The Dogfights
We’ve seen this movie dozens of times and, to be honest, sometimes — despite the F-14 Tomcat’s iconic silhouette — it’s difficult to tell exactly what is going on, or which plane is which. Regardless, though, the editing is so top-notch (and the “let’s turn around quickly in our fake cockpits” acting style so urgent) that the dogfight and training scenes remain as tense a quarter-century later as they did upon the film’s premiere.
The Sound Track
Despite being an album from the ’80s, the Top Gun sound track somehow avoids the era’s supreme cheesiness. Its hit ballad, Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away,” and Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone” became two of the decade’s signature songs. And in the summer of 1986, the Top Gun sound track topped Billboard’s Top 200 album chart for five consecutive weeks. Impressive, especially considering some of the movie’s best tracks weren’t on the original release. “Great Balls of Fire,” by Jerry Lee Lewis, and “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling,” by the Righteous Brothers, didn’t make it on the album until the expanded edition was released in 1999.
