Tony Scott: 11 Films We'll Remember

Tony Scott’s directorial debut is largely forgotten under Top Gun‘s looming shadow, but it’s an atmospheric doozy. About a vampire (Catherine Deneuve) who forsakes her rapidly decrepit consort (David Bowie) for the nubile neck of a New York physician (Susan Sarandon), the film’s best claim to fame is a slinky seduction and sex scene between Deneuve and Sarandon. Critics carped that the movie was all style with little substance, a persistent complaint that followed Scott throughout his career. But there is no denying that the film’s vivid, bloody panache established Scott’s voice as a filmmaker from the start. —Adam B. Vary

Still the highest grossing film of Scott’s career, Top Gun also catapulted Tom Cruise to superstardom, and helped make producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer household names. Scott’s polished, quick-cut visual grammar proudly embraced the cinematic ethic that above all things, a movie should look spectacular. Its influence on the subsequent 26 years of big-budget Hollywood filmmaking cannot be overstated. —Adam B. Vary

Scott took over the reins from Beverly Hills Cop director Martin Brest in this highly anticipated sequel. With the unlikely power trio of Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold, and John Ashton back, foiled by Amazonian anti-ingenue Brigitte Nielsen and token baddie Jürgen Prochnow, the film scored the year’s biggest opening weekend at the box office. It also received an Academy Award nomination for Bob Seger’s song ”Shakedown.” —Lanford Beard

Scott’s reunion with Cruise transplanted much of the Top Gun story and style from the world of military fighter pilots to the world of NASCAR racing (though some real-life drivers grumbled after the film’s release at how Scott and screenwriter Robert Towne made NASCAR races look more like grown-up bumper cars). As the physician who administers to Cruise’s spectacularly named race car driver Cole Trickle, Nicole Kidman made her Hollywood debut and famously met her future husband. —Adam B. Vary

Another big-name blockbuster, Boy Scout worked off the chemistry of irascible Secret Service man-turned-P.I. (a wisecracking Bruce Willis) and a washed-up football star (Damon Wayans in his comedy heyday). Released during the holidays, the movie performed unevenly in theaters but did get Willis’ career back on track after a string of misfires. —Lanford Beard

Scott set a darker tone for what would be one of his most critically successful movies. Drawing on the talents of its loose cannon cast of characters (played by Christian Slater, Saul Rubinek, Chris Penn, and Tom Sizemore, to name a few), the outlaw actioner penned years back by Quentin Tarantino promiscuously intermingled shoot-’em-up violence and goofy comedy breaks (thanks to Brad Pitt’s stoner roommate Floyd). ”You never forget you’re watching a derivative, machine-tooled entertainment,” wrote EW’s Owen Gleiberman, ”the fun is in how the machine keeps spinning off course.” —Lanford Beard

The start of what would become a five-film collaboration between Scott and Denzel Washington pits the star as a rookie hot shot naval officer against Gene Hackman’s veteran submarine captain in a game of nuclear brinksmanship. While there are a few brief action scenes involving a rival, rogue Russian sub, most of the film’s tension derives from Washington and Hackman’s performances and dialogue — Quentin Tarantino was brought in for an uncredited (though widely reported) punch up of the script. —Adam B. Vary

Scott was in full hyper-edit mode for this jumpy, paranoid thriller about an average guy (Will Smith) whose life is ruined when he’s unwittingly handed evidence that incriminates a high level government spook (Jon Voight). Gene Hackman’s performance as a retired surveillance expert who helps Smith’s character get his life back was a knowing homage to Hackman’s iconic role of a secretive surveillance expert in 1974’s The Conversation. —Adam B. Vary

Scott teamed up Robert Redford and Brad Pitt, perhaps two of the biggest film stars ever, for a tangled, action-packed espionage thriller that spanned decades and continents. Gleiberman praised the film’s ”cool kinetic spirit of communications-age onslaught.” —Lanford Beard

Scott’s fifth film with Washington was indeed one of the pair’s greatest collaborations. Set on a train that was…well…the title says it all, the claustrophobic setting and immediate consequences made for a chest-pounding action flick. With one twist: 15 years after Crimson Tide, Washington had transitioned into a different kind of character — an acerbic action hero who begrudges his life-or-death circumstances but has the internal fortitude (plus a few choice rejoinders) to save the day. In what would be Scott and Washington’s final film together, it was an indication of the dynamism and growth of their working relationship. —Lanford Beard

Working under the banner of RSA Films, which Scott and his brother Ridley founded in 1967, Scott sent out a call for amateur filmmakers to upload footage from 24 hours of their lives to YouTube. The resulting production was the sort of cinematic tapestry that the Scott brothers hoped would democratize — and perhaps even revolutionize — filmmaking. —Lanford Beard