The Iran-Contra affair gave the filmmakers a prime target to mock with pointed satirical barbs that gave Hot Shots! real edge despite the silliness and over-the-top nature of the spoof format.

So, what made the spoof so successful?Īs well as affectionate spoofs of Top Gun and other ‘80s hits, Hot Shots! featured more pointed satire of the real-life politics of the day. In 1990, the creators of Airplane! earned both glowing reviews in years and a cool $180 million box office payday with Hot Shots!, a scene-for-scene Top Gun parody. However, despite how silly Top Gun was, there was still room for a movie to mercilessly parody the film and gain critical and commercial success in the process. The movie was a bombastic, self-consciously silly story that was unashamed of its cheesiness, and Top Gun director Tony Scott infused the action with winking self-awareness years long before later action auteur Michael Bay’s movies mocked their own excesses. Director John Carpenter even turned down the project upon reading an early draft, noting that the climactic dogfight would trigger World War III if it occurred in real life.

Related: Why Top Gun’s Reshoots Were A MistakeĮven the most ardent defenders of Top Gun could not deny that much of the movie’s appeal came from how over-the-top its goofy heroics were, and how unlikely its escapist story was.

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