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@@ananda_miaoyin So it’s a dynasty then? I’ve actually seen him in NY without make up. You wouldn’t know him if you passed by him in a sporting goods store. What a chameleon!
@@LuisSoto-ho5fw Totally. Weird family too. Some did really well and hang out at the Playboy Mansion, others are beach bums. Some are even pedos knocking around the high schools of America. The Spaldings are MUCH worse though!
I was 12 years old when the 'Top Gun" movie was released, and none of us understood anything about the technicalities, vocabulary and didn't care either. The excitement about the movie was the attraction, and it wasn't about how genuine it looked. Now, I'm 48 years old and I still don't care if there were mistakes in the movie or not; I still think it's a good story line.
I was 23-24, depending on when it was actually made/release….and I still don’t care how accurate anything is or if it has perfect continuity….Tom cruise and Val Kilmer were and are still awesome actors and not bad to drool over too 🥰
I was born in 1984, and Top Gun is still my favorite action movie of all time. My dad was a massive fan, and in the 90s, when the big screens and surround sound became a huge thing, the first movie we watched was Top Gun... sounded like a jet flew through our living room, and I'll never, ever forget those days. I was young, and technology was just becoming big..... I love that movie so much
"Let me tell you about some things that Top Gun got wrong, which I will also be wrong about." On "ballistic": I don't recall them stating that "ballistic" means flying at max speed, but the brevity word for that is "buster" (which is used in the movie), not "envelope." Doing so may be referred to as "pushing the envelope," which itself references the aircraft's performance envelope. Just because they went to TOPGUN to, in part, learn how to dogfight better with their cannon, doesn't mean they have to then use it in actual combat at their first opportunity. The guns on modern fighters can only shoot for a few seconds before they're out of ammo. Naval aviators are sailors, not soldiers. The fight at the end of the movie wouldn't be a "declaration of war," which only Congress can make. "Act of war" would be more appropriate. Pushing the throttle up for a "full climb" isn't necessarily the "opposite of slowing down." You'd probably want to throttle up so you don't bleed off so much energy in the climb, and energy management is a huge part of aerobatics. This maneuver drastically reduced the horizontal component of Maverick's vector, allowing him to get on the enemy's tail after the enemy blew by him. A "bandit" isn't a non-friendly air contact, it's an enemy air contact. There's a significant difference. And a "skunk" is an unidentified SURFACE contact.
Ballistic path: gravity's rainbow. Thomas Pynchon. Then look up ICBM. The popular use of the word moves its definition away from its original origins concerning a ballistic path. in sports baseballs, footballs, etc follow a ballistic path. Archers in ancient warfare let loose their arrows to follow ballistic paths.Those paths are shaped by earth's gravity against the velocity of the projectile.
@@Dude408f I wouldn't know. The googles and wikipedia don't say that it can. Plus it probably wasn't designed to have that kind of maneuverability, since it was made to run down and smoke commies with missiles from a distance. It doesn't look to me that what Maverick does is a true cobra maneuver anyway due to the altitude he appears to gain, but there probably isn't a specific cutoff for how much altitude you can or can't gain while still calling it a cobra.
Things this video somehow missed: 1. The term going ballistic was not in reference to speed....it was referring to the sudden climb performed by the A-4 and then the F-14. The trajectory of the aircraft, not their speed was the issue. 2. The program at Top Gun is not dedicated just to using guns. The program teaches air combat maneuvering. It is far more complex, ie teaching the differences between a maneuvering fight vs an energy fight. It stresses putting your aircraft in the best possible position for a kill during an engagement, whether that be by guns or missiles. 3. When the Tomcat is shown engaging afterburners and a large cloud of smoke appears behind the aircraft, this is done by dumping fuel. When the Tomcat lights it's afterburners, they do not smoke like this. As a matter of fact, it is prohibited to use afterburners in the F-14 while dumping fuel. It is just a nice visual for the audience. 4. Product placement. When the base commander storms out of the office and runs into the coffee tray.....the man holding the tray tips it up briefly to show the Pepsi logo on it. Yeah...I had to pause the video in my VCR as a kid to make sure that I had seen it. It is an obvious move to flash the logo. 5. The classified briefing in a hangar? Yeah, that would never happen. 6. Charlie critiquing Maverick's ACM would not happen. She is an analyst, not an instructor....all of whom are pilots. 7. When the alert fighters are needed to assist...they are ordered to be launched from catapults 3 & 4....which both manage to break. So, no aircraft can be launched until they are fixed. What happened to catapults 1 & 2? 8. The HUD symbology used does not look like F-14 symbology. You also don't see color pippers in use.....and the gun pipper is not displayed when a missile is selected. I know...nitpicky. 9. When Iceman's F-14 is hit by gunfire...you see the bullets impact around the "Rescue" arrow that is painted on the forward fuselage, below the pilot. Somehow...this damages the engine? 10. When Iceman's F-14 is hit a second time....it is the exact same location. 11. When Maverick launches a missile at one of the Migs....it starts out as an AIM-7 Sparrow and then becomes and AIM-9 Sidewinder. Neat. There are plenty more errors.....but who cares, really. Top Gun was aircraft porn....and still one of the very best at that.
When Maverick launches and Cats 3&4 are miraculously broken, the shot of the Carrier when Maverick is airborne and does his aileron roll shows Cats 1&2 blocked with parked aircraft which would have taken more time to clear than fixing the broken catapults. It's never explained, but shown if keen-eyed viewers catch it.
@@gonuts4donuts Really closely looking at the carrier in that shot also shows that there are no fighters hooked up to Cats 3 and 4 at all. Furthermore, those aircraft are completely blocking Cats 1 and 2, so there is no way that Mavericks F-14 just launched. That Tomcat overflew the carrier and did the aileron roll. A freshly launched Tomcat wouldn't have the airspeed required for the aileron roll right after launching from the cat anyway.
That Petty Officer First Class carrying coffee. Maybe. It takes 12 years to make E6 from E-1 or 10 from E3 at minimum. So that PO1 should be 28 or older. Most officers are not going to make a PO1 carry a tray of coffee. Maybe a 3rd or an AN, but not a 1st unless he is a screw up. Also, that Capt just knocked that man over and was still screaming about the flyby?
@@thissailorja well, I don’t remember the rating for the petty officer in the movie. But in the 80s Navy had a program for several of their aviation related ratings where you went right from A-School to C-School, and you went to the fleet as an E4. Three years time in rate for each step, it’s possible to make E6 six in under seven
What makes movies fun is the “suspension of disbelief.” I appreciate the accuracy checks, but most of us didn’t consider this a documentary or history. Just a fun movie.
Exactly! Just a fun movie, specially when you are 11 years old and it’s 1986, I am 47 now and Top gun is still the best movie I’ve seen. Miss you Goose!
Right! Sometimes I absolutely _HATE_ TH-cam (and TH-camrs)!!! It's called using a Creative License! Why do they believe we want so much accuracy within what is also called "Movie Magic"! We KNOW the majority of it is fake! A movie's *JOB* is to make it look Real! And for this guy to use the major release of the New Top Gun movie to gain his views, since we don't know in advance that it's going to ruin the spirit of the movie and all of the nostalgia [as well as the buildup for the new release], is just exactly why I despise this generation! DE...SPISE.
@@xDoGoR I am 24 and I watched this movie by downloading it when I was a kid lol Still my favourite movie I have watched it like 10-15 times by now still The sound track and the cool scenes always makes me come back
I was a US Marine in the aviation field when Top Gun came out We saw all the flaws but went to see ur like 6 times. Another thing the Navy was pissed about was Tom Cruise riding a motorcycle without a helmet or orange vest. Both mandatory at that time
I got to ride with stunt pilot Art Scholl in the late 70s. I was a DJ in Riverside, CA and he was using local media to promote an air show near his flight school in Rialto, CA. He took me up in his De Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunk. We spent five minutes above the airport doing every kind of stunt possible. Had a ball. Great guy and a great pilot. I was shocked to see his name at the end of the Top Gun credits. RIP.
One additional fact - The guy with the sunglasses and mustache standing behind Tom Cruise at the graduation ceremony is LCDR Heatley. He was part of the F-14 flight crew in the movie and wrote a book called The Cutting Edge, about fighters. I only know this because my CO was his brother and, when I heard CO's last name, I asked him if he was in the movie (I remembered the last name from the credits). He then told me about said brother and showed me the book, which I now have a copy of.
Two of my favourite gaffes in the original movie, were: 1) The squadron patch on Tom Cruise and Anthony Edwards' flight suits were not from any Navy fighter squadron, they were from RVAW-110, an E-2 Hawkeye training squadron housed in Miramar's hangar 6, and: 2) the loosely overused term of "CAG." CAG does not refer to any specific squadron, it refers to the airwing as a whole (Carrier Air Group), abbrieviated by the designation: CVW. VAW-112 fleet sailor, from 1980-83.
I'll have to watch again, but I don't remember them saying "CAG" very much, if at all. What is definitely an overused, and usually incorrectly used term is "roger." Not just in this movie, but just about any military-themed movie with radio comms.
The inverted dive / middle finger is possible and happened in Vietnam, executed by F-4 Phantom legend Duke Cunningham and his RIO Willy Driscoll. Certainly not at the range depicted in the movie but… close enough to send the message.
3:17 Stop calling them Soldiers! Soldiers are members of the Army. Soldiers don't fly fighter jets! The Navy has Sailors. Also, like most civilians watching the movie, TOPGUN isn't simply a dogfighting/aerial combat school but rather a program to teach tactics and techniques to selected Naval aviators so they can return to their ships and serve as air combat instructors to the other pilots.
This video has more errors in it than the movie has. Pot calling the kettle black. Its perpetrator doesn't understand a cobra maneuver and that it truly is "slamming on the brakes" in the context of ACM, even though it's captured onscreen in the brief clip he displays. Alright, that wasn't a true cobra, but you get the point.
Ice and Slider didn't wander wander into hostile territory. They flew there, on purpose, to defend a disabled ship that had drifted into foreign waters. The ship wandered there.
@@Dude408f More like making the invasion worse and more a cause for war. Look at the restraint invoked when a Soviet submarine got itself beached in Sweden during the same decade. And that's long before Sweden officially applied for NATO membership.
One thing I just realized that is probably beyond the scope of the movie, but after the battle was over, both F14's left the area and were no longer defending the disabled ship.
The first Top Gun film used both single seat F-5Es, and two seat F-5Fs, because you can clearly see that those "MIG-28s", are a mix of single seat, and two seat configurations.
In reference to #8 the MiG-28s. There is a fourth wall breaking line delivered by Charlie in the film. She says "We will be dealing with F-5s and A-4s as our MiG simulators." The MiG-28s are F-5 as mentioned in this video, and the aggressor aircraft at Miramar are A-4s. I really liked this line as it tells viewers exactly what they are seeing in the film, and also is a little apology for not being able to provide actual MiGs as "bad guy" aircraft. Unlike other films, such as Iron Eagle 2, which claimed that F-4s were MiG-29s. The F-4 Phantom has a very distinctive look and can't really be confused with anything else.
Those are F5 (as MIGs) in/at Top Gun (some desert base in the US). In the opening scene (which you can find here on YT) the F5's are supposed to be real enemy MIGs (unless that was a Top Gun training above sea - without informing anybody - incl. red star helmets).
@@ibubezi7685 Throughout the movie, black F-5's with red stars are used to portray the opposing nations actual Mig-28's. What Dave is saying is that, despite what Charlie says, we never actually see F-5's being used as aggressor aircraft at Top Gun. The instructors all fly A-4's. So, Charlie saying, "we will be using F-5's and A-4's as our Mig simulators" seems to be describing both the in-character A-4's and the (4th wall breaking) movie's use of F-5's for their "actual" Migs.
I know a few Navy aviators, and the part they typically make fun of is when Maverick and Goose "buzz" the air traffic control tower. That would likely cause serious safety issues and could easily get them not only grounded, but kicked out. "Buzzing" a building like that can break the windows and hurt people. This is a maneuver they sometimes perform to "keep the peace" in other countries, but not our buildings, and not on base.
I worked for a govt entity at sea, and if we were in trouble, we could request "sledge hammer", where a carrier would vector in attack aircraft to do just that, they would get low on the deck and "buzz" the offending warships/boats.
