All language subtitles for Icons.Unearthed.S10E02.The.Star.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BTN_track4_[eng]

The year is 1984.

Hollywood is at
the top of its game,

and hype for the biggest film
of the year is building,

with hot young actors

like Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer
circling starring roles.

And the movie with the hottest
high-flying action

was none other than...

a movie set against
the backdrop

of the desert planet Arrakis.

Mining spice?

What is this?

Dune.

A critical
and commercial flop,

and a bullet dodged
for Tom and Val,

who were overlooked.

Fortunately, what Tom Cruise
had already done

in a pair of socks
on Risky Business,

proved he was box office gold
on any planet.

He came in...
He was the guy.

Just drop the mic,
walk away.

For the hotshot
who appeared to have
all the right moves...

Me? I don't want
to make a mistake.

...his next film
would be the stuff of legend.

Forgive me.

Though sadly,
only a legendary flop!

I meant no wrong.

But just
when it seemed

his career had entered
the danger zone...

No!

...his career entered
the danger zone.

♪ Highway to the danger zone ♪

I feel the need...

Tom knew the business of it.

He still does.

...the need for speed!

With an inexperienced
director at the helm...

What the fuck?
You got to fire this guy.

...who was
rocking the boat.

Tony,
this is an aircraft carrier
of the United States Navy.

It's not like a ski boat,
you know?

It takes miles
to turn this thing.

It wasn't
just the movie

that was at risk of sinking.

[John] All of a sudden,
Tom's parachute filled up.

Tom goes boom.

Tom's gone.

...and taking
to the sky

would be even more dangerous.

And all of a sudden,

the plane... popped up
from under the water,

and he had crashed...

and died.

The Top Gun story
begins with two producers.

Don Simpson,
Jerry Bruckheimer and...

...the dentist's office!

Jerry Bruckheimer saw an article
in California magazine,

called "Top Guns,"

that basically just said...

There are these pilots,
there's a school.

[John] A guy named Heater,
it's his call sign.

Heater Heatley. He was a pilot.

Every time he got up
on the airplane,
took his camera with him.

He's got beautiful photography.

And even though
he was at the dentist,

Jerry was all smiles.

Jerry Bruckheimer
went to Don, and was like,

"We have to do this movie."

And if anyone could,

it would be Jerry Bruckheimer
and Don Simpson.

At the time,

they were like the biggest
producers in Hollywood.

♪ What a feeling! ♪

You know,
they had done Flashdance,

Beverly Hills Cop...

They were very exciting
to be around.

Don was an amazing salesman.

You know, he comes
into the room dick-first.

I've never seen
that approach.

These hotshots
had an idea.

Now, they had to get it
off the ground.

They had no storyline.

They had no plot
or anything.

And now they need to get
the studio to support it.

But Paramount
was...

[Meredith] The studio
was not that excited.

They weren't sold on Top Gun.

People were not
knocking on doors

to make this movie.

And while
Bruckheimer and Simpson

were trying to kick down
the Paramount door,

a pair of screenwriters

were looking
for their next gig.

My partner Jim Cash and I
had been writing for a while.

We were working on Dick Tracyat that time with Universal,

and it got put on the shelf.

So it was not going to get made
and we were going, "Oh!"

So we were really desperate
to get something made.

But then
Jeffrey Katzenberg,

an executive from Paramount,

came to them and said...

"Hey, we'd like to do
your next project."

And he sat down and threw out
like, you know, eight ideas.

One of them was Top Gun,

that basically just said...

There are these pilots,
there's a school. It happens.

There was no story,
no characters, no anything.

But it was a world.

I had my pilot's license,

so I was really intrigued
to do a movie about pilots

you know, at 28,000 feet.

And to me it was like,
"That's the movie."

So what? So we're gonna shoot
this with real planes.

We're not gonna do
little miniatures.

We're not gonna do this
in visual effects.

Take us up to the sky.

This movie has to be
up there in reality,

and not done on a blue screen.

Take us where
we've never been before.

But if they
really wanted to do that...

We're gonna have to,
you know...

get the Navy's permission.

I mean,
getting the Navy involved...

What they're trying to do
has not been done
in film before.

You couldn't make Top Gun
without the Navy,

you couldn't make Top Gun
without the pilots.

We hopped on a plane
and went to Washington,

and met with the Pentagon,

high level admirals...

And they asked,
"So what's the movie about?"

There's no script yet,

so Don just starts talking.

...pitched them
what we wanted to do.

[Meredith] He basically
comes up with a story

not too far
from what they ultimately got,

and at a top level,

they approved the idea.

You just did
an incredibly brave thing.

The Navy understood this was
a perfect recruitment film.

So they were very receptive
to something heroic.

And subsequently
receptive to letting

a scriptwriter learn everything
there was to know

about this elite squad.

I gotta send somebody
from the squadron to Miramar.

So I went down to the base.

Months of interviews
with pilots,

went through
training exercises.

But they
also said to Jack...

"Well, you know, son,
you'll have to go up
in one of the jets."

...pulling six Gs, they're doing
flips over, and rollovers,

and all this sort of stuff.

I was exhausted
right off the bat.

I was like, whew!
I called Jim and I said,

"Jim, this is not the movie
we thought it was."

