Top Gun is one of the most memorable ventures in Tom Cruise’s career. The film’s brilliant performances, the pathbreaking aerial action scenes, and the iconic soundtrack continue to captivate the fans to date.
Although the audiences were mostly hooked to the aerial action in the 1986 classic, the beach volleyball scene featuring Cruise and Val Kilmer is hailed as one of the most memorable scenes. Despite not adding much significance to the story, the scene continues to earn praise.
Surprisingly, when the volleyball scene was first shot, the heads at Paramount Studios were enraged. To be precise, the studio could not stand that the late Tony Scott devoted an entire day to the not-so-significant scene, and almost decided to fire the director.
Did Paramount Studios hate the late Tony Scott as the Top Gun director?
It cannot be denied that the beach volleyball scene in Top Gun with Kenny Loggins’ Playing With the Boys running in the background flaunts a different tonality than the entire film. According to the Oscar-nominated editors of the 1986 classic, the late Tony Scott used his publicity skills to make it different than the rest of the film.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Top Gun editors Chris Lebenzon and Billy Weber revealed that Paramount Studios did not like how Scott took an entire day and shot the scene so realistically. The editors added that the now-iconic scene was only a paragraph long in the script.
That scene was scripted as a real game. They kept score and everything, and Tony shot it like a commercial, and they were angry. The studio was so pissed off. The head of production, Charlie McGuire, he said, ‘I’m gonna fire him’ … because he spent a whole day shooting this scene.
The scene in discussion featured shirtless actors including Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer playing volleyball while flexing their hunky physiques. Top Gun was made at a time when actresses were often portrayed as eye candies but Scott did the opposite and made waves among the moviegoers.
The editors continued that it was “interesting to edit” as they did not expect it. Lebenzon and Weber were new to the commercial style, unlike the late director. So it posed a new challenge for the duo.
The iconic scene even found a place in Top Gun: Maverick
The beach volleyball scene in Top Gun created such an impact that the scene was also recreated in the 2022 sequel. The Joseph Kosinski directorial featured an identical beach football sequence that immediately reminded the fans of Pete “Maverick” Mitchell’s iconic volleyball game against Iceman.
However, contrary to the classic, Top Gun: Maverick‘s sequence had a greater significance in the storyline. The game was organized by Cruise’s character to improve the bonding within the team members to prepare them for the most important final mission.
Although some fans would argue that the Maverick scene did not have the same impact as its predecessor, USA Today reported the boys trained very hard for the scene. To recreate the magic, this sequence featured the ripped bodies of the actors underscored by OneRepublic’s track I Ain’t Worried in the background.
Top Gun can be streamed on Paramount+, while Top Gun: Maverick can be streamed on Paramount+ and Amazon Prime.