There was a friendly competition among the the real Top Guns pilots for performing the fly by the tower scene. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity for the winner.
The thing that made me shake my head was Jester evading Maverick by going below the "hard deck." The hard deck simulates the ground. So Jester's plan to avoid losing the dogfight to Maverick & Goose was to deliberately crash into the ground. Then Maverick also crashes his plane into the ground chasing Jester. Still love the movie.
No, they were instructed that the "hard deck" was 10,000 feet and there would be no engagement below that level. That means if someone goes below that you are not allowed to "shoot" them. It's a safety zone. Go watch the movie again.
Except that several scenes prior to that has them flying between assorted mountain peaks. There are no mountains above 10,000 ft in the San Diego area...not even close. Plus, Jester claims that he called "No Joy" (meaning he lost sight of the other aircraft and requires the "fight" to be suspended)...that call is not in the movie. I suspect it was edited out and then forgotten when the after action conversation was filmed (or as is often the case, they were filmed out of order)
@@rossdillon17 - I believe that's because those scenes were filmed at the location where the NAS (Naval Air Station) for Top Gun is now located....Fallon, Northern Nevada. Definitely mountains up there. So these scenes were in Fallon. I worked up in Carson City, Nevada and driving up from Phoenix, I had seen highway signs to NAS Fallon.
They forgot to mention the fact that only a few scenes were actually filmed at (then) NAS Miramar. (hangar scene, ready room scene, volleyball scene, and Tom "riding" his motorcycle on the flightline rd.) Flight scenes were filmed at and around NAS Fallon, NV, where Topgun (one word) is now based, locker room scenes were at the Mission Beach Plunge swimming pool, the scene where Tom Chases Kelly McGuiness' Porsche, was filmed on Laurel st. in downtown San Diego, the "barracks" and Officers' club scenes were filmed at the (now defunct) Naval Training Center in downtown San Diego, the piano scenes were filmed at the Kansas City Barbecue at Seaport Village in downtown San Diego, the "hemlock" scene was filmed at the (now defunct) Windsock restaurant/bar adjacent to San Diego Lindbergh Field airport, and call sign Charlie's house was in Oceanside. I'm sure there are more, but these are the main ones.
I was an F-14 mechanic in the 90’s. In one scene when Maverick shoots a missile he actually really engages the nose wheel steering button on the control stick. Only F-14 guys catch that one. :) I laugh every time I see that.
The irony about the MiGs actually being F5s is that Charlie unknowingly breaks the 4th wall when she tells the cadets "We will be dealing with F5s and A4s as our MiG simulators..."
Most people wouldn't know what any of these planes actually are,except anyone interested in planes as I am and the migs are not migs but Northrup F5's,which hurts the authenticity of the movie.It's like having a hurricane used as an ME 109,which look nothing like each other.
The biggest error that I can't "unsee" when I watch Top Gun, which is an amazing movie, is the F-14 nose numbers. In the final scene, Maverick launches in an F-14 with a nose number 104. When he lands on the carrier after the mission, he is in an F-14 with nose number 114 - Iceman and Slider were in 104. Those two aircraft, 104 and 114, were filmed throughout the movie. As a matter of fact, I believe number 104 was the plane that crashed and killed Goose...but yet returned for the final scene. It's movie magic...but again, I can't get it out of my mind when I watch. Anyone else notice those two numbers flip-flopping in the scenes?
"Too close for missles..I'm switching to guns!" (Shots fired in final fight sequence has plenty of gun footage). Also..Kelly McGillis does make reference to "bandit" terminology. Other points were still really interesting though. Cant wait to see Top Gun sequel out this month! 😍
Also, the confusion about the "slowing down" part actually is wrong. One major thing taught in fighter combat is 'Energy Management' flight is a 3 dimensional environment. The slamming of the throttles always has a lag. The thrust takes a little time to become more speed. The pilot pulled back on the stick, trading speed for altitude. The trailing enemy would have flown past. then the f-14 would angle back down and engage the target from it's '6' (Behind). If a fighter loses it's energy (Speed or altitude) it is at a huge and often unrecoverable disadvantage. 'Flooring it' when pulling up made sure that you didn't loose too much energy in the whole maneuvre. ]
Viper’s rank and name is CDR. Mike Metcalf, and “…you will not find a finer fighter pilot anywhere in the world” Maverick & Goose wear the squadron patches of VF-1 “Wolfpack’ and arrested landings on the USS Ranger which are accurate. However, VF-1 was stationed at NAS Miramar which is also the home of USN Fighter Weapons School aka Top Gun. So, “sending them to Miramar” was also just sending them home. Iceman & Slider wear patches for VFA-25 “Fist of the Fleet” which I will grant you is a cool name & logo. The problem is VFA-25 flew A-7II Corsairs which are medium attack/bombers and not F-14 fighters.
When Top Gun was released, I was in the 80th TFS ("Juvats") flying F-16's in Korea. I got a VHS copy from the black market at Kadena AFB. The pilots loved to gather in the dorm "living room" and cheer every time Maverick made a kill. We ignored the errors and loved the aerial photography. ACM -- long-distance maneuvering until you can get a shot before the other guy does -- is always preferred. BFM is the close-in twisting and turning portrayed in movies, but to be avoided, especially in a big heavy aircraft like the F-14 vs small agile F-5's. (The F-14 was specifically designed to provide long-range fleet defense, carrying a special long-range air-to-air missile, the Phoenix.) For me, the most painful error is the idea of a combat "floor". For safety reasons, the rocky solid earth was simulated to be at some altitude, say 2000 feet -- the "floor". If anyone in the training exercise violated the floor even for a moment, they automatically become a "mort" -- as in, dead pilot. If Jester hit the floor, that's a kill for Maverick, who should disengage and search for other targets. Jester would be required to fly home in shame. It would be ridiculous for Maverick to continue his pursuit when he saw Jester approaching the "floor". If Maverick crashed his jet into the simulated rocky ground, he also would fly home in shame. Jester and Maverick diving into the "floor" wouldn't incur the wrath of the commander, it would incur the laughter of the other pilots. Diving into the ground is a really dumb idea -- evidence of an incompetent pilot..
I was a site commander at one of the training and testing ranges attached to Nellis, where we trained fighter pilots (as well as highly specialized other aircraft/crews 🤐) to fly against SAM's and Triple AAA's. We worked with all branches from a number of countries. The "floor" is literally the desert floor. The environment is so real; to avoid detection, we've had aircraft clip mountain tops trying to sneak in prior to checking on range. Once the training begins, flying at 50 feet gets nothing more than a yawn from ground personnel. No offense, but to be honest, I always wondered why our kill rate was so high against Naval aviators (like 7x that of Airman). Now I know. Thanks.
Your last line in the first paragraph says it all. Ignore the errors and enjoy the film. It’s Hollywood and it’s just for ENTERTAINMENT as what movies are for.
Actually it is wrong to assume F-14 was not an phenomenal dogfighter especially considering it was not it's most primary mission. In a one circle fight, Tomcat was famous for even out-turning the F-16 in a radius fight because of a higher AoA capability so F-16 pilots always did two circle rate fight. F-14 had far better turning performance especially in sustained turning than F-5 or A-4 due to the big thrust and wing loading advantage other than rolling quicker and being hard to see, they were no match for the Tomcat in a turning or vertical fight. There was a joke in the Navy that if you want to kill an F-14 in an F-5: or A-4, it is only by making the Tomcat pilot lose sight of you. If an F-14 found you in an A-4 or F-5, there was almost no way to win unless he made a mistake
Loved the movie. One of my all time faves but I have to say that I have really enjoyed reading through these comments. So many informative posts from people in the know. It hasn't made, for me, the movie any less watchable, but next time I watch it I will be looking with a different set of eyes.
I was stationed at Miramar n.a.s. when this film was made. As an ejection seat mechanic, I noticed an anomaly in the film. If you slow down the ejection sequence when goose ejects, you can see a small brass object in the smoke. This is called a star wheel. It is used to open the top latch mechanism when removing the seat for maintenance. Although the aircraft could fly with it installed, when they went inverted the seat would go " thunk " against the top of the canopy! I would be the one to notice that!!
Are we not going to talk about how Goose's death could ever happen. As an AO who had some knowledge on the ejection seat 1.) Goose's head would never hit the canopy because the ejection seat has about a 1 foot clearance above his head. 2.) The top of the ejection seat has about an 1 to 2 inch clearance from canopy and is designed to break through the glass in the event of an ejection. 3.) The ejection seat is designed to fire in a way that the canopy obviously fires first then the ejection seat fires. We are talking seconds here but with that air speed the canopy seems to actually hover above the aircraft. Now to the bombs and missiles most of them were inerts. All the ones that are blue or have a blue stripe around it are inert. Only the ones with yellow and brown are the live one and there were not that many.
@@mikegriego3671 I feel fairly sure its impossible to film the real thing and get usable footage. I doubt you could go to Martin Baker or whoever makes them these days and just buy a couple of ejection seats. Seems like the sort of thing the government doesn't want sold to just anybody. Even if you got the real thing, the actual eject is much too fast to get anything but a blur on camera.
"Bogey" is an unidentified aircraft. You see and are tracking an aircraft, but otherwise don't know whether it's friendly, unfriendly, or neutral. "Bandit" is an identified unfriendly aircraft. You see and are tracking an aircraft, and have other information that meets the Rules of Engagement criteria for declaring it to be a bad guy. "Hostile" is an identified unfriendly aircraft which fighters are cleared to engage (ie, shoot down). Meets all the ROE criteria for Bandit plus the ROE for being cleared to shoot it down. "Contact" is basically a way of saying "I see something on my radar (or other sensor) but know nothing else about it, I'll get back to you when I do." Told by Andy Burns, Surface Warfare & Flight Officer at United States Navy (1999-present)
Best part is the volleyball scene “serve it to him ice” I live in San Diego and every time we walk or drive by guys with no shirts on playing beach volleyball we alwase yell “SERVE IT TO HIM ICE!!!!”
Just watched Top Gun Maverick and had the same frisson chills as I did watching Top Gun (the original). I will always love the danger zone! Thanks for your video. I have to go watch the original again (and again).
One mistake that's always stood out to me is when viper says "the hard deck for this hop is 10,000 feet. There will be no engagements below that..", and then all the dogfighting is literally right above ground, even flying lower than hilltops sometimes. No one ever seems to catch that one. Viper does address it after the jester encounter but otherwise it's never mentioned
I also wonder if Jester "calling no joy and went below the hard deck" is like cheating? He couldn't see Mav so he just went below the hard deck so Mav couldn't engage? Sounds like cheating to me.
I feel like a lot of the inconsistencies in terminology and such was deliberate. Remember. They weren’t allowed to “fire chaff and flares” to avoid missile lock (like in real life) because the pentagon didn’t want to give away the defensive capabilities of the Tomcat
There's an early appearance by a young Decepticon Starscream. The future star of Michael Bay's Transformers franchise was yet to make his breakout performance in the animated Transformers film in 1986 when he appeared as the travelling companion for young Bradley, Goose's son. Starscream is seen in several scenes being cuddled by Goose. Starscream almost didn't get the part as Starscream is a F-15 Eagle, an Air Force jet and not a F-14 Tomcat that Goose flew in. US Navy figures were reluctant to allow any Air Force related people near Top Gun because of the long rivalry between the two services, but the Admirals were convinced by the arguement that Starscream is not US Air Force but is an evil Decepticon warrior and that was more acceptable to the US Navy. It was a decision the US Navy would later regret as Starscream participated in the destruction and sinking of the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
Good job on the list, and this is an entertaining video. A couple nitpicks: First, nobody thought Tom Cruise was actually piloting a $74 million aircraft that requires hundreds of hours of training to operate. Second, most people who saw the movie in '86 knew exactly who Art Scholl was, because he was the most famous stunt pilot living at the time. His death during the filming of Top Gun was also headline news across the entire nation. And remember, this was at a time when everyone saw the same news on TV, because most people only had five major channels. So big news stories were pretty hard to tune out. Scholl's death also became baked into the mystique and buzz of the film.
