Pearl Harbor's Top Gun

One thing about Jerry Bruckheimer: he really knows how to blow stuff up. As one of Hollywood's biggest and most durable producers, he blasted through Alcatraz in The Rock, tossed an airliner full of psychos onto the Las Vegas strip in Con Air and destroyed a hurling asteroid in Armageddon. In the 1980s, along with his late partner, the fast-living Don Simpson, he changed the movie business forever with a highly comic, highly charged formula of music, muscles and mayhem. Through sales of movie tickets, videocassettes and sound tracks, he has generated an estimated $11 billion. And now, wouldn't you know...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!