As one of many movies released in 2025, A Minecraft Movie has been making waves. Even though one audiencegoer brought an actual live chicken to a screening and many people have been more than enthusiastic at other screenings, the video game adaptation has not been getting kind reviews. However, you have to admit that the film is still somewhat enjoyable. Jason Momoa credits Top Gun and Saturday Night Live for one of the film’s most talked-about scenes, and his enthusiasm is incredible.
The scene in question in A Minecraft Movie is when Momoa and Jack Black are flying – yes, flying – close together and it seemed to be getting quite a lot of laughs at screenings. Just like with the rest of the movie, there are probably lots of questions as to what it was like filming it and how the scene even came about. Black told Collider that Momoa actually wrote the scene, but the Aquaman star gives credit to a certain late-night variety sketch series and a particular sketch:
I’m giving credit to SNL. Gary and Ace from “Ambiguously Gay Duo.” I love how they do those things, so it’s basically the cartwheel upside down. They go in, they fight all the bad guys.
“Ambiguously Gay Duo” was an animated sketch that appeared during a variety of SNL episodes. In the sketch, Ace and Gary, voiced by Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell, visit their Fortress of Privacy. Gary erotically hugs Ace while flying, and it’s not surprising to see that it’s made its way back into the fold all these years later. The animated short is certainly a ridiculous one, but remains one of the most underrated throughout SNL’s 50 years.
Saturday Night Live is also surprisingly not the only inspiration for the Minecraft scene. Momoa also brings up Top Gun, describing how the scene was done and what they took from the Tom Cruise film. And I just love how it sounds like so much thought went into it:
I thought it would be really funny because Top Gun came out, and I thought when he pulled the pause and hit the Christ, and he slides down my body when I hit the brakes—flip it. Flip it, and then it’s nose to toes. Tip to tip. Know what I’m saying? Man sandwich.
You wouldn’t think that SNL, Top Gun, and A Minecraft Movie belonged in the same sentence, but that’s what makes the whole thing even better. All three are pretty different from each other, or at the very least, Top Gun is pretty different from SNL. And knowing that the two had a hand in creating one of the most memorable scenes in A Minecraft Movie, it makes me wonder what other scenes were taken from completely different forms of pop culture.
People knew what they were getting themselves into with the new movie thanks to the bonkers Minecraft trailer, and the entire movie is pretty nuts. For some reason, though, fans just can’t get enough, and that’s also on top of the adorable popcorn bucket that the film got. Although Sinners finally dethroned it at the box office, A Minecraft Movie still remains a favorite among fans, and I’m curious to find out if it will a future movie or even SNL sketch will take inspiration from it and have it come full circle.