Apologies for my ignorance, but how did die? Was it a stunt gone wrong? And back then I was 15, and truly haven't heard of him but that doesn't negate his accomplishments, it was sad for me to hear about Jan Micheal Vincent's friend who died on air wolf doing a hammer head stall in a helicopter, one of the Bell series, he did it well the first shot which they put in but he crashed on the second one, and Jan blamed himself for asking for the second take, he started drinking heavily because of it.
@@dianeneedham6703 Scholl crashed into the ocean off Encinitas CA while filming a stunt for the film. And not ignorant at all. I probably assigned greater importance to the event when it happened, because I was pretty familiar with Scholl's work. So it's possible that it wasn't headline news to everyone :)
@@bmccarty2012 Anything can go wrong when you're doing dangerous stunts in any vehicle, flying or otherwise, you have to give mad props to any stunt man, or woman that puts they're body on the the line to entertain the masses, and bring a writer/ director's dream to life.
@@dianeneedham6703 Scholl died filming the flat spin sequence. He put his plane into a spin recovery sequence at 9,000 feet and it failed to recover. He radioed distress as he fell through 6,000 feet, and never was able to get control authority back.
@@dongquixote7138 131X series yes, 1395 specifically would be students. Either way they’re referred to as pilots, more specifically “Aviation Warfare Officer, Pilot”
@@brenthauer8365 Student Naval Aviators (i.e. in flight school) are 1390s. I'm nearly positive the designator doesn't change because you go to/graduate one of the weapons schools.
Great video my friend! And if you don’t mind the list not being a nice round 20, I have a few more little somethings you may be interested in. Years back I had the good fortune to have the honor of shaking hands with retired United States Navy Rear Admiral Kenneth "Pete" Pettigrew, and getting to personally thank him for his service. For a fan like me, it was absolutely surreal! He gave a speech about the production of the film, and even did a Q and A session with those present (I was born and raised here in San Diego, California aka “Fightertown, U.S.A.” and I had no idea the venue existed. A local news channel did a piece on Pettigrew, and announced he would be speaking at a San Diego writers and filmmakers guild for the 30 year anniversary of the release of the film, so yeah we’re talking 2016 here. Anyway, cutting to the chase: Pettigrew pointed out several very interesting things about the production of the film along with it being established that he made that cameo in the first bar scene, being the man in the yellow shirt. Okay: 1. There is NO Top Gun trophy. As Pettigrew pointed out, it’s a school, not a competition. If it were, to paraphrase his words, “If it were a competition, there would be a lot of pilots who’d die in ‘a training accident,’ and a lot of lost aircraft.” 2. The locker room scenes were filmed at “The Plunge” here in San Diego. It’s an indoor olympic-sized pool deal. The reason why they even had the locker room scenes is because they wanted to get as much skin out of Tom Cruise, so to speak. What else?🤔 Oh, 3. A filming aircraft was also lost during filming off the coast, costing the life of a pilot and what must’ve been invaluable film footage. The producers asked the wife of the pilot if she wanted them to down and retrieve his body and she responded, “No.” And saying that’s where he would’ve wanted to rest in peace. Oh, and fun fact: for the “buzzing the tower” scene, which Pettigrew said would only be done by a madman who wanted to lose his wings and be court-martialed, the pilot who flew the F-14 in that sequence, call sign Joker, was told to get low, but not “unsafe” low. Something like 700 feet off the deck. Well Joker 🃏 took it upon himself to give everyone an unexpected show and buzzed the tower only 100 feet above the deck! Okay buddy, if anything else comes of the archives of my subconscious, I’ll let you know! Cheers!
Throttling up with brakes on is actually the best way to force an overshoot. It takes several seconds for a jet turbine to spool up or down. When you throttle down your engines are still producing thrust for several seconds..so let your engines spool down in a scissors fight then throttle up before dumping your speed with high-g maneuver. This way you dump your speed while turbines are spinning up but not producing much thrust and you can roll out having near maximum thrust at your slowest speed to recover to get on your aggressor's six. If you don't spool up prior before dumping your speed you'll be stalled with no thrust for 7 seconds waiting for turbines to spin up while the bogey goes vertical (and drops back down on your six).
Another point that is missed, is the Topgun sticker on Mav’s motorcycle. Until you graduate from the school, no one would be caught dead with a sticker or patch in fear of jinxing themselves. In flight school none of us dared wear a shirt or hat that had Naval Aviator’s wings on them.
Submarine sailors who has not yet earned their warfare pin used to be forbidden from wearing anything with Dolphins on them, including command ball caps. This is something that changed in the mid 90s. Kindly gentler Navy.
Around NAS Miramar, no one would wear a Top Gun patch or ball cap unless your part of VF-126, Top Gun instructor or graduate. I was in VF-51 as a Plane Captain for the F-14A in 1985-86, engine shop 86-89 and part of the filming for 9 months. We were part of the movie and many of us, including myself was used as extras in the movie. As extras and part of the movie, we still wouldn't wear any Top Gun hats/t-shirts. VF-51 patch and hat for me only at that time.
Is Mavericks name a joke about being an air to ground missile who crashes into the ground? I seem to recall them teasing him about his call sign but never knew why.
@@rawnukles most call signs are not chosen by the pilot but by their fellow squadron peers. They are chosen from mistakes when they were nuggets or from something really cool they did. My cousins can sign was POPs... he was the oldest guy in their flight class AND it stands for Prince of Porn. He has an extensive Playboy collection. The first female pilot assigned to Ocean NAS was given the call sign of Mounds...Almond Joy's got nuts, Mounds don't.
No kidding. I didn't get my flight gear issue until I was actually IN flight school. We got it during the API phase at P'cola before starting Primary. Now, they give the fuckin' middies flight suits on service selection night and they can wear them to class on Fridays. They haven't even graduated USNA yet. When I was there, we got our leather jackets and that was it. I don't remember being able to wear them on the yard to class, either.
Great vid man. I spotted very few of these; one thing I kind of noticed was that yes indeed, Kelly McGillis did seem to lose weight in the elevator scene.... I still can't see the motorbike being pulled along with straps, but I'll take your word for it lol.
My niece has aspirations of going to flight school when she commissioned into the Navy after graduating college. She told me once that she wanted to become a RIO (radar intercept officer). After explaining what a RIO does, I said “Basically Goose from Top Gun, but without the dying?” She says “YES! I knew you’d get it!”
If I remember propery, the F14 was made to engage multiple targets at maximum distance from the CAG they were based off. So getting up close and personal wasn't really part of their mission scope. They would have launched the appropriate missiles at the bandits at about 100 miles. The REO would have vectored the missiles into the relevant targets.
Yes and no, usually you don't engage unless you have visual. Which their camera system would have done at about 60miles out. The Phoenix engagement of 100nm give or take, was mainly for a time of war where engagement was given without need to ask. Here just a single F-14 would have downed the migs in the scene as the single f-14 could simultaneously track 25+ targets, fire at 6 independently, and leave. The Phoenix would have a hit ratio of at least 90% so just 2 pop shots after another would have done it. But hey, no cool dog fight if that was the case here.
While serving aboard the cruiser, USS Reeves CG-24, we received the film cans during underway replenishment. Each time we were supposed to send Top Gun back to the ship that would refuel us a week later we would send back the replacement movie instead of Top Gun. We watched it for 3 weeks straight till the Admiral on the USS Midway made us return it. By then the whole crew new every one liner and dialog exchange. Good Times.
For a long time, after a run of a new movie was winding down and before the next blockbuster debuted, the largest movie theater in our area would bring back Top Gun because it was a known box office money maker. I saw Top Gun there at least 5 times. Later, I bought the VHS and when that got stolen, I bought the DVD. Great movie!!
Actually "ballistic" means traveling under the force of gravity only. Hence ballistic missile, meaning it's launched and then flies to its target via gravity. Also the inverted dive is possible, the f14 has 2 tail fins while the F5 tiger has 1....and it was like 3 meters away, which is 15 feet. I knew those were f5's back when the movie came out, when I was 12...because my favorite jets were the F20 tigershark and the A10 thunderbolt 2.
The Warthog is still a fantastic, no nonsense, get the job done design. Still blows my mind that if you were to hold the trigger long enough on it's nose mounted gun it could actually reduce your airspeed to the point of causing a stall! 😅 Was lucky enough to get to sit in the cockpit of one years ago at Leuchars and got my photo taken. Also VERY happy that it's one of the aircraft available in Ace Combat 7's VR missions.
Can't happen, aerodynamics would pull them together. Venturi effect. U.S.A.F Egress Technician retired.A-10 qualified 18 years...also look at the ejection seats, see that brass looking know on the top left of the seat. It called a handwheel, it unlocks the seat from the catapult for seat removal. I'm not going to get into goose's death. 0ne in a million case
The tail design on Kilmer's F14 Tomcat was actually borrowed from Attack Squadron 25 (Fist of the Fleet) that flew A-7E Corsair IIs. Being the Flight Deck Coordinator for one of the A7 squadrons on the Enterprise during the filming and a former member of VA-25, we gave the fighter guys a very hard time about using an attack squadron logo on a fighter aircraft.
When the movie was being filmed, the squadron was VFA-25, flying the F/A-18. A college buddy and fellow Naval Aviator got orders there as a 'Nugget,' newly winged at NAS Kingsville. From Wikipedia:
"In fact, our heroes never used guns at any point..." This is where you lost me. Does the Top Gun line, "Too close for missiles, switching to guns" mean anything to you? Maverick DID use his guns.
I knew a few of them but my son was just 8 years old when it came out. You can figure his age out but to this day when someone asks him something he still says “negative Ghost Rider.” You can hardly forget the movie with that remark being used all the time. He is anxiously waiting for the 2nd movie to be released!
Ha! I'm around the same age, and I will have to remember to use phrase. Even reading it in your comment, I know exactly where it's used in the film (like most, I suspect!)
@@stuarthtodd yep! Me too! I can’t begin to tell you how many times he’s watched the movie. He can probably recite it back line for line. If he’s not watching that it’s Forrest Gump. I suspect that is because of the small connection with Vietnam, even though it’s rather fantastical. But his dad was there and that’s what matters!!
2:48 No it's not. Based on the length as well as the vertical stabilizer height compared to the canopy of both the F-14 Tomcat and the Northrop F-5 used for the "MiG 28" in the movie. To begin with there would be multiple feet of clearance between the top of each vertical stabilizer and the enemy aircraft. The vertical stabilizers would not be able to interact because on what they call a MIG it is far too much forward compared to the F-14. At no point would they have anything less than 2.5 feet of clearance which is more than possible of maintaining such close perimeters. The best comparison for this would be flying in what's called a fingertip formation for those of you who don't know in a fingertip formation if you're three feet apart from your wingman's aircraft you are often considered way too far apart. In a fingertip formation if you are on the left your right-wing is typically less than 1 ft less than 30 cm from your wingman's left-wing. But at no point would that F5 and F-14 have less than 75 inches of clearance. The only way this is impossible as if the pilot of the F5 got spooked and crashed into him by pulling up rather than pushing down on his stick. I'll be reporting this video for its blatant spreading of misinformation.
This channel is one of the few I actually watch all the way to the end. Gotta hear those words of support, they’re more helpful than I thought they would be.
After bringing up Iceman's watch i thought it would eventually be brought up that in the opening scene when the ship captain enters the CIC, there are shots where he is wearing all his ribbons and others where he wasnt wearing any at all.
And let's note that some of the people who think "Take my Breath Away" is cheezy... include Berlin, who reportedly hate the song, which was their biggest hit ever, and completely unlike everything else they ever released. Movie soundtracks are not an unmixed blessing.
When trying to figure out who the number 1 is. Ice tells maverick 2nd place is in the ladies room. Literally a soon following scene, Maverick goes after the Instructor into the Ladies Room.
The point about guns not actually being used by these "Top Gun" pilots is an extreme nitpick. The other side of "dogfighting" skills is combat aviation, skills that kept the pilots alive when they were grossly outnumbered at the end of the film. The point of the opening speech in their class wasn't that missiles were a poor choice, but that the reliance on the technology was dulling the pilots overall skill set in the cockpit. The point about starting another world war is also inaccurate. The US forces didn't fly into foreign airspace to engage the enemy, they were in the air to respond to enemy planes that were approaching a stranded boat that was undergoing rescue ops by the US Navy. The US planes also didn't fire until fired upon. International incident? Sure. Sparking WW3? No.
