8 More Films That Clearly Ended With World War 3

6. Top Gun (1986)

Top Gun, one of Tom Cruise's early films after his breakout role in Risky Business, is the story of hotshot Maverick's journey from arrogant cadet to mature Navy pilot. The highlight of the film is its several fantastically-shot aerial combat sequences. The allegiance of the enemy pilots is never revealed; however, seeing as Maverick's aircraft carrier base (the USS Enterprise) is located in the Indian Ocean and the planes are called MiGs (a Soviet model), the planes are likely Russian or Chinese. Before Maverick and Goose are assigned to Top Gun, they fly against a squad of enemy fighters; no shots are fired, but there is clearly tension between the two sides. One of the enemies even engages a missile lock on Maverick's wingman, Cougar. At the climax of the film, after Maverick has returned to the USS Enterprise devastated by the loss of his best friend Goose, he is called upon to engage several enemy fighters who are terrorizing an American communications ship that has drifted into hostile waters. The enemies are in the right here- there is an American ship in their waters, and for all they know, it is there on purpose. What country would not question the ship's presence? Maverick, his nemesis Iceman, and several other pilots are launched into combat to protect the communications ship and get into a dogfight with multiple enemy fighters. Not only is an American plane piloted by Hollywood shot down, but four enemy MiGs are destroyed and the others are forced to flee. Let's clarify here. Not only was an American ship present in hostile (presumably Russian; wasn't there a Cold War going on?) waters, but FOUR enemy planes were destroyed BY Americans in defense of that ship. No one seemed to realise what that would mean; Maverick and his friends celebrate raucously aboard the Enterprise, completely oblivious to the fact that they just started World War III.