The defence The Sentimental Softie
“Sincerity is not manipulation.”
The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.
Back to trending 
Top Secret!
Comedy · 1984
Popular and dashing American singer Nick Rivers travels to East Germany to perform in a music festival. When he loses his heart to the gorgeous Hillary Flammond, he finds himself caught up in an underground resistance movement. Rivers joins forces with Agent Cedric and Flammond to attempt the rescue of her father, Dr. Paul, from the Germans, who have captured the scientist in hopes of coercing him into building a new naval mine.
Movie details
Top Secret!
“Don't tell anyone.”
1984 Comedy 1h 30m
Critical arithmetic
The consensus, allegedly.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
IMDb
7.2 / 10
83.8K votes
Rotten Tomatoes
77 %
Tomatometer
Metacritic
68 / 100
Metascore
TMDB
7.1 / 10
Community rating
External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.
Popular and dashing American singer Nick Rivers travels to East Germany to perform in a music festival. When he loses his heart to the gorgeous Hillary Flammond, he finds himself caught up in an underground resistance movement. Rivers joins forces with Agent Cedric and Flammond to attempt the rescue of her father, Dr. Paul, from the Germans, who have captured the scientist in hopes of coercing him into building a new naval mine.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Top Secret!?
For the defence
The Sentimental Softie
“You came to feel something, and you will.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Cool Ironist
“Feeling things is a little embarrassing.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
Airplane!
Comedy · 1980
An ex-fighter pilot is forced to take over the controls of an airliner when the flight crew succumbs to food poisoning.
A Night in Casablanca
Comedy · 1946
The Marx Brothers are employed at a hotel in postwar Casablanca, where a ring of Nazis is trying to recover a cache of stolen treasure.
My Spy
Family · 2020
A hardened CIA operative finds himself at the mercy of a precocious 9-year-old girl, having been sent undercover to surveil her family.
Rock 'n' Roll High School
Comedy · 1979
A group of rock-music-loving students, with the help of the Ramones, take over their school to combat its newly installed oppressive administration.
Thunderstruck
Comedy · 2012
After NBA star Kevin Durant switches talent with 16 year old Brian, the teenager becomes the star of his high school team, but Durant starts struggling and eventually learns an important lesson.
Hot Shots!
Action · 1991
The gang that created Airplane! and The Naked Gun sets its sights on Top Gun in this spoof. Topper Harley is a talented but unstable fighter pilot with an axe to grind: clearing the family name. His mission is to avenge his father and save a mission sabotaged by greedy weapons manufacturers. He also gets involved in a relationship with Ramada Thompson, a woman with an unusually talented stomach. Hot Shots! makes fun of a variety of other films, from Dances with Wolves to The Fabulous Baker Boys.
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
Comedy · 1999
When diabolical genius Dr. Evil travels back in time to steal superspy Austin Powers's ‘mojo,’ Austin must return to the swingin' '60s himself - with the help of American agent, Felicity Shagwell - to stop the dastardly plan. Once there, Austin faces off against Dr. Evil's army of minions to try to save the world in his own unbelievably groovy way.
Hot Shots! Part Deux
Action · 1993
Topper Harley is found to be working as an odd-job-man in a monastery. The CIA want him to lead a rescue mission into Iraq, to rescue the last rescue team, who went in to rescue the last rescue team—who went in to rescue hostages left behind after Desert Storm.
Mayday
Action · 2026
When a U.S. Navy pilot on a top-secret mission during the Cold War gets trapped behind enemy lines, his only chance at survival is to form an alliance with an eccentric ex-KGB agent.
Johnny English Strikes Again
Action · 2018
Disaster strikes when a criminal mastermind reveals the identities of all active undercover agents in Britain. The secret service can now rely on only one man - Johnny English. Currently teaching at a minor prep school, Johnny springs back into action to find the mysterious hacker. For this mission to succeed, he’ll need all of his skills - what few he has - as the man with yesterday’s analogue methods faces off against tomorrow’s digital technology.
Where it lives
Watch in your region.
Cinema release signals and current streaming, rental, and purchase options for your region.
Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.
Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Jim Abrahams · Jerry Zucker · David Zucker
Written by
Jerry Zucker · Martyn Burke · Jim Abrahams · David Zucker
Val Kilmer
Nick Rivers
Lucy Gutteridge
Hillary Flammond
Peter Cushing
Bookstore Proprietor
Jeremy Kemp
General Streck
Christopher Villiers
Nigel
Warren Clarke
Colonel von Horst
Harry Ditson
Du Quois
Court is in session
Put Top Secret! on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Cool Ironist
“The strings are showing.”
Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.