Action cinema of the 1980s and 1990s remained a staple of American pop culture into the 2020s and will likely remain so well beyond. Through the remake, the reference and the pure iconography, the aesthetic traps of this time are inescapable. And what is inevitable is ripe for pointing fingers and laughing, and no movie has accomplished this like Hot shots! and its sequel Hot shots! : second part.
The Hot shots! the films were written and directed by Jim Abrahams, a third of the legendary Zucker Abrahams Zucker trio who created classic parodies like Airplane! and Top secret. Both films enjoyed substantial box office success and met with mixed to positive critical reviews.
Falsified films are, tragically, an endangered medium. The concept of films that exist to mock, satire, and point out the flaws of other films seems bound to be still relevant today, but the genre has struggled for years. Although illustrated no doubt by the works of Mel Brooks or Abrahams’ own Airplane!, modern audiences often see the medium through a much less flattering lens. Modern fake movies are more like IMDB’s lowest rated movie Disaster movie or comparable failures like Vampires suck. The real golden period of the parody film was the 80s and 90s. Some films were great, others were quickly forgotten. Surprisingly, Hot shots! and Hot shots! : second part are both.
Hot shots! is a movie about Topper Harley, an arrogant fighter pilot who confronts a stuck rival, falls in love with a complex love, and performs combat missions over Iraq. Put simply, it’s a parody of the Tom Cruise classic. Top Gun. While Top Gun is the main target of mockery, the film takes the time to make fun of everything from Rocky To Blown away by the wind. The trick of Hot shots! comes in his performances, playing completely straight absurd situations. The entire cast, with a few exceptions, portray their pilots and analysts as sincerely as possible, even though the world follows a surreal sense of cartoonish unreality. The juxtaposition creates something more than just a silly take on a beloved movie.
Topper Harley, hero of both films, is played by none other than Charlie Sheen. By 1991, Sheen had already established himself as a dramatic talent in films like Section and as a comedic actor in films like Wild thing. Topper Harley is a hilarious character, always swinging between an arrogant idiot and an ultra-competent superhuman, but with a genuine seriousness that really elevates performance. Sheen appears alongside the pillar of the Lloyd Bridges parody. After his successful role in Airplane!, Bridges plays the most absurd role in the film, Admiral Tug Benson. Where all of the other performers play straight up, Bridges appears as a cartoon character in the flesh.
Hot shots! : second part released two years later, after the huge success of the first film, which raised $ 181 million on a budget of $ 26 million. Like the first movie, Second part centers a parody of a movie while throwing jokes aimed at a wide variety of contemporaries. The central target is Rambo: First Blood Part II and its sequel Rambo III. This film was also a substantial success upon its release, attracting $ 133 million on a budget of $ 25 million. Second part is slightly less well received than its predecessor, but it has retained the level of performance with a formidable new premise.
Topper Harley retired from the military after the events of the first film, choosing a path of secluded contemplation and Buddhist meditation. Pulled out of retirement to deal with a hostage crisis, Harley regains her love interest and is called upon to lead a motley squad of soldiers on mission behind enemy lines. Sheen as Topper as Rambo is a monument to ’80s machismo, looking a lot more muscular in this sequel, dropping liners between firing a massive machine gun and wielding a comically tall bowie knife. The character would fit almost perfectly into one of the thousand action classics, but his presence in an absurd world creates great humor.
The Hot shots! the movies use pretty much all the tricks from the parody movie master’s playbook. Harley is almost always surrounded by idiots, letting him play the role of the last sane man, like the role of Leslie Nielsen in Airplane!, but he also often makes fun of himself. This creates a character who can pull any joke, yet still be identifiable and likable. The world around Harley exaggerates everything, casings fired from a machine gun bury the shooter, a romantic scene leaves the characters literally smoking, sadness is personified by a storm cloud following the tragic character. The films also break the fourth wall with abandon, a scene in Part 2 drops a literal “Body Count” graphic on the screen, depicting the film’s violence compared to other films. Cropping characters to mock, uplift the world they live in to absurdity, and wink at audiences are the mainstays of parody cinema, and Hot shots! has them en masse.
Movies, and the genre in general, may not be the conversation today, but the two Hot shots! the films are a masterful satire of classic action cinema. Today’s filmmakers should learn from the example of Hot shots! and Hot shots! Second part.
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