This video was simply cringe-worthy in how extreme some of the nitpicks were. "Top Gun" is just a nickname for the Fighter Weapons School. The term "gun" is used in a very rhetorical sense.
The first aircraft deployed at the topgun school were early naval f4 phantoms that had no guns, the pilots were taught to use aggressive dogfights skills to get their aircraft or their wingman into a position where their missiles (sidewinder usually) had the best chance of a hit. While keeping a mutual eye out for each other to prevent the enemy from killing them.
My husband was in the Air Force when this movie came out. His job was as a jet engine mechanic. We went to see this movie at a drive-in near the base where he was stationed at the time. On more than one occasion he announced loudly that "That's not how an afterburner works" and other similar technical phrases I'm sure the rest of the attendees weren't interested in hearing .
Ummm, regarding #9, I believe the objective was a ship recovery, it became disabled, and wandered into hostile territory, for whatever reason. The fighters were deployed to maintain security so a rescue could be coordinated. Bottom line, the ROE stated in the film, “do not fire unless fired upon”. The “migs” fired first and shot down Hollywood/Wolfman, then engaged Iceman/Slider, but didn’t fire.
I've always felt that the most unrealistic & unbelievable scene was the volleyball sequence. Common knowledge is that part of being successful at volleyball is being over four and half feet tall. Everyone should be spiking the ball into Tiny Tommy's kisser.
Another issue is during action in the air, the planes alternate between wings being swept and and extended, sometimes in split second shots. They don’t adjust that fast and probably impossible in high G maneuvers.
I used to laugh how our Air Force counterparts would get miffed when the Naval Aviation bubbas were called "Airmen" instead of "Seamen" but that's what their ratings and ranks were. Those of us Marines just made fun of all of them. Joint training ops are always fun.
*@**3:32** incorrect. There's actully an electric minigun scene where an F15 corkscrews away from overtaking fire and F15's are equipped with starboard M61A1 Six-barrel Gatling Gun.*
We know exactly what killed Art Scholl. He was shooting background footage to green screen over the canopy in the flat spin scene. The director told him to do a much safer spiraling descent, but Art wasn’t satisfied with the footage because it didn’t look realistic. So Art, having done a flat spin and gotten out of it 100 times, did the flat spin the way he always does; but the placement of the camera on the win disrupted the airflow in such a way that Art couldn’t pull out of the spin the way he wanted to.
The camera actually moved the CG of the aircraft too far aft thereby making it even more unstable. Aircraft with too far aft CGs will enter spins very, very easily and, very likely, unrecoverable. There's a saying... "An aircraft with a CG too far forward will fly poorly. An aircraft with a CG too far aft will fly...once..."
@@aaronweiser5421 He was in a piston/prop powered Pitts S-2 aerobatic biplane, not a Tomcat. No ejection seat. And, even with a parachute, it's immensely difficult to manually open the canopy, jump out and get yourself clear of the airframe when in a flat spin.
The F-14 has twin tail fins, separated by several feet. The F-5 Tigershark has a single tail fin, so they could THEORETICALLY get that close together without fouling. It would be incredibly risky to do with people you train to do it with all the time, like the pilots of the Blue Angel's or The Thunderbirds, it would be insane to do it with at level flight, let alone a dive, because you cannot predict what the other pilot will do and there is no time for correction if he he reacts in a panic. But they COULD get much closer than two planes with the same tail configuration.
After living in San Diego for a period of years one of the parts that is really quite humorous is the chasing between Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis… As they leave the flight school in point Loma… First part of the scene… Then they are directly over by the airport, which is basically across town in a matter of seconds…And then they are at her place which is up in your oceanside which is an hour away. Obviously in the movie it makes sense… But if you know the locations it’s not quite as connected as it would appear.
@@tims7738 we had many issues then as well. Economic issues, major debt for third world, wars. Major civil discontent and violence occurred, including the Iran-Iraq War, the Soviet-Afghan War, the 1982 Lebanon War, the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, the Bombing of Libya in 1986, and the First Intifada in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Islamism became a powerful political force in the 1980s and many terrorist organizations, including Al Qaeda, started.
2:15 “Going ballistic,“ means that gravity is the only force acting on the aircraft. It’s not max speed, Nor min speed. The movie uses it in reference to when the aircraft is in a steep climb (similar to the launch of a ballistic missile going almost straight up). Ballistic flight (example) would be something like rolling the plane 90° and letting the plane descend by gravity alone. Max speed is not the envelope. Oversimplified, the envelope is contained by four corners. 1. How slow the plane can travel at sea level and still maintain control. 2. How fast the plane can travel at sea level. 3. How slow the plane can fly at maximum altitude. 4. How fast the plane can fly at maximum altitude.
The Term going Ballistic used in the movie was the civilian slang for going like a "Bat outta Hell". Since the Navy has a different use of the slang it confuses people who can't disassociate Military from Civilian even though they know both well enough.
@@animalyze7120 military has used the term since the 50s, to describe unguided flight. The movie reference was basically accurate. It was on a steep climb, where the wings basically contribute nothing to the lift
Wow -this is so far off the mark on so many points. Ballistic doesn't mean what you think it means (yes the movie got it wrong too, but they were closer than you were.) The term for maximum speed isn't 'envelope' (even without your weird pronunciation). TOPGUN isn't about learning to fight with guns; it's about ACM. I gave up at that point, as this vid didn't seem to be "20 things you somehow missed in Top Gun" as much as "20 things we thought were mistakes in Top Gun" Whoever did this WhatCulture really needs to lift their game.
I came to the conclusion that people doing theses videos just gather some crap that is beeing discussed in numerous media and try to orgnanize it in some hit list. Some of the points are correct, some are not. Depends where he took the crap from but for sure didn't do any study about it.
When Maverick is chasing either Jester or Viper (forget) hes close behind him, then theres a shot where the F-14 zips up from bottom of screen followed by the F-4 , so the f-4 is now behind for like 2 seconds...then its back to the tomcat chasing in the next shot.
TOP GUN for aviation is like BACKDRAFT for firefighters (I know I have 30 years of service with firefighters) it's beautiful, it's magnificent, it creates vocations, but it's totally unrealistic .
I like this comparaison. I'm not interested and knowledgable in fire or firefighter matters but boy I loved that film just for the fire rendition on screen, just like Top Gun did bring real images of sexy fighters to the general public. Fire was the star of the show in Backdraft as the Tomact was the star of the show in Top Gun.
I just saw top gun 2 on June 2nd and it was pretty damn awesome!!!!!! Plus it was totally🤯 and I wouldn't mind seeing it again or a couple more times I loved it
I don't know what the navy rules were. But At Travis AFB (1980ish) if you wanted to ride a motorcycle on base you had to wear a helmet and a reflective vest.
did anybody notice that the captain in the opening seqcence enters the command and control room without wearing any ribbons but when he is standing behind the radar operator he has ribbons practicly to his shoulder! thanks to my late navy 1st class p.o. brother Dale K. for catching that!
Great list, enjoyed it. With #6 about the watch, I think you’ve got it wrong there. In the first shot it looks like he is holding the watch and winding it or setting the time. In the 2nd shot, it starts with home still holding it and taking that action and then putting it on.
Little known Top Gun fact: The actor from the Top Gun beach volleyball scene is the same guy who played Wilson in Castaway
What range!
LOL nice one
That was actually Wilson's father. Wilson's professional career debut was in Castaway.
@@ananda_miaoyin So it’s a dynasty then? I’ve actually seen him in NY without make up. You wouldn’t know him if you passed by him in a sporting goods store. What a chameleon!
@@LuisSoto-ho5fw Totally. Weird family too. Some did really well and hang out at the Playboy Mansion, others are beach bums. Some are even pedos knocking around the high schools of America.
The Spaldings are MUCH worse though!
I was 12 years old when the 'Top Gun" movie was released, and none of us understood anything about the technicalities, vocabulary and didn't care either. The excitement about the movie was the attraction, and it wasn't about how genuine it looked. Now, I'm 48 years old and I still don't care if there were mistakes in the movie or not; I still think it's a good story line.
Yes, I was about 7 and I didn't and don't care either. It was cool and Iceman was dreamy. Lol
Right!!!
I was 23-24, depending on when it was actually made/release….and I still don’t care how accurate anything is or if it has perfect continuity….Tom cruise and Val Kilmer were and are still awesome actors and not bad to drool over too 🥰
It's about two gay guys flirting
Top Gun made Iron Eagle popular! 😂
I was born in 1984, and Top Gun is still my favorite action movie of all time. My dad was a massive fan, and in the 90s, when the big screens and surround sound became a huge thing, the first movie we watched was Top Gun... sounded like a jet flew through our living room, and I'll never, ever forget those days. I was young, and technology was just becoming big..... I love that movie so much
"Let me tell you about some things that Top Gun got wrong, which I will also be wrong about."
On "ballistic": I don't recall them stating that "ballistic" means flying at max speed, but the brevity word for that is "buster" (which is used in the movie), not "envelope." Doing so may be referred to as "pushing the envelope," which itself references the aircraft's performance envelope.
Just because they went to TOPGUN to, in part, learn how to dogfight better with their cannon, doesn't mean they have to then use it in actual combat at their first opportunity. The guns on modern fighters can only shoot for a few seconds before they're out of ammo.
Naval aviators are sailors, not soldiers.
The fight at the end of the movie wouldn't be a "declaration of war," which only Congress can make. "Act of war" would be more appropriate.
Pushing the throttle up for a "full climb" isn't necessarily the "opposite of slowing down." You'd probably want to throttle up so you don't bleed off so much energy in the climb, and energy management is a huge part of aerobatics. This maneuver drastically reduced the horizontal component of Maverick's vector, allowing him to get on the enemy's tail after the enemy blew by him.
A "bandit" isn't a non-friendly air contact, it's an enemy air contact. There's a significant difference. And a "skunk" is an unidentified SURFACE contact.
Ballistic path: gravity's rainbow. Thomas Pynchon. Then look up ICBM. The popular use of the word moves its definition away from its original origins concerning a ballistic path. in sports baseballs, footballs, etc follow a ballistic path. Archers in ancient warfare let loose their arrows to follow ballistic paths.Those paths are shaped by earth's gravity against the velocity of the projectile.
Thanks for that. A question: an F-14 can do the cobra? for real?
@@Dude408f I wouldn't know. The googles and wikipedia don't say that it can. Plus it probably wasn't designed to have that kind of maneuverability, since it was made to run down and smoke commies with missiles from a distance.
It doesn't look to me that what Maverick does is a true cobra maneuver anyway due to the altitude he appears to gain, but there probably isn't a specific cutoff for how much altitude you can or can't gain while still calling it a cobra.
@@Dude408f No.
At least nowhere near as well as the Flanker.
@@Dude408f I'm not sure that it could do the Cobra.
Things this video somehow missed:
1. The term going ballistic was not in reference to speed....it was referring to the sudden climb performed by the A-4 and then the F-14. The trajectory of the aircraft, not their speed was the issue.
2. The program at Top Gun is not dedicated just to using guns. The program teaches air combat maneuvering. It is far more complex, ie teaching the differences between a maneuvering fight vs an energy fight. It stresses putting your aircraft in the best possible position for a kill during an engagement, whether that be by guns or missiles.
3. When the Tomcat is shown engaging afterburners and a large cloud of smoke appears behind the aircraft, this is done by dumping fuel. When the Tomcat lights it's afterburners, they do not smoke like this. As a matter of fact, it is prohibited to use afterburners in the F-14 while dumping fuel. It is just a nice visual for the audience.
4. Product placement. When the base commander storms out of the office and runs into the coffee tray.....the man holding the tray tips it up briefly to show the Pepsi logo on it. Yeah...I had to pause the video in my VCR as a kid to make sure that I had seen it. It is an obvious move to flash the logo.
