asking her to arrange for prostitutes for him as

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Speaker 1: part of her day job. Um. He was close friends

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Speaker 1: with the infamous Hollywood madame Heidi Flice, and he uh

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Speaker 1: had sado masochistic tastes. There's a whole chapter in a

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Speaker 1: book written by I think several Hollywood sex workers where

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Speaker 1: they just have a chapter dedicated to him being a

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Speaker 1: sado masochist. What's the book? The book is called You'll

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Speaker 1: Never Make Love in This Town Again, is published in January,

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Speaker 1: the same year spoiler and month spoiler alert Simpson died. Um.

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Speaker 1: It described the stories of three prostitutes and one actress

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Speaker 1: about the sexual encounters with various Hollywood celebrities. As you

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Speaker 1: joked in here, not the most important takeaway, but do

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Speaker 1: we think he was a dom or a sub? He

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Speaker 1: was almost assuredly a dom Um. I don't know, though,

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Speaker 1: somebody who's so in control in their daily life. Maybe

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Speaker 1: like you usually find that those kind of like high

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Speaker 1: powered business people like to relinquish control and kind of

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Speaker 1: be you know, bossed around in bedroom settings. Uh. He

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Speaker 1: refused to go to rehab instead hiring and I feel

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Speaker 1: very justified calling this guy a quack. One doctor Stephen

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Speaker 1: Ammerman to help him. Amaron was an addict himself who

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Speaker 1: believed in a positively black sabbathy in regiment of using

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Speaker 1: other drugs like morphine to combat the withdrawals from the

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Speaker 1: drug The one was someone was quitting cocaine. He subsequently

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Speaker 1: overdosed in the shower of Simpson's poolhouse in from a

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Speaker 1: drug cocktail, an incident that prompted Bruckheimer to dissolve his

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Speaker 1: partnership with Simpson. The doctor died, Yeah da yeah, Simpson himself.

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Speaker 1: Than an incident, then yeah, one dies, I feel like

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Speaker 1: then it All incidences are deaths, Not all deaths are incidents.

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Speaker 1: Perhaps Simpson himself overdosed and died in January of n

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Speaker 1: He died with twenty one different drugs in his systems,

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Speaker 1: including antidepressants and stimulants and sedatives and tranquilizers, which were

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Speaker 1: presumably all ingested to try and keep his body at

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Speaker 1: a perfect stasis. Um. He obviously failed. Later that year,

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Speaker 1: an LA Times investigative reporter named Chuck Phillips revealed the

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Speaker 1: extent of Simpson's addiction and this is wild. He had

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Speaker 1: been obtaining drugs from fifteen different doctors, and police found

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Speaker 1: twenty two hundred prescription pills lined up in alphabetical order

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Speaker 1: in his bedroom closet. Alphabetical. I mean, at least it

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Speaker 1: wasn't a total animal. No. The journalist Charles Fleming would

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Speaker 1: write in that Simpson's drug habit cost an excess of

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Speaker 1: sixty thou dollars a month at the time he died. Jesus, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean, Don Simpson was I guess historically known if

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Speaker 1: you're taking a very hands on role during productions, but

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Speaker 1: he was noticeably absent during the filming of Top Gun

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Speaker 1: because his drug use made him, uh surprise, increasingly paranoid,

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Speaker 1: to the point that he rarely left his home. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I'm kind of amazed that he was able to get

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Speaker 1: vertical every day. There's a podcast on my heart actually

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Speaker 1: called I think it's called The Dawn that's um a

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Speaker 1: narrative telling of his very fascinating but also very tragic

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Speaker 1: life It. Meanwhile, the much less colorful Jerry Bruckheimer majored

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Speaker 1: in philosophy at college, which I of before getting into

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Speaker 1: ad work. Um. He did an ad for the Pontiac

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Speaker 1: gt O which I'll bring back in later, and eventually

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Speaker 1: he got into film production. This is my favorite detail

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Speaker 1: about this. He met Simpson at a screening of the

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Speaker 1: cult favorite Jamaican Outlaw Films starring Jimmy Cliff The Harder

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Speaker 1: They Come, which is really funny coming from the guy

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Speaker 1: who eventually made the Rock. Um. The first flop that

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Speaker 1: he made with Simpson was actually Days of Thunder starring

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Speaker 1: Tom Cruise. It kind of put a dent in their

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Speaker 1: momentum is you know, the hero gods of late eighties

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Speaker 1: early nineties Hollywood. But he still has a pretty tremendous

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Speaker 1: batting average in Hollywood. Uh, partially with Michael Bay, you know,

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Speaker 1: through the Bay Run of the Blockbuster nineties, but he

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Speaker 1: also created C S I and the Amazing Race. Um.

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Speaker 1: All right, that runs us the category on top producers.

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Speaker 1: So now we get into top writers. Brockheimer reads the

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Speaker 1: article and in his words, he was struck by the

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Speaker 1: lead which is at mock two and forty thousand feet

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Speaker 1: over California. It's always high noon. That's pretty great, pretty greatly.

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Speaker 1: So I was score points for a hood um and

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Speaker 1: the photo art which he would later describe as star

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Speaker 1: Wars on Earth. So it goes to Jim Cash and

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Speaker 1: Jack Epps Jr. Two writers who met at Michigan State University,

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Speaker 1: where Cash was actually EPs screenwriting partner or instructor, and um.

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Speaker 1: It's funny Cash never moved to l A. He stayed

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Speaker 1: in Michigan and made everyone collaborated with him long distance,

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Speaker 1: which Epps explained, first they communicated by phone and mail,

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Speaker 1: then they hooked up their computers with a program called

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Speaker 1: carbon Copy that linked up their computers over the phone line.

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Speaker 1: They would then keep a second phone line open and

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Speaker 1: they would talk about the rewrite. So essentially, these guys

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Speaker 1: are early Internet for runners just to write these scripts.

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Speaker 1: They were both working for Paramount at the time, and

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Speaker 1: Epps said that the pitch for top Gun came up

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Speaker 1: in a meeting with Jeffrey Katzenberg. This is EPs again.

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Speaker 1: He had a list of eight ideas that he offered us.

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Speaker 1: Because I had my private pilots license, I was interested

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Speaker 1: in top Gun. He added that he always envisioned crews

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Speaker 1: for the lead role. And this is really interesting me

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Speaker 1: because according to the Top Gun DVD commentary, Katzenberg and

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Speaker 1: his fellow Paramount executive Michael Eisner didn't like the script

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Speaker 1: that Epps turned in initially, and the film was shelved,

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Speaker 1: or if not shelves, at least held up until there

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Speaker 1: was a new CEO, a guy named Ned Tannin. He

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Speaker 1: took over and he greenlit the movie during a lunch meeting,

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Speaker 1: and he hadn't even read the screenplay. He just was like, up,

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Speaker 1: Star Wars on Earth? Do it make it happen? Bruckheimer

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Speaker 1: says they were paid about three to four hundred thousand

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Speaker 1: for the script and it did not bode particularly auspicious

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Speaker 1: career for the two of them. They went on to

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Speaker 1: write Turner and Hooch, Dick, Tracy and Anaconda and Sure

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Speaker 1: why not Flint Stones Viva Rock Vegas. Epp spent over

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Speaker 1: a month at Merrimar interviewing pilots, doing water training, taking

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Speaker 1: jet rides, and he also takes credit for inventing the

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Speaker 1: Maverick and Iceman call signs, among a few of the

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Speaker 1: other lesser ones. Uh. He seems a pretty salty. Sadly,

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Speaker 1: Cash died at one point in the two thousands, but

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Speaker 1: there's a really long ranging interview about his career at

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Speaker 1: some site called like Remember the Eighties or something. But

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Speaker 1: I don't know. If you're super interested in Jim Cash

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Speaker 1: his life, you can go check that out. Isep salty

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Speaker 1: because he uh, he didn't like that sounds like a

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Speaker 1: low figure. They were given what three to four. I

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Speaker 1: think he's salty. I think he's I think he's salty

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Speaker 1: because of all of the rumors around there about how

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Speaker 1: many drafts the script went through, and he said they

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Speaker 1: were just minor changes here and there. They got blown

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Speaker 1: out of proportion. Now we must get into Top Director. Yes,

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Speaker 1: Tony Scott, Ridley's brother was hired based on a commercially

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Speaker 1: done of a SOB car raising a SOB jet, And

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Speaker 1: you were right. The car commercial thing ends up coming back.

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Speaker 1: Jerry Bruckhamer got a start in commercials, so did the

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Speaker 1: future director of Top Gun. And this is really weere.

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Speaker 1: Two other rumor directors for the film were David Cronenberg

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Speaker 1: and John Carpenter, which I couldn't have gone high. I

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Speaker 1: got that from screen rant who have been somewhat dubious

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Speaker 1: with their sources, but it does not make sense to me.

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Speaker 1: Carpenter makes slightly more sense because he had come off

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Speaker 1: escaped from New York, he had done Christine, he had

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Speaker 1: done the thing, so maybe they were looking at him like, hey,

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Speaker 1: maybe we could get this kind of weird action horror

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Speaker 1: guy who had a pretty proven record at this point

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Speaker 1: for doing this kind of stuff. Maybe get him. Cronenberg

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Speaker 1: just had done Video Drome, which is one of the

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Speaker 1: most off putting sci fi horror movies of all time.

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Speaker 1: I have no idea how his name would have gotten

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Speaker 1: into that conversation because he hadn't done The Fly until six,

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Speaker 1: so I don't know. That's weird. It's also really weird

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Speaker 1: that I guess Simpson and Bruckhammer supposedly approached Tony Scott

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Speaker 1: because he directed I think it was his only feature film,

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Speaker 1: The Hunger, which is this uh you described it as

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Speaker 1: low medium, good vampire movie. I know it because it

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Speaker 1: stars David Bowie and Kathy Deneuve, two of my my

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Speaker 1: favorite people. Um, Susan Surrandon and Surround. That's right, because yeah,

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Speaker 1: Bowie and Surrandon had a brief thing together. I think

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Speaker 1: as a result of that movie, as they should have. Oh,

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Speaker 1: I mean that's a power couple right there. But then

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Speaker 1: did she end up getting with Tim Robbins of Top Gun?

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Speaker 1: Wait till we get to my Meg Ryan Lightning Round.

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Speaker 1: There's a lot of funny connections from the Top Gun cast.

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Speaker 1: But um so Tony Scott. His only feature film has

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Speaker 1: been this weird vampire movie with Bowie. The Hunger didn't

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Speaker 1: do well at the box office, actually did so poorly

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Speaker 1: that Tony Scott went back to directing commercials for a

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Speaker 1: time because no one else would hire him. But Jerry

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Speaker 1: Bruckheimer mostly felt a kinship with him because of his

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Speaker 1: own ad background, wanted to take a chance on him.

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Speaker 1: She's kind of nice. Yeah, no, I agree, and uh.

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Speaker 1: Tony Scott's original pitch for Top Gun was Apocalypse now

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Speaker 1: on an aircraft carrying, which producers shot down and hig,

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Speaker 1: I'd like you to do the Mick Jagger voice via

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Speaker 1: John mulaney. No, not funny. And then I guess Scott

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Speaker 1: realized that it had to be a rock and roll

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Speaker 1: movie about fighter pilots. Yeah funny, thank you very much.

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Speaker 1: Uh not one of my better ones. Well, yeah, you

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Speaker 1: got it. This is my favorite anecdote about Tony Scott,

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Speaker 1: you gotta you gotta tell us Scott was fired three

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Speaker 1: times during the making of this film. Um, it's gonna

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Speaker 1: be close to a record, right each Yeah, each one

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Speaker 1: of these has a longer story to it, but we're

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Speaker 1: condensing them down. The first time he shot in slow motion,

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Speaker 1: he shot like a bunch of these landings and slow motion,

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Speaker 1: and he had been told not to. After the producers

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Speaker 1: saw the first dailies, they were like, don't do that.

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Speaker 1: It's a fast it's a rock and roll movie. We

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Speaker 1: don't need slow motion. So he proceeded to shoot more

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Speaker 1: scenes in slow motion, so he was dismissed for that.

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Speaker 1: The second time was for costuming wardrobeing star Kelly McGillis

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Speaker 1: and lighting her in such a way that and this

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Speaker 1: is his quote, she looked beautiful in a horrish sort

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Speaker 1: of way, the first of many horrendous things she was

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Speaker 1: forced to endure for this movie. Yeah, yeah, we're not

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Speaker 1: getting into Kelly mcgillis's life. It's tremendously sad. You can

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Speaker 1: google it at your own time. Um, but she seems

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Speaker 1: to be doing better. And the third time he shot,

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Speaker 1: Cock put footage with the pilers of visors down, which

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Speaker 1: you know you put Tom Cruise and val killing your movies.

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Speaker 1: You want to see the money, you want to see

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Speaker 1: the face, and you can't do that when they got

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Speaker 1: all this you know, fast plane in their face. So

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Speaker 1: that was the third time he was fired. And so

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Speaker 1: the first time he was fired, he was already on

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Speaker 1: the aircraft carrier and couldn't get back to land because

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Speaker 1: of the weather. So he just kept shooting, which I

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Speaker 1: really admire, but um, you know, he stayed on. Eventually

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Speaker 1: didn't get fired a fourth time, four times the Charm

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Speaker 1: and h In the DVD commentary, he says, between the

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Speaker 1: Hunger and top Gun, the phone never rang. After top Gun,

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Speaker 1: the phone didn't stop bringing. I moved to l A permanently,

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Speaker 1: got a Ferrari, got another motorcycle, and lost my second marriage.

