In my opinion, the film Top Gun was the one that boosted Tom Cruise to superstar status, a place he hasn’t left despite his strange Scientology ramblings and couch jumping ways. The film, which has grossed over $353 million both nationally and internationally, has become a huge part of pop culture. The movie received four Oscar nominations, although it only won one (for Best Music, Original Song).
There are plenty of pop culture references to Top Gun. There is a FedEx ad in which a carpet warehouse guide radios a co-worker when he sees a flying carpet getting away – “Goose, this is Iceman, we’ve got a wild bird.” The company Rifftrax.com features a commentary you can listen to while watching Top Gun, given by none other than Mike Nelson and Bill Corbet, the guys from Mystery Science Theater 3000. If you have ever seen the movie Meet the Parents, you probably remember the Top Gun reference in it. Ben Stiller’s girlfriend Pam makes a reference to her ex-boyfriend Kevin being Goose while she is Iceman. In the video game World of Warcraft, there are two characters in the Alterac Valley battleground named Wing Commander Mulverick and Wing Commander Ichman. In the sitcom “King of Queens,” Doug and Jeff sometimes use the quote “Talk to me Goose” when they are trying to incite each other to talk about their problems. Then there was the Top Gun parody film Hot Shots, which starred Charlie Sheen.
Now, a piece of the film has been destroyed forever. My husband was stationed at NAS Miramar long after Top Gun had been filmed, but there was one part of the movie set you could still see in San Diego. The restaurant where Maverick (Tom Cruise) and Goose (Anthony Edwards) played the piano and sang “Great Balls of Fire” while Maverick’ romantic interest Charlie (Kelly McGillis) and Goose’s wife Carole (Meg Ryan – who, by the way, was romantically involved with Edwards at the time) joined in has been destroyed by fire. We visited Kansas City Barbecue while we lived there and there was still plenty of movie memorabilia (not to mention military memorabilia in general) hanging around.
The first started Thursday in an open cooking pit and quickly spread to the rest of the restaurant. A spokesman for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department said Kansas City Barbecue was “destroyed,” however, no one was hurt in the fire. It is estimated that approximately $40,000 worth of damage, not including photos and props from the film, were ruined.