5. The classified briefing in a hangar? Yeah, that would never happen.
6. Charlie critiquing Maverick's ACM would not happen. She is an analyst, not an instructor....all of whom are pilots.
7. When the alert fighters are needed to assist...they are ordered to be launched from catapults 3 & 4....which both manage to break. So, no aircraft can be launched until they are fixed. What happened to catapults 1 & 2?
8. The HUD symbology used does not look like F-14 symbology. You also don't see color pippers in use.....and the gun pipper is not displayed when a missile is selected. I know...nitpicky.
9. When Iceman's F-14 is hit by gunfire...you see the bullets impact around the "Rescue" arrow that is painted on the forward fuselage, below the pilot. Somehow...this damages the engine?
10. When Iceman's F-14 is hit a second time....it is the exact same location.
11. When Maverick launches a missile at one of the Migs....it starts out as an AIM-7 Sparrow and then becomes and AIM-9 Sidewinder. Neat.
There are plenty more errors.....but who cares, really. Top Gun was aircraft porn....and still one of the very best at that.
When Maverick launches and Cats 3&4 are miraculously broken, the shot of the Carrier when Maverick is airborne and does his aileron roll shows Cats 1&2 blocked with parked aircraft which would have taken more time to clear than fixing the broken catapults. It's never explained, but shown if keen-eyed viewers catch it.
@@gonuts4donuts Really closely looking at the carrier in that shot also shows that there are no fighters hooked up to Cats 3 and 4 at all. Furthermore, those aircraft are completely blocking Cats 1 and 2, so there is no way that Mavericks F-14 just launched. That Tomcat overflew the carrier and did the aileron roll. A freshly launched Tomcat wouldn't have the airspeed required for the aileron roll right after launching from the cat anyway.
That Petty Officer First Class carrying coffee. Maybe. It takes 12 years to make E6 from E-1 or 10 from E3 at minimum. So that PO1 should be 28 or older. Most officers are not going to make a PO1 carry a tray of coffee. Maybe a 3rd or an AN, but not a 1st unless he is a screw up. Also, that Capt just knocked that man over and was still screaming about the flyby?
@@thissailorja well, I don’t remember the rating for the petty officer in the movie. But in the 80s Navy had a program for several of their aviation related ratings where you went right from A-School to C-School, and you went to the fleet as an E4. Three years time in rate for each step, it’s possible to make E6 six in under seven
@@elymayer4860 When I was in (07-13') there were studs that made chief in 7. It was absurd meeting a 25 year old Chief.
What makes movies fun is the “suspension of disbelief.” I appreciate the accuracy checks, but most of us didn’t consider this a documentary or history. Just a fun movie.
Well said
Exactly! Just a fun movie, specially when you are 11 years old and it’s 1986, I am 47 now and Top gun is still the best movie I’ve seen. Miss you Goose!
Right! Sometimes I absolutely _HATE_ TH-cam (and TH-camrs)!!! It's called using a Creative License! Why do they believe we want so much accuracy within what is also called "Movie Magic"! We KNOW the majority of it is fake! A movie's *JOB* is to make it look Real! And for this guy to use the major release of the New Top Gun movie to gain his views, since we don't know in advance that it's going to ruin the spirit of the movie and all of the nostalgia [as well as the buildup for the new release], is just exactly why I despise this generation!
DE...SPISE.
Thank you
@@xDoGoR I am 24 and I watched this movie by downloading it when I was a kid lol
Still my favourite movie
I have watched it like 10-15 times by now still
The sound track and the cool scenes always makes me come back
I was a US Marine in the aviation field when Top Gun came out
We saw all the flaws but went to see ur like 6 times. Another thing the Navy was pissed about was Tom Cruise riding a motorcycle without a helmet or orange vest. Both mandatory at that time
My father is a Marine and was in flight school at Pensacola when this movie came out. The crowd cheered every time for this movie
I got to ride with stunt pilot Art Scholl in the late 70s. I was a DJ in Riverside, CA and he was using local media to promote an air show near his flight school in Rialto, CA. He took me up in his De Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunk. We spent five minutes above the airport doing every kind of stunt possible. Had a ball. Great guy and a great pilot. I was shocked to see his name at the end of the Top Gun credits. RIP.
What an honor! Art Scholl was one of the reasons I became interested in airplanes.
Think he spun in filming a spinning scene over the sea,. I can tell you not a nice place to be in an aircraft reluctant to recover from a spin.
He did the stunts in the 1st Iron Eagle movie too.
Totally cool experience for you
Wowzers. He sounds like a great guy. So sad he was lost doing something he clearly loved so much
One additional fact - The guy with the sunglasses and mustache standing behind Tom Cruise at the graduation ceremony is LCDR Heatley. He was part of the F-14 flight crew in the movie and wrote a book called The Cutting Edge, about fighters. I only know this because my CO was his brother and, when I heard CO's last name, I asked him if he was in the movie (I remembered the last name from the credits). He then told me about said brother and showed me the book, which I now have a copy of.
He was also one of the pilots singing to Charlie in the O-club among others.
Repent to Jesus Christ
“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
James 4:7 NIV
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Also, "Scooter" Altman was Tom's pilot double, and also an astronaut who went up four times on the Space Shuttle.
I have the book. It’s an outstanding coffee table book.
I too have a copy of Heater's book.
Two of my favourite gaffes in the original movie, were: 1) The squadron patch on Tom Cruise and Anthony Edwards' flight suits were not from any Navy fighter squadron, they were from RVAW-110, an E-2 Hawkeye training squadron housed in Miramar's hangar 6, and: 2) the loosely overused term of "CAG." CAG does not refer to any specific squadron, it refers to the airwing as a whole (Carrier Air Group), abbrieviated by the designation: CVW.
VAW-112 fleet sailor, from 1980-83.
I'll have to watch again, but I don't remember them saying "CAG" very much, if at all. What is definitely an overused, and usually incorrectly used term is "roger." Not just in this movie, but just about any military-themed movie with radio comms.
CAG is Commander Air Group. A person not a airwing.
VAW-110 was the FIREBIRDS E 2 squadron hanger 6 NAS MIRAMAR. That was my patch Goose and Maverick were wearing. 1986 to 1989 my duty station.
The inverted dive / middle finger is possible and happened in Vietnam, executed by F-4 Phantom legend Duke Cunningham and his RIO Willy Driscoll. Certainly not at the range depicted in the movie but… close enough to send the message.
I think the range shown is exactly why they say it was impossible.
3:17 Stop calling them Soldiers! Soldiers are members of the Army. Soldiers don't fly fighter jets! The Navy has Sailors. Also, like most civilians watching the movie, TOPGUN isn't simply a dogfighting/aerial combat school but rather a program to teach tactics and techniques to selected Naval aviators so they can return to their ships and serve as air combat instructors to the other pilots.
This video has more errors in it than the movie has. Pot calling the kettle black. Its perpetrator doesn't understand a cobra maneuver and that it truly is "slamming on the brakes" in the context of ACM, even though it's captured onscreen in the brief clip he displays.
Alright, that wasn't a true cobra, but you get the point.
@@wcate8301 for a layman like myself... wouldn't "slamming on the brakes" mean NOT going to full throttle while pitching up for the climb?
Well, the guy's a Euro-wank, so...
The Navy has Navel Aviators.
Here, here. Another often misused word in Navy shows is medic. The Navy has Corpsmen, not medics! Former HM2.
Ice and Slider didn't wander wander into hostile territory. They flew there, on purpose, to defend a disabled ship that had drifted into foreign waters. The ship wandered there.
They were also defending their own ship as well
In that case, would they have a right to be there and shoot down planes? I'm curious
@@Dude408f More like making the invasion worse and more a cause for war. Look at the restraint invoked when a Soviet submarine got itself beached in Sweden during the same decade. And that's long before Sweden officially applied for NATO membership.
One thing I just realized that is probably beyond the scope of the movie, but after the battle was over, both F14's left the area and were no longer defending the disabled ship.
@@johndododoe1411 Incursion
The first Top Gun film used both single seat F-5Es, and two seat F-5Fs, because you can clearly see that those "MIG-28s", are a mix of single seat, and two seat configurations.
In reference to #8 the MiG-28s.
There is a fourth wall breaking line delivered by Charlie in the film. She says "We will be dealing with F-5s and A-4s as our MiG simulators." The MiG-28s are F-5 as mentioned in this video, and the aggressor aircraft at Miramar are A-4s.
I really liked this line as it tells viewers exactly what they are seeing in the film, and also is a little apology for not being able to provide actual MiGs as "bad guy" aircraft. Unlike other films, such as Iron Eagle 2, which claimed that F-4s were MiG-29s. The F-4 Phantom has a very distinctive look and can't really be confused with anything else.
Those are F5 (as MIGs) in/at Top Gun (some desert base in the US). In the opening scene (which you can find here on YT) the F5's are supposed to be real enemy MIGs (unless that was a Top Gun training above sea - without informing anybody - incl. red star helmets).
@@ibubezi7685 Throughout the movie, black F-5's with red stars are used to portray the opposing nations actual Mig-28's. What Dave is saying is that, despite what Charlie says, we never actually see F-5's being used as aggressor aircraft at Top Gun. The instructors all fly A-4's. So, Charlie saying, "we will be using F-5's and A-4's as our Mig simulators" seems to be describing both the in-character A-4's and the (4th wall breaking) movie's use of F-5's for their "actual" Migs.
Mig numbers are always odd so 28 is obviously fake.
up
I know a few Navy aviators, and the part they typically make fun of is when Maverick and Goose "buzz" the air traffic control tower. That would likely cause serious safety issues and could easily get them not only grounded, but kicked out. "Buzzing" a building like that can break the windows and hurt people. This is a maneuver they sometimes perform to "keep the peace" in other countries, but not our buildings, and not on base.
And after having the shit shot out of your plane, a flyby of the carrier would be not wise.
One time while at Wal-Mart a navy pilot buzzed the building yes it can be done. Also the blue Angeles can fly inverted
Was at an airshow when an F-22 buzzed the parking area. Maybe is was 300 feet. Set off sooooo many car alarms😌
I worked for a govt entity at sea, and if we were in trouble, we could request "sledge hammer", where a carrier would vector in attack aircraft to do just that, they would get low on the deck and "buzz" the offending warships/boats.
There was a friendly competition among the the real Top Guns pilots for performing the fly by the tower scene. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity for the winner.
The thing that made me shake my head was Jester evading Maverick by going below the "hard deck." The hard deck simulates the ground. So Jester's plan to avoid losing the dogfight to Maverick & Goose was to deliberately crash into the ground. Then Maverick also crashes his plane into the ground chasing Jester. Still love the movie.
Jester admits he cheated to Viper in his office. Viper: “He got you, didn’t he? Jester : “yeah”
No, they were instructed that the "hard deck" was 10,000 feet and there would be no engagement below that level. That means if someone goes below that you are not allowed to "shoot" them. It's a safety zone. Go watch the movie again.
The hard deck for this operation WAS 10,000 feet not the ground. Duh!
Except that several scenes prior to that has them flying between assorted mountain peaks. There are no mountains above 10,000 ft in the San Diego area...not even close. Plus, Jester claims that he called "No Joy" (meaning he lost sight of the other aircraft and requires the "fight" to be suspended)...that call is not in the movie. I suspect it was edited out and then forgotten when the after action conversation was filmed (or as is often the case, they were filmed out of order)
@@rossdillon17 - I believe that's because those scenes were filmed at the location where the NAS (Naval Air Station) for Top Gun is now located....Fallon, Northern Nevada. Definitely mountains up there. So these scenes were in Fallon. I worked up in Carson City, Nevada and driving up from Phoenix, I had seen highway signs to NAS Fallon.
They forgot to mention the fact that only a few scenes were actually filmed at (then) NAS Miramar. (hangar scene, ready room scene, volleyball scene, and Tom "riding" his motorcycle on the flightline rd.)
Flight scenes were filmed at and around NAS Fallon, NV, where Topgun (one word) is now based, locker room scenes were at the Mission Beach Plunge swimming pool, the scene where Tom Chases Kelly McGuiness' Porsche, was filmed on Laurel st. in downtown San Diego, the "barracks" and Officers' club scenes were filmed at the (now defunct) Naval Training Center in downtown San Diego, the piano scenes were filmed at the Kansas City Barbecue at Seaport Village in downtown San Diego, the "hemlock" scene was filmed at the (now defunct) Windsock restaurant/bar adjacent to San Diego Lindbergh Field airport, and call sign Charlie's house was in Oceanside.
