History Film / TopSecret

* BlindPeopleWearSunglasses: One of the Resistance members is a blind street vendor of novelties and souvenirs. He wears black glasses to let the audience know he's blind.

Creator/ValKilmer (in his first theatrical role) stars as [[TheHero Nick Rivers]], an Elvis-like rock idol sent into [[CrapsackWorld East Germany]] for a goodwill tour. Once there, he is swept up into a spy plot by [[MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter Hillary Flammond]], whose [[MadScientist father]] is held captive by [[ThoseWackyNazis the Communists]]. Hillary takes Nick to the [[LaResistance French Resistance]] (yes, in East Germany), the charismatic leader of which is her former lover, and who seizes on the opportunity to use Nick's knowledge of the prison to break Dr. Flammond out.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/top_secret_large.jpg]]

''Top Secret!'' (1984) is the third feature-length comedy written by the Creator/ZuckerAbrahamsAndZucker team and follow-up to their directorial debut, ''Film/{{Airplane}}''.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar:
** In the prison sequence, a sex toy called "The Anal Intruder" is prominently featured.
** Hillary measures ''every inch'' of The Torch, who is either hung like a stallion, fully erect, or both.
** Two phallic scenes in a row: Cedric's telescopic antenna and the ballet, the latter of which was {{bowdlerized}} for cable. But those ballet dancers are still bouncing off of ''something''...
** Hillary reads from a trashy romance novel with a blatant reference to [[TheLoinsSleepTonight impotence and/or premature ejaculation]].
** Given all that, it's likely that the only reason that the movie is rated PG instead of PG-13 is because the PG-13 rating didn't come into existence until later that year.

** The SalvagePirates and Nigel, with the bonus of GettingCrapPastTheRadar. "They tormented me in ways I cannot describe." (Followed by a contented smile when Hillary falls for it.)

-->'''Streck:''' What he did not realize was that, in this country, we use 220 volt current. He was found [[{{Squick}} impaled]] upon a large electrical device. Our surgeons did what they could, but it took them two hours just to remove the smile from his face.

* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: Most of the German dialogue is unrelated phrases of Yiddish; the few times it ''is'' actually German... well, see BilingualBonus. Other scenes have English running backwards, and Latin ([[IgpayAtinlay Pig]] or otherwise). Most of the signs aren't in actual German either, just something that looks vaguely German to be understandable but funny to a non-bilingual audience.

* BigElectricSwitch

* BrickJoke

** Nick, when told by Dr. Flammond about an invention that can cheaply separate salt from seawater and asked if he understands what it means for the starving nations of the world (e.g. no more water shortages), answers: "Wow, they'd have enough salt to last forever!"

'''Hillary''' I know a little German. He's sitting over there.\\

** While pretending to be [[spoiler: German soldiers in order to free Dr. Flammond,]] Chocolate Mousse and Du Quois goosestep so hard, their boots go flying off.

-->'''Déjà Vu:''' '''''[=AAAAaaAAaAaAaaaAAAaaAAaAAhhHh--=]''' [runs across the room in a panic and crashes through a window]''

-->'''Déjà Vu:''' [[AC: [=AAAAaaAAaAaAaaaAAAaaAAaAAhhHh--=] ]] ''[runs across the room in a panic and crashes through a window]''

* AllCarsArePintos: Parodied(as usual) when Chocolate Mousse shoots up an oncoming jeep. The jeep goes out of control, headed right for an ''actual'' Pinto. The jeep just barely touches the Pinto's bumper, and ''both'' explode.

* AffectionateParody: UsefulNotes/WorldWarII/ColdWar espionage films, and to a lesser extent, Elvis movies. At one point it takes an extended turn into a direct parody of ''Film/TheBlueLagoon''. Also, some of Nick and Hilary's dialogue is taken directly from ''Film/{{Casablanca}}''.

** Early on Nick threatens to put General Streck on the Montgomery Ward catalog mailing list, the company went bankrupt in 2001.

* SpitefulSpit: After General Streck tells Nick that his manager is dead and that no one will be coming to save him, Nick spits ''across the room'' in the general's face.

* SicEm: The rubber stamp of "[[Film/StandByMe Chopper, sic balls!]]"

** Subverted after [[spoiler: Nigel is revealed as TheMole]]: In that case, it's Déjà-Vu ([[spoiler: who was with Nigel at the time]]) who plays the AlmostDeadGuy...only for Latrine to return and take his proper place.

* FlamesOfLove: Parodied when Nick and Hillary first fall in love. As they begin kissing, the camera pans over to a romantic fireplace. They roll over in their embrace, in front of the fireplace... and the camera pans to where another fireplace is burning. They roll over again, in front of that fireplace, and the camera pans to yet another fireplace.