Why Charlie Sheen’s Top Gun Ripoff Failed (Despite The Navy’s Backing)

While Top Gun inadvertently improved the Navy’s recruitment rates, the institution’s attempt to cash in on this trend with a Charlie Sheen vehicle failed disastrously. Upon its release in 1986, Top Gun was a much bigger hit than anticipated. The movie launched its star, Tom Cruise, into the A-list, made Tony Scott a majorly in-demand action director, and resulted in Navy recruitment rates significantly increasing for a few years after its release. However, as evidenced by Top Gun: Maverick taking 36 years to complete, this success was not easily replicated. Long before Paramount released its first sequel, the movie’s inimitable status was proven repeatedly by the many rip-offs that followed in Top Gun’s wake.

While Top Gun: Maverick’s returning characters proved that the 1986 cult classic did have lovable heroes, the movie’s cast wasn’t its main selling point. First and foremost, Top Gun was a thrilling adventure movie. This was part of the reason that Top Gun’s mixed reviews didn’t impact its staggering box office success, since critics complaining about the movie’s cheesiness and lack of credibility largely missed the point. Top Gun was about fun over realism, and that was what made the movie a perfect Navy recruitment tool. However, this was a lesson that Charlie Sheen’s Navy-approved knock-off failed to learn from the blockbuster.

Sheen’s Navy Seals Wasn’t As Good As Top Gun

The Navy Seals-Approved Movie Couldn’t Replicate Top Gun’s Sheer Fun

After Top Gun supercharged the Navy’s recruitment numbers, the institution invested in 1990’s Navy Seals in an attempt to boost SEALs recruitment. Navy Seals starred Charlie Sheen, Michael Biehn, and Bill Paxton as a trio of Navy SEALs sent to fight terrorists who had gotten their hands on nuclear weaponry. Where Top Gun’s villains were pointedly nameless and belonged to no real-life nation, the antagonists of Navy SEALs were Islamophobic caricatures. While Top Gun focused on the excitement of aerial dog fighting and Maverick’s personal journey as a pilot, Navy Seals got bogged down in a cliché story about saving Americans abroad.

More simply, Navy Seals received terrible reviews whereas Top Gun received cult status because Sheen’s action movie was of much lower quality. Navy Seals lacked the charm, escapism, and fast-paced action of Top Gun, while its focus on real-life geopolitics ensured that the movie aged terribly. Even Biehn admitted that he didn’t care for the movie in a 2012 interview with The AV Club, while Clerks (1994) later mocked Navy Seals when Randall called the movie “intellectually devoid.” Even a role for Rick Rossovich, whose Top Gun character Slider didn’t return in Top Gun: Maverick, couldn’t stop Navy Seals from feeling like a lesser Top Gun.

Navy Seals Missed Top Gun’s Cleverest Trick

Sheen’s Movie Didn’t Share Top Gun’s Sports Movie Tone

From the pilot trophies to the movie’s overall structure, Top Gun was built like an underdog sports movie. In contrast, Navy Seals was a more traditional military action movie that felt less upbeat, sunny, and bombastic. Top Gun’s beach volleyball sequence and the scenes where empty aircraft hangars are used as classrooms betray the truth behind the movie’s success. Overall, Top Gun was a sports movie masquerading as a military drama and this made the blockbuster more appealing to audiences. In contrast, Charlie Sheen’s Top Gun cash-in Navy Seals was solely a run-of-the-mill military action movie.