I'm sure there are more, but these are the main ones.
I was an F-14 mechanic in the 90’s. In one scene when Maverick shoots a missile he actually really engages the nose wheel steering button on the control stick. Only F-14 guys catch that one. :) I laugh every time I see that.
The irony about the MiGs actually being F5s is that Charlie unknowingly breaks the 4th wall when she tells the cadets "We will be dealing with F5s and A4s as our MiG simulators..."
those planes always bugged me as adversaries. I am glad TGM has more authentic aircraft in it.
Most people wouldn't know what any of these planes actually are,except anyone interested in planes as I am and the migs are not migs but Northrup F5's,which hurts the authenticity of the movie.It's like having a hurricane used as an ME 109,which look nothing like each other.
@@sonza68 i forgot about that
The biggest error that I can't "unsee" when I watch Top Gun, which is an amazing movie, is the F-14 nose numbers. In the final scene, Maverick launches in an F-14 with a nose number 104. When he lands on the carrier after the mission, he is in an F-14 with nose number 114 - Iceman and Slider were in 104. Those two aircraft, 104 and 114, were filmed throughout the movie. As a matter of fact, I believe number 104 was the plane that crashed and killed Goose...but yet returned for the final scene. It's movie magic...but again, I can't get it out of my mind when I watch. Anyone else notice those two numbers flip-flopping in the scenes?
"Too close for missles..I'm switching to guns!" (Shots fired in final fight sequence has plenty of gun footage). Also..Kelly McGillis does make reference to "bandit" terminology. Other points were still really interesting though. Cant wait to see Top Gun sequel out this month! 😍
They show a scene in this video of them actually using the cannon 😂🤥
Just rewatched this and they definitely said that, so I call bull too.
Also, the confusion about the "slowing down" part actually is wrong. One major thing taught in fighter combat is 'Energy Management' flight is a 3 dimensional environment. The slamming of the throttles always has a lag. The thrust takes a little time to become more speed. The pilot pulled back on the stick, trading speed for altitude. The trailing enemy would have flown past. then the f-14 would angle back down and engage the target from it's '6' (Behind). If a fighter loses it's energy (Speed or altitude) it is at a huge and often unrecoverable disadvantage. 'Flooring it' when pulling up made sure that you didn't loose too much energy in the whole maneuvre.
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Viper’s rank and name is CDR. Mike Metcalf, and “…you will not find a finer fighter pilot anywhere in the world”
Maverick & Goose wear the squadron patches of VF-1 “Wolfpack’ and arrested landings on the USS Ranger which are accurate. However, VF-1 was stationed at NAS Miramar which is also the home of USN Fighter Weapons School aka Top Gun. So, “sending them to Miramar” was also just sending them home.
Iceman & Slider wear patches for VFA-25 “Fist of the Fleet” which I will grant you is a cool name & logo. The problem is VFA-25 flew A-7II Corsairs which are medium attack/bombers and not F-14 fighters.
When Top Gun was released, I was in the 80th TFS ("Juvats") flying F-16's in Korea. I got a VHS copy from the black market at Kadena AFB. The pilots loved to gather in the dorm "living room" and cheer every time Maverick made a kill. We ignored the errors and loved the aerial photography.
ACM -- long-distance maneuvering until you can get a shot before the other guy does -- is always preferred. BFM is the close-in twisting and turning portrayed in movies, but to be avoided, especially in a big heavy aircraft like the F-14 vs small agile F-5's. (The F-14 was specifically designed to provide long-range fleet defense, carrying a special long-range air-to-air missile, the Phoenix.)
For me, the most painful error is the idea of a combat "floor". For safety reasons, the rocky solid earth was simulated to be at some altitude, say 2000 feet -- the "floor". If anyone in the training exercise violated the floor even for a moment, they automatically become a "mort" -- as in, dead pilot. If Jester hit the floor, that's a kill for Maverick, who should disengage and search for other targets. Jester would be required to fly home in shame. It would be ridiculous for Maverick to continue his pursuit when he saw Jester approaching the "floor". If Maverick crashed his jet into the simulated rocky ground, he also would fly home in shame.
Jester and Maverick diving into the "floor" wouldn't incur the wrath of the commander, it would incur the laughter of the other pilots. Diving into the ground is a really dumb idea -- evidence of an incompetent pilot..
I was a site commander at one of the training and testing ranges attached to Nellis, where we trained fighter pilots (as well as highly specialized other aircraft/crews 🤐) to fly against SAM's and Triple AAA's.
We worked with all branches from a number of countries. The "floor" is literally the desert floor. The environment is so real; to avoid detection, we've had aircraft clip mountain tops trying to sneak in prior to checking on range. Once the training begins, flying at 50 feet gets nothing more than a yawn from ground personnel.
No offense, but to be honest, I always wondered why our kill rate was so high against Naval aviators (like 7x that of Airman). Now I know. Thanks.
Air Force makes a distinction between ACM and BFM. With the Navy it’s all ACM
Your last line in the first paragraph says it all. Ignore the errors and enjoy the film. It’s Hollywood and it’s just for ENTERTAINMENT as what movies are for.
Actually it is wrong to assume F-14 was not an phenomenal dogfighter especially considering it was not it's most primary mission. In a one circle fight, Tomcat was famous for even out-turning the F-16 in a radius fight because of a higher AoA capability so F-16 pilots always did two circle rate fight. F-14 had far better turning performance especially in sustained turning than F-5 or A-4 due to the big thrust and wing loading advantage other than rolling quicker and being hard to see, they were no match for the Tomcat in a turning or vertical fight. There was a joke in the Navy that if you want to kill an F-14 in an F-5: or A-4, it is only by making the Tomcat pilot lose sight of you. If an F-14 found you in an A-4 or F-5, there was almost no way to win unless he made a mistake
Good times as Kadena
The F-5s are an actual Adversary squadron I believe they're the Fighting Saints and that's their actual insignias
Loved the movie. One of my all time faves but I have to say that I have really enjoyed reading through these comments. So many informative posts from people in the know. It hasn't made, for me, the movie any less watchable, but next time I watch it I will be looking with a different set of eyes.
I was stationed at Miramar n.a.s. when this film was made. As an ejection seat mechanic, I noticed an anomaly in the film. If you slow down the ejection sequence when goose ejects, you can see a small brass object in the smoke. This is called a star wheel. It is used to open the top latch mechanism when removing the seat for maintenance. Although the aircraft could fly with it installed, when they went inverted the seat would go " thunk " against the top of the canopy! I would be the one to notice that!!
Wow! That’s awesome!! Thank you for helping with this movie.
Are we not going to talk about how Goose's death could ever happen. As an AO who had some knowledge on the ejection seat 1.) Goose's head would never hit the canopy because the ejection seat has about a 1 foot clearance above his head. 2.) The top of the ejection seat has about an 1 to 2 inch clearance from canopy and is designed to break through the glass in the event of an ejection. 3.) The ejection seat is designed to fire in a way that the canopy obviously fires first then the ejection seat fires. We are talking seconds here but with that air speed the canopy seems to actually hover above the aircraft. Now to the bombs and missiles most of them were inerts. All the ones that are blue or have a blue stripe around it are inert. Only the ones with yellow and brown are the live one and there were not that many.
@@joesanmiguel6354 You know, that is a detail that made the movie kind of hard to watch on that part
Not just that, but the ejections themselves in the movie are fake.
@@mikegriego3671 I feel fairly sure its impossible to film the real thing and get usable footage. I doubt you could go to Martin Baker or whoever makes them these days and just buy a couple of ejection seats. Seems like the sort of thing the government doesn't want sold to just anybody.
Even if you got the real thing, the actual eject is much too fast to get anything but a blur on camera.
"Bogey" is an unidentified aircraft. You see and are tracking an aircraft, but otherwise don't know whether it's friendly, unfriendly, or neutral.
"Bandit" is an identified unfriendly aircraft. You see and are tracking an aircraft, and have other information that meets the Rules of Engagement criteria for declaring it to be a bad guy.
"Hostile" is an identified unfriendly aircraft which fighters are cleared to engage (ie, shoot down). Meets all the ROE criteria for Bandit plus the ROE for being cleared to shoot it down.
"Contact" is basically a way of saying "I see something on my radar (or other sensor) but know nothing else about it, I'll get back to you when I do." Told by Andy Burns, Surface Warfare & Flight Officer at United States Navy (1999-present)
"Tally" and "No joy" are two other important call-outs.
A 'skunk' is an unknown surface unit, not an aircraft.
Very cool. Thanks for the clarifications.
Exactly, as are the other replies for tally, no joy and skunk
Best part is the volleyball scene “serve it to him ice”
I live in San Diego and every time we walk or drive by guys with no shirts on playing beach volleyball we alwase yell “SERVE IT TO HIM ICE!!!!”
Just watched Top Gun Maverick and had the same frisson chills as I did watching Top Gun (the original). I will always love the danger zone! Thanks for your video. I have to go watch the original again (and again).
Only on netflix til midnight tonight!😅
One mistake that's always stood out to me is when viper says "the hard deck for this hop is 10,000 feet. There will be no engagements below that..", and then all the dogfighting is literally right above ground, even flying lower than hilltops sometimes. No one ever seems to catch that one. Viper does address it after the jester encounter but otherwise it's never mentioned
Yee haw Jester's dead:)
I always reasoned it was a higher elevation at that location. 10,000 feet above sea level could still be 1-2,000 feet above ground.
@@cfdfirefighter Why would the hard deck be set above sea level and not above ground level?
I also wonder if Jester "calling no joy and went below the hard deck" is like cheating? He couldn't see Mav so he just went below the hard deck so Mav couldn't engage? Sounds like cheating to me.
@@stargazer2504 "He got you didn't he ?"
I feel like a lot of the inconsistencies in terminology and such was deliberate. Remember. They weren’t allowed to “fire chaff and flares” to avoid missile lock (like in real life) because the pentagon didn’t want to give away the defensive capabilities of the Tomcat
Ha ! Now that you mention it…. how did I not notice
chaff was developed in the 40-s, no? how was it a secret by the time the movie came out?
That’s just BS.
There's an early appearance by a young Decepticon Starscream. The future star of Michael Bay's Transformers franchise was yet to make his breakout performance in the animated Transformers film in 1986 when he appeared as the travelling companion for young Bradley, Goose's son. Starscream is seen in several scenes being cuddled by Goose.
Starscream almost didn't get the part as Starscream is a F-15 Eagle, an Air Force jet and not a F-14 Tomcat that Goose flew in. US Navy figures were reluctant to allow any Air Force related people near Top Gun because of the long rivalry between the two services, but the Admirals were convinced by the arguement that Starscream is not US Air Force but is an evil Decepticon warrior and that was more acceptable to the US Navy. It was a decision the US Navy would later regret as Starscream participated in the destruction and sinking of the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
Jester, Rick Heatherly, is Michael Ironside, one of the best actors around. i loved him in “V” with Marc Singer. (everyone in that cast was terrific.)
Good job on the list, and this is an entertaining video. A couple nitpicks: First, nobody thought Tom Cruise was actually piloting a $74 million aircraft that requires hundreds of hours of training to operate. Second, most people who saw the movie in '86 knew exactly who Art Scholl was, because he was the most famous stunt pilot living at the time. His death during the filming of Top Gun was also headline news across the entire nation. And remember, this was at a time when everyone saw the same news on TV, because most people only had five major channels. So big news stories were pretty hard to tune out. Scholl's death also became baked into the mystique and buzz of the film.
Apologies for my ignorance, but how did die? Was it a stunt gone wrong? And back then I was 15, and truly haven't heard of him but that doesn't negate his accomplishments, it was sad for me to hear about Jan Micheal Vincent's friend who died on air wolf doing a hammer head stall in a helicopter, one of the Bell series, he did it well the first shot which they put in but he crashed on the second one, and Jan blamed himself for asking for the second take, he started drinking heavily because of it.
