Top Gun Maverick review thread with SPOILERS *DANGERZONE*
Discussion
pork911 said:
Perhaps showing my ignorance but why was maverick flying alone (apart from being a maverick obvs)?
There are single and tandem seat variants of the F18. Both can do multi-role. I expect that given Maverick was flying the single-seater during training and observation, it makes more sense from a continuity perspective to keep him in the single seater for the final mission. Also perhaps to do with the fact that given he's the most recognizable star, you can put him in the back seat and have him pretend whilst the pilot up front is out of view. They did a great job of disguising all that. In that respect the scene where Mav runs the attach in 2:15 is particularly impressive. Assuming he's backseating there's some real co-ordination there for him to position his head. I assume the pilot is calling a turn a second before each one so Tom can prepare. Otherwise he'd be bouncing around all over.
Great film making.
rdjohn said:
Enjoyable, but just a few questions
Was Jenifer Lawrence supposed to be playing the older Kelly McGillis, she still had a classic Porsche, but also a very nice yacht. But now owned a bar rather than be a tactical flight instructor?
Can a Tomahawk missile really fly faster than an F18?
How the heck do you persuade the US Navy to take part and supply the planes and, presumably, the real pilots? I watched in France and the French Navy are trying to recruit on the back of it.
It was good, but i do hope that there is not a Top Gun 3. MI films are far better.
it was Penny Benjamin, the "high speed fly past of 5 towers and 1 admirals daughter" from the first film.Was Jenifer Lawrence supposed to be playing the older Kelly McGillis, she still had a classic Porsche, but also a very nice yacht. But now owned a bar rather than be a tactical flight instructor?
Can a Tomahawk missile really fly faster than an F18?
How the heck do you persuade the US Navy to take part and supply the planes and, presumably, the real pilots? I watched in France and the French Navy are trying to recruit on the back of it.
It was good, but i do hope that there is not a Top Gun 3. MI films are far better.
Marumi said:
pork911 said:
Perhaps showing my ignorance but why was maverick flying alone (apart from being a maverick obvs)?
There are single and tandem seat variants of the F18. Both can do multi-role. I expect that given Maverick was flying the single-seater during training and observation, it makes more sense from a continuity perspective to keep him in the single seater for the final mission. Also perhaps to do with the fact that given he's the most recognizable star, you can put him in the back seat and have him pretend whilst the pilot up front is out of view. They did a great job of disguising all that. In that respect the scene where Mav runs the attach in 2:15 is particularly impressive. Assuming he's backseating there's some real co-ordination there for him to position his head. I assume the pilot is calling a turn a second before each one so Tom can prepare. Otherwise he'd be bouncing around all over.
Great film making.
There were two groups of two fighters (so four in total).
Each had a dual and single fighter configuration. Single leading, dual behind.
The dual configuration has the navigator’s role of ‘painting the target’ with the laser, which the single (lead) pilot would then lock-on to, and fire his missiles.
Essentially the dual fighter was a ‘support’ role to the lead.
That also shows what an incredible job Maverick’s 2:15 lone run demonstrated.
That, alone, he could fly with that speed, accuracy, laser the target, keep lock whilst pulling out at nearly 10 g, then hitting the target.
(Mind you, my ‘theory’ is that he had all this as a fantasy whilst he was dying after ejecting at Mach 10 in the opening sequence
)2fast748 said:
rdjohn said:
How the heck do you persuade the US Navy to take part and supply the planes and, presumably, the real pilots?
The US military has a long, rich history of effectively sponsoring Hollywood output to get it's message across.Scabutz said:
Evanivitch said:
LeadFarmer said:
The original film had some big name actors as pilots, but in Maverick they were either unknown or less famous actors. I wonder if Tom just wanted to be the only big name amongst them?
Maybe. But I imagine the training ahead of filming was quite a long time, and cruise no doubt wasn't granting days off... So I'm guessing any more famous actors would struggle to fit it amongst their diary. Just guessing.He's worked with plenty of big names in other movies.
This time round had a similar format really with a few well known actors as senior officers (Ed Harris and John Hamm), and a less well known cast of younger pilots.
Ed Harris played John Glenn in The Right Stuff so good pedigree for the part
FatboyKim said:
Thinking realistically, could they not have just launched the guided cruise missiles or even ballistic missiles at that little opening in the valley rather than bothering with the dangerous and high stakes mission they actually embarked on?
Not sure that would be breaking box office records though 
Ari said:
Why would you be thinking realistically!?
I see videos on you tube, "pilot reacts to Top Gun Maverick flight scenes"." is not realistic, you wouldn't do that in training, it's super dangerous "
Mate no one thinks this is a documentary. Shut the f
k up and enjoy the fictional film. RizzoTheRat said:
I read an article a while back saying they charged about $11,000/hour for F/A-18 flights. Sounds like a bloody good deal to me
There's a great story in the documentary about the original TG where director Tony Scott was trying to shoot the scene where Maverick throws the dog tags in to the water. He wanted the scene to be shot against the sunset but the aircraft carrier was sailing towards the sun. He asked the captain to turn the ship around so they could film the scene, and the captain refused saying it would cost $25,000 in fuel and the studio haven't provided budget for that. After a bit of a set-to, Tony Scott writes a personal cheque for the 25 grand, the captain turns the ship around and they shoot the scene.According to Jerry Bruckheimer the cheque later bounced
Big Nanas said:
Seeing it for second time, I paid a bit more attention to this part.
There were two groups of two fighters (so four in total).
Each had a dual and single fighter configuration. Single leading, dual behind.