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Speaker 1: To borrow a phrase from Neil Young's dad's Scott Young,

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Speaker 1: the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. We're going to

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Speaker 1: take a quick break, but we'll be right back with

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Speaker 1: more too much information in just a moment. And now

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Speaker 1: we must move into top cast Tom Cruise Cruise Control,

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Speaker 1: cruising cruising cruise in US A cruising for a bruising.

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Speaker 1: Cruise was cast in the film after working with Ridley Scott,

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Speaker 1: Tony's brother on Legend, which is a semi semi memory

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Speaker 1: hold terrible fantasy movie, and as he had in a

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Speaker 1: clip from the thirtieth anniversary digital rerelease of Top Gun,

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Speaker 1: they first offered me the film in three and at

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Speaker 1: this time I was off in London working with Ridley Scott,

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Speaker 1: and I remember I didn't address Top Gun during that

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Speaker 1: time period. I was focused on shooting Legend. In Ridley

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Speaker 1: said you gotta meet my brother. He's going to direct

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Speaker 1: this film, Top Gun. And so Bruckheimer said, Cruz was

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Speaker 1: still sporting his ponytail that he had from shooting Legend

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Speaker 1: when he went down to meet the pilots at Miramar.

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Speaker 1: And so right away these pilots are, we got this

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Speaker 1: hippie coming in here. We're going to give him the

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Speaker 1: ride of his life. They spun him at three to

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Speaker 1: four g s and flew him upside down, and when

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Speaker 1: he got on the ground, he went to the nearest

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Speaker 1: phone booth and called Bruckheimer and said, I'm doing the movie. Uh.

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Speaker 1: He later said that Maverick was the first character that

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Speaker 1: he ever played who was larger than life. Those are

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Speaker 1: his words. And it was also the first time that

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Speaker 1: he had been involved in the movie from the early

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Speaker 1: stages and helping kind of iron out the script. And

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Speaker 1: he later said that he was really nervous about airring

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Speaker 1: this movie, and Tony Scott would later recall he was

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Speaker 1: out of his depth, was highwas and just amazingly considering

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Speaker 1: what was to come for all the Mission Impossible movies.

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Speaker 1: Tom Cruise had never ridden the motorcycle until this film,

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Speaker 1: and to learn he went to the communiently named House

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Speaker 1: of Motorcycles in alcohol in California, where they taught him

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Speaker 1: in the parking lot of their shop. And the motorcycle

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Speaker 1: that he rides in this movie he just learned, and

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Speaker 1: he's given the fastest motorcycle in production of Kawasaki Ninja nine.

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Speaker 1: He does not do things in half measures. I will

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Speaker 1: say I've heard mixed things about Tom Cruises casting. One

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Speaker 1: version is that the part was written especially for him.

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Speaker 1: I guess they were inspired by his performance in the

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Speaker 1: nine sports drama All the Right Moves. But there's also another,

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Speaker 1: to me much more interesting bit of fantasy casting. According

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Speaker 1: to some sources, John Travolta was originally considered to play

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Speaker 1: the part of Maverick, but after lengthy salary debates, the

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Speaker 1: studio backed off because recent movies like Urban Cowboy at

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Speaker 1: All bombed and there were a number of other people

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Speaker 1: at her that were considered. Matthew Modine apparently was offered

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Speaker 1: the role and turned it down because of the film's

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Speaker 1: pro military stance, but then would go on to do

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Speaker 1: Full Metal Jacket. I guess that's not pro military though, yeah. Um,

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Speaker 1: Patrick Swayze, Emilio Estevez, Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, Matthew Roderick,

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Speaker 1: Sean Penn, Michael J. Fox, Scott bo and Tom Hanks.

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Speaker 1: We have our first Hanks connection. They all supposedly, according

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Speaker 1: to what I found, turned this role down. I find

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Speaker 1: it hard to believe it went through that many people. Um,

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Speaker 1: and also Charlie Sheen, Rob Low, Kevin Bacon, Eric Stoltz,

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Speaker 1: and Robert Downey Jr. Were also supposedly considered. And Charlie

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Speaker 1: Sheen was so excited about this movie because this was

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Speaker 1: like the hot title going around Hollywood the time, that

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Speaker 1: he basically begged to take any role in it at all,

426
00:24:50,960 --> 00:24:53,280
Speaker 1: even if it was a small one. And maybe it

427
00:24:53,400 --> 00:24:55,800
Speaker 1: was in his blood because they you know this early

428
00:24:55,840 --> 00:24:58,640
Speaker 1: stage of production. Tony Scott's vision for this was Apocalypse

429
00:24:58,680 --> 00:25:01,199
Speaker 1: Now on an aircraft carrier, and his dad was in

430
00:25:01,320 --> 00:25:03,440
Speaker 1: Pocalypse Now, so maybe he thought it was his destiny.

431
00:25:03,560 --> 00:25:07,040
Speaker 1: But Charlie Sheen was rejected, which is maybe why he

432
00:25:07,119 --> 00:25:12,719
Speaker 1: skewered top Gun in Hot Shots. Hot Shots is great. Yeah,

433
00:25:12,800 --> 00:25:14,760
Speaker 1: Apparently all of the actors who were in the film

434
00:25:14,800 --> 00:25:17,080
Speaker 1: actually got to ride and jets during the filming, and

435
00:25:17,119 --> 00:25:20,520
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards, who played Goose, was the only one who

436
00:25:20,520 --> 00:25:22,800
Speaker 1: didn't throw up in the middle of his ride. I

437
00:25:22,840 --> 00:25:25,320
Speaker 1: really do have a hard time imagining Tom Cruise throwing up.

438
00:25:25,320 --> 00:25:27,600
Speaker 1: That just seems so at odds. We probably threw up

439
00:25:27,600 --> 00:25:34,679
Speaker 1: and then swallowed it through his iron will Um Kelly McGillis,

440
00:25:36,440 --> 00:25:41,000
Speaker 1: I just wet again. We're glossing over all of the

441
00:25:41,080 --> 00:25:43,639
Speaker 1: actual horrible, real life stuff that happened to us. But

442
00:25:43,800 --> 00:25:46,520
Speaker 1: even in this movie, she was not treated particularly well.

443
00:25:46,640 --> 00:25:48,880
Speaker 1: Scott said that he had seen her take her top

444
00:25:48,920 --> 00:25:51,920
Speaker 1: off and witness and that's the real reason she got

445
00:25:51,960 --> 00:25:55,280
Speaker 1: the part. And that is that is in addition to

446
00:25:55,480 --> 00:25:59,240
Speaker 1: the comment earlier where he said he made her look horrish.

447
00:25:59,440 --> 00:26:02,840
Speaker 1: They were all so supposedly considering Brookshields and Deborah Winger

448
00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:08,440
Speaker 1: for this. Tatum O'Neil, Jodie Foster, Daryl Hannah, Diane Lane, Sara,

449
00:26:08,480 --> 00:26:11,560
Speaker 1: Jessica Parker, and Linda Hamilton's all turned down the role.

450
00:26:12,359 --> 00:26:14,880
Speaker 1: Um some of those are good. Carrie Fisher was also

451
00:26:14,920 --> 00:26:18,840
Speaker 1: considered for the role cruising. His famous cowboy boots as

452
00:26:18,840 --> 00:26:21,480
Speaker 1: part of his wardrobe, were designed to make him more

453
00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:24,199
Speaker 1: on a level footing with her because he's famously a

454
00:26:24,280 --> 00:26:27,080
Speaker 1: short guy and she was several inches taller than him.

455
00:26:27,240 --> 00:26:29,440
Speaker 1: I think she's five ten and he's five six, yeah,

456
00:26:29,560 --> 00:26:32,720
Speaker 1: five seven, yeah, So but Scott kept them after filming

457
00:26:32,720 --> 00:26:36,320
Speaker 1: wrapped because he likes cowboy boots, and Jordan tell us

458
00:26:36,359 --> 00:26:38,600
Speaker 1: a little bit of the movie trickery that they used

459
00:26:38,720 --> 00:26:40,800
Speaker 1: to make up for this height difference. Yeah. And the

460
00:26:40,920 --> 00:26:42,879
Speaker 1: last scene in the Dinner, when You've lost that love

461
00:26:42,920 --> 00:26:45,160
Speaker 1: and the fielding comes on the jukebox and they walk

462
00:26:45,280 --> 00:26:48,240
Speaker 1: up to each other, Kelly McGillis is actually standing in

463
00:26:48,320 --> 00:26:51,040
Speaker 1: a trench that was dug on set because they wanted

464
00:26:51,040 --> 00:26:52,600
Speaker 1: the two to look like they were the same height,

465
00:26:52,680 --> 00:26:56,359
Speaker 1: or at least similar height. So they first stand in

466
00:26:56,400 --> 00:26:58,560
Speaker 1: a hole, which I feel like is such a beautiful

467
00:26:58,600 --> 00:27:01,560
Speaker 1: metaphor for Kelly McGillis had to go through in this

468
00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:05,080
Speaker 1: god forsacond production. Yeah, but as part of her research,

469
00:27:05,119 --> 00:27:09,160
Speaker 1: she admirably shadowed a tremendously important woman, Christine Fox, who

470
00:27:09,160 --> 00:27:12,119
Speaker 1: worked at the Marine Corps Air Station Merrimar as a

471
00:27:12,119 --> 00:27:16,560
Speaker 1: civilian employee of the Center for Naval Analysis, which they

472
00:27:16,560 --> 00:27:19,639
Speaker 1: probably could have phrased that better. Um, you know, like

473
00:27:20,800 --> 00:27:26,119
Speaker 1: naval gazing for naval gazing was taken, but yeah, taken

474
00:27:26,119 --> 00:27:29,919
Speaker 1: by n y u um at the little jab at

475
00:27:29,920 --> 00:27:34,240
Speaker 1: your alma out of there. Uh. She later became the

476
00:27:34,320 --> 00:27:37,440
Speaker 1: highest ranking woman ever to serve in the Department of Defense,

477
00:27:37,440 --> 00:27:41,199
Speaker 1: in good on her. At the time the movie was

478
00:27:41,240 --> 00:27:44,200
Speaker 1: being developed, the filmmakers wanted the character of Charlie to

479
00:27:44,280 --> 00:27:48,280
Speaker 1: either be a groupie or a gymnast. I don't know

480
00:27:48,280 --> 00:27:50,040
Speaker 1: how either of those would have fit into the plot,

481
00:27:50,119 --> 00:27:52,760
Speaker 1: but they then head of Paramount Pictures, a woman by

482
00:27:52,760 --> 00:27:57,000
Speaker 1: the name of Don Steele, used to authorize Yeah, Don

483
00:27:57,040 --> 00:27:58,359
Speaker 1: s I mean that should have been the name of

484
00:27:58,400 --> 00:28:02,720
Speaker 1: this character. Actually, she allegedly refused to authorize the movie

485
00:28:02,720 --> 00:28:05,600
Speaker 1: Top Gun to be made until they made that character

486
00:28:05,760 --> 00:28:08,000
Speaker 1: a real intelligent woman. And it's such a great role

487
00:28:08,040 --> 00:28:11,879
Speaker 1: because among many other things, she has some incredible one liners. Uh,

488
00:28:11,920 --> 00:28:15,119
Speaker 1: there's the scene when Charlie finds Maverick drinking at the

489
00:28:15,119 --> 00:28:19,920
Speaker 1: airport bar after Goose has died spoilers, and she tells

490
00:28:19,920 --> 00:28:22,760
Speaker 1: the bartender, oh, have what he's having? Hemlock is it?

491
00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:26,719
Speaker 1: Which is such a great, smart, quick joke. It's it's

492
00:28:26,760 --> 00:28:29,000
Speaker 1: a reference to the death of Socrates in the fourth

493
00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:32,160
Speaker 1: century BC. According to legend, he was sentenced to die

494
00:28:32,200 --> 00:28:35,280
Speaker 1: after being found guilty of corrupting the youth and failing

495
00:28:35,320 --> 00:28:38,640
Speaker 1: to acknowledge the city's official gods, and as a result,

496
00:28:38,680 --> 00:28:41,800
Speaker 1: he was forced to consume poison made of hemlock. There

497
00:28:41,880 --> 00:28:44,320
Speaker 1: was just a great, deep cut, high flutant reference to

498
00:28:44,320 --> 00:28:47,160
Speaker 1: pull in just as a throwaway line in this action

499
00:28:47,200 --> 00:28:50,800
Speaker 1: are but Kelly Miglis was not asked to return from Maverick,

500
00:28:50,960 --> 00:28:54,200
Speaker 1: saying in two thousand nineteen this is her quote. I'm

501
00:28:54,240 --> 00:28:57,400
Speaker 1: old and I'm fat and I look age appropriate, and

502
00:28:57,480 --> 00:28:59,880
Speaker 1: that is not what the whole scene is about. To me,

503
00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:02,480
Speaker 1: he had much rather feel absolutely in my skin and

504
00:29:02,600 --> 00:29:04,719
Speaker 1: who I am at my age, as opposed to placing

505
00:29:04,760 --> 00:29:09,400
Speaker 1: a value on all that other stuff. Good for her. Yeah,

506
00:29:09,680 --> 00:29:13,160
Speaker 1: So before mckelly McGillis was cast. Ali Shedy turned down

507
00:29:13,200 --> 00:29:15,680
Speaker 1: the role because she didn't think anyone would want to

508
00:29:16,080 --> 00:29:19,680
Speaker 1: see a movie about fighter pilots, which one of the

509
00:29:20,160 --> 00:29:24,760
Speaker 1: all time hindsight is moves. Um. You know, the shoot

510
00:29:24,760 --> 00:29:27,600
Speaker 1: seemed pretty wholesome, actually, McGillis said all that the young actors,

511
00:29:27,640 --> 00:29:30,920
Speaker 1: with the exception of Cruise and Val Kilmer. Um. Kilmer

512
00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:33,920
Speaker 1: because he was method, Cruise because his insanity was beginning

513
00:29:33,960 --> 00:29:37,400
Speaker 1: to reiritate. Uh, stayed in a hotel for the shoot.

