36 years ago, the fighter jets of 'Top Gun' flew across the screen for the first time. Accompanied by patriotic music, Tom Cruise rises with his F-14 towards the sunset. The US Air Force is staged with such visual power. And with absolute success. The film broke all expectations at the box office and earned almost 1.5 billion US dollars. And it is not only the box-office ratings that show the film's impact. In the year of release, it is estimated that the recruitment rate for the US Air Force rose by 500 percent. Is this just a happy coincidence, or is there a calculation behind it? We talked to Dr. Matthew Alford about this topic. He is a media scientist at the University of Bath, specializing in war propaganda in the entertainment media. He also contributed to the documentary 'Theaters of War', which was released last year.