What I realized is,
these guys, they're athletes.

What they're doing

takes incredible strength
and just stamina.

This is a sport.

We're actually writing
like a sports movie.

And the trouble was,

these athletes
were all on the same team.

My problem when I went
down to the base is,

what's the conflict?

Because, you write the conflict
and there was no conflict.

These guys were great!
They got along,

they're supporting
each other... I'm going,

"Yeah,
but what's the conflict?"

Maverick...

You may not like
the guys flying with you.

They may not like you.

But whose side are you on?

And I went like ah, but
one of them doesn't get along.

One of them is the bump.

And that's how
Maverick came out.

Son, your ego is writing checks
your body can't cash.

Now, you've got to find...

Okay, who is he
playing against?

If Maverick is emotional,
there's an Iceman.

That's him, Iceman.

That's the way he flies.
Ice cold. No mistakes.

It gave us really good
conflict between the characters.

But Jack's
on-the-ground
in-the-air research

gave him one more idea...

or maybe two.

[Jack] Well, what I loved
was an F-14,

you had a front seat
and the back seat.
I didn't know that.

And I went... Okay, a backseat
gives me a relationship.

So I love that.
Now we had a relationship.

[Maverick] You're the only family I've got.

Goose is Mother Goose,
he takes care of them.

I'm not gonna let you down.

Don't worry, Goose.

It's all gonna be fine.

Excuse me, miss?

And for the
other key relationship
in Maverick's life,

a love interest.

Every bit Maverick's equal,
and more so.

But there was a major
difference in the script.

His girlfriend was just
graduating high school.

...i.e.,
not the highly qualified

astrophysicist
Pentagon contractor
that we know.

Really?

She was a...

yoga instructor.

I think they were trying to put
a little Flashdance in there.

It was... hollow.

And that was always
the bugaboo of the movie

from the very beginning.

Speaking of
the beginning,

when it came to
how to start the movie...

I knew from talking to pilots,

one of the toughest
things for them

is a night carrier landing.

Because, you're landing
this jet at a high speed,

on a postage stamp
bobbing in the water.

That's how they describe it.

At night,
you can't see anything.

It's scary
landing on the ship...

really scary.

[Maverick] Just stay on my wing.

I'll take you all the way in.

[Jack] I thought originally,
this is going to be
my midpoint turn.

I structurally had this placed.

And, we had a hard time
getting the movie going.

And Jim called one day
and said, "Hey,

what if we started with
the night carrier landing?"

And it was like, "Yes."

Literally every piece
fell together,

because it enabled us

to establish what
the rules of the game were.

You tell him to land that plane.
That's an order.

Establish who
they were as pilots...

Who's up there?

Cougar and Merlin,
and Maverick and Goose.

...their personalities
and character.

[Maverick] I can't shoot
this son of a bitch.

Let's see if we can have
a little fun with him.

[Goose] Is this
your idea of fun, Mav?

Greetings!

[Jack] What we did in 15 minutes
is set up that whole movie.

And it's like
a little movie in itself.

But
Jack's observations
weren't always skyward.

And what he noticed next,
would lead to one of the

most memorable
and heartbreaking scenes

of the entire 1980s.

What really caught me was,

I was sitting around with
the pilots one day,

and they started talking
about who they lost.

People they lost in Vietnam.

My squad in Vietnam,

we lost eight of 18 aircraft.
Ten men.

You could feel the pain.

[Viper] First one dies,
you die too.

I said I've got to make
the audience

feel what these guys feel.

And so, when we
wrote the script,

the scene at that midpoint
was a midair clash.

A pilot dies.

And who
did they decide to kill?

I know.

[Jack] One of the
golden rules of writing...

Don't kill off a favorite
character in the movie.

The audience
will never forgive you.

But, I knew
we had to lose somebody,

right from the very beginning.

I know.

[Jack] I get a question a lot.

"Did you have to kill Goose?"

Goose is dead.

- Yes. I'm sorry. I did.
- Sorry, Goose.

It was hard...
because, you know,

Jim and I were attached.

"Should we do this? I don't
think we should do this."

"No, we gotta do it."

Well, they did it.

So Jack and his
writing partner, Jim Cash,

turned in their draft.

But if the studio
didn't like the script,

everyone's goose...
would be cooked.

It wasn't getting
the traction at the studio.

People weren't liking it.

And everyone says
oh, like, it's not good.

And Don Simpson called
and said, "Can you come home?

You know, the executives
wanna talk to you
about the picture."

And we sat in a meeting.

One of the executives
I won't name

was throwing out
some crazy idea.

He wanted to make it about
the way the plane flies,

and no one could fly the plane.

But Maverick, in the end,

figures out
how to fly the plane.

I looked at Don and Jerry,

and they looked at me,
and I went like,
"No, this is not..."

And they basically said,
"No, to their credit,

they said, "No,
we don't want to do that."

And so, at that point,
it goes into turnaround.

They say, "We're not gonna
go ahead with this. Sorry,"

Like, they're not...

gonna make a movie with it.

Paramount turned it down.

Top Gunhad been shelved
by Paramount executives.

[Jack] Paramount turned it down.

But in Hollywood,

studio heads change
more frequently
than the weather.