514
00:29:38,240 --> 00:29:43,280
Speaker 1: Tom Cruise had to return some videotapes. Uh. That's American

515
00:29:43,280 --> 00:29:46,640
Speaker 1: psycho reference for you. Uh. They all stayed. All the

516
00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:48,560
Speaker 1: younger actors stayed in a hotel for the shoot, and

517
00:29:48,600 --> 00:29:51,240
Speaker 1: they would bond by going out to dinner or to

518
00:29:51,280 --> 00:29:54,840
Speaker 1: a driving range, or they would play tennis and baseball. Um.

519
00:29:54,920 --> 00:29:57,040
Speaker 1: She did make an oblique reference in a two thousand

520
00:29:57,480 --> 00:30:00,680
Speaker 1: interview that some of the cast went down to Mexico

521
00:30:00,880 --> 00:30:05,920
Speaker 1: and got in trouble down there. Use your imagination. Yeah,

522
00:30:05,960 --> 00:30:08,040
Speaker 1: this has crept up a lot of interviews with the cast.

523
00:30:08,280 --> 00:30:11,920
Speaker 1: Apparently the cast with pile into Val Kilmer's van, the

524
00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:14,480
Speaker 1: vehicle which he I guess shared with them was the

525
00:30:14,520 --> 00:30:17,400
Speaker 1: same place where he lost his virginity, which is a

526
00:30:17,720 --> 00:30:19,800
Speaker 1: interesting thing to come up while you're riding in that

527
00:30:19,840 --> 00:30:22,880
Speaker 1: car um and according to Vowel, they would wreak havoc

528
00:30:22,920 --> 00:30:26,320
Speaker 1: across the Mexican border. In the DVD commentary, Val Kilmer

529
00:30:26,480 --> 00:30:30,000
Speaker 1: describes the shoot as like being one giant weekend. As

530
00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:34,160
Speaker 1: far as making the still, McGillis has nothing but nice

531
00:30:34,200 --> 00:30:36,800
Speaker 1: things to say about Cruise on their famous all in

532
00:30:36,880 --> 00:30:40,160
Speaker 1: silhouette love scene was a late addition after test screening

533
00:30:40,200 --> 00:30:42,920
Speaker 1: suggested it, and the reason that sin silhouette was that

534
00:30:42,960 --> 00:30:45,000
Speaker 1: she had gotten a new haircut for a new film

535
00:30:45,080 --> 00:30:47,640
Speaker 1: role and it was no longer consistent with the previous footage.

536
00:30:47,800 --> 00:30:49,920
Speaker 1: It's also why she's got her hair in a baseball

537
00:30:49,960 --> 00:30:52,240
Speaker 1: cap in the elevator scene. You know what she was making.

538
00:30:52,280 --> 00:30:54,600
Speaker 1: She's making a movie called Made in Heaven, which is

539
00:30:54,640 --> 00:30:59,000
Speaker 1: a seven comedy fantasy, really great plot about two souls

540
00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:02,280
Speaker 1: who cross path in heaven and then attempt to reconnect

541
00:31:02,400 --> 00:31:04,480
Speaker 1: once they're reborn on Earth. I think that's such a

542
00:31:04,480 --> 00:31:07,200
Speaker 1: great premise. But it's really interesting to me, mostly because

543
00:31:07,240 --> 00:31:10,920
Speaker 1: it features cameos by Tom Petty, Rick o'kasik of the Cars,

544
00:31:11,360 --> 00:31:15,240
Speaker 1: and Neil Young, which I don't understand how they were convinced,

545
00:31:15,560 --> 00:31:18,520
Speaker 1: especially Neil Young, to do that, but UM, I don't know.

546
00:31:18,520 --> 00:31:23,520
Speaker 1: Maybe we were just a yeah, that's true. Um, this

547
00:31:23,600 --> 00:31:27,600
Speaker 1: is the eighties. But I guess Cruise and McGillis their

548
00:31:27,640 --> 00:31:30,719
Speaker 1: schedules are really tight because Tony Scott supposedly only had

549
00:31:30,760 --> 00:31:33,800
Speaker 1: a matter of minutes to shoot this after the fact

550
00:31:33,880 --> 00:31:37,320
Speaker 1: sex scene, which is hilarious. But this is also interesting.

551
00:31:37,360 --> 00:31:40,280
Speaker 1: There's a scene earlier on in the movie when Charlie

552
00:31:40,280 --> 00:31:42,760
Speaker 1: tells Maverick that she didn't want anyone to find out

553
00:31:42,800 --> 00:31:45,880
Speaker 1: that she was falling in love with him. Maverick originally

554
00:31:45,880 --> 00:31:48,160
Speaker 1: had a line to say, but Tom Cruise forgot it,

555
00:31:48,320 --> 00:31:51,080
Speaker 1: so he just ad lib to went into kisser instead,

556
00:31:51,600 --> 00:31:53,800
Speaker 1: and Tony Scott liked it so much that he left

557
00:31:53,880 --> 00:31:59,320
Speaker 1: that scene in Good and Now. Val Kilmer the only

558
00:31:59,400 --> 00:32:04,200
Speaker 1: Jim Morris and we recognize. Val Kilmer initially did not

559
00:32:04,280 --> 00:32:06,640
Speaker 1: want to do this film. He said no recent documentary

560
00:32:06,640 --> 00:32:09,120
Speaker 1: about his life. I felt the script was silly and

561
00:32:09,160 --> 00:32:13,960
Speaker 1: I disliked warmongering films. But like McGillis, who he knew

562
00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:17,680
Speaker 1: from Juilliard, apparently he was under contract to Paramount and

563
00:32:17,760 --> 00:32:20,400
Speaker 1: so he did not have a choice, but he remained

564
00:32:20,400 --> 00:32:24,240
Speaker 1: a conscientious objector. Uh. He did say that Tony's vision

565
00:32:24,320 --> 00:32:26,880
Speaker 1: swayed him once he got onto the set, and so he,

566
00:32:27,040 --> 00:32:30,520
Speaker 1: as he's wont to do, created his own backstory for Iceman,

567
00:32:30,880 --> 00:32:35,160
Speaker 1: involving the character's relationship with his father. Of course, um

568
00:32:35,200 --> 00:32:37,080
Speaker 1: there have been a lot of rumors over the years

569
00:32:37,080 --> 00:32:39,160
Speaker 1: that he and Cruz did not get along with filming.

570
00:32:39,320 --> 00:32:41,720
Speaker 1: While filming, they had a rivalry on the set, but

571
00:32:42,000 --> 00:32:44,240
Speaker 1: it appears to have been smoothed over with the passage

572
00:32:44,280 --> 00:32:46,280
Speaker 1: of time. Kilmer just kind of choked it up to

573
00:32:46,360 --> 00:32:49,120
Speaker 1: him being all intense and method on set and treating

574
00:32:49,240 --> 00:32:52,760
Speaker 1: Cruise as if he was actually Maverick, and every interaction

575
00:32:52,800 --> 00:32:54,920
Speaker 1: with him had to be as if he was Iceman.

576
00:32:55,560 --> 00:32:58,720
Speaker 1: And he was invited back for a small emotional cameo

577
00:32:58,800 --> 00:33:00,680
Speaker 1: in the sequel, which is actually interesting in and of

578
00:33:00,720 --> 00:33:05,240
Speaker 1: itself because it necessitated some pretty high technology recreations of

579
00:33:05,280 --> 00:33:09,360
Speaker 1: his speaking voice, because he can't talk well or maybe

580
00:33:09,400 --> 00:33:12,080
Speaker 1: at all, without the aid of a voice box after

581
00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:16,440
Speaker 1: his very sad battle with throat cancer. He was a sweetheart,

582
00:33:16,600 --> 00:33:19,240
Speaker 1: Kilmer said of Cruise during the filming, we were all

583
00:33:19,360 --> 00:33:22,480
Speaker 1: quite rowdy, me and all the real fly boys and

584
00:33:22,560 --> 00:33:25,480
Speaker 1: the actors, so I actually felt a little sorry for him,

585
00:33:25,680 --> 00:33:28,000
Speaker 1: because we all had time to play and date the

586
00:33:28,040 --> 00:33:31,680
Speaker 1: cute extras and zoom around San Diego in muscle cars,

587
00:33:31,720 --> 00:33:34,240
Speaker 1: but Tom was always in some scene and never got

588
00:33:34,280 --> 00:33:37,120
Speaker 1: to play with us. In order to stay in character,

589
00:33:37,160 --> 00:33:39,560
Speaker 1: I guess Tom Cruise would sit as far away from

590
00:33:39,560 --> 00:33:42,719
Speaker 1: the rest of the cast as possible between takes. And

591
00:33:42,760 --> 00:33:46,239
Speaker 1: according to the actor who played Goose, Anthony Edwards, the

592
00:33:46,320 --> 00:33:48,840
Speaker 1: script initially was skeletal and a lot of the humor

593
00:33:48,960 --> 00:33:51,960
Speaker 1: was discovered in the moment from ad libs, And probably

594
00:33:51,960 --> 00:33:54,680
Speaker 1: the most famous example of this involves Hell Kilmer. It's

595
00:33:54,720 --> 00:33:57,360
Speaker 1: the scene when the students are being briefed by Charlie

596
00:33:57,360 --> 00:34:00,640
Speaker 1: and the hangar and Maverick explains that he the bird

597
00:34:00,720 --> 00:34:03,440
Speaker 1: to a MiG fighter and she asked him how he

598
00:34:03,440 --> 00:34:05,200
Speaker 1: saw the mag up close, and he says he was

599
00:34:05,280 --> 00:34:09,719
Speaker 1: flying inverted and then right then Ice Val Kilmer coughs bullshit,

600
00:34:10,160 --> 00:34:12,640
Speaker 1: and all the guys laughed, And that line was ad

601
00:34:12,640 --> 00:34:14,920
Speaker 1: lib by Val Kilmer in the moment, and everyone's reactions

602
00:34:14,920 --> 00:34:18,200
Speaker 1: are genuine, are just really just laughing at him. Um

603
00:34:18,440 --> 00:34:22,400
Speaker 1: Share was Kilmer's date to the premiere, which rules UM.

604
00:34:22,480 --> 00:34:25,560
Speaker 1: And now we're getting into another another of America's sweethearts,

605
00:34:25,840 --> 00:34:30,440
Speaker 1: Meg King Ryan. This is the Meg Ryan Lightning Round

606
00:34:30,520 --> 00:34:33,759
Speaker 1: that I promised earlier. I'm so excited to get into this. UM.

607
00:34:33,840 --> 00:34:36,560
Speaker 1: I completely forgot she was in this movie as Goose's wife,

608
00:34:36,920 --> 00:34:39,760
Speaker 1: and I guess Tony Scott was initially reluctant to cast

609
00:34:39,840 --> 00:34:42,400
Speaker 1: her because she'd appeared on a soap opera As the

610
00:34:42,440 --> 00:34:45,200
Speaker 1: World Turns, but she got the role and she had

611
00:34:45,280 --> 00:34:48,880
Speaker 1: her movie husband, Anthony Edwards, eventually dated in real life.

612
00:34:49,360 --> 00:34:52,080
Speaker 1: But that's not all in the movie. There's the same

613
00:34:52,160 --> 00:34:54,560
Speaker 1: where Goose plays Great Balls of Fire by Jerry Lee

614
00:34:54,640 --> 00:34:57,919
Speaker 1: Lewis on piano. Meg Ryan, his on screen wife, would

615
00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:01,000
Speaker 1: later marry Dennis Quaid, who play Jerry Lee Lewis and

616
00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:04,040
Speaker 1: the Great Balls of Fire biopic, and there's some other

617
00:35:04,080 --> 00:35:06,960
Speaker 1: interesting mcnavollian connections here. She would later co star with

618
00:35:07,000 --> 00:35:10,759
Speaker 1: Val Kilmer and Oliver Stone's Jim Morrison movie, and then

619
00:35:10,880 --> 00:35:13,919
Speaker 1: she and fellow Top Gun co star Tim Robbins, who

620
00:35:13,960 --> 00:35:16,239
Speaker 1: I also totally forgot was in this movie, would act

621
00:35:16,280 --> 00:35:20,120
Speaker 1: opposite one another in the comedy i Q, which also

622
00:35:20,239 --> 00:35:23,600
Speaker 1: starred Walter Matthau. As Albert Einstein kind of love m grind.

