To think Top Gun Maverick is only good because it’s so bad!

[Butterflyfluff]

Lighthearted!

I heard / read loads of great reviews about Top Gun Maverick but I couldn’t believe how bad it was!

It’s essentially the same film as the first one - I’m sure deliberately so but it became a parody of itself.

And, I know I’m over thinking this but

• Since when can people fighter planes wear glasses
• How can 4 jets fly in a row so closely together?
• How can they fly through a viaduct?

There were a couple of laughs in it and the ending was cheesy Hollywood at its finest but it was nowhere near as good as I expected.

What spoilers? For Maverick? This thread is entirely about the film!

JP: Dominion? You mean the scene in all the trailers and TV spots?

i was totally eurgh at it but i thought the first one was the greatest thing in the history of the world etc.

by the end of tg2 i was literally thinking i was watching a film with buzz and woody in it and buzz swooped to save the day. also etc etc.

I loved all the homage to the original film.

It was bloody great and I loved every minute of it!

I loved it because it was so cheerfully predictable. You knew exactly what was going to happen, right from the moment the Cruiser slung his leg over the bike at the start, and it did happen, in exactly the order you suspected, but louder and faster, and without any danger of anything going seriously wrong for anyone at any point. It was exactly what I needed after two years of unpredictable world events.

The Val Kilmer storyline was sensitively handled, and the love scene was mercifully lizard tongue free. Also, I loved the rather self-deprecating call backs to the original. Didn't Maverick have dad issues too?

I'm not a Tom Cruise fan and I only vaguely remember the original film but I really enjoyed it. I don't care whether the technical aspects hold up really. I mean I know that light speed travel will never happen but it didn't stop me enjoying Star Wars.

Any display team in the world will do manoeuvres where they fly within feet of the next aircraft, and military pilots are the best at this. Tornadoes in Desert Storm flew Scud busting missions at less than 100 ft. off the deck wingtip to wingtip.

As you say close formation is absolutely bread and butter stuff to fighter pilots, it's a major aspect of training from very early on in their flying career and it's something they probably do at some point in a mission almost every time they go flying.

Tanking - hooking up to take fuel from a tanker, is just one example of the application of the skill and why it is so important.

Yours gripes about the movie are like complaining superman flies because humans don't fly IRL.

Lol at no lizard tongue! I did appreciate that omission! 😂

I clearly need to watch it again and take it for what it is!

It was a very formulaic movie- all American back slapping, cheesy, unbelievable, macho load of bullshit but I absolutely LOVED it! I was in my early 20s when I saw the first one so thought it was quite nostalgic and the music was still very 80s.

Totally agree

I bloody loved it. The second that bar of music struck up for the theme song I was grinning like a Cheshire cat and didn't stop throughout (apart from the bits that were a bit tear-inducing). I thought they did it so well by bringing back Penny, the admiral's daughter Mav once went ballistic with, and having Rooster be like his dad in some ways (no plot spoilers!) but not all. I thought TC was excellent.

Fun facts: the actor who plays Bob is the real-life son of Bill 'Independence Day' Pullman and TC arranged a private screening for Anthony 'Goose' Edwards because he wanted him to see how they'd handled his and Mav's story 27 years on.

It’s really not - as it says at the beginning of both films, Top Gun actually exists

Also, I know Tom Cruise will be 60 next month (SIXTY NEXT MONTH) but didn't they start shooting this about four or five years ago? Well before lockdown, anyway. So everyone's a wee bit younger.

DH (55) looked a bit glum as he headed off to the gym the day after we saw Top Gun: Maverick. welcome to the world of women, pal

Maverick’s dad died when he was young on a mission in Vietnam. He never knew what happened until Jester explains that he knew the event from his time in the war and his father actually sacrificed himself for his unit.

Principal photography wrapped around 2019.

It does, a bit of history in the link at the bottom. The USN have Top Gun, the USAF have the Aggressor program.

Not sure if the Top Gun units travelled overseas but at least for a time there was an Aggressor based at Alconbury in Cambridgeshire units and they used to provide training for European based NATO crews, including crews from the RAF.

www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/a36524150/topgun-history/

She wasn't even asked. She said, because she has the temerity to look her age. Audiences wouldn't like that!

She wasn't asked to be in it, read an interview with her about it

Cheese on toast!

I didn't get why
A) they just didn't use drones
B) bomb the missiles on the mountain tops as they were going past

They originally didn’t have Val Kilmer listed to be in it either, but Cruise insisted he play the emotional core to getting Maverick to let go. And it worked.

Pilots can have corrected vision now. For close flying The Blue Angels are arguably the pinnacle of display. US Navy aviators, often graduates from Top Gun. Worth a watch on You Tube, they do fly that close, 8 of them I think. It was a Top Gun graduate who flew that low jet scene for the film. 30ft off the ground!! But a lot of that flying is routine in that job. They don't hand jets out to anyone.

YABU! It's the best film out for a long time. 🙂

I've been lucky enough to have a go in a Eurofighter flight simulator; tanking is very difficult! I tried but got fed up trying to get the bloody nozzle to connect! 😆

But she doesn’t look good for her age, not even close - and, like it or not, that’s never going to work in the film industry

TC can only reprise his role because he does look good.

Viper not Jester

On the final mission, mix of Dam Busters and Star Wars, Tom Cruise set off clean shaven. The mission would have taken no more than an hour, but he was very stubbly on his return. He must be full of testosterone.