Tom Cruise’s ascend to success is one for the books, as the actor’s dominance at the box office has been consistent for over 4-decades now. Initially finding his footing with Risky Business, the actor’s career skyrocketed after he starred in Tony Scott’s Top Gun, which became a huge success at the time, and the sequel after decades became one of Cruise’s biggest successes.
However, like everyone else, the Mission: Impossible star’s resume isn’t immune from failures, and one of his biggest flops arrived back in the 80s, which accidentally destined him for greatness.
The $23.5M failure landed Tom Cruise the lead role in Top Gun
Directed by acclaimed director Ridley Scott, 1985’s Legend comprised Tom Cruise at its forefront, and nowadays, the film has made its place among fans, becoming a cult classic. But upon its release, the convoluted plot accompanied by its unconventional method of storytelling wasn’t received well among mainstream audiences at the time, resulting in a box-office total of $23.5M.
However, the movie did introduce Tom Cruise to Ridley Scott’s sibling Tony Scott, who was working on Top Gun at the time, leading to Cruise landing the role of Pete Mitchell. Cruise explained,
“They first offered me the film in 1983. At this time I was off in London working with Ridley Scott…and I remember I didn’t address Top Gun during that time period, I was focused on shooting Legend… In 1984, Ridley said, ‘You gotta meet my brother.’ He’s going to direct this film Top Gun. It had things I love: movies and aviation.”
But the Mission: Impossible star wasn’t the initial choice for the role, and several other A-listers were once considered to play the lead, including Stranger Things star Matthew Modine.
Matthew Modine’s reasoning behind rejecting Tony Scott’s Top Gun
Although actors like Tom Hanks rejected the offer believing that the film won’t do good numbers at the box office, Matthew Modine had a different reason behind turning down the role. Unlike them, the Wrong Turn star was convinced Top Gun would be a success, however, the actor didn’t see eye to eye with the film’s politics. Being a pacifist, he didn’t want to star in a film that was portraying the US military in a positive light, resulting in him turning down the role.
But considering Cruise loved aviation, it didn’t take long to convince him to take the lead, resulting in the actor becoming a dominating force at the box office for decades to come.
Top Gun is available to stream on Paramount Plus.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