623
00:35:23,920 --> 00:35:27,800
Speaker 1: There's actually one other incident I forgot between Tom Cruise

624
00:35:27,800 --> 00:35:31,239
Speaker 1: and Val Kilmer where they actually did get together in

625
00:35:31,280 --> 00:35:36,799
Speaker 1: the trailer and Tom Cruise, uh, it goes up to

626
00:35:37,000 --> 00:35:38,920
Speaker 1: Val Kilmer and he says, g like Huey Lewis and

627
00:35:38,920 --> 00:35:43,400
Speaker 1: the News, and Val Komer says they're okay, And according

628
00:35:43,440 --> 00:35:46,399
Speaker 1: to VAL's autobiography, Tom Cruise said, well, you know, their

629
00:35:46,400 --> 00:35:48,760
Speaker 1: early work was a little too new wave for my taste,

630
00:35:49,000 --> 00:35:51,200
Speaker 1: but when Sports came out in eight three, I think

631
00:35:51,239 --> 00:35:54,560
Speaker 1: they really came into their own commercially and artistically. The

632
00:35:54,560 --> 00:35:57,680
Speaker 1: whole album has a clear, crisp sound and a new

633
00:35:57,760 --> 00:36:00,640
Speaker 1: sheen of consummate professionalism that I think really gives the

634
00:36:00,680 --> 00:36:04,000
Speaker 1: songs a big boost. He's been compared to Elvis Costello,

635
00:36:04,160 --> 00:36:06,680
Speaker 1: but I think Hughie has a far more bitter, cynical

636
00:36:06,719 --> 00:36:09,239
Speaker 1: sense of humor. Thank you for indulging me with that bit.

637
00:36:10,800 --> 00:36:14,520
Speaker 1: I could have gone much longer now. Finally, I really

638
00:36:14,560 --> 00:36:15,960
Speaker 1: hope that was just off the top of your head. No,

639
00:36:16,000 --> 00:36:17,719
Speaker 1: I had to read that from my MDB. I don't

640
00:36:17,760 --> 00:36:22,400
Speaker 1: have that whole thing memorized. Now. It is time Jordan's

641
00:36:22,400 --> 00:36:35,480
Speaker 1: I hope you're ready. You got a fast plane plane talk. Yes,

642
00:36:35,600 --> 00:36:39,320
Speaker 1: we are talking about the planes of Top Gun, top

643
00:36:39,400 --> 00:36:44,160
Speaker 1: planes if you will. Yes. Top Gun's budget was just

644
00:36:44,239 --> 00:36:47,959
Speaker 1: fifteen million dollars and a single F fourteen tom Cat

645
00:36:48,280 --> 00:36:51,560
Speaker 1: cost about thirty eight millions, so Top Gun likely would

646
00:36:51,600 --> 00:36:54,080
Speaker 1: have gotten made or at least made well without help

647
00:36:54,120 --> 00:36:57,080
Speaker 1: from the Pentagon and the Department of Defense. But screenwriter

648
00:36:57,280 --> 00:37:00,440
Speaker 1: Jack Epps Jr. Said that, despite rumors to the contrary quote,

649
00:37:00,480 --> 00:37:03,200
Speaker 1: the Pentagon and Defense Department were really hands off. The

650
00:37:03,320 --> 00:37:06,160
Speaker 1: Navy only had four issues. First of all, the name

651
00:37:06,160 --> 00:37:09,040
Speaker 1: of the school was Top Gun and not Top Guns,

652
00:37:09,200 --> 00:37:11,360
Speaker 1: which was the initial title of the film. Seems like

653
00:37:11,440 --> 00:37:15,360
Speaker 1: an easy fix. Secondly, the relationship between Maverick and Charlie.

654
00:37:15,560 --> 00:37:19,920
Speaker 1: Officers cannot fraternize, so Charlie became an independent contractor so

655
00:37:19,960 --> 00:37:22,719
Speaker 1: they could end up romantically involved and not be brought

656
00:37:22,800 --> 00:37:24,839
Speaker 1: up on charges. The third was that when they were

657
00:37:24,880 --> 00:37:29,319
Speaker 1: doing research, Epps asked the pilots who they thought our

658
00:37:29,360 --> 00:37:32,319
Speaker 1: biggest potential was for a conflict. This was during the

659
00:37:32,360 --> 00:37:35,399
Speaker 1: Cold War, and instead of saying the Soviet Union, all

660
00:37:35,440 --> 00:37:38,480
Speaker 1: the pilots said North Korea. Now, the US at this

661
00:37:38,520 --> 00:37:41,360
Speaker 1: point was trying to fall relations with North Korea, so

662
00:37:41,400 --> 00:37:43,799
Speaker 1: they asked us not to make the end conflict with

663
00:37:44,160 --> 00:37:47,080
Speaker 1: North Korea, so it does end up being a nameless

664
00:37:47,160 --> 00:37:50,040
Speaker 1: country that they fight against. And the fourth was that

665
00:37:50,080 --> 00:37:52,920
Speaker 1: the Navy does not have mid air collisions, or if

666
00:37:52,920 --> 00:37:57,080
Speaker 1: they do, they don't want them focused in big budget blockbusters,

667
00:37:57,120 --> 00:38:01,400
Speaker 1: so it was changed to the jetwah situation that disrupts

668
00:38:01,400 --> 00:38:04,439
Speaker 1: the air flow flow of air over the wings, which

669
00:38:04,480 --> 00:38:06,760
Speaker 1: is actually a real incident, though I don't think anyone

670
00:38:06,760 --> 00:38:09,719
Speaker 1: actually died. But yeah, considering the Navy basically viewed this

671
00:38:09,760 --> 00:38:12,560
Speaker 1: film as an elaborate recruitment ad, they didn't particularly want

672
00:38:12,560 --> 00:38:16,640
Speaker 1: to underscore the more hazardous aspects of enlisting in the Navy. Yeah,

673
00:38:16,719 --> 00:38:19,799
Speaker 1: and incidentally, Time reported that the Pentagon was reviewing more

674
00:38:19,840 --> 00:38:23,160
Speaker 1: than two hundred screenplays by the autumn after Top Guns release,

675
00:38:23,200 --> 00:38:25,919
Speaker 1: which is a major increase from years prior. So Yes,

676
00:38:25,960 --> 00:38:30,919
Speaker 1: their involvement in Hollywood quite deepens after Top Gun comes out.

677
00:38:31,239 --> 00:38:34,000
Speaker 1: And here's the fact that's crazy to me. For a

678
00:38:34,080 --> 00:38:38,040
Speaker 1: bunch of different reasons, the Navy authorized two actual missile

679
00:38:38,080 --> 00:38:41,640
Speaker 1: shots to be fired for this film. I guess the

680
00:38:41,680 --> 00:38:43,919
Speaker 1: rest of the shots of stuff being fired in the movie,

681
00:38:43,920 --> 00:38:47,239
Speaker 1: we're done with miniatures. So these two real missile firings,

682
00:38:47,239 --> 00:38:49,200
Speaker 1: they wanted to be able to reuse them from multiple

683
00:38:49,239 --> 00:38:51,320
Speaker 1: times in the movie, so they filmed them from multiple

684
00:38:51,360 --> 00:38:53,080
Speaker 1: angles so they'll be able to, you know, use these

685
00:38:53,080 --> 00:38:56,279
Speaker 1: shots repeatedly during the film, quite literally getting more bang

686
00:38:56,400 --> 00:38:59,680
Speaker 1: for the buck. And I guess these real life thank you,

687
00:38:59,760 --> 00:39:02,400
Speaker 1: thank you. I guess these real life missile firings are

688
00:39:02,440 --> 00:39:04,239
Speaker 1: pretty easy to pick out because, or at least if

689
00:39:04,239 --> 00:39:07,320
Speaker 1: you're in the aeronautics, because the aircraft firing the missile

690
00:39:07,520 --> 00:39:10,840
Speaker 1: is basically just flying straight and that would ever happen

691
00:39:10,840 --> 00:39:12,520
Speaker 1: in a real life dog fight. You'd be you know,

692
00:39:12,880 --> 00:39:15,480
Speaker 1: going all over the place. But to me, the fact

693
00:39:15,520 --> 00:39:22,000
Speaker 1: that they fired missiles at all is pretty insane. Yeah. Um,

694
00:39:22,040 --> 00:39:24,200
Speaker 1: but I guess the company that produced the model missile

695
00:39:24,239 --> 00:39:26,840
Speaker 1: firings did such a good job that the Department of

696
00:39:26,880 --> 00:39:29,799
Speaker 1: the Navy conducted an investigation to determine whether or not

697
00:39:29,840 --> 00:39:33,080
Speaker 1: there were any other unauthorized firings of missiles from any

698
00:39:33,120 --> 00:39:37,080
Speaker 1: of their planes. That's well, that's the impremature you want

699
00:39:37,080 --> 00:39:38,680
Speaker 1: on your film. It's like, I always go back to this.

700
00:39:38,800 --> 00:39:41,319
Speaker 1: It's like when they made Doctor Strangelove. They recreated the

701
00:39:41,320 --> 00:39:44,560
Speaker 1: interior of the bomber so well that Kubrick was afraid

702
00:39:44,600 --> 00:39:46,840
Speaker 1: he was going to get hauled in because the military

703
00:39:46,840 --> 00:39:50,120
Speaker 1: would think that they had a leak. Um Scott wanted

704
00:39:50,120 --> 00:39:52,239
Speaker 1: the film to be as realistic as possible, so he

705
00:39:52,320 --> 00:39:55,320
Speaker 1: worked with the military and US government to use real planes,

706
00:39:55,560 --> 00:40:00,000
Speaker 1: real equipment, the real base, ultimately paying the military one

707
00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:03,560
Speaker 1: point eight million, a figure that covered the use of

708
00:40:03,600 --> 00:40:07,279
Speaker 1: real pilots, who cost seven thousand, six hundred dollars an hour,

709
00:40:07,719 --> 00:40:11,360
Speaker 1: according to an article in Time Magazine from six but

710
00:40:11,560 --> 00:40:14,000
Speaker 1: Scott joked, they really just charged us for the fuel,

711
00:40:15,280 --> 00:40:17,319
Speaker 1: which is a good deal because the nineteen eight six

712
00:40:17,400 --> 00:40:19,440
Speaker 1: jet fuel was pretty cheap. It was just a dollar

713
00:40:19,480 --> 00:40:24,600
Speaker 1: a gallon. BA birds now. Yeah, but Tony Scott wasn't

714
00:40:24,600 --> 00:40:27,640
Speaker 1: always super precious about realism. He was filming a scene

715
00:40:27,680 --> 00:40:29,879
Speaker 1: in the airplane hangar with a bunch of real life

716
00:40:29,960 --> 00:40:32,440
Speaker 1: Navy extras, and they came up to him during breaks

717
00:40:32,440 --> 00:40:34,640
Speaker 1: in between the shooting and complained that the patches on

718
00:40:34,680 --> 00:40:38,920
Speaker 1: the actors flight suits were unrealistic, and Tony Scott basically

719
00:40:38,960 --> 00:40:41,600
Speaker 1: brushed them off by saying, words are the effect of

720
00:40:41,680 --> 00:40:44,479
Speaker 1: we're not making this movie for Navy fighter pilots. We're

721
00:40:44,480 --> 00:40:46,920
Speaker 1: making it for the Kansas wheat farmers who don't know

722
00:40:47,000 --> 00:40:51,160
Speaker 1: the difference. Somewhat dismissive, but okay, little bit. There's there's

723
00:40:51,160 --> 00:40:54,279
Speaker 1: a military website called we Are the Mighty and they

724
00:40:54,280 --> 00:40:57,880
Speaker 1: published a list called seventy nine cringeworthy technical errors and

725
00:40:58,000 --> 00:41:01,479
Speaker 1: top Gun And the most having revelation is that there's

726
00:41:01,520 --> 00:41:04,520
Speaker 1: no top Gun award in real life. It's more of

727
00:41:04,560 --> 00:41:07,360
Speaker 1: a past failed thing at the school. And I don't know,

728
00:41:07,400 --> 00:41:09,160
Speaker 1: I feel like this revelation is kind of a bumber.

729
00:41:10,440 --> 00:41:14,319
Speaker 1: What a bummer? Um? So? The aircraft carrier shots in

730
00:41:14,320 --> 00:41:18,239
Speaker 1: this film were shot on the U. S. S. Enterprise

731
00:41:18,600 --> 00:41:22,040
Speaker 1: and some of the planes used were F fourteen Squadron jets,

732
00:41:22,120 --> 00:41:25,760
Speaker 1: including the VF one fourteen art Varks and the VF

733
00:41:25,960 --> 00:41:30,440
Speaker 1: two Black Lions planes. Which would you feel bad if

734
00:41:30,480 --> 00:41:32,160
Speaker 1: you were the guy flying in art Vark if the

735
00:41:32,200 --> 00:41:35,440
Speaker 1: guy next to use flying a Black Lions, I would

736
00:41:36,200 --> 00:41:37,840
Speaker 1: I have no idea what any of that means, but

737
00:41:38,000 --> 00:41:40,759
Speaker 1: you go take this over for me. I love this.

738
00:41:40,880 --> 00:41:43,680
Speaker 1: So interiors for the U. S. S. Enterprise were shot

739
00:41:43,719 --> 00:41:46,759
Speaker 1: on another aircraft carrier, the U. S. S. Ranger, And

740
00:41:46,800 --> 00:41:49,320
Speaker 1: I mentioned this only because the interiors for the Ranger

741
00:41:49,360 --> 00:41:52,360
Speaker 1: were also used to film interior shots for the starship

742
00:41:52,600 --> 00:41:56,480
Speaker 1: Enterprise for Star Trek four, which is released the same

743
00:41:56,560 --> 00:41:59,880
Speaker 1: year as Top Gun. So just to recap, the U.

744
00:41:59,920 --> 00:42:03,680
Speaker 1: S S. Ranger subbed for two separate ships called the

745
00:42:03,800 --> 00:42:07,440
Speaker 1: Enterprise in the same one year period. She has the range.

746
00:42:07,760 --> 00:42:10,480
Speaker 1: I'd like to see Meryl Street pull that off. I

747
00:42:10,520 --> 00:42:13,160
Speaker 1: love that so much. But the Enterprise is also the

748
00:42:13,200 --> 00:42:16,400
Speaker 1: location for perhaps my favorite behind the scenes anecdote for

749
00:42:16,440 --> 00:42:19,200
Speaker 1: this movie. Tony Scott was shooting the opening of the film.

