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Top Gun; Maverick


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20 hours ago, bluehighwayflyer said:

Wasn’t the line in the movie something like, “We’re in a flat spin. We’re going out to sea.”?  The second half of that line was always one of the worse offenders from the movie to me.  

Nevertheless I loved it at the time and am looking forward to the new release. 

Jim

 

17 hours ago, StevenL757 said:

Actually, the line was “Maverick’s in a flat spin...he’s heading out to sea”.

That scene always seemed a bit hokey to me when I saw it. There were a few things that scene that didn't make sense to me until after watching the director's commentary. Pete Pettigrew was a Top Gun instructor, actually shot down a Mig, and was the technical consultant on the film. The flat spin scene was based off an actual event. They had to find a way for Goose to die, Maverick to blame himself, and yet have the Navy ultimately find him not responsible. Pete went through accident reports and found an incident where an F-14 ended up in a flat spin (both pilot and RIO ejected safely in that incident). Pete explained that in a flat spin in an F-14 the pilot is too far away from the center of the spin and gets pinned towards the panel and can't reach the ejection handles. The RIO is closer to the center of the spin and has to eject them. There is also a area of low pressure that develops above the plane and the canopy can get hung up there so the RIO is supposed to blow the canopy, and after a moment to give the canopy time to clear he punches them out. In the movie they have Goose blow the canopy and eject too close together causing him to collide with the canopy. 

As  to the flat spin heading out to sea... The famous stunt pilot Art Scholl was out shooting back drop plates to be used in scenes. He was off the coast shooting in an inverted flat spin and something went wrong. His last words on the radio were "I have a problem - I have a real problem." If I remember right they said his plane went down though some thin clouds and was never found although search and rescue was launched immediately.

15 hours ago, TWinter said:

I saw the commentary you are talking about.  Something I thought that was funny was the fact the directors/film makers said some movie actors are pretty arrogant and high maintenance, but actually found the Navy Pilots were actually more arrogant and difficult to work with... I'm not downing the Navy Jet Jocks who helped make the movie (my brother was actually a TopGun Instructor and I've met several TopGun pilots), so I have some slight right to be able to call it as it is.. Yes, I do love my brother, but does he sometimes have the big head..yep! Some of those guys are pretty big headed, but on the other hand they can do stuff in a jet I could only imagine, They are awesome pilots and most with highly earned educations from Annapolis. 

My brother's biggest comment about the original movie was that it was made to portray the school as a competition. Actually far from the truth, and far from the actual way TopGun works. There is no competition to be the "Best of the Best". It's training and teamwork. But of course if that's all they showed it would not have made a billion dollar movie and one of the biggest recruiting tools for the Navy.

I'll be curious how the sequel comes out. As we all agree here on MS. Good, bad or cheesy we probably all will watch it. 

-Tom

They talk about there being no actual competition (it was added in just for Hollywood) and I believe it was Pettigrew again that said if there was a competition that nobody would ever graduate because they would all kill themselves trying to win, that's how competitive they are. They also talked about some other things that were not realistic, including the whole hangar classroom scene when you first meet Kelly McGillis on base. The technical advisers would tell the director "that's not how it is" and the director would say "but that's what mom and pop in Oklahoma" want to see.

In the commentary they point out all of the unrealistic things that were added in the movie but they also talk about the scenes that were based on actual events and I was surprised by many of them.

I didn't watch the commentary until about 6 months ago. My 14 yo had never seen Top Gun so we rented it from the library for a dollar. My wife (who I think had seen the movie once 30 years ago) was amazed at all the one liners from the movie that for some reason come up in my vocabulary on a regular basis... I heard "So that's where that came from" more than once as we watched it. After watching it with my son we decided to watch it with the commentary and I am glad we did.

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10 hours ago, TWinter said:

Not sure what is current now. I think when my brother retired the Super Hornet was in use. He retired quite a while ago, so not sure what the new weapon of choice is.  

Still the super hornet.  Although the F-35 is coming on line... but that’s more of a specialty fighter at this point, and the Navy is only purchasing a small number of F-35’s (about 220).

