20 Things You Somehow Missed In Top Gun

10. Who Is The Enemy?

Top Gun
Paramount

No action blockbuster from the 1980s was complete unless it had a big villain. Die Hard had Hans Gruber. Aliens had the Xenomorph Queen. The Terminator had (unsurprisingly) the Terminator.

So, who was the big bad of Top Gun? Well, to the most viewers, the villain was... somebody. The final dogfight sees Maverick and his crew battle a group of unidentified jets simply called "hostiles". So, who are they are why is their identity never revealed?

According to the original script, these hostiles are North Koreans. But since the US was in the midst of the Cold War, they thought it would be best not to paint the Koreans as the bad guys since they were allies with the Soviet Union.

But because the pilots' masks have a red star (which is a part of the North Korean flag), many viewers deduced where the enemy's nationality.

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James Egan has been with Whatculture for five years and prominently works on Horror, Film, and Video Games. He's written over 80 books including 1000 Facts about Horror Movies Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts about The Greatest Films Ever Made Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts about Video Games Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts About James Bond 1000 Facts About TV Shows