After several meetings, notably on the set of Michael Mann’s thriller “Le Solitaire”, Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson call on Tony Scott to direct “Top Gun”. If the producers hire the director, it is largely thanks to an advertisement for the Swedish brand Saab.
Top Gun : the best of the best of the best
Before coming full circle 36 years later with Top Gun : Maverickbecome the biggest success of his career, Tom Cruise finds himself propelled to the rank of international star in 1986 with Top Gun. In this film produced by the iconic duo Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by the late Tony Scott, the actor lends his features to the crème de la crème of American fighter pilots, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell.
After scaring off two Soviet planes during a patrol in the Indian Ocean, the hero is sent to the United States Navy Fighter Weapons School with his navigator Nick “Goose” Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards). Upon his arrival at the prestigious school nicknamed “Top Gun”, who forms the elite of the American naval aviation, Maverick soon gets into a competition with Tom “Iceman” Kazansky (Val Kilmer) to see who is the best. At the same time, he falls madly in love with an instructor, astrophysicist Charlie Blackwood (Kelly McGillis).
Meg Ryan, Tom Skerritt, Tim Robbins and Michael Ironside complete the cast of the feature film, born from the impulse of Jerry Bruckheimer after the discovery of an article on the famous school created in 1969 and based in Miramar, in California. To direct this project, the producer and his sidekick Don Simpson decide to call on Tony Scott, partly because the director convinced them with a commercial for the Swedish brand Saab.
An advertisement for the cult film
The tandem is looking for a visual artist to Top Gunin order to develop a new visual style in Hollywood. Before turning a few years later to young artists from music videos like Michael Bay (Rock) and Dominic Sena (60 seconds flat), the duo therefore hires a regular in advertising. Quoted in the book Tony Scott – The Last Samaritan of Aubry Salmon, the director declares on this subject:
Jerry was obsessed with style and photography. He was a little tired of the directing style favored by most American directors at the time. (…) He then looked towards Europe.
Tony Scott meets Jerry Bruckheimer through his brother Ridley, who signs several spots for the producer. He really gets to know the businessman and his partner Don Simpson on the set of the thriller The solitary by Michael Mann. Simpson is besides one of the few in Hollywood to have enjoyed his first feature filmthe vampire movie The predatorswhich he probably discovered “stoned” according to Scott.
Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson are also enthusiastic about this famous Saab advertisement. baptized Nothing On Earth Comes Close, this spot features two characters: a businessman getting into his car and a pilot climbing into his fighter plane. This is good, since the brand specializes in the design of both types of gear. They start at dusk, position themselves on a track and move forward together at full speed. Tony Scott fans won’t have no trouble recognizing the visual identity of the esthete.
A long collaboration
These images obviously echo the scene where the hero played by Tom Cruise watches a plane take off as he speeds away on his Kawasaki GPz900Rwhile the essential title Hazard Area by Kenny Loggins sounds. A sequence taken up by Joseph Kosinski in Top Gun : Maverick.
After this 1986 success, Jerry Bruckheimer and Tony Scott have worked together many timesincluding after the death of Don Simpson in 1996. They work in particular on Beverly Hills Cop 2, USS Alabama, State enemy and Déjà vu. They also find Tom Cruise on thunder days with which the filmmaker perpetuates the heritage of Saab advertising since after fighter planes, he devotes himself to cars and more precisely to stockcar.
