The fun Top Gun movie was made in 1986 and it was directed by Tony Scott. Many of the actors commented throughout the shoot how fun Top Gun was to film but it was the crew that really got to have fun Top Gun style while the movie was being made. Many of the cockpit scenes that show a pilot’s view out of the cockpit were filmed by the film crew that were taken aboard the jets. As much fun as Top Gun was to some people it turned out to be not so fun for others. One of the actors never wanted to be in the movie but he was forced to do it due to contractual obligations. Several musicians were asked to add their music to the movie but turned it down for reasons that range from the belief that the movie glorified war to a feeling that the movie would flop. There was even a death that occurred to one of the pilots while filming the Top Gun movie and the movie wound up being dedicated to that pilot. No matter how much fun Top Gun was, or was not, for those involved it still wound up being a great deal of fun for the movie going public.

The list of actors whose careers were given a huge boost by the movie Top Gun is a long and impressive list. Names like Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, and Anthony Edwards can be added to the list of cast and crew that benefited from Top Gun’s success. Top Gun was nominated for 4 Academy Awards and won one of them for best music score. Top Gun was even nominated for a Japanese Academy Award for best foreign language film for 1988! It was a movie that enjoyed a lot of success for a long time and not only did it catapult careers for many of its cast and crew but it also made a lot of money for the studio that produced it. The budget to make Top Gun was estimated at around $15 million but the box office returns are estimated to be almost $400 Million worldwide. Top Gun made Tom Cruise a superstar and some movie executives rich and along the way it also made some musicians very sorry.

Bryan Adams was asked to contribute a song to the Top Gun soundtrack but he felt that the theme of the movie was a contradiction to his anti-war stance and that the movie even helped to glorify combat so he refused to allow his music to be used in the movie. The heavy metal band Judas Priest were asked to contribute a song to the sound track as well but they didn’t have very high hopes for the movie and did not want their music associated with a movie that would fail. It is not known if either artist ever regretted their decision but Judas Priest did offer their music to a movie after the success of Top Gun but that movie did fail and Judas Priest has since been reluctant to offer their music to any further movies.

While filming Top Gun Hollywood stunt pilot Art Scholl was killed. In his memory the producers of Top Gun dedicated the movie to him. It is just another thing to add to the long list of positive things that the movie Top Gun accomplished during its long and impressive run as a box office smash hit and as a vehicle to launch the careers of so many people in Hollywood and the entertainment industry. Top Gun has repeatedly been honored as one of the top movies of all time and will always hold a place of honor as an Academy Award winning movie.