Stunning aerial footage still best thing about Top Gun at 40

Here's something that might surprise you — decades after its debut, the most jaw-dropping part of Top Gun is still those incredible aerial shots. When the film hit theaters in 1986, critics weren’t exactly blown away, but audiences couldn’t get enough. Jennifer Ouellette, writing for Technology, points out that the reason those aerial sequences still captivate us is because they’re based on real, declassified fighter pilot footage from California magazine. The filmmakers, including Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr., went to great lengths — Epps even took a flight aboard an F-14 — to capture that authenticity. Now, here’s where it gets interesting: those scenes didn’t just wow viewers — they actually boosted Navy enlistment, according to Ouellette. And get this — those visuals have aged like fine wine, still considered the best part of the movie after 40 years. If Hollywood leans into more of this kind of realism, the aerial spectacle could keep flying high for generations to come.