750
00:42:19,239 --> 00:42:21,919
Speaker 1: He wanted to have the aircraft taking off back lit

751
00:42:21,920 --> 00:42:25,040
Speaker 1: by the sun, a real beautiful scene, and unfortunately, the

752
00:42:25,080 --> 00:42:27,720
Speaker 1: captain of the aircraft carrier changed the course of the ship,

753
00:42:28,040 --> 00:42:31,359
Speaker 1: moving it away from this glorious sun, and I guess

754
00:42:31,400 --> 00:42:33,560
Speaker 1: Scott asked if he could steer the ship back the

755
00:42:33,600 --> 00:42:36,320
Speaker 1: way it was, and the captain told him that turning

756
00:42:36,360 --> 00:42:43,040
Speaker 1: the ship enormous aircraft carrier cost twenty five grand. And

757
00:42:43,120 --> 00:42:45,560
Speaker 1: I don't know if if that was actually the cost

758
00:42:45,640 --> 00:42:47,520
Speaker 1: of fuel and all the things that would go into

759
00:42:47,560 --> 00:42:49,719
Speaker 1: needing to like course correct or if he was just

760
00:42:49,800 --> 00:42:53,000
Speaker 1: purely like if this was extortion, But Scott kind of

761
00:42:53,120 --> 00:42:55,680
Speaker 1: was check on the spot for grand so they could

762
00:42:55,680 --> 00:42:58,760
Speaker 1: get in five more minutes of shooting, and Scott claimed

763
00:42:58,760 --> 00:43:01,799
Speaker 1: that that check later bounced. It's just bluffing. That's the

764
00:43:02,239 --> 00:43:05,160
Speaker 1: that's the real kicker for that. Uh. My favorite bit

765
00:43:05,200 --> 00:43:07,520
Speaker 1: of fast plane trivia is that the jets were housed

766
00:43:07,520 --> 00:43:09,960
Speaker 1: in Nevada and they had to fly about twenty minutes

767
00:43:09,960 --> 00:43:12,239
Speaker 1: to where they were filming, and so each morning, the

768
00:43:12,320 --> 00:43:15,920
Speaker 1: pilots would buzz the Nevada Brothels from about thirty ft

769
00:43:16,080 --> 00:43:20,279
Speaker 1: up on the way to work. Again. Yeah that's not

770
00:43:20,440 --> 00:43:24,640
Speaker 1: I yeah again. According to the DVD commentary, Scott thought

771
00:43:24,680 --> 00:43:28,960
Speaker 1: this was hilarious. It's just those women are workers. To

772
00:43:29,480 --> 00:43:33,399
Speaker 1: come on, guys, um random bits of plane talk. All

773
00:43:33,440 --> 00:43:36,160
Speaker 1: of the film's advisors agree that pilots are not allowed

774
00:43:36,200 --> 00:43:38,520
Speaker 1: to give themselves their own call sign. One of them

775
00:43:38,600 --> 00:43:41,319
Speaker 1: recalls an instance in which a pilot tried to name

776
00:43:41,400 --> 00:43:45,279
Speaker 1: himself Shark and was instead assigned the name Minno for

777
00:43:45,360 --> 00:43:51,480
Speaker 1: the rest of his career. According it is but deservedly

778
00:43:51,600 --> 00:43:55,280
Speaker 1: try to name yourself Shark. Come on. According to Commander

779
00:43:55,760 --> 00:44:01,000
Speaker 1: guy Bus Snodgrass, tremendous name. A real life instructor at

780
00:44:01,000 --> 00:44:05,120
Speaker 1: the Academy students are fined for making top gun references

781
00:44:05,840 --> 00:44:08,920
Speaker 1: while they're enrolled. Five dollars every time you make a

782
00:44:09,000 --> 00:44:12,760
Speaker 1: top gun joke at this school. Um, speaking of call signs,

783
00:44:13,000 --> 00:44:16,560
Speaker 1: that's right. Do you know Goose's real name? What is it? Trick?

784
00:44:16,640 --> 00:44:20,279
Speaker 1: Question is never mentioned in the film. Nick Bradshaw, I

785
00:44:20,320 --> 00:44:22,960
Speaker 1: think you see it when Maverick goes to his bunk,

786
00:44:23,160 --> 00:44:25,759
Speaker 1: and you see it like on his um, on his

787
00:44:25,880 --> 00:44:28,280
Speaker 1: uniform in his room, But you never hear it mentioned

788
00:44:29,400 --> 00:44:34,800
Speaker 1: bummer um and that officer's club scene. So in the commentary,

789
00:44:34,840 --> 00:44:38,280
Speaker 1: military advisors said that the club at Miramar was actually

790
00:44:39,200 --> 00:44:41,799
Speaker 1: fairly raunchy until the nineteen eighties, at which point an

791
00:44:41,840 --> 00:44:46,000
Speaker 1: admiral's wife strongly advised they stopped bringing in local strippers.

792
00:44:46,719 --> 00:44:48,360
Speaker 1: They do quibble with the idea that they would be

793
00:44:48,400 --> 00:44:50,919
Speaker 1: heavily drinking that much the night before a mission, because

794
00:44:50,920 --> 00:44:52,800
Speaker 1: they don't you don't want to be hungover in a

795
00:44:53,480 --> 00:44:58,719
Speaker 1: fighter jet. Um, but grossly. Epps says that this kind

796
00:44:58,760 --> 00:45:02,440
Speaker 1: of horn dog at brother environment was really only curtailed

797
00:45:02,480 --> 00:45:07,440
Speaker 1: after the Tailhook scandal, in which the United States Navy

798
00:45:07,480 --> 00:45:10,400
Speaker 1: and US Marine Corps aviation officers were alleged to have

799
00:45:10,440 --> 00:45:14,160
Speaker 1: sexually assaulted up to eighty three women and seven men

800
00:45:14,440 --> 00:45:20,000
Speaker 1: during a conference in Las Vegas. Yeah, this is just horrific.

801
00:45:20,040 --> 00:45:22,560
Speaker 1: I guess the Navy and Marine aviators forced people to

802
00:45:23,080 --> 00:45:26,200
Speaker 1: walk the gauntlet. They lined the hallway leading to the

803
00:45:26,239 --> 00:45:28,920
Speaker 1: people's rooms, and as they would kind of pass them all,

804
00:45:28,960 --> 00:45:31,279
Speaker 1: they would all just start groping them and assaulting them

805
00:45:31,360 --> 00:45:33,760
Speaker 1: and their CCD footage of an U S. Navy aviation

806
00:45:33,840 --> 00:45:36,520
Speaker 1: officer wearing a T shirt that has the phrase women

807
00:45:36,560 --> 00:45:39,759
Speaker 1: are property on it. And this was justifiably so a

808
00:45:39,920 --> 00:45:43,520
Speaker 1: huge scandal that resulted in more than three hundred naval officers,

809
00:45:43,800 --> 00:45:47,919
Speaker 1: including fourteen admirals, having to face consequences, and many were

810
00:45:47,960 --> 00:45:51,000
Speaker 1: pushed out of the Navy. Good and according to Medium,

811
00:45:51,000 --> 00:45:53,680
Speaker 1: this also led the Navy to withdraw its support for

812
00:45:53,800 --> 00:45:57,080
Speaker 1: the then in development Top Gun two around the same

813
00:45:57,120 --> 00:46:00,279
Speaker 1: time in the early nineties, basically on the grounds this

814
00:46:00,360 --> 00:46:03,160
Speaker 1: original movie had kind of encouraged this behavior and the

815
00:46:03,160 --> 00:46:07,680
Speaker 1: Tailhook scandal. Uh, specifically the scene where Tom Cruise follows

816
00:46:07,760 --> 00:46:10,520
Speaker 1: Charlie into the ladies room soon after meeting her at

817
00:46:10,520 --> 00:46:13,680
Speaker 1: the bar. Good for the Navy. Uh, there's really no

818
00:46:13,719 --> 00:46:17,920
Speaker 1: way to put a happy face on that story. Um,

819
00:46:17,960 --> 00:46:21,799
Speaker 1: But because I'm wired this way. I'd like to take

820
00:46:21,880 --> 00:46:24,840
Speaker 1: us out of that unhappy scene and into a recurring

821
00:46:24,840 --> 00:46:26,840
Speaker 1: segment of the show that I like to call it

822
00:46:26,960 --> 00:46:29,800
Speaker 1: belongs in a museum. This is the part of the

823
00:46:29,800 --> 00:46:32,480
Speaker 1: show where I talk about priceless pop culture artifacts that

824
00:46:32,520 --> 00:46:35,439
Speaker 1: have gone missing or were otherwise abused, and I think

825
00:46:35,480 --> 00:46:37,080
Speaker 1: they really should have just belonged to a museum in

826
00:46:37,080 --> 00:46:40,440
Speaker 1: the first place. The scene in which Maverick follows Charlie

827
00:46:40,440 --> 00:46:43,040
Speaker 1: into the bathroom it was filmed at the headquarters building

828
00:46:43,080 --> 00:46:46,160
Speaker 1: at Recruit Training Command in San Diego, and the building

829
00:46:46,200 --> 00:46:48,560
Speaker 1: was later demolished in the late nineties. But before the

830
00:46:48,600 --> 00:46:52,880
Speaker 1: headquarters could be inspected for demolition, the bathroom counter that

831
00:46:52,920 --> 00:46:55,880
Speaker 1: Maverick leans on in the bathroom and stress tests for

832
00:46:56,000 --> 00:46:59,719
Speaker 1: Charlie it was stolen, presumably by a top gun fan

833
00:47:00,080 --> 00:47:02,719
Speaker 1: who has it in their private collection. And while we're

834
00:47:02,719 --> 00:47:06,520
Speaker 1: on the topic of private collections, the diner bar featured

835
00:47:06,560 --> 00:47:08,560
Speaker 1: in two key scenes in the movie, the one where

836
00:47:08,560 --> 00:47:11,000
Speaker 1: Goose sings Great Balls of Fire and then at the

837
00:47:11,120 --> 00:47:13,359
Speaker 1: very end where You've lost that love and feeling comes

838
00:47:13,400 --> 00:47:16,839
Speaker 1: on the jukebox and uh, Charlie and Maverick have a

839
00:47:16,840 --> 00:47:19,239
Speaker 1: little moment together right before the credits roll. That's a

840
00:47:19,280 --> 00:47:22,880
Speaker 1: real place in San Diego hold Kansas City Barbecue, And

841
00:47:23,000 --> 00:47:25,279
Speaker 1: after the release of the movie, the restaurant collected a

842
00:47:25,360 --> 00:47:28,000
Speaker 1: pretty significant amount of top gun memorabilia that they had

843
00:47:28,000 --> 00:47:30,839
Speaker 1: on display until there was a kitchen fire in two

844
00:47:30,920 --> 00:47:34,400
Speaker 1: thousand eight, which destroyed much of the restaurant, but thankfully

845
00:47:35,160 --> 00:47:38,520
Speaker 1: some most I think of the memorabilian props. According the

846
00:47:38,560 --> 00:47:41,560
Speaker 1: original piano used in the movie survived and the restaurant

847
00:47:41,600 --> 00:47:44,920
Speaker 1: reopens later that year in two eight. But unfortunately a

848
00:47:44,960 --> 00:47:48,279
Speaker 1: few props sustained damage, like a flight helmet that got

849
00:47:48,320 --> 00:47:50,680
Speaker 1: warped in the plastic all bubbled because of the heat,

850
00:47:51,160 --> 00:47:57,440
Speaker 1: which is why this stuff belongs in a museum. Yes,

851
00:47:57,680 --> 00:48:00,120
Speaker 1: and speaking of top gun locations, you could actually visit it.

852
00:48:00,360 --> 00:48:02,920
Speaker 1: There's Charlie's house in this movie. The cute little Ocean

853
00:48:02,920 --> 00:48:06,800
Speaker 1: Front Victorian Bungalow McGillis actually stayed there during the filming.

854
00:48:06,840 --> 00:48:11,560
Speaker 1: Apparently it's now a pie shop. Built in seven, this

855
00:48:11,680 --> 00:48:14,880
Speaker 1: cottage fell into disrepair, but when developers moved in to

856
00:48:14,920 --> 00:48:17,480
Speaker 1: build a resort in that same area where the cottage was,

857
00:48:17,760 --> 00:48:20,400
Speaker 1: the building was moved several hundred feet from its original

858
00:48:20,440 --> 00:48:23,879
Speaker 1: location and restored to its former Victorian glory. And now

859
00:48:23,920 --> 00:48:27,840
Speaker 1: it's called Hi Pie, a top gun themed pie shop

860
00:48:28,000 --> 00:48:34,200
Speaker 1: along the beach front promenade. Jesus Christ. And having said

861
00:48:34,239 --> 00:48:36,120
Speaker 1: all that, we'll be right back with more too much

862
00:48:36,120 --> 00:48:54,640
Speaker 1: information right after this, okay, onto top cameras. Filming with

863
00:48:54,719 --> 00:48:58,279
Speaker 1: all of these fast planes was an elaborate undertaking. It

864
00:48:58,320 --> 00:49:01,160
Speaker 1: took fifteen months, Bruckheimer said, us to work out with

865
00:49:01,200 --> 00:49:04,320
Speaker 1: the Navy lawyers and film crews how to have six

866
00:49:04,360 --> 00:49:07,400
Speaker 1: cameras in the cockpits on the planes. But to the

867
00:49:07,480 --> 00:49:09,839
Speaker 1: lawyers for the real hold up on that, Yeah, for sure.