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16 hours ago, TWinter said:

I saw the commentary you are talking about.  Something I thought that was funny was the fact the directors/film makers said some movie actors are pretty arrogant and high maintenance, but actually found the Navy Pilots were actually more arrogant and difficult to work with... I'm not downing the Navy Jet Jocks who helped make the movie (my brother was actually a TopGun Instructor and I've met several TopGun pilots), so I have some slight right to be able to call it as it is.. Yes, I do love my brother, but does he sometimes have the big head..yep! Some of those guys are pretty big headed, but on the other hand they can do stuff in a jet I could only imagine, They are awesome pilots and most with highly earned educations from Annapolis. 

My brother's biggest comment about the original movie was that it was made to portray the school as a competition. Actually far from the truth, and far from the actual way TopGun works. There is no competition to be the "Best of the Best". It's training and teamwork. But of course if that's all they showed it would not have made a billion dollar movie and one of the biggest recruiting tools for the Navy.

I'll be curious how the sequel comes out. As we all agree here on MS. Good, bad or cheesy we probably all will watch it. 

-Tom

Thanks?

as a Top Gun grad myself (a bit younger than Chili, but he might remember me based on an ejection I had), I can certainly attest to the school being a team effort.... the fighter pilots that try to “go alone” tend not to make it, or do so by the skin of their teeth.  It may not appear this way, but air combat is very much a team sport- reliant upon the success of 2, 4, 8 or 16 pilots all working in unison for a single goal.  It’s a true fraternity- a brotherhood that trusts one another implicitly with their lives.

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Expect that some MSers are going to not like the new version....

Don’t worry we are safe....

There is a whole wave of replacements for us.  Looking forward to the latest Hollywood version of TopGun...

They are a second generation.   A group of mini me(s)... they ride around on overpowered lightweight bikes, wear tee shirts that actually say ‘because I was inverted’ on them... they quote the movie as if they watched it yesterday... they have seen the movie on VHS, DVD, and Blue ray disc...  they have downloaded an electronic version through the cable company...

They watch it in a very personalized fashion...the Movie must be too long...  they fast forward through any of the fluff...

There must be two full stories in there... cut out all the smoochy stuff and it’s a great story about training and preparing for the most important battle of your life...

 

I bet the new movie has a focus on Team Work. The star will be a team leader... follow him from a young ego maniac, as he hooks up with a great mentor, until he becomes a great leader... movie #3  pass the baton again....

This second generation of movie goers is about the same age as we all were, when we saw it the first time.... 

Can you wait for the third installment 30 years from now?

Best regards,

-a-

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18 minutes ago, carusoam said:

Expect that some MSers are going to not like the new version....

Don’t worry we are safe....

There is a whole wave of replacements for us.  Looking forward to the latest Hollywood version of TopGun...

They are a second generation.   A group of mini me(s)... they ride around on overpowered lightweight bikes, wear tee shirts that actually say ‘because I was inverted’ on them... they quote the movie as if they watched it yesterday... they have seen the movie on VHS, DVD, and Blue ray disc...  they have downloaded an electronic version through the cable company...

They watch it in a very personalized fashion...the Movie must be too long...  they fast forward through any of the fluff...

There must be two full stories in there... cut out all the smoochy stuff and it’s a great story about training and preparing for the most important battle of your life...

 

I bet the new movie has a focus on Team Work. The star will be a team leader... follow him from a young ego maniac, as he hooks up with a great mentor, until he becomes a great leader... movie #3  pass the baton again....

This second generation of movie goers is about the same age as we all were, when we saw it the first time.... 

Can you wait for the third installment 30 years from now?

Best regards,

-a-

Hah!  I watched “Cars 3” with my 5 year old in the movie theater when it came out a few months back.... I certainly feel like lightening McQueen..

luckily “Cars” only decided to wait 10 years to come full circle.  I fear I might not make it to Top Gun 3!

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9 hours ago, M016576 said:

Thanks?

as a Top Gun grad myself (a bit younger than Chili, but he might remember me based on an ejection I had), I can certainly attest to the school being a team effort.... the fighter pilots that try to “go alone” tend not to make it, or do so by the skin of their teeth.  It may not appear this way, but air combat is very much a team sport- reliant upon the success of 2, 4, 8 or 16 pilots all working in unison for a single goal.  It’s a true fraternity- a brotherhood that trusts one another implicitly with their lives.

