# Top Gun or Commando? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 5, 2014, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-gun-or-commando/700422 "2014-10-05T00:08:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2014, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-gun-or-commando/700422/1 "2014-10-05T00:08:43Z")
In this big dumb movie shootout, I pick _Top Gun_. Cool planes and high tech Navy shit, and a hotter starlet. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Johnny\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Q)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2014, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-gun-or-commando/700422/2 "2014-10-05T00:15:47Z")
Commando. just for the sheer over the topness and all around fun. ---
**Author:** ![Wolf333](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf333/32/3460_2.png) [@Wolf333](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolf333)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2014, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-gun-or-commando/700422/3 "2014-10-05T00:59:42Z")
_Commando_, all the way. “I eat Green Berets for breakfast. And right now, I’m very hungry!” ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2014, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-gun-or-commando/700422/4 "2014-10-05T01:03:09Z")
Yeah, I know Commando has the best quotes, but Top Gun has the best homoeroticism! ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2014, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-gun-or-commando/700422/5 "2014-10-05T01:04:47Z")
_ **Commando** _, of course! I love it when all those obviously cardboard buildings get blown up at the end, and how Arnold can fire an M-60 while running and never miss a target (while no one can hit him)! ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2014, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-gun-or-commando/700422/6 "2014-10-05T01:11:39Z")
_ **Top Gun** _. I’m from a Navy family, spent a lot of time at (then-) NAS Miramar as a child, and am a pilot. I never picked up on any homoeroticism until reading about it here. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2014, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-gun-or-commando/700422/7 "2014-10-05T01:18:07Z")
**Commando**. These guys eat too much red meat. ---
**Author:** ![Eddie\_F](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/22d042/32.png) [@Eddie\_F](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eddie_F)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2014, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-gun-or-commando/700422/8 "2014-10-05T01:22:21Z")
**Commando**. Of course. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2014, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-gun-or-commando/700422/9 "2014-10-05T01:42:20Z")
_Commando._ Both movies were filled with thinly (and not so thinly) veiled homoeroticism, so _Commando_ wins on the strength of quips. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2014, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-gun-or-commando/700422/10 "2014-10-05T03:08:15Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > _ **Top Gun** _. [Wrong!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8-HDUBbtgQ) ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2014, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-gun-or-commando/700422/11 "2014-10-05T03:14:16Z")
Top Gun. …you know how I said I preferred Top Gun? I lied. I haven’t seen TG since I was a kid, and I didn’t see Commando until I was in my late teens or adult, despite being on a Schwarzenegger bender as a kid. I’ll can’t help but rewatch it if it’s ever on. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2014, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-gun-or-commando/700422/12 "2014-10-05T04:46:20Z")
I just didn’t know so many people could be so wrong. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2014, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-gun-or-commando/700422/13 "2014-10-05T04:55:28Z")
I’m with **Johnny** here: _ **Top Gun** _. Kelly McGillis isn’t hot. No way. Meg Ryan is way better IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![dogbutler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dogbutler/32/428_2.png) [@dogbutler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dogbutler)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2014, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-gun-or-commando/700422/14 "2014-10-05T06:24:51Z")
_Commando_ : drops bad guy off of cliff, walks back to car : “What did you do with Solly?” “I let him go.” ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2014, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-gun-or-commando/700422/15 "2014-10-05T06:35:19Z")
Commando. “This Green Beret is going to kick your ass!!!” “I eat Green Berets for breakfast!!!” “These guys eat way too much red meat!!!” “I like you Sully. That’s why I’m going to kill you last.” “Sully, remember when I said I’d kill you last… I lied.” Plus, Rae Dawn Chong was the hottest woman on the planet. ---