868
00:49:10,200 --> 00:49:13,400
Speaker 1: The actors playing the pilots were trained over three months

869
00:49:13,440 --> 00:49:16,440
Speaker 1: to prepare for the velocity of an F eighteen flight.

870
00:49:17,360 --> 00:49:20,920
Speaker 1: Um Scott and the crew put cameras directly on the planes,

871
00:49:21,160 --> 00:49:24,319
Speaker 1: for which they needed special permission from the F a A,

872
00:49:24,800 --> 00:49:27,359
Speaker 1: because they were concerned that they would break off and

873
00:49:27,440 --> 00:49:31,520
Speaker 1: become these sky labs sized tunks of equipment hurtling to

874
00:49:31,600 --> 00:49:37,480
Speaker 1: Earth over a vast distances. Um. For all you camera

875
00:49:37,560 --> 00:49:40,520
Speaker 1: nerds out there, the team used an A six intruder

876
00:49:40,640 --> 00:49:43,879
Speaker 1: with four camera positions, using special camera mounts that had

877
00:49:43,920 --> 00:49:47,440
Speaker 1: been developed by Grum and aircraft co We mounted one

878
00:49:47,480 --> 00:49:49,520
Speaker 1: in the cockpit looking forward over the shoulders of the

879
00:49:49,560 --> 00:49:52,359
Speaker 1: pilot and the bomber navigator. The second was under the

880
00:49:52,360 --> 00:49:54,680
Speaker 1: belly of the plane. The third could be mounted under

881
00:49:54,680 --> 00:49:58,239
Speaker 1: either wing, looking forward or back, and another was on

882
00:49:58,480 --> 00:50:02,480
Speaker 1: high on the tail looking down the fuselage. Future NASA

883
00:50:02,560 --> 00:50:06,640
Speaker 1: astronauts Scott Altman piloted the F fourteen aircraft for many

884
00:50:06,640 --> 00:50:10,840
Speaker 1: of the film stunt sequences, including the titular square off

885
00:50:10,920 --> 00:50:13,360
Speaker 1: with the two MiGs. He's part of a bunch of

886
00:50:13,360 --> 00:50:15,920
Speaker 1: the things. He was stationed at Miramar at that point,

887
00:50:16,400 --> 00:50:18,520
Speaker 1: um and when they do the scenes of the aircraft

888
00:50:18,560 --> 00:50:21,719
Speaker 1: buzzing the tower, that's him flying. Obviously, they did a

889
00:50:21,719 --> 00:50:25,800
Speaker 1: lot of shots with miniatures, and despite Scott's professed focus

890
00:50:25,800 --> 00:50:29,480
Speaker 1: on realism, Maverick and Goose are still depicted performing maneuvers

891
00:50:29,480 --> 00:50:32,560
Speaker 1: that would be virtually impossible to use in training or combat.

892
00:50:33,239 --> 00:50:37,160
Speaker 1: And despite all of that high flying, someone actually did

893
00:50:37,200 --> 00:50:39,440
Speaker 1: lose their life during the making of this film in

894
00:50:39,920 --> 00:50:44,080
Speaker 1: a fairly mundane circumstance is a veteran Hollywood film pilot

895
00:50:44,160 --> 00:50:47,840
Speaker 1: named Art Shoal, who was killed shooting second unit aerial

896
00:50:47,840 --> 00:50:51,000
Speaker 1: footage on the northern coast of San Diego when his

897
00:50:51,160 --> 00:50:55,080
Speaker 1: iplane crashed into the sea. Yeah, and he intentionally put

898
00:50:55,080 --> 00:50:57,320
Speaker 1: the plane into a spin. The capture of the footage

899
00:50:57,360 --> 00:50:59,799
Speaker 1: with his onboard camera for the movie. But then as

900
00:51:00,040 --> 00:51:02,160
Speaker 1: lane malfunctioned when he tried to pull himself out of

901
00:51:02,200 --> 00:51:04,200
Speaker 1: the spin and he couldn't do it and his I guess.

902
00:51:04,200 --> 00:51:06,680
Speaker 1: His last words over the radio were reportedly, I have

903
00:51:06,719 --> 00:51:09,520
Speaker 1: a problem. I have a real problem. And the exact

904
00:51:09,560 --> 00:51:12,400
Speaker 1: cause of this crash was never actually uncovered, probably because

905
00:51:12,440 --> 00:51:14,720
Speaker 1: the plane was never recovered and neither was his body,

906
00:51:14,760 --> 00:51:18,759
Speaker 1: but the film is dedicated to his memory. In happier developments,

907
00:51:19,440 --> 00:51:24,360
Speaker 1: you cannot talk about Top Gun without talking about Top Volleyball.

908
00:51:25,000 --> 00:51:28,400
Speaker 1: The iconic baby oiled volleyball scene that so many people

909
00:51:28,400 --> 00:51:30,960
Speaker 1: have pointed out contributes to the homo erotic nature of

910
00:51:31,080 --> 00:51:34,279
Speaker 1: the entire film. Uh Pauline Klee wrote in her review

911
00:51:34,320 --> 00:51:36,960
Speaker 1: at the time, when McGillis is off screen, the movie

912
00:51:37,040 --> 00:51:43,160
Speaker 1: is a shiny homo erotic commercial, just burn but incisive.

913
00:51:43,680 --> 00:51:48,000
Speaker 1: That scene happens to be very important, Cruise said in

914
00:51:48,000 --> 00:51:50,480
Speaker 1: interview with The l A Times. First of all, it

915
00:51:50,560 --> 00:51:53,719
Speaker 1: shows that two fighter pilots physical prowess is very important.

916
00:51:54,080 --> 00:51:57,280
Speaker 1: Plus the scene shows the constant competition between these guys,

917
00:51:57,480 --> 00:52:00,880
Speaker 1: how they compete on every level, which is just truly

918
00:52:00,920 --> 00:52:03,920
Speaker 1: the most fascinating insight into the mind of Tom Cruise.

919
00:52:04,600 --> 00:52:07,160
Speaker 1: Um EPs agrees. He says that the scene was originally

920
00:52:07,160 --> 00:52:10,120
Speaker 1: written his basketball but got changed, and he said, the

921
00:52:10,160 --> 00:52:12,640
Speaker 1: idea was that these guys competed in the air and

922
00:52:12,760 --> 00:52:15,840
Speaker 1: on the ground. The difference is the location and the

923
00:52:15,880 --> 00:52:19,400
Speaker 1: amount of baby oil they lathered on the guys. We

924
00:52:19,480 --> 00:52:21,880
Speaker 1: didn't write it as male beefcake. We wrote it as

925
00:52:21,920 --> 00:52:26,240
Speaker 1: the highest level of competition. The court at Miramar was built.

926
00:52:26,320 --> 00:52:28,680
Speaker 1: The beach volleyball court was built for the film. They

927
00:52:28,719 --> 00:52:31,400
Speaker 1: just dumped a ton of sand in and they immediately

928
00:52:31,440 --> 00:52:35,680
Speaker 1: dismantled it after shooting the wide shots showing the more

929
00:52:35,719 --> 00:52:42,359
Speaker 1: impressive hits are professional volleyball players as stand ins and um, yeah, yeah,

930
00:52:42,360 --> 00:52:44,480
Speaker 1: I love that they just threw this volleyball court up

931
00:52:44,480 --> 00:52:46,120
Speaker 1: in a matter of hours. They just got a dump

932
00:52:46,160 --> 00:52:48,640
Speaker 1: truck to back up tumps, some sand, threw up, some

933
00:52:48,719 --> 00:52:51,239
Speaker 1: poles cready to roll, and then they were like, this

934
00:52:51,280 --> 00:52:54,880
Speaker 1: is an embarrassment, get it off my military base. Pretty much.

935
00:52:55,760 --> 00:52:58,000
Speaker 1: I guess that scene and also the locker room scene

936
00:52:58,000 --> 00:53:01,360
Speaker 1: were a late addition to the film, basically designed for

937
00:53:01,400 --> 00:53:04,120
Speaker 1: Tom Cruise to strip down for his fans, and one

938
00:53:04,120 --> 00:53:06,160
Speaker 1: of the technical advisors for the film claimed that the

939
00:53:06,200 --> 00:53:10,000
Speaker 1: filmmakers basically said, we're paying one million dollars for Tom Cruise,

940
00:53:10,200 --> 00:53:13,719
Speaker 1: so we gotta show some flesh, and I guess port

941
00:53:13,800 --> 00:53:16,480
Speaker 1: Tony Scott was just baffled by the whole thing. He's

942
00:53:16,520 --> 00:53:19,200
Speaker 1: quoted as saying, I just didn't know what to do

943
00:53:19,280 --> 00:53:21,680
Speaker 1: with it, the volleyball scene, but in the end it

944
00:53:21,760 --> 00:53:25,000
Speaker 1: just became hunky bodies in California, Son, But it became

945
00:53:25,040 --> 00:53:26,920
Speaker 1: a favorite with the women as well as the guys,

946
00:53:27,320 --> 00:53:30,840
Speaker 1: especially the San Francisco guys, he said. Later an interview

947
00:53:30,880 --> 00:53:34,000
Speaker 1: featured in the film's thirtieth anniversary DVD said he said,

948
00:53:34,200 --> 00:53:36,080
Speaker 1: I didn't have a vision of what I was doing

949
00:53:36,239 --> 00:53:40,160
Speaker 1: other than just doing soft porn um. The look of

950
00:53:40,200 --> 00:53:42,080
Speaker 1: the actors in the scene, and I guess in the

951
00:53:42,120 --> 00:53:45,040
Speaker 1: pilot program in general was said to be inspired by

952
00:53:45,080 --> 00:53:49,120
Speaker 1: the work of photographer Bruce Weber, who's probably most famous

953
00:53:49,160 --> 00:53:51,480
Speaker 1: for the work he did for Abercrombie and Fitch. He

954
00:53:51,520 --> 00:53:54,759
Speaker 1: did a lot of photography for the famous posters and

955
00:53:54,920 --> 00:53:58,000
Speaker 1: bags and stuff for them, so in case you needed

956
00:53:58,000 --> 00:54:00,040
Speaker 1: another way to draw a line between this film and

957
00:54:00,120 --> 00:54:05,360
Speaker 1: the worst people you know in high school, there you go. Uh.

958
00:54:05,440 --> 00:54:08,720
Speaker 1: Kimmer made us semi funny joke, and another DVD interview,

959
00:54:08,760 --> 00:54:11,120
Speaker 1: he says, I always suspected Tom might have cooked my

960
00:54:11,200 --> 00:54:13,920
Speaker 1: volleyball close ups. If you notice, I don't have any

961
00:54:14,239 --> 00:54:17,399
Speaker 1: cooking in movie lingo means the frames were either over

962
00:54:17,560 --> 00:54:21,359
Speaker 1: or underdeveloped and therefore unusable, And he joked, I think

963
00:54:21,400 --> 00:54:24,760
Speaker 1: Tom went in there got him a little Paola because

964
00:54:24,960 --> 00:54:31,239
Speaker 1: I looked good. Oh man, top songs were moving to

965
00:54:31,680 --> 00:54:34,600
Speaker 1: my favorite part of Top Gun with my boy. Kenny

966
00:54:34,640 --> 00:54:38,440
Speaker 1: Loggins interviewed him about this, right, I interviewed him. I

967
00:54:38,520 --> 00:54:42,200
Speaker 1: used Kenny Loggins was very sad about climate change, and

968
00:54:42,239 --> 00:54:44,600
Speaker 1: I made a danger Zone joke out of the headline.

969
00:54:44,640 --> 00:54:48,040
Speaker 1: And I don't think he liked it. Uh. I hope

970
00:54:48,040 --> 00:54:50,000
Speaker 1: he liked it. I didn't hear back from him. Um.

971
00:54:50,080 --> 00:54:52,480
Speaker 1: So Obviously, the best known Kenny Loggins track from Top

972
00:54:52,480 --> 00:54:55,399
Speaker 1: Gun is danger Zone, but he and Peter Wolfe also

973
00:54:55,440 --> 00:54:59,400
Speaker 1: wrote Playing with the Boys for the volleyball scene, as in,

974
00:54:59,520 --> 00:55:02,480
Speaker 1: he literally wrote it for that scene and attempt to

975
00:55:02,760 --> 00:55:05,960
Speaker 1: distinguish himself from the other candidates for the job. This

976
00:55:06,040 --> 00:55:08,320
Speaker 1: is an interesting look into how these songs get written

977
00:55:08,320 --> 00:55:11,000
Speaker 1: into films. They basically pull in a bunch of people

978
00:55:11,440 --> 00:55:13,279
Speaker 1: and screen the scenes that are going to need these

979
00:55:13,280 --> 00:55:15,600
Speaker 1: songs under them, and then people kind of say, oh,

980
00:55:15,600 --> 00:55:16,920
Speaker 1: I wanted to write for that one. I want to

981
00:55:16,920 --> 00:55:20,520
Speaker 1: write for that one, um and then proceed to do so,

982
00:55:20,640 --> 00:55:23,200
Speaker 1: and then all of those songs are then chosen by

983
00:55:23,239 --> 00:55:29,240
Speaker 1: the filmmakers. So at this screening, Loggins and Wolf are saying,

984
00:55:29,360 --> 00:55:31,920
Speaker 1: while we watched it, and we could tell from the

985
00:55:31,920 --> 00:55:34,920
Speaker 1: opening scenes, the aircraft carrier scenes, that everyone in the

986
00:55:34,960 --> 00:55:37,520
Speaker 1: room is salivating, Oh my god, this is where most

987
00:55:37,520 --> 00:55:39,120
Speaker 1: of these people are gonna want to write for. They're

988
00:55:39,120 --> 00:55:42,000
Speaker 1: going to write for the big epic parts. And he said,

989
00:55:42,520 --> 00:55:45,840
Speaker 1: but when the volleyball scene came on, Peter and I went, yeah,

990
00:55:45,880 --> 00:55:48,000
Speaker 1: that one. No one's going to write for that scene.

