Top Gun

At a time when action films were dominated by muscular heroes, producer Jerry Bruckheimer came up with a high-concept premise about an elite academy for training fighter pilots. A young, impulsive talent played by Tom Cruise enters with authority issues. With the support of the U.S. Air Force, a mix emerged of propagandistic recruitment video and popcorn action melodrama, alternating between adrenaline-fueled aerial combat sequences and romantic interludes with music-video-style passages.

Top Gun became a box-office smash, genuinely boosted young men's interest in aviation, and cemented Tom Cruise's star status. The film not only survived the eighties thanks to the virtuoso style of director Tony Scott, but also gained an unexpected second life.

That second life came from a queer interpretation popularized by Quentin Tarantino, which sets aside the aerial battles and highlights the story of an uncertain young man entering an elite club full of muscular young men who constantly play shirtless beach volleyball and frolic playfully in the showers.