Val Kilmer and Lucy Gutteridge in Top Secret! (1984)
Vitals
Val Kilmer as Nick Rivers, American rock star who is not Mel Tormé
East Germany, Fall 1983
Film: Top Secret!
Release Date: June 22, 1984
Directed by: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker
Costume Designer: Emma Porteous
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Val Kilmer died one year ago today on April 1, 2025 at age 65, following a prolific career demonstrating his versatile talent for action, comedy, and drama across a range of genres. He made his screen debut in 1984 starring in Top Secret!, the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker team’s follow-up to Airplane! and Police Squad. Filled with ZAZ’s trademark sight gags and wordplay, the movie was conceptualized as a modern spy spoof that blended elements of World War II espionage thrillers with Elvis Presley’s musicals of the 1950s and ’60s.
Even with a nonexistent screen resume before he was cast, Kilmer proved he was ready for the task with his signature dedication: dressed as Elvis for his audition and performing every song for the soundtrack, including the Beach Boys-inspired “Skeet Surfin'” over the opening credits.
Kilmer stars as Nick Rivers, a ’50s-like rockabilly singer whose global stardom seems to even eclipse Stevie Wonder, Linda Ronstadt, and Frank Sinatra on billings. After Leonard Bernstein is unable to attend, Nick is hired by the East German government to perform at the cultural festival that they’re hosting as a diversion from their plan to reunite Germany under totalitarian rule. Already something of a rebel, Nick’s trip grows more complicated as he falls for the mysterious Hillary Flammond (Lucy Gutteridge), a member of the local resistance group.
What’d He Wear?
The day after Hillary saves Nick from the cultural festival preceding his execution, he changes out of his blue gabardine windbreaker, yellow sports shirt, and Levi’s orange-tab jeans into a more adventurous quasi-Indiana Jones look anchored around a dark-brown leather flight jacket for the second half of Top Secret!
Nick’s weathered dark-brown leather blouson warps the styling points of a classic USAAF A-2 flight jacket into a contemporary commercial piece. It has a straight-zip front, shirt-style collar, and dark-brown ribbed-knit nylon hem and cuffs. The straight front zip is framed by vertical panels extending down to the waistband, made from the same leather as the rest of the jacket. Two small bellows pockets are sewn over the hips, covered with narrow flaps and extending slightly onto each of these front panels.
The shoulders lack the true epaulets of classic military flight jackets, though they have epaulet-like panels sewn against each shoulder to reinforce them. The “action back” features deep bi-swing pleats behind each shoulder and a half-belt around the rear waist. As with most movies—especially action movies—Emma Porteous’ costume team made multiples of Nick’s jacket. You can find photos and information about one of these backups at Prop Store and Your Props.
Nick wears a pale-gray sports shirt under the jacket, which he never removes so we can’t tell if it’s short- or long-sleeved. It has two open-top chest pockets, both with mitred corners on the bottom. The matching buttons fasten through horizontal buttonholes up the plain front, with Nick leaving the top two buttons undone—including the neck button positioned under the right side of his collar to coordinate with the loop on the left side.
Nick continues the Indiana Jones-inspired look by pairing his leather flight jacket with khaki slacks, specifically a set of tan cotton flat-front trousers styled with wide belt loops, side pockets, button-through back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms. When the Resistance regroups at Der Pizza Haus, a continuity error swaps Nick’s slacks out for a set with single forward-facing pleats and more conventionally narrow belt loops.
Regardless of which trousers he’s wearing, Nick invariably holds them up with a black leather belt that closes through a gold-toned single-prong buckle—at least until he evidently loses it during his underwater fisticuffs with Nigel (Christopher Villiers).
Note the difference between Nick’s usual flat-front khakis (with their wider belt loops) and the pleated slacks (with conventional belt loops) that he wears to perform in Der Pizza Haus.