And the winds of change
were blowing through Paramount.

Those executives left...

...and were replaced
by Frank Mancuso and Ned Tanen,

who asked...

"We got nothing to do.
What do you guys want to do?"

Don and Jerry reached up
and said

here, we wanna do this movie.

Great. Go make it.

Um, not so fast,

because Ned Tanen
had one condition.

Ned Tanen said, "Look,
I only want to make this movie
with Tom Cruise."

If the head of the studio says

I'll make the picture
with Tom, guess what?

I'm going after the guy.

So you're the one?

Yes, ma'am.

It was an enormous
opportunity for Tom Cruise,

who up until this point,

had been gliding in socks
as opposed to flying in planes.

He's not a big player yet,

and remember,
he is really very young.

I think he's 22.

So snagging Tom
for the role

shouldn't be a problem.

[Maverick] I'll be there in 30 seconds.

Meanwhile,
at the Pentagon,

things were developing

that could both help
and hinder the film.

When the script came in,
they had to approve it.

And then it's sort of like,
okay, what does that mean?

It means
they got a babysitter.

My name is John Semcken.

My call sign was Smegs.

The admiral said we got
assigned to pick somebody.

He said, "How many guys
graduated from Top Gun?"

I put my hand up,

and three other guys
put their hands up.

He says, "Okay, I need
one of you guys

to volunteer to make a movie
about Top Gun."

Boom! All four hands were down.

There's no way any of us
are gonna volunteer.

No way.

And Smegs
was right to be gun-shy
about the assignment,

given what happened
to the last guy.

When they did the movie,Final Countdown,

the commanding officer
of one of the squadrons
was court-martialed.

They accused him
of accepting gifts

from the film crew,
and court-martialed him.

I can see
it's dangerous for you.

They picked me. The admiral
said three things to me.

He says,
"Don't crash anything..."

"Don't kill anybody."

Goose!

Oh, no!

"Don't make us look bad."

You made a bad choice.

With a Navy
liaison onboard,

it was time to assign
a director to captain the ship.

[Patrick] One of the things
that Simpson and Bruckheimer
were well-known for,

is hiring directors

who were not
so well-known and so powerful

that they were still
more or less

under Simpson
and Bruckheimer's control.

Tony Scott had a lot of
commercial experience,

which they knew about.

He had done a Saab commercial
where there were jets in it,

so they liked that that he knew
how to photograph jets.

And for Tony Scott,

visual storytelling
was in the blood.

[Meredith] Ridley Scott
is his brother, of course.

It's Ridley that goes
into film first.

[Billy] Ridley was a very
successful director
at the time.

Tony didn't think he himself
was as talented as Ridley.

All he had ever really done
was commercials.

Tony was more outgoing
than Ridley,

and Tony just really using
a lot of his brother...

to... He followed him
around to learn.

He'd only done one movie, and...

Was it The Hunger?

Give me time.

Trust me.

Trust you?

Didn't do well at all.

It had been a flop,
and Tony was really nervous

that he'd never get to
do another movie.

Bruckheimer and Simpson
know that about him.

And they like him

in part because he'd had
a failure behind him.

Because he was not expensive,

and he wasn't well known.

And maybe they'd be
able to control him.

The truth is,
in my opinion

that they were looking
for a warm body

who could do this movie.

But they
wouldn't have any movie

if they didn't have Tom.

They assume it's gonna
happen and it did.

He's meeting with Tony,

he's coming in all through
the wardrobe process, you know?

- He's being fitted.
- But...

But he doesn't sign,
he doesn't sign.

So for someone who...

[Meredith echoing] He's not a big player yet.

He was
sure acting like one.

I had never met anybody
as ambitious.

The studio
and producers

would have to go through
one of Hollywood's
toughest agents.

And she was ambitious too.

[Meredith] Paula Wagner realizes
sort of early in her career,

that, there's this whole
untapped market of actors,

and these are the young actors
that she pursues.

So she ends up with quite
a cadre of real talent, right?

It's people like Tom,
Demi Moore, Val Kilmer.

They knew they wanted Tom,

so she's kind of working
that contract,

behind the scenes.

And with Ned Tanen's
one condition ringing loud
in everybody's ears...

I only want to make this movie
with Tom Cruise.

So Tom Cruise
and Paula Wagner
played Hardball.

We dangled many carrots
in front of him.

And they're balking
in the background.

They're like saying
they're kind of in trouble.

The lack
of Tom Cruise

wasn't their only problem.

- The script.
- Right. The script.

So, the script
went through a lot.

I think they'd still be writing
the script today if they could.

They're pretty far in process

to be having problems
of this nature.

Script doctor
Warren Skaaren,
was called in.

[Meredith] It's really
the role of Charlie

that's changing the most.

[Bill echoing] She was a yoga instructor.

They decided it really
needed to be somebody

that was in the Navy.

But not just
in the Navy.

In a jet!

So Don Simpson
updated the Navy

on this new character detail.

Don's hair was all over
the place, you know?

And he was always
moving his hands
and talking to, you know,

and he's telling the admiral
it's got to be...

I want this woman
to be a pilot.

And the admiral says
that's not going to happen.

You know, women don't fly
these airplanes.

Because in 1985,
it was against the law.

