JACKI LYDEN, HOST:
From time to time on this show, we ask actors and filmmakers this question: What's the one movie you watch again and again? This week, we're revisiting one of the most enthusiastic responses.
ANTHONY MACKIE: My name's Anthony Mackie. I'm an actor. The movie I've seen a million times is "Top Gun," directed by Tony Scott, starring Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, the beautiful Kelly McGillis and Anthony Edwards. I was about 11 or 12. I was really into airplanes the first time I saw "Top Gun," and it was on TV. And all I see are these Tomcats, like, falling into the frame.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "TOP GUN")
MACKIE: I was like, this is amazing. I was completely just enthralled by it.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "TOP GUN")
MACKIE: The movie's about a young, hot pilot named Maverick. Maverick and Goose are partners, and Goose is his spotter. He's the guy in the back of the jet that tells him what's going on, but he's also his best friend.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "TOP GUN")
MACKIE: You have Val Kilmer who's Iceman, who's the other hot pilot.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "TOP GUN")
MACKIE: There's this scene where he bites at Maverick. And it's the weirdest moment in film history, but it works. When he bites in his face, you're like, oh, that guy is sleazy.
(LAUGHTER)
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "TOP GUN")
MACKIE: They go to an academy called Top Gun where the Navy invites all of the best pilots so that they can compete and try to win this honor of being the top gun.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "TOP GUN")
MACKIE: Cut to music. (Singing) Brana, pum-pum, pum-pum, pum, pum, pum, pum, pum. Heaven on the edge, living on the eyes, no. Right?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DANGER ZONE")
MACKIE: Tom Cruise and Goose goes to a bar and meet this beautiful woman. And they sing a rendition of "You've Lost That Loving Feeling," a capella, to where the entire bar starts singing to this woman.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "TOP GUN")
MACKIE: Tom Cruise then learns in the next scene that Kelly McGillis is his instructor, so they have this brief love affair. (Singing) Take my breath away.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TAKE MY BREATH AWAY")
MACKIE: There's one scene where Tom Cruise goes over to her house, and they get in this big fight. He goes out on his motorcycle, and she's like...
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "TOP GUN")
MACKIE: And he's revving his motorcycle.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "TOP GUN")
MACKIE: And then he rides off. It's, oh, pure drama.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "TOP GUN")
MACKIE: I think the older I get, the more corny it gets. Because now, I just watch it, and I laugh at it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TAKE MY BREATH AWAY")
LYDEN: He feels the need, the need for speed. That's actor Anthony Mackie talking about the movie that he could watch a million times, "Top Gun."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DANGER ZONE")
MACKIE: You like that? That's really my ringtone. If you call me, that's what comes on on my phone. That's weird, right?