After Val Kilmer’s tragic passing was announced Wednesday, fans immediately reminisced about the iconic shirtless volleyball scene from the original 1986 Top Gun movie that launched the actor into stardom. (And who can blame them?)
In the scene, fighter pilot Maverick (Tom Cruise) teams up with his buddy Goose (Anthony Edwards) to duke it out over a mean game of volleyball with their Navy rivals, Iceman (Kilmer) and Slider (Rick Rossovich). All the men are shirtless (except for Goose), sweating and flexing their abs as a crowd of similarly shirtless men cheer them on while Kenny Loggins’ “Playing with the Boys” blasts in the background.
The scene is cinema at its finest. It’s cheesy, ridiculous, and, most importantly, iconic. Everyone knows about the Top Gun beach volleyball scene.
Sadly, the world never got to see a close-up of Kilmer’s naked torso because his shots got messed up, which the actor revealed in an interview. He jokingly blamed the lost footage on Cruise, theorizing that he sabotaged the shoot because he was jealous of his “gains.”
“I always suspected Tom Cruise might have cooked my volleyball close-ups,” Kilmer said in an interview. “If you notice, I don’t have any, [because] they got cooked. That means they were over- or underdeveloped. And there weren’t any and they couldn’t go back. I think Tom went in there [with] a little payola, because I looked so good.”
When news broke about Kilmer’s death, fans immediately started posting on social media about the scene.
Some Kilmer fans are even proposing that the best way to pay tribute to their favorite star is by heading to the beach and re-enacting the iconic volleyball scene. Of course, it’s bring your own baby oil.