It takes a lot more
than just fancy flying.

He goes, "But, Admiral,
it's just a movie."

He goes, "We're not doing it,'

I said to the Admiral,
"Admiral, why don't we..."

Why don't we have Christine
come down and meet him?

Christine Fox
was the number two person

at the Department of Defense.

The first woman
in that position ever.

The Pentagon sees to it
that I know more than you.

- And so, the...
- ...yoga instructor...

...got a better job.

The F5 doesn't have
the thrust to weight ratio...

And it was a job
everyone wanted.

Word gets out, and people
suddenly want to do the film.

Susan Hess was very close.
They liked her a lot.

I think she looked
too much of an ingenue.

There was a lot of hope
that Demi would work.

I'm not saying
she wasn't good or bad.

I'm just saying it didn't click
that day for her and Tom.

The same time
this was going on,

Paramount was getting ready
to shoot the gritty

neo-noir follow-up
to Chinatown.

The Two Jakes.

The female lead
in The Two Jakes

was Kelly McGillis.

But just two days
before they were due
to start shooting,

the director suddenly quit.

[Billy] So they
canceled production.

So Kelly McGillis,
they were gonna have
to pay her to not do anything.

So, the studio said...

Well, uh, uh, uh,

put her in this Top Gun movie.

I'm Charlotte Blackwood.

Kelly did not
want to be in the movie.

- No.
- No?

No.

But she was under contract.

And Kelly
wasn't the only one

joining the cast under duress.

The big arm twist was Val.

And Val wasn't interested
in the film.

Val got into the picture
kicking and screaming.

I heard that about you.

You like to work alone.

He was pretty cocky. He tried
to mess up the audition,

so they wouldn't want him.

I don't think they cared.

They wanted his name
in the movie.
They wanted his look.

Val was also under contract
to the studio.

[Bill] I mean, Paula really did
a journeyman's job.

She got his arm
right in the back of his head,

and she got him to do it.

But could they get
Tom Cruise to do it?

Time was running out.

Casting continued for Top Gun.

And it wasn't all about young,
up and coming stars.

I had already been in some hits.

And I read scripts, and I know
what they are, the value...

And I really felt very much,

this is a significant script.

It's going to be
quite a significant film.

And I went over and talked
to the two producers,

and said, "Let's get
this straight.

I can do this stuff pretty well.

Give it to me,
and you get what you need."

[Viper] That's pretty arrogant,

considering the company
you're in.

They said you're hired.

I liked that in a pilot.

[Tom] I came out of the office,

and there was Tom
waiting in a chair.

We sat and chatted,

and had some sense
of who we were.

Really nice.
Very down to earth guy.

He is very businesslike,

but he really knows
what he's doing.

I think he said
something about...

"I learned to act
by watching you."

So, Viper was in.

- I'm in!
- I'm in!

In fact,
everyone was in.

- Not Tom.
- Uh, right,
except Tom.

They always believed
that Tom's going to sign,

but he hadn't.

And four days
before filming
was scheduled to begin,

the movie had a problem.

So they turned to
Margery Simkin,

who is casting.

Don Simpson says to her,

like he wants
a million bucks!

It was a big dollar sign.

But for
Tom Cruise,

there was more to it
than money.

Power, first billing...

Five gross points.

Gross points
means that Tom would receive

five percent of the gross
revenue of the movie.

- There's five, sir.
- That's five?

...which is a staggering thing

to give... even a lead actor

that isn't
really well established.

Cruise's signed
and sealed contract

gave the film
permission to take off.

[Maverick] Maverick's airborne.

Oh, not yet.

First, they'd start
on the ground.

So we started
with a ground story,

get all the interiors...

But first, dinner.

Kelly was one of the
first things they shot.

When Tom goes over
to her house for dinner.

I'm hungry.

And the studio was not happy

with Kelly, not Tom.

They didn't like her attitude.

Sorry.

The bottom line is,
if the chemistry ain't right,

the people don't look right.
There's not...

That's really
what we're here for.

I'm not gonna be here
much longer.

Or it may have been
a sign of something
more serious.

Except, you did
forget the wine.

One day, she came
and looked at dailies,

and she didn't look so good.

And she cried.

And I think that she may have
partied a little bit too much,

was maybe a little too
lackadaisical with
getting rest.

With footage
now coming in,

Billy Weber had started work
editing the film.

I got to the studio,

Jerry Bruckheimer said,

"So the first scene,
we need you to cut

is this dinner scene
with Tom and Kelly,

because the studio
wants to fire Kelly."

Oh, I didn't get that far.

"So you have to try
and make this work."

And so Billy got to work.

I made Kelly more engaging
and fun, nice.

Made it look like he would be
interested in her.

Thank you.

Showed it to Don and Jerry,

and they said,

"Oh, this works.

This works.

Let's show it to the studio."

So we showed it to the studio,

and they said,

"Okay, fine keep her."

You don't have to fire her.

Billy might have saved
Kelly's job for now,

but Tony Scott would quickly
cause more headaches

with a scene that
has become cinema history.

The volleyball scene.

What we wrote was
a basketball scene.

And so it got changed
into a volleyball scene

by Tony Scott.
And Tony Scott wanted that.

[Chris] Tony shot it like a commercial.

