Action Movie Anatomy hosts Ben Bateman and Andrew Ghai break down Top Gun! Top Gun is a 1986 American action drama film directed by Tony Scott, and produced byDon Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, in association with Paramount Pictures. The screenplay was written by Jim Cash and Jack Epps, Jr., and was inspired by an article titled "Top Guns" published in California magazine three years earlier. The film stars Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards, and Tom Skerritt. Cruise plays Lieutenant Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, a young Naval aviator aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. He and his Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) Nick "Goose" Bradshaw (Edwards) are given the chance to train at the Navy's Fighter Weapons School at Miramarin San Diego. In 2015, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in theNational Film Registry, finding it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".