The iconic film about jet fighter pilots penned by Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr., was in fact inspired by an article entitled “Top Guns” in California Magazine. Producer Don Simpson discovered the article and after several writers turned it down, finally found success in the hiring of Cash and Epps. Epps went so far as to attend declassified classes at Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego (where the article was based) and even rode along in an F-14 Tomcat during a training run. But with the first draft failing to meet the imaginative standard of both Simpson and co-producer Jerry Bruckheimer, a call went out for help. That call was answered by the United States Navy.

With final say over elements of the script, the Navy allowed the film access to Navy installations and equipment in return for a favorable, recruitment-upping depiction, guaranteeing a mutual back scratching. Tom Cruise was the first choice to play the lead character, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, but Cruise hesitated. Agreeing on the condition that he be allowed to develop the script (by giving the characters a more competitive bent), Cruise finally joined after being taken for a joy ride with the Blue Angels flight group. He joined a cast that included legions of legends in the making: ER’s Anthony Edwards, future Batman Val Kilmer, sexy Witness star Kelly McGillis, future rom-com darling Meg Ryan, and Alien captain Tom Skerritt. With John Carpenter and David Cronenberg refusing the director’s chair, the task fell to Tony Scott, who was officially fired and rehired three times during production.

In the high-flying world of combat jet flying, confidence is a pilot’s best friend and his worst enemy. Haunted by his jet-fighting father’s legacy, thrill-seeking, risk-taking jet pilot Maverick is given the chance of a lifetime when he and his co-pilot Goose (Edwards) are sent to the foremost flight academy in the nation, Top Gun. Maverick’s brash attitude immediately rub his classmates the wrong way, particularly his competition, Iceman (Kilmer), and his instructor, Charlie (McGillis), with whom he falls in love. Maverick’s namesake tendencies get the better of him when he breaks away from his fellows during a training exercise in order to pursue his head instructor (Skerritt) resulting in the fateful words, “never leave your wingman!” But Maverick heeds only his own bugle as he competitively engages Iceman on the next training run. When Iceman disengages, Maverick gets caught in the jet wash that creates a flat spin, forcing him to eject. The encounter proves fatal to his best friend Goose, and although absolved of responsibility for the accident, Maverick’s resulting loss of confidence leaves him a hollow shell of his former self.

When he learns the truth about his father, Maverick chooses to graduate and is sent out on a mission to fly cover for an intelligence ship broken down in international waters. But when the company is engaged by a squadron of MiG fighters, Maverick loses his nerve and “bugs out.” Begging his departed friend Goose to help him, Maverick finds his confidence and rejoins the dogfight to save his friends, determined not to never again leave his wingman.

The Navy couldn’t be happier with the results as they boasted record recruitment numbers for years following the film’s release. With over $175 million in domestic ticket sales alone, the film became the number one hit of 1986 and spent eighteen total weekends in the top five (tying it for fifth all-time). The movie also shot Tom Cruise to the apex of the A-list for the next two decades. A sequel was actually written about a cocky young female pilot under Maverick’s tutelage but was ultimately scrapped when Cruise’s price tag proved too high. In 1991, spoof director gave Top Gun a send up in Hot Shots! with Charlie Sheen, Lloyd Bridges, and Valeria Golino.