TV - Movies
How Top Gun's
Famous
Volleyball Scene
Almost Got The
Director Fired
By ANGELA CAMPBELL
In a well-known, nearly two-minute scene, in 1986’s “Top Gun,” sweat-glistened pilots play a game of volleyball. Recently, Chris Lebenzon and Billy Weber, editors on "Top Gun," revealed that one Paramount Studios executive was irate that director Tony Scott spent an entire day filming the volleyball scene, which only consisted of a paragraph in the script.
Weber further revealed that Scott almost lost his job after filming the volleyball scene, which has now become so iconic, that it was reimagined for the 2022 sequel "Top Gun: Maverick." Weber said, "The head of production, Charlie McGuire, he said, 'I'm gonna fire him' […] because he spent a whole day shooting this scene."
Tom Cruise has talked about how important the scene is to the overall story, saying, “...the scene shows the constant competition between these guys — how they compete on every level." Plenty of people agree, with one user on YouTube writing, "Without this scene, the plot wouldn't even make any sense."