Although they’re incongruous with this brown-toned outfit, Nick continues wearing his usual black suede Chelsea boots with their black elastic side gussets and raised heels. This feels like something straight out of an Elvis movie, when the King would’ve worn whatever footwear he found comfortable and fashionable regardless of the scene’s context. During his acrobatic performance in Der Pizza Haus, we see Nick wears white crew socks with black and blue bands around the tops.
Nick’s sole affectation is a gold ring on his right ring finger, seemingly with a small amber stone mounted on it.
If there had been anyone actually wearing these jackboots, Nick might’ve been in real trouble!
The Gun
I wish they all could be double-barreled guns…
… Nick sings in “Skeet Surfin’,” so it’s no surprise that Nick demonstrates some familiarity with firearms when the French underground member Chocolate Mousse (Eddie Tagoe) throws him a SIG P210 during their gunfight with the East German Army. (He also briefly carries an MP40 submachine gun when he and his fellow resistance fighters approach the prison.)
The P210 was developed in the late 1940s following SIG’s decade-long process to design the Swiss Army’s replacement for the aging Luger service pistol. Derived from Charles Petter’s design for the French Modèle 1935A (SACM) service pistol, the P210 was finally produced in 1949—initially designated “Pistole 49” for Swiss military and police service while the commercial version was marketed as “SP47/8” until 1957, when it was officially redefined as “P210”.
This short recoil-operated single-action pistol followed typical full-size dimensions with its overall length of 8.5 inches and a 4.75-inch barrel. These were chambered for either 9x19mm Parabellum or 7.65x21mm Parabellum (.30 Luger), with the SP47/8 models built to support easily changing the barrels between 7.65mm and 9x19mm, as well as a conversion kit to fire .22 LR. Regardless of caliber, all P210 pistols fed from eight-round magazines.
The P210 was a popular European service pistol through the latter half of the 20th century, issued to the Swiss Army until 1975, the West German Bundespolizei, the Latvian National Guard, and the Danish military until the 2010s when it was finally replaced with the striker-fired SIG Sauer P320 X-5 Carry.
What to Imbibe
Nick’s manager Martin tells him he “ordered that ’84 Ripple blanc” for him, joking that this cheap fortified wine would be recommended in a fine dining establishment—let alone have a 1984 vintage.
After Nick is told he needs a jacket and tie to dine at Café Gey Schlüffen, we see him measured for a black silk tuxedo tailored for him in record time so that he can enjoy the restaurant’s fine selection of fortified wine.
Ripple was a low-cost American fortified wine, typically boosted with neutral spirits to raise its alcohol content and extend shelf life, often landing around 18-21% ABV. Produced by E. & J. Gallo, it became infamous in the mid-20th century for its sweetness, potency, and reputation as an accessible, no-frills buzz.
For a more traditional cinematic example, a down-on-his-luck Lieutenant Dan drinks Ripple in Forrest Gump after returning from Vietnam. It’s also occasionally mentioned in the hands of skid-row characters in the writing of Charles Bukowski and George V. Higgins.
How to Get the Look
Val Kilmer in Top Secret! (1984)
Nick Rivers adopts an accessible alternative to the classic Indiana Jones look, eschewing the fedora and bull-whip for a weekend-ready look in his leather flight blouson, sports shirt, and khakis. I might still swap out the black suede Chelseas for more harmonious work boots (or even loafers?), but I’m not headlining the East German cultural festival, am I?
- Dark-brown leather civilian flight jacket with shirt-style collar, straight-zip front, two small bellows pockets with flaps, bi-swing shoulder pleats, half-belted back, and dark ribbed-knit nylon cuffs and hem
- Pale-gray sports shirt with loop collar, plain button-up front, and two chest pockets
- Khaki cotton flat-front trousers with belt loops, side pockets, button-through back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
- Black suede Chelsea boots
- White tube socks with blue and black top bands
- Gold ring
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie.
The Quote
I’m not the first guy who fell in love with a girl that he met at a restaurant who then turned out to be the daughter of a kidnapped scientist, only to lose her to her childhood lover who she’d last seen on a deserted island, and who turned out fifteen years later to be the leader of the French underground.
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