**Author:** ![dba\_Fred](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c37758/32.png) [@dba\_Fred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dba_Fred)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2014, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-gun-or-commando/700422/16 "2014-10-05T09:44:13Z")
I’ll pick _Top Gun_ because I was in the film - remember that studly nameless junior officer in the background? That was me 😃 Okay, so I didn’t get any screentime but they filmed some of the movie on the _Enterprise (CVN-65)_ while I was onboard. The ship was doing workups for our upcoming deployment and was off of San Diego doing carrier quals with the pilots. Some of the _Top Gun_ cast and crew came aboard to film. I couldn’t tell you which scenes were filmed on the _Enterprise_. I had no personal contact with the cast or crew but do recall the word came down not to bother any of them. The women were berthed in Sick Bay and Marines were posted outside the entranceways. Tom Cruise had a Marine escort so nobody would bother him (which we thought was rather pretentious). Scuttlebutt from around the scuttlebutts was that Tom Cruise was a dick. The story is he had to go to Dental for an exam prior to some flying scenes or maybe to have a current record in case it was needed to identify his body in case of a crash :eek: Anyways, while in the chair, the Dental Tech (a good guy, he assisted CDR Jaworski [a relative of the Watergate Jaworski] in removing all 4 of my wisdom teeth in one shot and I was at Denny’s that evening, drinking lukewarm coffee and eating soup). Back to the Good Guy Dental Tech, he asks Tom Cruise “Mr. Cruise, my wife is a **huge** fan of yours, could I get your autograph for her?” to which he replied “Talk to my **agent**.” After that story went around the ship, I don’t think anybody would had sounded the Man Overboard alarm if he’d fallen off the ship. That’s my brush with fame, you are now returned to your regularly-scheduled thread. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2014, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-gun-or-commando/700422/17 "2014-10-05T13:15:27Z")
Both are pretty lame movies, but \*Commando \*is just plain stupid. It’s like a live-action cartoon, it doesn’t even try to take itself seriously. _Top Gun_ on the other hand takes itself \*\*\*too \*\*\*seriously. It has aspirations of being a serious drama and action film and falls flat on both counts. So, actually, I’d have to say the opposite of what I’d thought I’d say in this response: Given their intentions and target audiences \*Commando \*is the ‘better’ film! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2014, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-gun-or-commando/700422/18 "2014-10-05T14:08:08Z")
> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#): > > Commando. > > \ > > Plus, Rae Dawn Chong was the hottest woman on the planet. Okay you have a point there. Some others. Wikipedia: > [@](#): > > A critical success and commercial hit, Commando was the 7th highest grossing R rated movie of 1985 worldwide, and the 25th highest grossing overall. And… > [@](#): > > Commando was a box office success grossing over $220 million against a $10 million budget. Wikipedia (about _ **Top Gun** _): > [@](#): > > Actor Matthew Modine turned down the role of LT Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (that went to Tom Cruise) because he felt the film’s pro-military stance went against his politics. I thought that was interesting. And… > [@](#): > > The film opened in the United States in 1,028 theaters on May 16, 1986. It quickly became a success and was the highest grossing film of 1986. It was number one on its first weekend with a $8,193,052 gross, and went on to a total domestic figure of $176,786,701. Internationally it took in an estimated $177,030,000 for a worldwide box office total of $353,816,701. The budget for _ **Top Gun** _ was $15M. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2014, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-gun-or-commando/700422/19 "2014-10-05T14:20:48Z")
> [@dba\_Fred](#): > > I’ll pick _Top Gun_ because I was in the film - remember that studly nameless junior officer in the background? That was me 😃 > Okay, so I didn’t get any screentime… You know that studly young engineer in the hangar where Scott Crossfield was talking about his record-breaking flight in the D-558-II in _ **The Right Stuff** _? That was me. OK, that shot got cut. And in the scene where Royal Dano (Minister) comes to the woman’s door in the beginning of the film, they didn’t have the studly young Air Force sergeant driving by in a jeep. But I got vacation pay from my job for a week, got paid $3.35/hour for being an extra, had really good food (filet mignon for lunch, anyone?), and went to a great wrap party. ---
**Author:** ![dba\_Fred](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c37758/32.png) [@dba\_Fred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dba_Fred)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2014, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-gun-or-commando/700422/20 "2014-10-05T14:53:06Z")
So **Johnny L.A.** , do you include that stuff on your resume, or am I the only one? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-gun-or-commando/700422.md?page=2)