You know, this was
early in filmmaking,

where a lot of
the commercial directors

hadn't been hired yet.

And they brought a whole
'nother montage feel

to narrative movies.

[Meredith] He knows
from shooting commercials that,

you know, beauty sells.

And so, he's like trying
to get the best-looking guys

to be on camera.

And he found them.

[Bill] The guys looked great.

I mean, it was
slightly homo-erotic...

If I may say.

This gives me a hard on.

Clearly,
the volleyball action
was smoking hot.

But these rippling pecs
weren't the only thing burning.

Tony loved burning through film.

And Tony had spent a full day
shooting that scene.

The man who was head
of physical production,
Charlie Maguire, at Paramount

at the time...

He saw those dailies,
and Charlie Maguire went insane.

What the fuck?

You gotta fire this guy.

We have to fire him.

Tony Scott wanted
more time to shoot it.

And they were like, "No,
you don't need that much time

to shoot the volleyball scene."

"You'll see. We'll cut this
together. It'll work."

He says, "You guys are nuts."

But the Tony Scott
problem wasn't just limited
to volleyball.

We scheduled a movie
so that we have a light day

before we go on
to the carrier in Goose's room.

I got a family to think about.

I can't afford to blow this.

[Bill] And Tony was taking,
and retaking, and retaking.

I went in and said, "You know,

we have to...
We have to wrap this up."

And he said,
"Well, I haven't got it."

And I said, "Tony,
if you don't wrap,

I'm gonna have to pull
the generator."

And he says,
"You wouldn't do that."

I said, "You know,
you need to wrap."

He took another take,
and I cut the generator.

And when that was wrapped,
they gathered us up,

and sent us out
to the USS Enterprise.

No, not that one!

The real USS Enterprise!

The one you actually pay for.

[Maverick] Any of you boys
seen an aircraft carrier
around here?

So, wrapping up
all ground-based activities,

perhaps Tony Scott
would find his feet

when they headed to sea.

Going out to sea
was another issue.

He'd be up on the ship,
on the thing,

looking down and everything,

and he'd say,
"Move those guys over there."

And "take that airplane
and move it over here,"

on the deck
of an aircraft carrier.

That, again,
was Tony wanting more.

And then the sun
would start to go down,

and everything happened
really fast.

And the other...
horrific habit he had,

he only wanted to shoot
the tops and tails of the day.

So, we'd do
the morning light, backlight...

He'd love it, and be happy.
He's very happy.

And then, in the afternoon,
he'd find a reason to stall.

[John] He took all day long
to set all those scenes up,

because he wanted
that beautiful light.

You know, at magic hour.

And finally you'd have to go
and say, "We've got to shoot."

He was so visually oriented,
as directors must be...

But I think it was
at the expense of performance.

But it looked great.

It seemed
that Tony was capturing
impressive images

despite making
unreasonable demands.

And those demands
would continue at sea.

We were on the Enterprise,

and Tony would want
the ship turned,

because he always needed
the setting sun...

We got it.

It seems to me everyone
agreed that we got it,

but Tony wanted
to do it again.

He'd say, "I need
the captain to turn the ship."

I said, "Tony, this is
an aircraft carrier

of the United States Navy.

It's not like
a ski boat, you know?

It takes miles
to turn this thing.

And it's a nuclear-powered
aircraft carrier.

It costs a lot of money!"

He said, "Well, I want to do it.
I said, "Well, we can't.
It's $12,000."

Tony doesn't like anybody
who pushes back.

If you push back,
he does a work around.

He said, I'll write you a check.

I said, "Well, write the check."
So he wrote me a check.

$12,000.

And the captain,
he's just like, "Oh, my God!"

And then he turned the ship.

[Patrick] I mean, that's
a quintessential Tony moment,

trying to turn
an aircraft carrier,

so his back light could be
just a little bit better.

So he got another shot.

He got another take,
and he was happy with it.

Unfortunately,
one star wanted to make

like an aircraft carrier,
and turn back himself.

Val really didn't want
to do the movie.

With shooting
well underway,

Iceman had gone cold
on Top Gun.

From my view, he was unhappy
most of the movie.

He wasn't the star.

What's your problem, Kazansky?

You're everyone's problem.

[Bill] Tom had
the drive with a trailer.

He got that treatment.
Val didn't.

It was difficult.

[Kazansky] Right now,
you're worse than the enemy.

Turns out,
the difficulty was not being
second-best to Tom Cruise.

But Val Kilmer being a...

...piece of shit.

Let me elaborate.

I just found him arrogant.

- Do you need any help?
- Standoffish.

No. You mean notorious.

...full of himself.

This is not personal.

He's the kind of guy
who wouldn't stay in touch

with the production company

when he was supposed to
arrive in San Diego.

And then he just showed up

in his own cute little
red convertible,

you know, there,

to tickle the world
with his... his glory.

He's one of the principal guys
that I had to track down

on the aircraft carrier,

and didn't really seem to care

that it was a problem
for anybody else.

[Bill] I felt bad for him.

He was a second banana,
and I don't think he was happy.

No points for second place.

And I gave him a lot of leeway
when he acted up a little bit.

While Val Kilmer
misbehaved,

Tom Cruise
was on his best behavior.

