Teh E36 M3 said:-did I see a Tomcat on the carrier flight deck in the opening scene?
It's been a long time since I saw the original, but was the opening sequence the same in both movies? That was the impression I had when watching it. It seemed that they used the same footage and music for the opening scene which I thought was OK and a way to let you know right off the bat that it would tie back to the original.
pinchvalve (Forum Supporter) said:I admit, I have not flown an F-14 in a while, but there are no keys or security codes required? Not plausible.
My head canon is that that bird was such a wreck, it was probably essentially hotwired already.
secretariata (Forum Supporter) said:Teh E36 M3 said:-did I see a Tomcat on the carrier flight deck in the opening scene?
It's been a long time since I saw the original, but was the opening sequence the same in both movies? That was the impression I had when watching it. It seemed that they used the same footage and music for the opening scene which I thought was OK and a way to let you know right off the bat that it would tie back to the original.
It was almost shot for shot, just with new birds. I was laughing out loud.
secretariata (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to Keith Tanner :
So why does the Porsche in the new movie have to be the same "age" as the one in the original movie was? To most of the world they are just "old Porsches"...
Of all the things in the movie, that was the biggest false note to me. That's all. I could swallow the rest of it, even a Mach 10 scramjet and a restored warbird. But that Porsche seemed out of place in a way the Speedster didn't back in the 80s.
It would have been more realistic if she drove a ND Miata. 
In reply to Keith Tanner :
I refuse to accept criticism of the long hood!!! All bow down to the power of oil cooled Porsche's.
In reply to Purple Frog (Forum Supporter) :
No, she has class.
Keith Tanner said:In reply to Teh E36 M3 :
It is parked beside A lift, just not THE lift then ;)
The bikes on the wall don't seem to be terribly accessible. I assume they are not for riding.
i know a guy with warehouse space and an upper level like that. He has a forklift with a platform he can tie the bikes down on to get them up and down. Has a super rare Bimota up there on a stand that he rides when the occasion suits.
Haven't seen it yet.
At any point does Maverick say, "Slider, (sniff) you stink."
And does anyone ever say anything about egos writing checks that bodies can't cash?
What about the line I've been repeating since I was 6, 'flying a cargo plane full of rubber dog E36 M3 out of hong kong'?
Keith Tanner said:Also, this is a nice touch.
One of the original F-14 camera planes, painted (mostly) like this, is on the deck of the USS Lexington in Corpus Christi, saw it last summer. Pretty cool.
I have to admit, I kinda like the theory going around that it's all a dream sequence and that he died in the opening Mach 10 run. Don't hate, it actually works really well, tying up all the relationships and being the hero and all the stuff that is just implausible enough to make you wonder how.
I work in defense contracting and things like a mach 10 stunt can be enough to secure more funding.
This article came across my feed last week. Actual pilot lives after being blown out of a disintegrating sr71 at mach 3.
Overall I really enjoyed it, so much of the feel of the original. I did want more tower fly-by's.
I finally saw it, good movie, and wanted to throw some stuff out:
I heard an interview with the owner of the company that did the aerial shots:
- Tom Cruise flew his P51 (shown in the movie) to the set each day (navy bases). I know previously, he has been forbidden to fly when he is doing a movie for insurance reasons, but I am guessing on this, there was so much flying, they didn't bother (maybe an insistence by Cruise?)
- All the aerial shots where of actual planes (I think all F18's). For the SU57 and F14, those are digital models drawn over the filmed plane. I suspect they used the lighting of the actual planes to make the virtual ones look so good (3D renderings on non-organic objects can be VERY good these days).
The bad guys country seems to be pretty damn close to Iran! (maybe a bit of a warning?) Not only the refining uranium plant, but the F14's (US sold them some before the fall of the Shah).
Also of note is the Taiwanese flag was back on his jacket near the beginning. Previously it had been removed on the insistence of the Chinese. Apparently the Chinese have no interest in showing such American propaganda though, so it won't be released in China, so the flag is back. BTW, I think a great movie would be about the Taiwanese kicking some Chinese but in late model (N models, VERY capable planes) P-47s!
As far as the character owning a P51. If he bought a rough one back in the 80's he might have got in for the $100,000 range, but yes, even then, he would likely need some extra money to restore and fly such a plane.
The high mach bail out seemed.... unlikely. The fear of the 5 generation fighter might have been overstated a bit. The real fear of modern fighters are not really the planes, but the missiles. A modern heat seeker (e.g. Sidewinder) can not only track targets from all angles (e.g. head on), but, given the right avionics (e.g. helmet mounted all angle designation) can be launched toward targets at any angle, even to the rear of the launching plane(!). The missile have insane G capability (turning) and are highly resistant to flares. As noted a 5th generation fighter (not really known if the SU57 can actually do this) does give you the ability to launch those off axis shots.
The fear of the modern missiles could have been used as a good plot point. The modern dogfight is obsolete because victory is mostly a matter of spotting and targeting the other guy first, so stealth and range of attack are paramount. Of course.... you cannot shoot what you cannot see, so flying VERY low will likely make it difficult for even the best avionics / missiles. That may have actually been an idea, but they went with the Starwars Deathstar run to be more "cinematic".
And yes, F18s are limited to 7 g's (lightly loaded). The primary reason is not airframe, but Human Factors. The lack of the reclined seat the F16 has, makes pulling high g's far more difficult physiologically so the plane is not built to take it.
