Although the comedy was unfairly forgotten in the years since its release, the late Val Kilmer’s movie debut, 1984’s Top 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. From Top 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.