The dual configuration has the navigator’s role of ‘painting the target’ with the laser, which the single (lead) pilot would then lock-on to, and fire his missiles.
Essentially the dual fighter was a ‘support’ role to the lead.
That also shows what an incredible job Maverick’s 2:15 lone run demonstrated.
That, alone, he could fly with that speed, accuracy, laser the target, keep lock whilst pulling out at nearly 10 g, then hitting the target.
(Mind you, my ‘theory’ is that he had all this as a fantasy whilst he was dying after ejecting at Mach 10 in the opening sequence)
I've just seen it for a second time, on IMAX again. It wasn't until my second viewing that I realised Maverick was flying solo on the actual mission, I just didn't pick up on it on first viewing probably because I was mesmerised by the audio and visuals. But I still failed to pick up on the fact that some of the other planes were flying solo too, so thanks.There were two groups of two fighters (so four in total).
Each had a dual and single fighter configuration. Single leading, dual behind.
The dual configuration has the navigator’s role of ‘painting the target’ with the laser, which the single (lead) pilot would then lock-on to, and fire his missiles.
Essentially the dual fighter was a ‘support’ role to the lead.
That also shows what an incredible job Maverick’s 2:15 lone run demonstrated.
That, alone, he could fly with that speed, accuracy, laser the target, keep lock whilst pulling out at nearly 10 g, then hitting the target.
(Mind you, my ‘theory’ is that he had all this as a fantasy whilst he was dying after ejecting at Mach 10 in the opening sequence
)I've read reference to the number 33 appearing in a scene, possibly in Mavericks hanger at the beginning of the film? I looked for it on second viewing but didn't see it. Apparently the number 33 references the age of all his wives when he divorced them.
LeadFarmer said:
I've read reference to the number 33 appearing in a scene, possibly in Mavericks hanger at the beginning of the film? I looked for it on second viewing but didn't see it. Apparently the number 33 references the age of all his wives when he divorced them.
I think 33 was the number on the F14 ammo counter before taking the last shot at the enemy plane with the guns.I thought the film was great. Yes it's a brain out popcorn film but it's a really well done brain out popcorn film. I'm glad I watched the original again before going to see it. As for the young pilots being unknowns, I'd say that Miles Teller and Glenn Powell (Rooster and Hangman) are fairly well known from other films and TV, but maybe that's just the films and TV I've watched
(Fantastic 4, Whiplash, Hidden Figures, Scream Queens)
The problem for me was it was $170m film with $170 spent on the script.
Here we need to have a selection process - no selection process seen and the pilots first introduced are now the successful ones. What was the point.
Three weeks to train the pilots. No now two because of (insert random excuse). Is that supposed to increase the tension, because it didn’t.
Another excuse about how they were going to practice the low level valley flying without doing low level valley flying - presumably because they were not being rented the planes to be able to do that as too risky.
Then the cartoon - flight fast down here and up there, repeated multiple times.
The lack of peril for anyone involved (other than the ‘bad guys’ obviously).
The pathetic A Team - ‘oh let’s steal a plane’ section.
I don’t expect the film to be realistic, just not childish.
The one thing that did surprise and please me, was Phoenix was a pilot - end of, and not someone’s love interest or someone to be rescued.
Here we need to have a selection process - no selection process seen and the pilots first introduced are now the successful ones. What was the point.
Three weeks to train the pilots. No now two because of (insert random excuse). Is that supposed to increase the tension, because it didn’t.
Another excuse about how they were going to practice the low level valley flying without doing low level valley flying - presumably because they were not being rented the planes to be able to do that as too risky.
Then the cartoon - flight fast down here and up there, repeated multiple times.
The lack of peril for anyone involved (other than the ‘bad guys’ obviously).
The pathetic A Team - ‘oh let’s steal a plane’ section.
I don’t expect the film to be realistic, just not childish.
The one thing that did surprise and please me, was Phoenix was a pilot - end of, and not someone’s love interest or someone to be rescued.
As the script and general flow of the film was so fairly predictable, I thought 'Bob' was going to be the one to 'save the day'. I forgot about Hangman when he came out of nowhere to shoot down the Su-57 at the very end at the very nanosecond that it launched a locked-on missile.
By the way, what was that badass-looking helicopter that was shooting Maverick (and missed every shot) after he ejected and landed on that frozen lake in the forest, hiding behind the mound of snow before Rooster blew the helicopter up?
When I watched it again with my other half at the weekend there was a kid a few rows back on the very end of a row who got his phone out immediately when a talking / non-flying / non-action scene began. As soon as planes started flying or something remotely exciting happened, the phone went away and he paid a vague bit of attention, such was his general lack of fking interest. We were right in the centre of a back row in a packed IMAX and I would get told off on the way home for making a scene but I was seconds away from 'going to the loo' via this lad to tell him what I thought before the final action started which distracted me.
Phones out in cinema... one for the council thread. https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
By the way, what was that badass-looking helicopter that was shooting Maverick (and missed every shot) after he ejected and landed on that frozen lake in the forest, hiding behind the mound of snow before Rooster blew the helicopter up?
When I watched it again with my other half at the weekend there was a kid a few rows back on the very end of a row who got his phone out immediately when a talking / non-flying / non-action scene began. As soon as planes started flying or something remotely exciting happened, the phone went away and he paid a vague bit of attention, such was his general lack of f
king interest. We were right in the centre of a back row in a packed IMAX and I would get told off on the way home for making a scene but I was seconds away from 'going to the loo' via this lad to tell him what I thought before the final action started which distracted me.Phones out in cinema... one for the council thread. https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
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