Top Secret! (1984) on Netflix
Nick Rivers, an American rock singer booked for a festival in East Germany, falls for Hillary Flammond, a resistance member. He joins the plan to free her father, Dr. Paul Flammond.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb7.2/1083,681 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes75%
Trailer
Plot summary
The East German government has organized a cultural festival as a cover for a military operation meant to bring a reunified Germany under Communist control, and the American rock singer Nick Rivers has been brought in to appear. At a dinner he meets Hillary Flammond, a resistance member keeping out of the authorities' way. Nick passes himself off as her date and, taking a request for granted, performs for the room, which delights the diners and irritates General Streck, who is behind the reunification scheme. Hillary's goal is to free her father, Dr. Paul Flammond, a scientist the government holds. She goes to a ballet expecting to meet the resistance leader, and the police are waiting instead. Nick steps in so that she can get away, and he is arrested.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Top Secret! (1984)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Kilmer was cast after the directors saw him in a play called Slab Boys with Sean Penn and Kevin Bacon, and he turned up to the audition dressed like Elvis Presley. Abrahams said he liked to think of it as the role Elvis never got but should have.
- Paramount pushed the release back from 8 June 1984 to 22 June, angering some exhibitors; the official reason was avoiding competition with Ghostbusters and Gremlins, although rumors spread that the studio was dissatisfied with the film's quality.
- The Swedish bookshop scene was filmed with everything in reverse order and then played backward, so that the dialogue comes out sounding like Swedish.
- For the underwater saloon fight the actors had to actually hold their breath, and the scene was filmed in bits of only 10 to 15 seconds each.
- The film was test screened at various colleges and, as a result of the audience responses, its length was cut from around two hours down to 90 minutes.
- The film's budget was a reported $8.5 million, whereas Airplane was made for only $3.2 million, less than half as much.