One of the things
that sets Tom Cruise

aside from the others...

First of all, this is the '80s.

These are young people,
and there's a real party thing

that's happening at that time.

The Top Gun guys will all
go over there,

and have drinks with them.

It was like a frat party.

[Meredith] Tom was different.
Tom's the serious guy.

He hung around
with the producers.

[Patrick] He's very private.
He's very professional.

He's very prepared.

He could be very demanding,

but it wasn't in a sort of
petty, childish way,

the way some actors
just want to be pampered.

Tom wanted things in order to
make his scene better.

And you had to respect that.

He's also showing an interest
in behind-the-scenes work

and how the stuff
gets put together,

that the others aren't.

The sea story filming
climaxed with Goose
winding up dead in the water.

Did you have to kill Goose?
Yes. I'm sorry I did.

And shooting this scene,

almost claimed another life.

One of the things that we do
if we eject out of the airplane,

is you flip your you flips up,

and you hold on to the clips
of your parachute.

And as soon as your feet
touch the water,

you clip them and the parachute
comes off and floats away.

They were never taught
what to do if you're ejecting.

All of a sudden,
Tom's parachute filled up.

Tom goes boom!

Tom's gone.

Tom Cruise
was in trouble.

If you get wrapped in the lines
of the parachute,

and you can't get out,

the parachute
will fill up with water.

It's like an anchor.

How fast... if you drop
an anchor in the water,

you're going down behind it.
You're going down
pretty damn quick.

Well,
Tom's parachute filled up.

There were a bunch of
Navy SEALS that were there.

The SEALS jump in the water,

slice the lines
of the parachute.

They pulled Tom
back to the surface.

He easily could have drowned
right there.

He was angry. He had a fit.

But then he recouped
the next day, and it was fine.

With the ocean shoot wrapped,

the crew had absolutely
no doubt

what they had in the can.

They turned to me and said,

"You know this is
a piece of shit, right?"

And I said, "Yeah.

But it's gonna be
a 100-million-dollar
piece of shit."

- Well, the...
- Shit...

...would really
hit the fan,

as they began
the most important phase...

The air story...

or perhaps lack of it.

At least according to
Navy representative, Semcken...

Smegs, you know?

...who had been
leafing through the script.

It said "Dogfight Number One."

Maverick dogfights with Viper.

There were no words!

No words. The airplanes
were just moving
through the sky,

and you didn't know
what they were doing.

[Bill] Tony is a visual thinker.

So, dialog is secondary.

I remember coming back
to Tony and saying,

"Hey, Tony, you're gonna have
to put words in this movie."

And he looks at me
and says, "John,

how many effing movies
have you made?"

I said, "Well, Tony,
I've never made..." And he says,

"We're gonna make
a deal right now.

I'm not gonna tell you how to
fly those effing airplanes,

and don't you ever again
tell me how to make a movie."

Well, movie maker
Tony Scott took his filmmaking
expertise to the skies.

Tony went up to northern Nevada

to start shooting
the flying sequences.

And we got the dailies.

And I said, "Tony,
they're really boring.

They're like little
black dots in the blue sky."

He said what are we gonna do?

I said, "Shit!"

Can you find a hilltop
that you can shoot from,

that they can fly
right over you,

or fly up the side of it
or anything like that?

And he said,
"Oh, that's a good idea!"

The level
of coordination

needed to successfully
film objects

moving at hundreds
of miles an hour,

would require
military precision.

We were on the top
of a mountain,

and it dropped down like this,

like 3,000 or 4,000 feet.

Tony wanted the airplanes
flying right at the camera,

500-600 miles an hour.

He wanted to kiss
a mountain with a plane,

and there's Tony again,
really going for danger.

He'd say, "Can we do that?"
"Can we do this?"

"Can we do that?"
That was his MO.

Some of that stuff
was like crazy,

and I was worried.

I had the radio, and I'm talking
to the pilots in the airplane.

Okay, when I tell you
to roll, roll.

If I don't tell you to roll,
do not roll.

So I would say, "Roll,"
the first guy would roll.

"Roll!" And he'd roll again.

And then I'd say,
"Okay, knock it off,"

and he'd pull up and pull out.

The second guy comes through,

and I say, "Okay, roll,"

and he'd roll,
and then he's really close...

I don't say roll, and he rolls.

[Goose] Okay, Mav,
let's turn and burn.

-
- Oh! Oh, shit!

Watch the mountains.

[John] Power, power, power,

pull, pull, pull!

He goes into
a full afterburn,

and yanks the stick back.

And the airplane came up
just past the cliff... okay.

Blew all the camera boxes,

knocked over the camera,

knocked over half of us.

He missed hitting the mountain
by 100 feet, 200 feet.

He was really close.
It scared all of us.

It scared us to death.
Almost killed us all.

And we shut the movie down.

Shit.

After an
uncomfortably close shave...

...almost killed us all.

...Top Gun continued.

We had to regroup
and reconsider

what we're doing here
and what's at stake.

[Billy] Tony had no boundaries.

Fly by the seat of his pants.
Completely unpredictable.

We hooked the cameras
on the wings of the F-14.

We had different positions

all over the F14,
the A4s and the A5s.

