Where to watch Top Gun (1986)

Trivia & production notes

• The film was inspired by a 1983 California magazine article about fighter pilots at Naval Air Station Miramar, which featured aerial photography by a Navy lieutenant commander.
• Matthew Modine turned down the lead role of Maverick because he opposed the film's pro-military stance, choosing to star in Full Metal Jacket instead.
• Tom Cruise was reluctant to accept the Maverick role while filming Legend in London, but his brother Ridley Scott persuaded him to take it.
• Val Kilmer initially found the script silly and objected to its pro-war themes, but accepted the role of Iceman because he was contractually obligated to the studio.
• The U.S. Navy required script changes including moving the opening dogfight from Cuban waters to international waters and removing a scene depicting a crash on an aircraft carrier deck.
• Director Tony Scott wrote the USS Enterprise's commanding officer a personal check for $25,000 to turn the ship so he could continue filming backlit landing sequences for another five minutes.
• Future NASA astronaut Scott Altman, who was stationed at Miramar during filming, performed the famous opening sequence where a pilot makes an obscene gesture at the camera.
• Aerobatic pilot Art Scholl died during filming when his Pitts Special biplane went into a flat spin over the Pacific Ocean near Carlsbad on September 16, 1985, and neither his body nor aircraft were recovered.
• The enemy MIG-28 aircraft were depicted using Northrop F-5 jets, which were modified F-5E Tiger IIs from the Navy Fighter Weapons School.
• Actress Kelly McGillis had to wear a baseball cap in reshoots because she had dyed her hair brown for another film, and she remained shoeless during scenes with Tom Cruise to match his height.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Top Gun, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.