991
00:55:48,120 --> 00:55:50,920
Speaker 1: Let's make that happen. It has since become a hit

992
00:55:51,000 --> 00:55:57,279
Speaker 1: in gay nightclubs. Meanwhile, Mother and Georgio Moroder and his

993
00:55:57,440 --> 00:56:00,040
Speaker 1: lyricist Tom Whitlock, we're working on the rest of the

994
00:56:00,120 --> 00:56:04,719
Speaker 1: film's music. Their partnership began when Whitlock to helped fix

995
00:56:04,760 --> 00:56:08,319
Speaker 1: the brakes on the rotors Ferrari, which I think is adorable.

996
00:56:08,880 --> 00:56:11,879
Speaker 1: Over three hundred songs were considered for the film before

997
00:56:11,880 --> 00:56:14,400
Speaker 1: Bruckheimer asked Georgia to write something, and he came up

998
00:56:14,400 --> 00:56:17,759
Speaker 1: with a song that would become danger Zone. Whitlock wrote

999
00:56:17,760 --> 00:56:20,120
Speaker 1: the lyrics and they started casting about for a vocalist.

1000
00:56:21,040 --> 00:56:23,279
Speaker 1: You know. The Judas Priest was asked to contribute the

1001
00:56:23,320 --> 00:56:26,440
Speaker 1: song Reckless to the soundtrack, but then they said no

1002
00:56:26,520 --> 00:56:28,920
Speaker 1: because I thought the movie was gonna flop. If you

1003
00:56:28,920 --> 00:56:31,200
Speaker 1: told me that Judas Priests had a song in top Gun,

1004
00:56:31,239 --> 00:56:35,360
Speaker 1: I would have watched this movie. Um. Up to that point,

1005
00:56:35,719 --> 00:56:38,400
Speaker 1: they thought they had a different act, Logan said. And

1006
00:56:38,480 --> 00:56:40,600
Speaker 1: he said he thought it was either Toto, which fell

1007
00:56:40,640 --> 00:56:45,400
Speaker 1: apart over contracting reasons, or Mickey Thomas and Jefferson starship.

1008
00:56:46,280 --> 00:56:49,319
Speaker 1: Logan said he met Kevin Cronin from Rio Speedwagon a

1009
00:56:49,400 --> 00:56:52,359
Speaker 1: year ago and he told him that they asked him

1010
00:56:52,520 --> 00:56:54,680
Speaker 1: if he was available, and he said the notes were

1011
00:56:54,719 --> 00:56:58,279
Speaker 1: too high, but not for Loggin's baby. Corey Heart of

1012
00:56:58,280 --> 00:57:01,000
Speaker 1: All People reportedly said no because he wanted to write

1013
00:57:01,000 --> 00:57:04,359
Speaker 1: his own songs. Brian Adams supposedly turned it down because

1014
00:57:04,360 --> 00:57:07,120
Speaker 1: of the film's military themes, which is also the reason

1015
00:57:07,160 --> 00:57:11,359
Speaker 1: that Thomas and Starship withdrew from consideration, and Loggins, who

1016
00:57:11,400 --> 00:57:14,719
Speaker 1: obviously ended up singing the song, retired the song from

1017
00:57:14,760 --> 00:57:17,800
Speaker 1: his live sets briefly when CNN started using it as

1018
00:57:17,840 --> 00:57:21,840
Speaker 1: the background for dropping bombs on Bagdad, and then he says, quote,

1019
00:57:21,920 --> 00:57:24,520
Speaker 1: I thought it was bogus what was happening, and I

1020
00:57:24,600 --> 00:57:26,560
Speaker 1: didn't want to be associated with it, so I pulled

1021
00:57:26,600 --> 00:57:28,880
Speaker 1: it out of the show. Then I decided, since it

1022
00:57:28,920 --> 00:57:30,720
Speaker 1: was such a good song, I made a video of

1023
00:57:30,760 --> 00:57:33,960
Speaker 1: extreme sports and we used that footage as the background

1024
00:57:33,960 --> 00:57:37,400
Speaker 1: in concert. Loggins didn't even meet Cruise until two thousand

1025
00:57:37,400 --> 00:57:39,440
Speaker 1: and sixteen, but they were out doing a late night

1026
00:57:39,480 --> 00:57:41,840
Speaker 1: show together and he asked him if danger Zone would

1027
00:57:41,840 --> 00:57:44,960
Speaker 1: be in the sequel, to which Cruise replied, it wouldn't

1028
00:57:44,960 --> 00:57:47,800
Speaker 1: be Top Gun without danger Zone. So there you go.

1029
00:57:49,120 --> 00:57:50,960
Speaker 1: That makes me happy. I really like that. I like

1030
00:57:51,040 --> 00:57:54,480
Speaker 1: the Tom said that to him. Yeah, that's um. And

1031
00:57:54,520 --> 00:57:56,960
Speaker 1: we also cannot talk about Top Guns music without talking

1032
00:57:57,000 --> 00:58:02,560
Speaker 1: about Berlin's done Anna Take My breath Away, which picked

1033
00:58:02,600 --> 00:58:05,200
Speaker 1: up the Oscar and Golden Globe that year for Best

1034
00:58:05,200 --> 00:58:08,960
Speaker 1: Original Song. Wolf Many people probably know this. I just

1035
00:58:09,000 --> 00:58:11,640
Speaker 1: want to throw this in here. Berlin singer Terry Nunn

1036
00:58:11,840 --> 00:58:16,200
Speaker 1: was an original casting choice for Princess Leah. People that

1037
00:58:16,360 --> 00:58:19,480
Speaker 1: you didn't know that why didn't she do it? She

1038
00:58:19,520 --> 00:58:21,520
Speaker 1: told it down. I'm not sure if she turned it

1039
00:58:21,560 --> 00:58:23,480
Speaker 1: down or if they just but she like screen test.

1040
00:58:23,480 --> 00:58:26,560
Speaker 1: I think she did a screen test with Harrison Ford. Yeah,

1041
00:58:26,560 --> 00:58:29,560
Speaker 1: she's talked about it a lot. So Take My Breath

1042
00:58:29,560 --> 00:58:32,360
Speaker 1: Away was actually written and recorded after Danger Zone because

1043
00:58:32,400 --> 00:58:35,200
Speaker 1: Bruckheimer requested a song for a love scene. It was

1044
00:58:35,240 --> 00:58:38,120
Speaker 1: originally pitched to a band called The Motels, but Moroder

1045
00:58:38,200 --> 00:58:41,320
Speaker 1: had recently produced no more words for Berlin, so he

1046
00:58:41,360 --> 00:58:43,680
Speaker 1: brought it to them. He has said it is the

1047
00:58:43,760 --> 00:58:46,120
Speaker 1: song that he is most proud of having a hand in,

1048
00:58:46,600 --> 00:58:51,400
Speaker 1: which what to paraphrase one of my favorite Rosie iv

1049
00:58:51,400 --> 00:58:56,360
Speaker 1: Ittt reviews, I hate the song. I hate, hate, hate, hate,

1050
00:58:56,520 --> 00:58:59,600
Speaker 1: hate the song. I hate it. It's a dirt that

1051
00:58:59,680 --> 00:59:02,440
Speaker 1: Encore operates all my least favorite elements of the eighties

1052
00:59:02,560 --> 00:59:06,520
Speaker 1: music and Marouder's work, frigid synths, lock step beats, and

1053
00:59:06,640 --> 00:59:09,840
Speaker 1: ridiculous squawking basslines. I hate this song so much is

1054
00:59:09,840 --> 00:59:12,440
Speaker 1: one of my least favorite top ten songs of the

1055
00:59:12,520 --> 00:59:16,400
Speaker 1: last fifty years. There I feel better now good. How

1056
00:59:16,400 --> 00:59:19,440
Speaker 1: do you feel about the song? It's trickly crap and

1057
00:59:19,880 --> 00:59:23,200
Speaker 1: it's awful. I hate this soft synth. Yeah, I hate it.

1058
00:59:23,240 --> 00:59:25,000
Speaker 1: I also hate it, maybe not as much as you,

1059
00:59:25,080 --> 00:59:27,480
Speaker 1: but it's not like a good song in my opinion.

1060
00:59:27,880 --> 00:59:31,400
Speaker 1: The academy beggs to differ. Uh singer Terry None would

1061
00:59:31,440 --> 00:59:33,600
Speaker 1: recall that of the recording of it, that we would

1062
00:59:33,640 --> 00:59:38,560
Speaker 1: go into Georgia's vast studio complex in North Hollywood, where

1063
00:59:38,560 --> 00:59:41,600
Speaker 1: he was doing three or four projects simultaneously, with an

1064
00:59:41,600 --> 00:59:44,720
Speaker 1: assistant producer in every room. He would blow in and say,

1065
00:59:44,800 --> 00:59:46,480
Speaker 1: I don't like the horns, take them out. We'll do

1066
00:59:46,560 --> 00:59:49,400
Speaker 1: more later, Okay, bye. Then he'd returned later, Oh, I

1067
00:59:49,440 --> 00:59:53,200
Speaker 1: love it. Do more harmonies because cocaine. Apparently, the band's

1068
00:59:53,200 --> 00:59:56,560
Speaker 1: manager thought the song was a dud and told None Terry,

1069
00:59:56,640 --> 00:59:59,440
Speaker 1: if this goes top ten, I'll get a mohawk. But

1070
00:59:59,520 --> 01:00:01,880
Speaker 1: the record company kept pushing and it went to number

1071
01:00:01,880 --> 01:00:04,960
Speaker 1: one around the world. So MTV came and filmed our

1072
01:00:05,040 --> 01:00:09,440
Speaker 1: manager getting a mohawk, quote Terry Nunne. But it was

1073
01:00:09,560 --> 01:00:12,120
Speaker 1: not all sunny for the band. When they were told

1074
01:00:12,160 --> 01:00:14,360
Speaker 1: the song was nominated for an Oscar, they were invited

1075
01:00:14,400 --> 01:00:17,120
Speaker 1: to perform on stage at the ceremony, but Terry Nunne

1076
01:00:17,120 --> 01:00:19,960
Speaker 1: said she refused to go because they wouldn't let her

1077
01:00:19,960 --> 01:00:22,120
Speaker 1: perform the whole song. The Oscar is doing like a

1078
01:00:22,160 --> 01:00:25,080
Speaker 1: big best song medley, so she turned it down, which

1079
01:00:25,080 --> 01:00:28,520
Speaker 1: is a decision she deeply regrets, especially upon finding out

1080
01:00:28,600 --> 01:00:31,720
Speaker 1: that Take My Breath Away won the Oscar. And now

1081
01:00:31,760 --> 01:00:37,320
Speaker 1: we're into a segment I like to call top Results. Obviously,

1082
01:00:37,320 --> 01:00:40,040
Speaker 1: the film was a huge hit. It grows three fifty

1083
01:00:40,080 --> 01:00:43,960
Speaker 1: six million against the production budget of fifteen million. Um.

1084
01:00:44,000 --> 01:00:46,680
Speaker 1: You mentioned this earlier, but people have theorized that after

1085
01:00:46,760 --> 01:00:50,920
Speaker 1: our loss in quotes in Vietnam, the film allowed Americans

1086
01:00:50,960 --> 01:00:53,919
Speaker 1: to feel good about the military again in the middle

1087
01:00:53,920 --> 01:00:57,400
Speaker 1: of the jingoistic Ra Ra eighties. I loved Ebert's review

1088
01:00:57,400 --> 01:00:59,320
Speaker 1: of Top Gun, where he says, movies like Top Gun

1089
01:00:59,360 --> 01:01:01,040
Speaker 1: are hard to review you because the good parts are

1090
01:01:01,120 --> 01:01:04,040
Speaker 1: so good and the bad parts are so relentless. The

1091
01:01:04,120 --> 01:01:07,120
Speaker 1: dog the dog fights are absolutely the best since Clint

1092
01:01:07,120 --> 01:01:10,880
Speaker 1: Eastwood's electrifying aerial scenes in Firefox. But look out for

1093
01:01:10,920 --> 01:01:14,880
Speaker 1: the scenes where the people talk to each other. Military

1094
01:01:14,920 --> 01:01:18,480
Speaker 1: recruiters parked themselves outside of theaters that were showing the

1095
01:01:18,480 --> 01:01:22,440
Speaker 1: film and reported a surge in calls about naval aviation

1096
01:01:22,520 --> 01:01:26,240
Speaker 1: officer programs. The Navy also wove in danger Zone type

1097
01:01:26,280 --> 01:01:30,200
Speaker 1: sounding music into their Join the Navy commercials right after

1098
01:01:30,240 --> 01:01:32,600
Speaker 1: the movie came out. And I mean that they're they're

1099
01:01:32,640 --> 01:01:35,480
Speaker 1: basically their ads look like Top Gun scenes. They included

1100
01:01:35,480 --> 01:01:37,800
Speaker 1: all these shots that look like they were taken directly

1101
01:01:37,800 --> 01:01:41,200
Speaker 1: from Top Gun and had sounded like music. Yeah, the

1102
01:01:41,280 --> 01:01:44,400
Speaker 1: number in uniform of uniform personnel in all branches of

1103
01:01:44,400 --> 01:01:48,320
Speaker 1: the military increased by twenty thousand over the previous year,

1104
01:01:48,320 --> 01:01:51,160
Speaker 1: and about sixteen thousand of those were just in the Navy.