Some of the exterior shots

with, like, three,
four, you know, five jets,

we shot from a Lear.

And like
the real Maverick,

this Maverick director

was raising eyebrows
with the pilots.

You'd plan the day,

and then he would want
something different.

It was like a kid and a mom.

The pilots would go "no."

They bridled Tony,
who was a bit of a loose cannon.

You are still dangerous.

And nothing
would be more dangerous

than the filming
of the midpoint accident

that resulted in Goose's death,

under the careful scrutiny
of the Navy.

[John] In the original script,

Goose died
in a midair collision.

I went to the producers,

and directors and said,
"That's not happening."

He goes, "Why? Goose could die
in a mid-air collision."

I said, "Yeah,
but so would Maverick."

And Tony says to me,
"I don't care how you do it.

He dies, he lives,
and it's not his fault."

So I went through
every single F-14 accident.

The only one
he could find,

was the case of an F-14
that went into a flat spin.

And it would
drop out of the sky,

like a plate
spinning like this...

We're in a jet wash!

So, if it's in a left spin,

the canopy
goes out to the right.

The pilot goes out to the right,
the pilot dies.

Engine one is out!

Engine two is out!

If it's in a right spin,
the canopy goes out to the left,

RIO dies.

[Maverick] I can't reach
the ejection handle!

Eject!

- [Maverick grunting]
- [Goose] Watch the canopy!

[John] The airplane
was in a spin, they ejected...

Goose hit his head
on the canopy...

Killed him.

But if a flat spin
is as dangerous as it gets,

how would they shoot it?

[Clay] The flat spin in F-14
was not a common thing

back then.

So a flat spin is when
the airplane

is producing zero lift,

and it is rotating.

So there's nothing going
over the flight controls.

It can't fly.

A flat spin is about
the worst thing

you could be in an airplane.

[Maverick] Goose,
I'm losing control.

I'm losing control.

I can't control it...

To shoot
Goose's fatal accident,

a different kind
of Top Gun was needed.

Veteran aerial
stunt pilot Art Scholl,

he was drafted in to put
his Pitts Special biplane

into a real flat spin.

You can make a Pitts Special

spin, right?

Flat, as it comes out
of the sky.

And you put
a camera facing out,

so it would be the point of view
of the pilot...

And they were shooting
one morning.

The other pilot dropped down
under a cloud.

And then Clay came after him,

and dropped down under a cloud
and his plane was gone.

Where is it?
He couldn't figure it out!

And all of a sudden,
the plane

popped up
from under the water...

And he had crashed,

and died.

It was just an awful accident.

Everyone was devastated.
It was awful.

And it was heartbreaking
for everybody.

We dedicated the whole movie
to him at the end of the movie.

To their credit, you know,
in his honor,

they never used
any of that footage.

In order to
finish the sequence,

they opted for
a safer solution.

It was a model
on a wire on a crane,

and they spun it
and it went right by the camera.

For the crucial
cockpit close-ups,

the stars of Top Gunwere at no risk

because they never
left the ground.

[John] They had a little gimbal

with the makeup
of a wooden F-14 nose.

On the last day of filming,
the actors were all there

with their mask off
and everything,

and I said, "Hey, Tony,
you got to put a mask on."

He goes, "John, I told you,
we're not gonna have mask...

Look at those beautiful teeth!"

And he's pointing
at Tom Cruise.

He thought it was
going to ruin the movie.

And so he says, "Okay!

I'll give you one minute
with each of the boys."

And when Tom asked

how to portray
the stresses of G-force

through just his eyes,

John saved
his best advice for last.

Pretend you have to go
to the bathroom,

and you're constipated.

If you go just...

You know?

Um,
one more time, John?

Yeah, that's definitely not

in the Hollywood
movie star manual.

You'll be able to look like
you're pulling Gs.

And sure enough,
he was fantastic!

Now you know
what was going through
Tom Cruise's mind

at some of his
most career-defining moments.

It was kind of fun
for me, you know?

It was my directing debut.

Yeah.

Principal photography
on Top Gun wrapped.

In post, the editors
were met with

a somewhat
predictable challenge.

The aerial stuff
started coming in.

We assembled the sequences
from that of just flying,

and put music on it.

But there was no dialog on it.

Because originally...

There were no words.

And you didn't know
what they were doing.

And instead of words...

it was...

It didn't mean anything.

Had no story sense to it yet.

If only someone
had mentioned it earlier...

Don't you ever again
tell me how to make a movie.

The producers
were unimpressed.

But John had another
great idea to save the day.

Mister Bruckheimer, if you cut
the scenes with the masks

back into the movie,

I can give you
all the words you need

because you can't tell
that their lips are moving

if there's a mask on their face.

So Chris and Billy
brought each of the actors in,

to record new lines.

[Maverick] All right,
talk to me, Goose.

[Goose] He's still back there.
He's closing in on us.

He's closing fast!

You can run, kid,
but you can't hide.

Tom came in the cutting room
and he was thinking of lines.

This whole thing about
"I'm gonna...

Hit the brakes
and fly right by.

We made that up,

and that was
a pivotal point in the climax.

So working
with Chris and Billy,

Tony Scott presented
the first cut to the studio.

[Billy] Tony showed them
his director's cut,

and they said,
"Tony, come,

we want to talk to you
in the office."

