Trivia for
Hot Shots! (1991) More at IMDbPro »

• Some previews contain this scene, which was not in the movie: Ramada asks Kent Gregory if there's a cue ball in his pocket, or is he just glad to see her, and Kent produces a cue ball.
  
  
• A gag credit at the end of the film, "Things you can do after the movie", is the same as a gag credit at the end of the Bruce Lee send-up in The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977).
  
  
• Topper Harley's name comes from Harley-Davidson's 1960's motor scooter, the Harley Topper.
  
  
• In the fake Indian language the English term "curve ball" translates to "Hershiser", a reference to Los Angeles Dodgers' ace pitcher Orel Hershiser.
  
  
• The aircraft carrier on which the movie takes place is actually a wooden deck built on the edge of a cliff at a deserted Marineland facility. The film was shot at an angle that made the deck look like a ship at sea.
  
  
• Topper's real first name is Sean. This can be seen on his ID badge in Ramada's office during their first meeting.
  
  
• Lloyd Bridges replaced George C. Scott
  
  
• When Lloyd Bridges puts a handkerchief into his ears in order to show he can bind his two ears through his head, and then swallows two ear-stoppers instead of putting them in his ears, these are two references to french comic actor 'Louis De Funès' who did the same in two of his films La folie des grandeurs (1971) and La zizanie (1978) in the 70's.
  
  
• The planes used were Folland Fo-145 Gnats, a British fighter/trainer used by the RAF's Red Arrows aerobatics team until 1979.
  
  
• The aircraft used in this movie, the Folland Gnat T.Mk.1 two seat trainer, were never used in American service, neither were they ever capable of operating from aircraft carriers although the Indian Air Force, which used the single seat fighter version, did do a feasibility study of operating the type from their aircraft carriers, mainly to due to lack of options for carrier based aviation at the time. This was the first evidence that the aircraft carrier used in the movie was not real, but actually a prop. Gnats were British-made aircraft used by the Red Arrows aerobatic team. Ironically, the Gnats in Indian service earned the nick "Sabre Killer" after an unblemished combat record of shooting down American-made F-86 Sabres in Pakistani service.
  
  
• Charlie Sheen remarks before a particularly energetic fight sequence, "I learned this one from Paula Abdul." Paula Abdul was married to Charlie Sheen's brother, Emilio Estevez, at the time of the film's release.
  
  
• Some of the previews for the film jokingly claimed that Saddam Hussein's role was played by himself.
  
  
• The shot of the "S.S. Esses" back lit by the rising sun is stock footage of the U.S.S. Nimitz from the movie The Final Countdown (1980).
  
  
• Several aircraft carrier scenes were taken from the movie Flight of the Intruder (1991), including the flyby of 4 planes when the pilots arrive at the aircraft carrier, when the bombs are loaded onto the planes, and when the planes launched for their final mission.
  
  
• Valeria Golino claims the scene in which she catches an olive popped out of her bellybutton was accomplished without trick photography.
  
  
• CAMEO: Charles Barkley and Bill Laimbeer re-enacting their infamous on-court brawl.
  
  
• Charlie Sheen (Lt. Topper Harley), Jon Cryer (Jim 'Wash Out' Pfaffenbach) and Ryan Stiles ('Mailman' Farnham) would all later work together again in the television show "Two and a Half Men" (2003).
  
  

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