20 Reasons Why You Rock: Over the Top

Over the Top opened in theaters on February 13, 1987. I wish I could say I was at the theater that night, but I didn’t catch Over the Top until it hit home video later in 1987. I wish I could say I was a huge fan of the movie after renting it from the video store, but it wasn’t until decades later that I really started appreciating the movie.

Now it is one of those movies that if I come across it anywhere, I am going to watch until the very end. Why is that? Well, because Over the Top rocks…

#1. If you wanted some serious star power in your movie back in the 1980s, Sylvester Stallone’s name was near the tippy top of the list and by all accounts he didn’t come cheap. But there’s not denying that Stallone’s involvement brings Over the Top up several notches and is a big reason we are still talking about this movie 35 years later. Stallone excels at playing the flawed hero that the audience can emotionally invest in and Over the Top is another in a long line of examples of that fact.

#2. IMDb categorizes Over the Top under Action, Drama and Sport, but IMDb forgot to add it under Mystery as well. The most notable mystery in the movie is if Stallone’s character is named Lincoln Hawk or Lincoln Hawks? This mystery isn’t the only one in the movie, but it certainly is a bonus and one of these days I am going to tally up how many times he is referred to as Hawk and how many times he is referred to as Hawks.

#3. A Cannon movie is always a little more Cannon when the man in the director’s chair is the one and only Menahem Golan. Did the man in charge step in because he believed in the project? Or did he just want to say he got to direct Sylvester Stallone? Or both? Any way you slice it, Over the Top fits in nicely with Golan’s other Cannon directorial efforts that include Enter the Ninja and The Delta Force.

#4.While there are plenty of Cannon movies that I wish had their own line of action figures (Death Wish 3 and American Ninja are probably on the top of that list), Over the Top actually had action figures and that accomplishment deserves to be praised.

#5. Having Robert Loggia in your movie is never a bad thing, having Robert Loggia in your movie and in a role where he has plenty of opportunities to rant and rave is the absolute best case scenario. Loggia plays Jason Cutler, one of Lincoln Hawk’s adversaries in the movie… and not in the arm wrestling realm, instead in an ugly custody battle over Hawk’s son, Michael (David Mendenhall) after Jason’s daughter/Michael’s mom/Lincoln’s estranged wife dies.

#6. Hawk doesn’t have it any easier in the arm wrestling competition, because before it is all said and done Hawk needs to do battle with the five time champion, Bull Hurley. Hurley is played to perfection by the monstrous 6’4″ Rick Zumwalt.

#7. I have a bone to pick with that spoiled brat Michael Cutler. I get that his dad’s truck was not as luxurious as the limousine that his grandfather sent but how could Michael not at least compliment the awesome hawk hood ornament. That thing was so sweet, that later in the movie when Lincoln Hawk parts with his truck so he can use the money to bet on himself, he makes sure he does not part with the awesome hawk hood ornament.

#8. The other big mystery in Over the Top is why exactly Lincoln left his wife and kid. When Michael asks his father, Lincoln simply says he did it “for reasons”. The fact that this mystery is never solved and it doesn’t bother me is either a testament to the good faith that Sylvester Stallone had built up with me (and the rest of the movie going public) or an more likely an example of the Cannon bravado that I love so much… Menahem Golan promised us a Cannon movie with Sylvester Stallone and he delivered, he never promised that they’d explain every little detail.

#9. Would it be a Sylvester Stallone sports based movie if it didn’t have a training montage? Nope. Over the Top realized that which is why we get a father/son side of the road training montage to kick off their morning before a long day on the road.

#10. We are at the halfway point of the list and I haven’t even mentioned Over the Top’s amazing soundtrack, which included Kenny Loggins’ “Meet Me Halfway”, which served as the heartbeat for the film. Seriously, I totally get why Cannon had high hopes for this movie… you had Stallone on top and soundtrack expert Kenny Loggins on board!?! How could it be anything but “an epic of cinema”!?!?

#11. And the Over the Top soundtrack is no one hit wonder, especially when you consider that Sammy Hagar’s “Winner Takes It All” is also on the album. Cannon loved that song so much they used it for some of their promotional videos, because much like Cannon that song is DYNAMITE!

#12. One last bit of praise for the rockin’ soundtrack and this one is for all you instrumental lovers out there… Giorgio Moroder’s “The Fight” is audio inspiration at its finest… I listen to this song and I think I can accomplish anything, when it is over reality sets in, but for 4 minutes I am unstoppable!

#13. I may have mentioned a time or two on this site that one of my dreams is to one day flip a table over to make a dramatic statement, well the vehicular version of that move would be driving through gates! And Lincoln Hawk has a chance to do just that when he attempts to visit his son at Jason Cutler’s palatial estate. When Hawk is denied access, he creates his own access when he drives his truck through the huge wrought iron gates and into Jason Cutler’s front door! This does him no favors of course, and makes you think that Lincoln Hawk may very well be his own worst enemy… which makes sense since his truck is in the front yard.

#14. I should point out that the guard at the front gate of Jason Cutler’s mansion was Collins and Collins was played by none other than Allan Graf. Graf is one of those top tier stunt performers that I’m always pleased to see and kudos to Over the Top for getting Cutler a quality henchman. And speaking of quality henchmen…

#15. WWE Hall of Famer Terry Funk reunited with Sylvester Stallone in Over the Top, the two had previously worked together in 1978’s Paradise Alley. Funk played Ruker, another of Jason Cutler’s henchmen and notably gets thrown through some french doors in Cutler’s Presidential Suite by Lincoln Hawk.

#16. The Funker wasn’t the only familiar face for an old school wrestling fan like me… Scott “Flash” Norton played one of the many arm wrestlers competing in the world championships in Las Vegas. Norton was an actual professional arm wrestler who made his professional wrestling debut with the Verne Gagne’s American Wrestling Association in 1989. Eventually Norton made the move to New Japan Pro Wrestling and World Championship Wrestling… Reggie Bennett played one of the female arm wrestlers in Over the Top, Reggie was both an actress and professional wrestler notably with the Ladies Professional Wrestling Association (LPWA for those in the know) and All- Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling.

#17. The character of Mike Cutler is annoying by design for the majority of the movie, but when he finds the letters that his father wrote him in his mother’s room (another Over the Top mystery, why were those letters kept from Mike?!?) and not only accepts that he was wrong, but goes the extra mile (or in this case miles) to be there for his father in Las Vegas.

#18. I really enjoyed the interviews that were spliced in with the tournament footage, giving us a chance to know some of the competitors in this prestigious tournament and it explained the power of “flipping the switch”.

#19. Bob Beattie played the announcer at the arm wrestling championship in Las Vegas… it seems fitting to commend him here in the midst of the 2022 Winter Olympics, since Beattie was the head coach for the U.S. ski team from 1961 to 1969. Then served as ski-racing commentator for ABC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics from 1976 to 1988… but why exactly am I commending Beattie? I have to imagine he was told by his boss to really hammer home the fact that the tournament was DOUBLE ELIMINATION. And let me tell you, Beattie beat the viewers over the head with the fact that the tournament was in fact DOUBLE ELIMINATION!

#20. Over the Top ends the only way it could, with Lincoln Hawk not only winning the tournament but the love of his son and who doesn’t love a quality happy ending?