Thank u sir
@@dianeneedham6703 Scholl crashed into the ocean off Encinitas CA while filming a stunt for the film. And not ignorant at all. I probably assigned greater importance to the event when it happened, because I was pretty familiar with Scholl's work. So it's possible that it wasn't headline news to everyone :)
@@bmccarty2012 Anything can go wrong when you're doing dangerous stunts in any vehicle, flying or otherwise, you have to give mad props to any stunt man, or woman that puts they're body on the the line to entertain the masses, and bring a writer/ director's dream to life.
@@dianeneedham6703 Scholl died filming the flat spin sequence. He put his plane into a spin recovery sequence at 9,000 feet and it failed to recover. He radioed distress as he fell through 6,000 feet, and never was able to get control authority back.
I like how you hit the film for using improper naval terminology but then repeatedly refer to the pilots as soldiers.
You mean Naval Aviators.
@@joshmajka4980 MOS 1395, Pilot.
@@brenthauer8365 They'd be 1310s
@@dongquixote7138 131X series yes, 1395 specifically would be students. Either way they’re referred to as pilots, more specifically “Aviation Warfare Officer, Pilot”
@@brenthauer8365 Student Naval Aviators (i.e. in flight school) are 1390s. I'm nearly positive the designator doesn't change because you go to/graduate one of the weapons schools.
Great video my friend! And if you don’t mind the list not being a nice round 20, I have a few more little somethings you may be interested in. Years back I had the good fortune to have the honor of shaking hands with retired United States Navy Rear Admiral Kenneth "Pete" Pettigrew, and getting to personally thank him for his service. For a fan like me, it was absolutely surreal! He gave a speech about the production of the film, and even did a Q and A session with those present (I was born and raised here in San Diego, California aka “Fightertown, U.S.A.” and I had no idea the venue existed. A local news channel did a piece on Pettigrew, and announced he would be speaking at a San Diego writers and filmmakers guild for the 30 year anniversary of the release of the film, so yeah we’re talking 2016 here. Anyway, cutting to the chase: Pettigrew pointed out several very interesting things about the production of the film along with it being established that he made that cameo in the first bar scene, being the man in the yellow shirt. Okay: 1. There is NO Top Gun trophy. As Pettigrew pointed out, it’s a school, not a competition. If it were, to paraphrase his words, “If it were a competition, there would be a lot of pilots who’d die in ‘a training accident,’ and a lot of lost aircraft.” 2. The locker room scenes were filmed at “The Plunge” here in San Diego. It’s an indoor olympic-sized pool deal. The reason why they even had the locker room scenes is because they wanted to get as much skin out of Tom Cruise, so to speak. What else?🤔 Oh, 3. A filming aircraft was also lost during filming off the coast, costing the life of a pilot and what must’ve been invaluable film footage. The producers asked the wife of the pilot if she wanted them to down and retrieve his body and she responded, “No.” And saying that’s where he would’ve wanted to rest in peace. Oh, and fun fact: for the “buzzing the tower” scene, which Pettigrew said would only be done by a madman who wanted to lose his wings and be court-martialed, the pilot who flew the F-14 in that sequence, call sign Joker, was told to get low, but not “unsafe” low. Something like 700 feet off the deck. Well Joker 🃏 took it upon himself to give everyone an unexpected show and buzzed the tower only 100 feet above the deck! Okay buddy, if anything else comes of the archives of my subconscious, I’ll let you know! Cheers!
Throttling up with brakes on is actually the best way to force an overshoot. It takes several seconds for a jet turbine to spool up or down. When you throttle down your engines are still producing thrust for several seconds..so let your engines spool down in a scissors fight then throttle up before dumping your speed with high-g maneuver. This way you dump your speed while turbines are spinning up but not producing much thrust and you can roll out having near maximum thrust at your slowest speed to recover to get on your aggressor's six. If you don't spool up prior before dumping your speed you'll be stalled with no thrust for 7 seconds waiting for turbines to spin up while the bogey goes vertical (and drops back down on your six).
Another point that is missed, is the Topgun sticker on Mav’s motorcycle. Until you graduate from the school, no one would be caught dead with a sticker or patch in fear of jinxing themselves. In flight school none of us dared wear a shirt or hat that had Naval Aviator’s wings on them.
Submarine sailors who has not yet earned their warfare pin used to be forbidden from wearing anything with Dolphins on them, including command ball caps. This is something that changed in the mid 90s. Kindly gentler Navy.
Around NAS Miramar, no one would wear a Top Gun patch or ball cap unless your part of VF-126, Top Gun instructor or graduate. I was in VF-51 as a Plane Captain for the F-14A in 1985-86, engine shop 86-89 and part of the filming for 9 months. We were part of the movie and many of us, including myself was used as extras in the movie. As extras and part of the movie, we still wouldn't wear any Top Gun hats/t-shirts. VF-51 patch and hat for me only at that time.
Is Mavericks name a joke about being an air to ground missile who crashes into the ground? I seem to recall them teasing him about his call sign but never knew why.
@@rawnukles most call signs are not chosen by the pilot but by their fellow squadron peers. They are chosen from mistakes when they were nuggets or from something really cool they did. My cousins can sign was POPs... he was the oldest guy in their flight class AND it stands for Prince of Porn. He has an extensive Playboy collection. The first female pilot assigned to Ocean NAS was given the call sign of Mounds...Almond Joy's got nuts, Mounds don't.
No kidding. I didn't get my flight gear issue until I was actually IN flight school. We got it during the API phase at P'cola before starting Primary. Now, they give the fuckin' middies flight suits on service selection night and they can wear them to class on Fridays. They haven't even graduated USNA yet. When I was there, we got our leather jackets and that was it. I don't remember being able to wear them on the yard to class, either.
As an X- USAF munitions troop, we liked how ordinance magically appeared back on the wings after being launched.
IYAAYAS
@@divershay AMMO!
@@stevetobe4494 hell yeah!!!
Tim Robbins
Merlin
Great vid man. I spotted very few of these; one thing I kind of noticed was
that yes indeed, Kelly McGillis did seem to lose weight in the elevator scene....
I still can't see the motorbike being pulled along with straps, but I'll take your word for it lol.
I must have watched this movie at least 40 times when I was a kid: Twice in the theater, once or twice on T.V. and all other times on VHS!
My niece has aspirations of going to flight school when she commissioned into the Navy after graduating college. She told me once that she wanted to become a RIO (radar intercept officer). After explaining what a RIO does, I said “Basically Goose from Top Gun, but without the dying?” She says “YES! I knew you’d get it!”
No more RIOs.
The irony of goof whilst describing a goof! “Iceman Puts IN His Watch Twice”.
If I remember propery, the F14 was made to engage multiple targets at maximum distance from the CAG they were based off. So getting up close and personal wasn't really part of their mission scope. They would have launched the appropriate missiles at the bandits at about 100 miles. The REO would have vectored the missiles into the relevant targets.
Yes and no, usually you don't engage unless you have visual. Which their camera system would have done at about 60miles out. The Phoenix engagement of 100nm give or take, was mainly for a time of war where engagement was given without need to ask. Here just a single F-14 would have downed the migs in the scene as the single f-14 could simultaneously track 25+ targets, fire at 6 independently, and leave. The Phoenix would have a hit ratio of at least 90% so just 2 pop shots after another would have done it.
But hey, no cool dog fight if that was the case here.
While serving aboard the cruiser, USS Reeves CG-24, we received the film cans during underway replenishment. Each time we were supposed to send Top Gun back to the ship that would refuel us a week later we would send back the replacement movie instead of Top Gun. We watched it for 3 weeks straight till the Admiral on the USS Midway made us return it. By then the whole crew new every one liner and dialog exchange. Good Times.
For a long time, after a run of a new movie was winding down and before the next blockbuster debuted, the largest movie theater in our area would bring back Top Gun because it was a known box office money maker. I saw Top Gun there at least 5 times. Later, I bought the VHS and when that got stolen, I bought the DVD. Great movie!!
Actually "ballistic" means traveling under the force of gravity only. Hence ballistic missile, meaning it's launched and then flies to its target via gravity.
Also the inverted dive is possible, the f14 has 2 tail fins while the F5 tiger has 1....and it was like 3 meters away, which is 15 feet.
I knew those were f5's back when the movie came out, when I was 12...because my favorite jets were the F20 tigershark and the A10 thunderbolt 2.
The Warthog is still a fantastic, no nonsense, get the job done design. Still blows my mind that if you were to hold the trigger long enough on it's nose mounted gun it could actually reduce your airspeed to the point of causing a stall! 😅 Was lucky enough to get to sit in the cockpit of one years ago at Leuchars and got my photo taken. Also VERY happy that it's one of the aircraft available in Ace Combat 7's VR missions.
Can't happen, aerodynamics would pull them together. Venturi effect. U.S.A.F Egress Technician retired.A-10 qualified 18 years...also look at the ejection seats, see that brass looking know on the top left of the seat. It called a handwheel, it unlocks the seat from the catapult for seat removal. I'm not going to get into goose's death. 0ne in a million case
The tail design on Kilmer's F14 Tomcat was actually borrowed from Attack Squadron 25 (Fist of the Fleet) that flew A-7E Corsair IIs. Being the Flight Deck Coordinator for one of the A7 squadrons on the Enterprise during the filming and a former member of VA-25, we gave the fighter guys a very hard time about using an attack squadron logo on a fighter aircraft.
When the movie was being filmed, the squadron was VFA-25, flying the F/A-18. A college buddy and fellow Naval Aviator got orders there as a 'Nugget,' newly winged at NAS Kingsville.
From Wikipedia:
Wikipedia is full o' 💩
One had to go through 122 (one funny zoo) 2 go there
And vf 124 tomcats f 14 squadron used my vaw 110 firebirds aew e2c hawkeye squadron patch
Actually, that was on Mav's jet, Ice's jet had the insignia from an E-2 squadron: VAW-113 "HORMEL HOGS".
"In fact, our heroes never used guns at any point..." This is where you lost me. Does the Top Gun line, "Too close for missiles, switching to guns" mean anything to you? Maverick DID use his guns.
He never fired them.
I knew a few of them but my son was just 8 years old when it came out. You can figure his age out but to this day when someone asks him something he still says “negative Ghost Rider.” You can hardly forget the movie with that remark being used all the time. He is anxiously waiting for the 2nd movie to be released!
Ha! I'm around the same age, and I will have to remember to use phrase. Even reading it in your comment, I know exactly where it's used in the film (like most, I suspect!)
@@stuarthtodd yep! Me too! I can’t begin to tell you how many times he’s watched the movie. He can probably recite it back line for line. If he’s not watching that it’s Forrest Gump. I suspect that is because of the small connection with Vietnam, even though it’s rather fantastical. But his dad was there and that’s what matters!!
Theres more errors in your video than the actual movie
Seems you don’t know that Navy aircraft operators are called aviators, not pilots and damn sure not soldiers.
Something Maverick points out in the movie. "A naval aviator."
Loved the info on one of my favorite movies. Look forward to more from you.
2:48
No it's not. Based on the length as well as the vertical stabilizer height compared to the canopy of both the F-14 Tomcat and the Northrop F-5 used for the "MiG 28" in the movie. To begin with there would be multiple feet of clearance between the top of each vertical stabilizer and the enemy aircraft. The vertical stabilizers would not be able to interact because on what they call a MIG it is far too much forward compared to the F-14. At no point would they have anything less than 2.5 feet of clearance which is more than possible of maintaining such close perimeters. The best comparison for this would be flying in what's called a fingertip formation for those of you who don't know in a fingertip formation if you're three feet apart from your wingman's aircraft you are often considered way too far apart. In a fingertip formation if you are on the left your right-wing is typically less than 1 ft less than 30 cm from your wingman's left-wing. But at no point would that F5 and F-14 have less than 75 inches of clearance. The only way this is impossible as if the pilot of the F5 got spooked and crashed into him by pulling up rather than pushing down on his stick.
I'll be reporting this video for its blatant spreading of misinformation.
This channel is one of the few I actually watch all the way to the end. Gotta hear those words of support, they’re more helpful than I thought they would be.
Jules is the man, and a massive ledge!
100% agree! Gotta hear those words of encouragement from Jules.
