This week, it’s Top Gun on the ground as Tony Scott returns with 1990’s Days of Thunder. Is this film as bad as its reputation? What happened to kill the era of the producer-led blockbuster? How does it feel to go back to the well?

Content warning: injury, trauma, sex work, sexual assault

Unanswered Questions:

• Was there a version of this film — one of the many drafts, perhaps — that would have connected with audiences?
  
  
• Are the comparisons to Top Gun justified?
  
  
• How do we judge Nicole Kidman’s first American blockbuster in the context of the rest of her career?
  

Further reading:

• How Days of Thunder Changed Hollywood (Slate)
  
  
• Fast Cars, Fast Women, Slow Producers: Days Of Plunder (Spy)
  
  
• Nicole Kidman for AMC
  
  
• Saturdays of Thunder (The Simpsons)
  
  
• The Last Star In Hollywood Definitive List Of Tom Cruise Films
  
  
• The Last Star In Hollywood: Production Schedule
  

Thanks for listening! For bonus shows, extra content and more, support The Last Star In Hollywood and the Next Word network by visiting Patreon.com/NextWord!

Join us next time as we begin the new year with Ron Howard’s sprawling romantic epic, Far and Away!

The Last Star In Hollywood is an independent podcast produced by Elizabeth Rae and Alastair Stephens.

Copyright © 2023 The Last Star In Hollywood. All Rights Reserved.