1105
01:01:51,200 --> 01:01:53,760
Speaker 1: According to an article in the U. S. Naval Institute's

1106
01:01:53,800 --> 01:02:00,640
Speaker 1: magazine UH Less uh Militaristically, sales for ray bands, aviator

1107
01:02:00,680 --> 01:02:05,320
Speaker 1: sunglasses jumped after the movie premiered, as did leather bomber

1108
01:02:05,360 --> 01:02:08,280
Speaker 1: jackets and white T shirts. And the producers knew their

1109
01:02:08,280 --> 01:02:10,520
Speaker 1: film was a big hit when they started seeing guys

1110
01:02:10,600 --> 01:02:14,040
Speaker 1: rolling around l A dressed like Tom Cruise's character. This

1111
01:02:14,120 --> 01:02:15,640
Speaker 1: is something I didn't know. This sort of One of

1112
01:02:15,680 --> 01:02:19,480
Speaker 1: the unexpected UH consequences of Top Gun success was it

1113
01:02:19,520 --> 01:02:23,400
Speaker 1: really helped jump start the home video market because when

1114
01:02:23,640 --> 01:02:26,520
Speaker 1: VHS tape started going on sale in the early eighties,

1115
01:02:26,800 --> 01:02:29,120
Speaker 1: they were being sold for like a hundred bucks, which

1116
01:02:29,160 --> 01:02:32,000
Speaker 1: these days for inflation, was like two hundred and thirty dollars.

1117
01:02:32,040 --> 01:02:34,360
Speaker 1: So as a result, most of these tapes were being

1118
01:02:34,360 --> 01:02:37,040
Speaker 1: sold directly to rental stores who then would rent them

1119
01:02:37,040 --> 01:02:38,720
Speaker 1: out and try to make their money back that way.

1120
01:02:38,920 --> 01:02:41,960
Speaker 1: It really wasn't for like an individual consumer market, and

1121
01:02:42,080 --> 01:02:45,400
Speaker 1: the prices for VHS tapes with falls the eighties continued,

1122
01:02:45,520 --> 01:02:49,880
Speaker 1: but Top Gun sold their VHS tapes for twenty seven dollars,

1123
01:02:49,920 --> 01:02:52,680
Speaker 1: which was the lowest price for a top tier Hollywood movie,

1124
01:02:53,160 --> 01:02:55,280
Speaker 1: and they could afford to sell it cheaply because Pepsi

1125
01:02:55,360 --> 01:02:57,720
Speaker 1: bought sixty seconds worth of ad space at the start

1126
01:02:57,720 --> 01:02:59,800
Speaker 1: of the tape, which they filled with like a top

1127
01:03:00,240 --> 01:03:03,040
Speaker 1: themed diet Pepsi ad. And it's actually kind of cute.

1128
01:03:03,040 --> 01:03:05,920
Speaker 1: There's a pilot and he opens his bottle of diet pepsi,

1129
01:03:06,000 --> 01:03:07,520
Speaker 1: but he can't get it out of the cup holders,

1130
01:03:07,560 --> 01:03:11,240
Speaker 1: so he flies upside down like that. Yeah, it's good.

1131
01:03:11,240 --> 01:03:14,080
Speaker 1: It's good in the port and his cup. So since then,

1132
01:03:14,160 --> 01:03:16,960
Speaker 1: pricing VHS tapes to own right away has become a

1133
01:03:17,000 --> 01:03:21,080
Speaker 1: common practice, and home video allow for ease of repeated viewing,

1134
01:03:21,400 --> 01:03:25,320
Speaker 1: which gave rise to something called the Cinema fifty two Project.

1135
01:03:25,360 --> 01:03:29,160
Speaker 1: Have you ever heard of this? It's it's basically equal

1136
01:03:29,200 --> 01:03:33,360
Speaker 1: parts performance art and equal parts experiment. Uh. Participants in

1137
01:03:33,400 --> 01:03:36,360
Speaker 1: the Cinema fifty two Project watch a film fifty two

1138
01:03:36,400 --> 01:03:39,640
Speaker 1: times over the course of a year to test, according

1139
01:03:39,680 --> 01:03:42,040
Speaker 1: to the website, to test how it will affect your work,

1140
01:03:42,320 --> 01:03:47,400
Speaker 1: your relationships, your dreams, your attitude, your breakfast, whatever. And

1141
01:03:47,560 --> 01:03:49,880
Speaker 1: there's a guy who watched this movie fifty two times

1142
01:03:49,920 --> 01:03:51,240
Speaker 1: of the course of a year, I think it was

1143
01:03:51,280 --> 01:03:55,280
Speaker 1: once a week thereabouts. And revelations from this really, I

1144
01:03:55,280 --> 01:03:59,720
Speaker 1: would imagine quite torturous experiment included Tom Cruise blinks for

1145
01:04:00,040 --> 01:04:03,880
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty nine times, the were the is spoken

1146
01:04:03,920 --> 01:04:07,160
Speaker 1: two hundred and twenty three times, and the average time

1147
01:04:07,200 --> 01:04:11,000
Speaker 1: between air Boss Johnson's coffee spills is twenty seven minutes

1148
01:04:11,160 --> 01:04:15,400
Speaker 1: and twenty three seconds. Okay, uh, you know we also

1149
01:04:15,440 --> 01:04:18,400
Speaker 1: probably have to talk about Top Gun Maverick, a movie

1150
01:04:18,440 --> 01:04:23,040
Speaker 1: I have not seen and will not. Um. So I'm

1151
01:04:23,080 --> 01:04:27,919
Speaker 1: busy seeing the San Francisco Alamo Drafthouse restorations of John

1152
01:04:27,960 --> 01:04:31,520
Speaker 1: Carpenter's classic films throughout the summer, so I have bigger

1153
01:04:31,520 --> 01:04:36,000
Speaker 1: and better plans Jordan's and Cruise. I go against this

1154
01:04:36,120 --> 01:04:44,600
Speaker 1: tide of critical cruise reappraisal. AH continue, well this sequel.

1155
01:04:44,760 --> 01:04:47,040
Speaker 1: You very nearly got your way, because this sequel was

1156
01:04:47,080 --> 01:04:49,520
Speaker 1: held up for many, many many years, and for a

1157
01:04:49,560 --> 01:04:52,400
Speaker 1: while look like it might not happen. Partially was held

1158
01:04:52,480 --> 01:04:55,680
Speaker 1: up because of the aforementioned tailhook scandal, but also a

1159
01:04:55,760 --> 01:04:58,720
Speaker 1: number of other crucial reasons. One reason was that the

1160
01:04:58,800 --> 01:05:02,200
Speaker 1: technology was getting so good with fighter planes that the

1161
01:05:02,240 --> 01:05:05,320
Speaker 1: military didn't want to participate because they didn't want cameras

1162
01:05:05,320 --> 01:05:08,440
Speaker 1: anywhere near these new aircraft, just because they were afraid of,

1163
01:05:08,800 --> 01:05:11,040
Speaker 1: you know, still the tail end of the Cold War,

1164
01:05:11,120 --> 01:05:13,360
Speaker 1: so they wanted to keep their new technology under wraps.

1165
01:05:13,880 --> 01:05:16,760
Speaker 1: And also, Tom Cruise was a long time hauled out

1166
01:05:16,760 --> 01:05:19,200
Speaker 1: because I guess he wasn't really interested in doing sequels,

1167
01:05:19,400 --> 01:05:21,600
Speaker 1: and when he finally agreed to star in one, his

1168
01:05:21,680 --> 01:05:23,840
Speaker 1: salary demands made him and this is a quote from

1169
01:05:23,840 --> 01:05:27,880
Speaker 1: the studio unaffordable. Um. So they kind of tabled this

1170
01:05:27,880 --> 01:05:29,680
Speaker 1: whole idea for many many years, and they picked it

1171
01:05:29,760 --> 01:05:33,680
Speaker 1: up again in two with original director Tony Scott expected

1172
01:05:33,720 --> 01:05:36,840
Speaker 1: to helm, but his suicide in twelve placed the project

1173
01:05:36,880 --> 01:05:39,680
Speaker 1: in jeopardy. I guess in the days before his death,

1174
01:05:39,720 --> 01:05:43,000
Speaker 1: he'd finalized the script and started scouting locations, and he

1175
01:05:43,040 --> 01:05:45,760
Speaker 1: and cruised toward a naval air station in Nevada, just

1176
01:05:45,840 --> 01:05:48,720
Speaker 1: I think a week prior to his death for research purposes.

1177
01:05:48,960 --> 01:05:52,080
Speaker 1: But the film development carried on, and in June seventeen,

1178
01:05:52,160 --> 01:05:56,120
Speaker 1: Cruise revealed that the sequel would be titled Top Gun Maverick.

1179
01:05:56,520 --> 01:06:00,400
Speaker 1: Because he was very against having a number in the sequel.

1180
01:06:00,440 --> 01:06:03,080
Speaker 1: He thought that the numbers really cheap in sequels, so

1181
01:06:03,120 --> 01:06:04,800
Speaker 1: you refused to have a number. That's why you got

1182
01:06:05,000 --> 01:06:08,280
Speaker 1: Top Gun Maverick. And talking about the Top Gun sequel,

1183
01:06:08,320 --> 01:06:10,920
Speaker 1: Jerry Bruckheimer said, the majority of the pilots that we

1184
01:06:11,000 --> 01:06:13,160
Speaker 1: worked with on this current movie said they joined the

1185
01:06:13,160 --> 01:06:16,120
Speaker 1: military because of the first Top Gun. And that's really

1186
01:06:16,160 --> 01:06:17,680
Speaker 1: fun to me because one of the notes of the

1187
01:06:17,680 --> 01:06:20,560
Speaker 1: producers received from Paramount initially when doing the first Top

1188
01:06:20,600 --> 01:06:25,760
Speaker 1: Gun was too much flying, which is great. But Top

1189
01:06:25,800 --> 01:06:28,800
Speaker 1: Gun director the late Tony Scott, we'd call Top Gun

1190
01:06:29,320 --> 01:06:34,680
Speaker 1: the purest form of escapism, saying that it quote mainlines entertainment.

1191
01:06:35,000 --> 01:06:37,480
Speaker 1: That's good. I'd like to add that it free bases

1192
01:06:37,520 --> 01:06:46,120
Speaker 1: adventure huffs Exhilaration and shoots up Excitement and Top Gun

1193
01:06:46,360 --> 01:06:49,160
Speaker 1: was selected by the Library of Congress for the National

1194
01:06:49,240 --> 01:06:54,320
Speaker 1: Film Registry in two thousand and fifteen. They said in

1195
01:06:54,360 --> 01:06:58,000
Speaker 1: an official statement at the time, turns out we all

1196
01:06:58,080 --> 01:07:00,960
Speaker 1: feel the need the need for They did not say

1197
01:07:01,000 --> 01:07:05,720
Speaker 1: that it's gonna googled at him. Absolutely, they did not

1198
01:07:05,800 --> 01:07:09,640
Speaker 1: say that, Well, Jordan's I think that's about we all

1199
01:07:09,640 --> 01:07:12,760
Speaker 1: have for fast Plane. Did you enjoy it more than

1200
01:07:12,840 --> 01:07:15,960
Speaker 1: large Plane? Oh? I mean nothing could take nothing could

1201
01:07:16,040 --> 01:07:18,080
Speaker 1: beat my love of large plane. But what about you?

1202
01:07:18,200 --> 01:07:20,080
Speaker 1: Did you? Did you enjoy this is more than you

1203
01:07:20,080 --> 01:07:22,400
Speaker 1: thought you would at the beginning. I enjoyed more of

1204
01:07:22,440 --> 01:07:26,000
Speaker 1: this than I anticipate enjoying either of those movies. But

1205
01:07:26,080 --> 01:07:28,960
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna say, you got a fast plane, and

1206
01:07:29,000 --> 01:07:32,280
Speaker 1: I want to take it to anywhere else. So with that,

1207
01:07:32,480 --> 01:07:37,040
Speaker 1: mine play us off. Tracy. Folks, this has been too

1208
01:07:37,080 --> 01:07:40,080
Speaker 1: much information. I'm Alex Hegel and I'm Jordan runt Talk.

1209
01:07:40,200 --> 01:07:47,440
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening. Too Much Information was a

1210
01:07:47,440 --> 01:07:50,640
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio. The show's executive producers are

1211
01:07:50,640 --> 01:07:53,680
Speaker 1: Noel Brown and Jordan run Talk. The supervising producer is

1212
01:07:53,720 --> 01:07:56,800
Speaker 1: Mike John's. The show was researched, written and hosted by

1213
01:07:56,880 --> 01:08:00,120
Speaker 1: Jordan Runtalk and Alex Hegel, with original music by at

1214
01:08:00,120 --> 01:08:02,640
Speaker 1: the Apple Bomb on the Ghost Funk Orchestra. If you

1215
01:08:02,680 --> 01:08:05,000
Speaker 1: like what you heard, please subscribe and leave us a review.

1216
01:08:05,240 --> 01:08:07,560
Speaker 1: For more podcasts and I heart Radio, visit the I

1217
01:08:07,640 --> 01:08:10,640
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to

1218
01:08:10,640 --> 01:08:11,480
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.