Quentin Tarantino's speech how Top Gun is a different film than we thought is hilarious and worth searching YT for
@@EJY318 And yet his final, and most major, point of evidence, the exclamation point of his rant, if you will, is wholly incorrect.
Lol, Not familiar with this, but just watched it. Pretty funny. Those Hollywood thinkers are always ahead of the game.
After bringing up Iceman's watch i thought it would eventually be brought up that in the opening scene when the ship captain enters the CIC, there are shots where he is wearing all his ribbons and others where he wasnt wearing any at all.
My cousin was one of the original founders of Fighter Weapons School. He passed away in Feb 2021.
Surprised you didn’t mention that Merlin was Tim Robbins. Didn’t realize this until decades later.
Didn’t mention Clarence Gilyard Jr. either. He went on to be in Die Hard and Walker Texas Ranger.
I get the impression Tim didn't like this movie very much.
He want talking about the actor’s real names.. he was referring to the character’s real names
I love how they dog the production for the misuse of the words bogey and ballistic and then refer to sailors as soldiers.
And let's note that some of the people who think "Take my Breath Away" is cheezy... include Berlin, who reportedly hate the song, which was their biggest hit ever, and completely unlike everything else they ever released.
Movie soundtracks are not an unmixed blessing.
When trying to figure out who the number 1 is. Ice tells maverick 2nd place is in the ladies room. Literally a soon following scene, Maverick goes after the Instructor into the Ladies Room.
The point about guns not actually being used by these "Top Gun" pilots is an extreme nitpick. The other side of "dogfighting" skills is combat aviation, skills that kept the pilots alive when they were grossly outnumbered at the end of the film. The point of the opening speech in their class wasn't that missiles were a poor choice, but that the reliance on the technology was dulling the pilots overall skill set in the cockpit.
The point about starting another world war is also inaccurate. The US forces didn't fly into foreign airspace to engage the enemy, they were in the air to respond to enemy planes that were approaching a stranded boat that was undergoing rescue ops by the US Navy. The US planes also didn't fire until fired upon. International incident? Sure. Sparking WW3? No.
This video was simply cringe-worthy in how extreme some of the nitpicks were. "Top Gun" is just a nickname for the Fighter Weapons School. The term "gun" is used in a very rhetorical sense.
At 8:04 in this vid, You actually see them using guns. To say they're never used and then show them being used is ridiculous
@@17Blower maverick actually says "too close for missiles I'm switching to guns!" in one scene too
@@17Blower That was one of the enemy planes. Still nitpicky though
The first aircraft deployed at the topgun school were early naval f4 phantoms that had no guns, the pilots were taught to use aggressive dogfights skills to get their aircraft or their wingman into a position where their missiles (sidewinder usually) had the best chance of a hit. While keeping a mutual eye out for each other to prevent the enemy from killing them.
My husband was in the Air Force when this movie came out. His job was as a jet engine mechanic. We went to see this movie at a drive-in near the base where he was stationed at the time. On more than one occasion he announced loudly that "That's not how an afterburner works" and other similar technical phrases I'm sure the rest of the attendees weren't interested in hearing .
Read my post. I'm sure your husband would like to know that the USAF made this movie first.
@@williamlopez8676 Thanks for that information. I found the movie on YT and have forwarded it to my hubby. I'm sure he'll enjoy it.
Ummm, regarding #9, I believe the objective was a ship recovery, it became disabled, and wandered into hostile territory, for whatever reason. The fighters were deployed to maintain security so a rescue could be coordinated.
Bottom line, the ROE stated in the film, “do not fire unless fired upon”. The “migs” fired first and shot down Hollywood/Wolfman, then engaged Iceman/Slider, but didn’t fire.
I've always felt that the most unrealistic & unbelievable scene was the volleyball sequence. Common knowledge is that part of being successful at volleyball is being over four and half feet tall. Everyone should be spiking the ball into Tiny Tommy's kisser.
LOL!
True but doesn't always go that way in practice.
Even knowing all of this, it's still one of my favourite films.
Thank you for the uplifting boost Jules!
Another issue is during action in the air, the planes alternate between wings being swept and and extended, sometimes in split second shots. They don’t adjust that fast and probably impossible in high G maneuvers.
Yup, I missed all of them but man, it was a great film! Loved it.
Navy members are NEVER called ‘soldiers.’ Soldiers are Army members.
Navy Members are SQUIDS.....!!!
I used to laugh how our Air Force counterparts would get miffed when the Naval Aviation bubbas were called "Airmen" instead of "Seamen" but that's what their ratings and ranks were. Those of us Marines just made fun of all of them. Joint training ops are always fun.
He said “members” haha ha haha!
*@**3:32** incorrect. There's actully an electric minigun scene where an F15 corkscrews away from overtaking fire and F15's are equipped with starboard M61A1 Six-barrel Gatling Gun.*
18:16 contradicts what he said about them calling enemies 'Bogies' throughout, where he says they are (correctly) identified as 'hostiles'.
The entire Top Gun soundtrack is really, really good
Yes, indeed, because I have a copy in my Rock music library.
I was and still am a avid war nerd when I first saw this movie but it’s still one of my favorite movies ever!
We know exactly what killed Art Scholl. He was shooting background footage to green screen over the canopy in the flat spin scene. The director told him to do a much safer spiraling descent, but Art wasn’t satisfied with the footage because it didn’t look realistic. So Art, having done a flat spin and gotten out of it 100 times, did the flat spin the way he always does; but the placement of the camera on the win disrupted the airflow in such a way that Art couldn’t pull out of the spin the way he wanted to.
The camera actually moved the CG of the aircraft too far aft thereby making it even more unstable. Aircraft with too far aft CGs will enter spins very, very easily and, very likely, unrecoverable. There's a saying... "An aircraft with a CG too far forward will fly poorly. An aircraft with a CG too far aft will fly...once..."
Why didn't Art Eject??
@@aaronweiser5421 He was in a piston/prop powered Pitts S-2 aerobatic biplane, not a Tomcat. No ejection seat. And, even with a parachute, it's immensely difficult to manually open the canopy, jump out and get yourself clear of the airframe when in a flat spin.
Vaya con Dios, Art.......
@@susannahfox7188 Little late for that. LOL
The F-14 has twin tail fins, separated by several feet. The F-5 Tigershark has a single tail fin, so they could THEORETICALLY get that close together without fouling. It would be incredibly risky to do with people you train to do it with all the time, like the pilots of the Blue Angel's or The Thunderbirds, it would be insane to do it with at level flight, let alone a dive, because you cannot predict what the other pilot will do and there is no time for correction if he he reacts in a panic. But they COULD get much closer than two planes with the same tail configuration.
This correct! Glad I wasn’t the only one who knew this!
Thanks for the info. Good video 👍👌
After living in San Diego for a period of years one of the parts that is really quite humorous is the chasing between Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis… As they leave the flight school in point Loma… First part of the scene… Then they are directly over by the airport, which is basically across town in a matter of seconds…And then they are at her place which is up in your oceanside which is an hour away. Obviously in the movie it makes sense… But if you know the locations it’s not quite as connected as it would appear.
Her place was in La Jolla, people visit it all the time
@@roberthudson4440 type in …Kelly McGill is house, top gun… it states,, Oceanside ,,,
@@BeeKeeper37 IT is wrong
I have that same problem with locations that are supposedly here in New York City.
I am 53 and loved the 1980's. Back when things weren't so f*cked up with political sensitivity and Karens
Rose tinted
@@MarlboroughBlenheim1 not rose tinted, reality-based
@@tims7738 we had many issues then as well. Economic issues, major debt for third world, wars. Major civil discontent and violence occurred, including the Iran-Iraq War, the Soviet-Afghan War, the 1982 Lebanon War, the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, the Bombing of Libya in 1986, and the First Intifada in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Islamism became a powerful political force in the 1980s and many terrorist organizations, including Al Qaeda, started.
ENJOYED THIS VIDEO VERY MUCH! THANKS!
I'm glad people are concentrating on this important stuff. Well done.
2:15 “Going ballistic,“ means that gravity is the only force acting on the aircraft. It’s not max speed, Nor min speed. The movie uses it in reference to when the aircraft is in a steep climb (similar to the launch of a ballistic missile going almost straight up). Ballistic flight (example) would be something like rolling the plane 90° and letting the plane descend by gravity alone. Max speed is not the envelope. Oversimplified, the envelope is contained by four corners. 1. How slow the plane can travel at sea level and still maintain control. 2. How fast the plane can travel at sea level. 3. How slow the plane can fly at maximum altitude. 4. How fast the plane can fly at maximum altitude.
The Term going Ballistic used in the movie was the civilian slang for going like a "Bat outta Hell". Since the Navy has a different use of the slang it confuses people who can't disassociate Military from Civilian even though they know both well enough.
@@animalyze7120 military has used the term since the 50s, to describe unguided flight.
The movie reference was basically accurate. It was on a steep climb, where the wings basically contribute nothing to the lift
Wow -this is so far off the mark on so many points. Ballistic doesn't mean what you think it means (yes the movie got it wrong too, but they were closer than you were.) The term for maximum speed isn't 'envelope' (even without your weird pronunciation). TOPGUN isn't about learning to fight with guns; it's about ACM. I gave up at that point, as this vid didn't seem to be "20 things you somehow missed in Top Gun" as much as "20 things we thought were mistakes in Top Gun"
Whoever did this WhatCulture really needs to lift their game.
I came to the conclusion that people doing theses videos just gather some crap that is beeing discussed in numerous media and try to orgnanize it in some hit list. Some of the points are correct, some are not. Depends where he took the crap from but for sure didn't do any study about it.
Correction, the "MiG 28s" are F-5 e & f models. Single and 2 seat respectively.
When Maverick is chasing either Jester or Viper (forget) hes close behind him, then theres a shot where the F-14 zips up from bottom of screen followed by the F-4 , so the f-4 is now behind for like 2 seconds...then its back to the tomcat chasing in the next shot.
If you were actually paying attention when he was fumbling with his watch he was adjusting the time then putting it on
Agreed.
It wasn't created for solders, it was created for Naval Aviators . They had became to reliant in missles
I missed all 20! Saw the new on 2 days ago- It was fabulous!
Thanks for the trivia, but I will always love this movie.
TOP GUN for aviation is like BACKDRAFT for firefighters (I know I have 30 years of service with firefighters) it's beautiful, it's magnificent, it creates vocations, but it's totally unrealistic .
I like this comparaison. I'm not interested and knowledgable in fire or firefighter matters but boy I loved that film just for the fire rendition on screen, just like Top Gun did bring real images of sexy fighters to the general public. Fire was the star of the show in Backdraft as the Tomact was the star of the show in Top Gun.
The film's composer and main theme is credited (primarily) as Harold Faltermeyer, not Moroder.
I just saw top gun 2 on June 2nd and it was pretty damn awesome!!!!!! Plus it was totally🤯 and I wouldn't mind seeing it again or a couple more times I loved it
15:21 awesome breakdown. I think second time around Ton Cruz corrected a lot of those Original things and WOW, Meverick is amazing
Their "nicknames" are actually called callsigns, used to identify who is in what aircraft and who to "call" when they have to distribute orders...
Thank you. I knew I wasn't that only one who caught this.
He also says that they're "code names". Wrong. Like you say -- they're "call signs".
I don't know what the navy rules were. But At Travis AFB (1980ish) if you wanted to ride a motorcycle on base you had to wear a helmet and a reflective vest.
USAF would never have allowed a movie like Topgun to be made about it.
If you look closely, you can see the straps holding the motorcycle to a trailer. Tom Cruise didn’t actually ride the motorcycle.
I recall seeing in another “facts” about top gun that they were allowed to fire one missile and they flipped the image to produce the second shot.
did anybody notice that the captain in the opening seqcence enters the command and control room without wearing any ribbons but when he is standing behind the radar operator he has ribbons practicly to his shoulder! thanks to my late navy 1st class p.o. brother Dale K. for catching that!
Great list, enjoyed it.
With #6 about the watch, I think you’ve got it wrong there. In the first shot it looks like he is holding the watch and winding it or setting the time. In the 2nd shot, it starts with home still holding it and taking that action and then putting it on.
Agreed. It is quite obvious that he isn't putting it on twice...I was confused by this one at first. I think it's just wrong.