Apparently the SU57 is a pretty big disappointment. Supposed to be a stealth design but has a suspected to have a radar cross section 5,000 times larger than an F22 (!) and pretty similar to the F18
I saw it last night - it's a pretty mixed bag. Some of is cringe-worthy terrible, some of it is awesome. If they were in a plane or on a motorcycle, awesome. Any other time - terrible.
I took Friday off from work and went to a matinee showing with one of our favorite GRM MegaDorks.
I really, really liked the pre-intro where Tom Cruz talked about what they did to make the sequel the best they could...it signaled to me that all involved realized that this wasn't just a movie, rather, it was an artifact being left for a certain generation.
The original Top Gun came out in 1986...let's say the "raging wood" age range was something like 14 to 35 so that's those born between 1955 and 1972.
Mr. Cruz, thank you so much for giving us this.
Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) said:Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) said:Keith Tanner said:In reply to Will :
Hondo is the go-to guy. That's it. He's just the guy.
If Penny, a bar owner, can live on the beach in San Diego and drive a long-nose 911 then Maverick can afford a P-51.
Less than 20 years ago the magazine related to this forum had an article on cheap Porsches. It featured, non-S, long hood 911's as an affordable car for under $10,000. The broke bar owner wouldn't change cars too often. More plausible than the rest, and all in all great
eye candy.
And another nod to the original. Maverick's love interests in both films drove classic Porsches, Charlie had a 356.
As for Maverick's Mustang, I suppose he could have saved up. He doesn't have any kids or anything, so his expenses are probably low. I dunno. But apparently, that particular P-51 actually belongs to Tom Cruise.
I have five cousins and I'm close to two of them...one is a 50 year old navy officer that recently retired and her husband is a 54 year old navy officer ( F-18 pilot) that retired at about the same time.
They live in Seattle and fly their Beechcraft Bonanza all around the country...I get pictures from Face Book weekly documenting their exploits. I know what their ranks were and they "made" less than half what I make and yet they were able to retire before me...maybe there's inheritance involved but I suspect it's more about base housing, the PX, government provided health insurance, etc.
Hey, it's all good, if I had to land an aircraft doing 125 knots on a sort, bobbing deck in the dark, I'd want to be able to retire early and comfortably.
Bottom line, successful military people don't tend to be short on money.
Both O6's? Probably 80k each plus whatever disability they get. The pilot definitely got some. Good living.
Disclaimer: I'm not in any sort of armed forces, but why weren't the SAM missiles targeted by Tomohawks, too?
Regardless, I had fun. The flight scenes choreographed to "Won't Get Fooled Again" were my favourite.
Yeah, good point. They clearly knew where they were and had plenty of missiles to hit them.
Certainly some silly plot points, but still very well done, and very much in the spirit of the original.
Teh E36 M3 said:Both O6's? Probably 80k each plus whatever disability they get. The pilot definitely got some. Good living.
Here's a picture of him in uniform.
I think three bars and a star is an 0-5 "Commander" but I never served so maybe I'm missing some subtle nuance.
"Rank check on isle three please".
About the age of the Porsche - saw recently the reminder that if Ferris Beueller was remade, based on similar age the Ferrari would be a 348. Cars are just getting so much better and longer-lived that it takes an older one to infer classic.
I missed it but someone else said the song selected on the juke box was #86 - another nice throwback touch.
I left the theater with mixed feelings, but as it's settled I think I liked it a lot. I was struck by a lot of the hokiness initially, but I'm letting it slide because of overall awesomeness. The origimal came out the summer I graduated high school so my bar was set pretty high.
3 full bars and a star is a Commander. My step father retired as a Commander from the Navy around 1970 (was in since the early 40's). I never got the impression he struggled at all with money and didn't have an issue supporting a pretty large blended family. He spent the rest of his life running a private flight school. I don't think he ever made much money doing it, but he sure did like doing it.
Saw it with Mrs. DX yesterday and other family and it was enjoyed by all. Mrs. DX is an aviation geek so was like a kid on Christmas Morning.
KyAllroad said:The entire mission is absurd. The Star Wars esque "shoot a missile into an exhaust port....TWICE" is patently absurd. The mission would have been carried out by the Tomahawk cruise missiles and didn't need pilots at all.
The flying at speed up a canyon is absurd. Modern military tactics would have multiple layers of strike aircraft with specific parts of the mission. F-16 Wild Weasel planes to take out the SAM sites, F-22 Raptors flying cover to engage the "scary all black 5th gen fighters", and much more. Sending in 4 planes to fly a near suicide mission and hold everything else back just isn't how we do business.
There is more but I'll give others a chance.
I was thinking F-22s or F-35s dropping optically guided bombs straight down from the highest possible altitude (could Tomahawks approach from that angle? And could the GPS jamming in the area be a problem for them?) and then casually evading any SAMs that were lucky enough to get a lock while the bay doors were open would be a more realistic way to carry out the mission...but there's not as much fun in that 
The bride and I saw it today in one of the new giant theatres, with the screens up the side walls (which I'm not sure added much to the movie, but whatever) and it was really spendy for a matinee, but overall we really liked it.
I was impressed with JC, I think she looked better than I remember, and I always thought she was hot!
The Star Wars reference was pretty blatant, I half expected them to be shooting wamprats in that canyon or something, but......
Overall, a definite thumbs up from us.....they handled Kilmer's illness in real life well, apparently that's how he sounds now after his trach and throat cancer.
Level 5 fighters? Sounds like something from a video game or something?
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