40 Years of Top Gun
This Saturday marks the 40th anniversary of the release of Top Gun, the blockbuster film about hotshot fighter pilots at an elite naval training school. The movie made an action star out of Tom Cruise as the cocky young pilot Maverick. It also launched the careers of Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards, and Meg Ryan. Critics dismissed Top Gun as “a 110-minute commercial for the Navy.” But audiences loved it. It was the top-grossing film of 1986 and spawned a hit sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, in 2022. A third installment is in the works.
It’s the Ultimate Popcorn Movie
© 1986 Paramount Pictures/ Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer Films
The Sequel That “Saved Hollywood”
@ Top Gun:Maverick/Paramount Pictures
Hollywood’s Top Star
Paramount Pictures
Let’s Hear from the Experts
Early in our history, Britannica began commissioning articles from experts in their fields—a practice we continue today. The following is a small sample of those distinguished voices.
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- W.E.B. Du Bois on African American literature
- Lee Strasberg on acting
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- Martin Scorsese on film preservation
- Archbishop Desmond Tutu on South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission
- Leon Trotsky on Vladimir Lenin
- Nobel Prize winner Jody Williams on land mines
- David Ben-Gurion on Theodor Herzl
- Jimmy Carter on the Camp David Accords
- James Naismith on basketball
- Torah Bright on snowboarding
- Jack Nicklaus on the U.S. Open
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the New York Rens
- Tony Hawk on skateboarding
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