It's very cool that you know or knew of my brother Jeff, aka call sign "Chilli". He still uses that on his email account. You guys are a true fraternity of pilots. I'll mention your "ejection" event next time we talk. I'm sure he will remember. As you probably know he now drives a JetBlue bus based in Orlando. I'm trying to get him into GA, but with 3 kids in college and a wife with high standards even with military retirement and a JetBlue pay-check it still might be a while before he is flying left seat in GA. :)

-Tom

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30 minutes ago, Hyett6420 said:

Correct, any other lines people need clarification on, i think i know it verbatim  :)  

Yeah, same here.  I stopped counting after seeing it the 100th time.  I remember making a small mark on the VCR box (yes, VCR) after each viewing.

I remember vividly waiting in line for nearly two hours at a theater the night it opened with my best friend at the time (knew him from Civil Air Patrol).  We were the first two in line.  Both of us flew together at a CAP flight encampment the year prior (where we both soloed), and each of us had less than 50 hours in our logbooks.  He was heading for college on an ROTC scholarship (he was a year ahead of me), and I was in the app process for the USAFA.  He so badly wanted F-16s after flight school.  For me, the F-15.  We'd both argue constantly about who "could" out-fly the other.

So, we watched the movie together, and within a couple of weeks, he left for college in Tennessee.  Around 2 months later, I tried reaching him, and after spending over a week and countless people who had "no information", someone informed me he and 3 others were killed "a few weeks earlier" in a C172 crash not far from his university.  I still think about him and our friendship every day, and will probably go see this movie in his honor.

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I am loosely related  cousin married a brother who's last name rhymes with tom.   Who apparently got to fly some scenes.   I was google searching him and seems like quite the pilot.

I think he said something like she looks better on screen.

Mrs Yetti will respond to the "Talk to me Goose" with "Show me some of that pilot stuff Mav"

 

 

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On 6/5/2018 at 7:05 AM, Mike Ropers said:

As in life - people are promoted to the point that they become least effective;)

220px-Cover_of_The_Peter_Principle_by_Pa
The cover of The Peter Principle (1970 Pan Books edition)

The Peter principle is a concept in management developed by Laurence J. Peter, which observes that people in a hierarchy tend to rise to their "level of incompetence"

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20 hours ago, Brian Scranton said:

A sequel is not a remake. Still, it could suck serious nuts.

Remake (years later)=Ghostbusters

Sequel (years later)=Star Wars

There are CLEAR reasons (easily found on web) why those films had a high level of suckage.  I like the director.  I hope it has some excellent flight scenes and CG wizardry.  I remain optimistic that I will be entertained.  It’s Navy so homoerotic undertones are never checked at the door.  That video with Tarantino was Hi-Larious.  I didn’t “see” any of that when I watched back in the day, but I will be smiling next time I cue up T.G.  Even if you don’t like Sci-FI Oblivion has great CG flight scenes.  I enjoyed the hell out of that movie because of the CG airborne wizardry.

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Now that I am “old” and body is not that of a 2.5ish decade old human I can appreciate the beauty of both the male and female form.  Some dudes need to leave their shirts on...some don’t.  A little beach volleyball action is good for female date ticket sales.  I am good with that.  

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On 6/5/2018 at 1:17 PM, TWinter said:

Not sure what is current now. I think when my brother retired the Super Hornet was in use. He retired quite a while ago, so not sure what the new weapon of choice is.  

F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, F/A-18G Growlers (Electronic Attack variation of the Super Hornet), and soon to be F-35C are the latest USN front line fighters. It will be interesting to see what aircraft they use for "MiGs".

Cheers,
Junkman

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On 6/6/2018 at 12:04 AM, carusoam said:

I bet the new movie has a focus on Team Work. The star will be a team leader... follow him from a young ego maniac, as he hooks up with a great mentor, until he becomes a great leader... movie #3  pass the baton again....

Any bets on the gender of the "best of the best" in this one?

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which brings this description of the Navy Dress uniform.   Which has ruined what I believed to be an otherwise good looking uniform.   But this line always runs through my head when I see one.

 

 

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2 hours ago, thinwing said:

I think on the next Topgun,the kellie mcgillis character would be more believable as a consultant if she acted and dressed like these women:

Kelly McGillis' character was based on an actual consultant, tall, blonde, call sign was "Legs."

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