So they take Tony in the office,

and then Tony comes out
of the office and he said,

"I think they may want to
send me home to England.

They didn't like my cut."

Tony Scott's
director's cut

was not going down well

with the executives
at Paramount.

What do you mean
they didn't like your cut?

"They didn't like it!

They want to send me home."

They're not gonna do that.
They're not gonna send you home.

Trust me,

we'll fix the movie... with you.

Don't worry.
And that's what we did.

We had a preview screening

for the distribution department
of Paramount.

The distribution people
came out, and they said,

"God, we wish there could be
more of a love scene
in the movie."

What do you want to do?

Just drop right down
on the tile, and go for it?

Really, it was about making
the romantic story work,

the love story,
the relationship story...

- Is there's something wrong?
- It was a chemistry issue.

I'm not convinced
it was the best synergy

between the two of them.

- Lieutenant!
-

I can't hear you.

Well, the message
was loud and clear.

They needed to fix
the chemistry... and quick.

And we had
a week left on the mix...

the sound mix of the movie.

It's unheard of to do it then,
unheard of.

I could feel the stakes
at the studio,

and how important
it was to them,

and Tom was shootingThe Color Of Money in Chicago.

And Kelly had cut
almost all of her hair off.

And they came up with a scene,

and Kelly's got like a
baseball-style cap on.

Please understand.
I still have a job to do.

And then we shot the love scene.

♪ Take my breath away ♪

They put a wig on her...
very low light,

because they looked
so different.

Got the dailies
early Monday morning.

By noon, we had cut
the two scenes together.

Showed it to Don and Jerry,
and they said,

"Great. Send it to
negative cutting."

And we did.

And those scenes were put in

a week before
we finished the mix.

You big stud,

take me to bed
or lose me forever!

One week later,
on May 16, 1986,

Top Gun was released
in cinemas.

Tonight,
San Diego was home

to the world premiere
of the movie Top Gun.

It wasn't a great feeling

that we've got
this great hit movie.

The critical response...
was brutal!

Just... Critics hated it!

And it was one damning review
after another.

[Billy] It was the number one
grossing movie

the opening weekend.
That was it.

But after this
slow start, Top Gun took off.

- But the public loved it!
- [Billy] Labor Day weekend,
it was still playing.

No one had a notion

that it would be
the hit that it was. No one.

Top Gunwas a huge hit,

generating over 176 million
at the US box office.

There you go.
What do I know?

And it was
Don and Jerry, just...

They were not going to
not have a hit.

It's really sort of crazy to see

how much Top Gun
is a part of the culture.

I hear it in references
all the time.

I'll fly with you.

Give me a call.

I'll fly with you.

That became very popular

with people
who wanted an autograph...

You can be my wingman anytime.

Bullshit.

You can be mine.

[Tom] You know, and it won an Oscar
for best song.

♪ Take my breath away ♪

But what was
truly breathtaking

was just what Top Gun'ssuccess meant for Tom.

Thanks to his...

...five gross points.

...which would
amount to...

About 18 million dollars

that Tom Cruise
would have earned.

I still can't believe it.

Tom knew the business of it.

He still does.

He had a good agency,
a good representation,

who could get him
into these situations

and positions
that were really significant.

Kelly McGillis
went on to star opposite
Jodie Foster

in 1988's The Accused

and opposite John Goodman
in The Babe.

And for Tony Scott,

Top Gunwas a success he needed

to emerge from under
his brother's shadow.

The movie is huge,

and that puts Tony
on the same page.

He has no problem
getting movies.

And with such
a huge hit on their hands,

surely a sequel must have
been in the works, right?

There wasn't any talk
of a sequel

until the '90s...
There was talk of a sequel.

Well, over the 35 years,
you're going to be asked a lot.

If they ever make
another Top Gun,

are you going to be
that character?

And all I could say was...

We'll see when we get there.

A bunch of guys thought
there would be a sequel,

and then we all thought
there would never be one.

Like, every four or five years,
I get a phone call saying,

so, we're considering
doing a sequel to Top Gun.

I said, "Really?"

and that would be
the end of that.

But sequel or not,

Top Gun was just the beginning
of a career trajectory

that was about to climb
into the stratosphere.

This is his movie.
This makes Tom Cruise.

He wants to be the boss.

And he always had that affect

when he'd come on the set.

It was always about
looking over the kingdom,

and you always felt, yeah,
it's gonna be his one day.

[Stinger] How does it feel
to be on the front page

of every newspaper
in the English speaking world.

From teen heartthrob
and '80s pinup boy,

Tom Cruise had become
a bona fide action star

at just 23 years of age,

he would now have his pick

of major
Hollywood blockbusters.

I do not choose a film
looking for a result.

But he could also woo
Hollywood's best directors

in search of something
more than a hit.

I look for... What am I
gonna learn,

you know, about myself
and acting?

For a young star,

this was the road
less traveled.

Tom Cruise is really good
at picking his projects

based in part on the director.

...an endless struggle,
you know?

And where
Tom would go next,

would prove he didn't need
to be flying fast

to take an audience
on an unforgettable journey.

If we don't go
on that emotional journey

through Tom's performance,

there is no movie.