Tony Scott - 15 Kick Ass Scenes To Remember Him By

2. Highway to the Danger Zone €“ Top Gun (1986)

No, not the volleyball scene, nor the rendition of €œYou€™ve Lost That Loving Feeling€, not Goose€™s death or the final dogfight, not even a scene featuring Tom Cruise, the ultimate scene of Top Gun is the introduction, when the world was introduced to those now infamous MiGs. Right up until writing this down, the scene selected from Top Gun was going to be the final dogfight, culminating with the whole €œyou can be my wingman any time€ line. But really what works about Top Gun, why it has been such an important movie in terms of shaping the modern day blockbuster, is there right from the off. Top Gun ignited the career of Tom Cruise, but his acting, charm and star quality did the rest, not Tony Scott. What Tony Scott did was a whole different ballgame. Inspired by a magazine article, producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson were looking for a director for their plane movie, and they found him in the shape of advertisement specialist, Tony Scott. The film was written by Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr, remember them? No? Of course not, because that isn€™t what Top Gun was ever about. This wasn€™t a writer€™s film, this was a production. Top Gun is about spectacle, pure and simple. In order to make Top Gun, Tony Scott set about fetishizing the aesthetics of filmmaking, it was big, it was loud, it was in your face and it set a precedent, whether good or bad, of things to come. It was basically an advert, but it wasn€™t selling anything, except itself. As the Paramount logo assembles the introduction to Joe Satriani€™s theme tune fades in. The screen goes black and the key players are introduced, Simpson, Bruckheimer, Scott, Cruise, McGillis, in that order. The backstory is told by way of a title card that holds the screen for no more than 10 seconds as the phallic nose of a silhouetted MiG enters stage left against the dusky red hew. Engines roar as Satriani€™s theme transitions to Kenny Loggins€™ Highway to the Danger Zone. As the silhouettes begin to colour the action kicks off, almost from the get go. These machines can barely fit on the screen, suddenly bigger was definitely better and a new kind of bravura filmmaking was born. Whether Top Gun€™s influence was hugely positive is perhaps up for debate, but its influence shouldn€™t be overlooked. From here on out, summer blockbusters were different, they we€™re bigger. The summer blockbuster wasn€™t anything new, arguably starting with Jaws in 1975, these movies were certainly events, but they didn€™t look like Top Gun did, the ultra-high concept was here to stay and Scott had helped create it.
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David is a film critic, writer and blogger for WhatCulture and a few other sites including his own, www.yakfilm.com Follow him on twitter @yakfilm