WTF Happened to Top Secret! (1984)?

In 1980, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker (ZAZ) took the world by storm with the spoof of disaster films, Airplane. It utterly changed the genre overnight, with the laugh-a-minute style being tremendously influential. Rather than cash in with an Airplane! sequel (although Paramount went ahead and did an awful one without them), ZAZ decided to send up old Elvis Presley movies and old-fashioned spy yarns with Top Secret! Starring a then-unknown Val Kilmer as the rock star hero, Nick Rivers, the film is truly bizarre, and audiences reacted coolly, with it only grossing $20 million, about 1/9th of what Airplane did. Still, the film has maintained a cult following thanks primarily to how popular it was on VHS and cable, and to this day, many consider it a neglected comedy gem (indeed – we did a Best Movie You Never Saw on it in the early days of the pandemic).

In this episode of WTF Happened to this Movie, we dig into the Movie’s origins, including Team ZAZ’s reluctance to do an Airplane! sequel, how Kilmer was cost, the hilarious soundtrack (Skeet Surfin’!) and more. This episode of WTF Happened to this Movie is written and narrated by Mathew Plale, edited by Cesar Gabriel, produced by Ben Cantler and executive produced by Berge Garabedian. Watch previous episodes below and let us know if you remember Top Secret!