Although the comedy was unfairly forgotten in the years since its release, the lateVal Kilmer’s movie debut, 1984’sTop Secret!, is one of the most underrated parodies in cinema history. When Val Kilmer passed away in 2025, the screen veteran left behind a string of unforgettable performances. FromTop Gun’s Iceman, the villain turned fire-forged friend of Tom Cruise’s anti-hero Maverick, to The Doors frontman Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s biopic of the same name, Kilmer was a towering talent whose decades of work saw him emerge as one of the foremost American actors of his era.
However, one element ofVal Kilmer’s filmographythat was often underestimated by even the keenest critics was his love of comedy. Many of Kilmer’s most memorable roles involved elements of camp or deadpan humor, from his take on Batman in Joel Schumacher’s cartoonishBatman Foreverto his scene-stealing role as the sardonic Perry in Shane Black’s 2005 comebackKiss Kiss Bang Bang. AlthoughKilmer’s role inTop Gunmight have made him a mainstream star, his earliest movie role highlighted a whole other, often overlooked, side of the actor.
1984’s Top Secret Was Val Kilmer’s First Movie
The Late Star Played Rock Star Nick Rivers In The Spy Movie Spoof
Val Kilmer’s first movie was 1984’sTop Secret!, a follow-up to 1980’s smash-hit disaster movie parodyAirplane!from directing team David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker. The trio, also known as ZAZ, was highly sought after whenAirplane!’s gag-heavy parody stylings managed to earn both mainstream acclaim and critical success. However, although their laterNaked Gunmovies were similarly successful,Top Secret!failed to find an audience upon release.
This can’t be blamed on Kilmer, who commits wholeheartedly to the role of American rock star Nick Rivers. Tasked with playing at a cultural festival in East Germany, Rivers inadvertently becomes involved in a plot to overthrow the government when he meets Lucy Gutteridge’s femme fatale, Hillary. If that summary sounds a little strange, that is probably becauseVal Kilmer’s first movie is an utterly unique blend of musical parody and spy spoof. The Nick Rivers character is clearly modeled on Elvis Presley, but the plot is straight out of a Cold War-era spy thriller.
Fresh off the success ofAirplane!, ZAZ were emboldened to try out a lot of ambitiously bizarre gags in the live-action cartoonTop Secret!.
As a result, Kilmer not only delivers a lot of hilarious deadpan verbal gags, but also does a shockingly impressive amount of singing, dancing, and prat-falling in this mile-a-minute comedy. Anyone familiar withAirplane!or theNaked Gunparody movieswill already know that ZAZ’s output can border on surreal humor even more than the movies of Mel Brooks, butTop Secret!ups the ante considerably. Fresh off the success ofAirplane!, the trio were emboldened to try out a lot of ambitiously bizarre gags in this live-action cartoon.
Top Secret Highlights An Underrated Side of Kilmer’s Screen Career
2010’s MacGruber Saw The Star Make A Rare Return To Comedy
Although one might understandably expect a movie that spoofs both spy thrillers and Elvis Presley’s movies to feel uneven,Top Secret!is a lot more consistent than its detractors claimed.Top Secret!didn’t earn as much unalloyed acclaim asAirplane!upon its original release, but it has been recognized as a cult classic in the years since. One of its early champions was the iconic critic Roger Ebert, who called its then-unknown star “a funny young actor named Val Kilmer” and praised its blend of “physical humor, sight gags, puns, double meanings, satire, weird choreography, scatological outrages, and inanity" in hisChicago Sun Timesreview.
The star never lost touch with his comedy roots after decades of acclaimed dramas, thrillers, and Westerns.
WhileTop Secret!wasn’t the financial success that Kilmer’s movie debut deserved to be, this didn’t stop the actor from occasionally revisiting the genre that first made him a star over the years. Most notably, Kilmer played the villainous Dieter Von Cunth in2010’s similarly underratedMacGruber. Bizarrely, this Will Forte vehicle was another spy movie spoof that was loved by critics but proved a commercial flop. Kilmer also had a cameo in 2019’sJay and Silent Bob Reboot, further proving the star never lost touch with his comedy roots after decades of acclaimed dramas, thrillers, and Westerns.
Why Top Secret Is So Underrated
Airplane’s Followup Was A Tough Sell
Although it might be hard to understand whyTop Secret!failed to match the success of more famous parody movies likeAirplane!and theNaked Gunseries, the fate of ZAZ’s underrated flop makes more sense given its choice of genre parodies.Top Secret!’s plot is a weird mash-up that spoofs war movies, spy movies, and ‘60s musicals alike, so, although it’s very funny and boasts Ebert as a fan, the movie wasn’t as easy to market asAirplane!orThe Naked Gun. Despite this, viewers looking to rememberVal Kilmerneed to seek out his unmissable debut,Top Secret!.
