Author Topic: >>>TOP GUN<<<  (Read 91887 times)

Offline Mike

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>>>TOP GUN<<<
« on: March 13, 2006, 01:29:49 AM »
TOP GUN . . . .

 . . . it needs to be discussed.

How many times have you seen it?
Did you like it?
Are you in aviation because of the movie?
Can you recite every scene from the movie?
Is "Top Gun" for aviators what "Backdraft" is for firefighters and "Star Wars" for everybody else?

Let's hear some opinions and stories!!
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Offline Gulfstream Driver

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Re: >>>TOP GUN<<<
« Reply #1 on: March 13, 2006, 02:49:52 AM »
I've probably seen it a couple dozen times, and I would say that it influenced me more before I was a pilot than after.  It's a great movie, but you do pick up the little things they get wrong.  Btw, I guess Backdraft is extremely inaccurate.  :)  I know of a couple of firefighters that don't like it.

Favorite lines:  "Kick the tires and light the fires!"  "I feel the need....The need for speed!  OW!"  "You never close your eyes anymore when I kiss...your liiiips" 
Behind every great man, there is a woman rolling her eyes.  --Bruce Almighty

Offline Turbomallard

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Re: >>>TOP GUN<<<
« Reply #2 on: March 13, 2006, 04:50:43 AM »
I have no idea how many times I've seen it. A couple of times in the theater, I think. Bought it on video when it first came out... the film pioneered the affordable cost/release not too long after the theatrical run video release practice, as I recall. Bought the widescreen tape a few years ago... will probably buy the DVD, too. Sigh.

The film is idiotic. Less realistic than a Saturday morning cartoon. Makes Star Wars look intellectual by comparison. But... somehow it manages to walk that very fine line between utterly bad and rip-roaring turn-off-your-brain and rock and roll fantasy, and does so brilliantly. Many of the imitators didn't, and look pitiful by comparison.

Last fall I dated a woman who served on the carrier Lexington back in the 80s. I knew we were in for a good time when for our second date she wanted to come over, put some chicken on the grill... and watch Top Gun! We made a serious mistake, though... we turned the movie into a drinking game. Every time either one of us spotted a mistake, we called it out and took a drink of whatever kind of wine she brought. As you can imagine, between her navy service on a carrier and my being a pilot and having wasted too much time studying military aviation for one of my (useless but interesting) graduate degrees, we were fairly smashed about halfway through the film. By the end... neither of us could stand. And she busted my 1/48 scale A-4E model at one point. Worth it, though (at least, from what I can remember)!

Tonight I took a study break for my CFII checkride and put on another one of my guilty pleasure favorites... The Final Countdown. New DVD release has a much cleaned up visual and audio... great stuff. In fact, I'm such a nerd that I prefer it to Top Gun. No girls, no tinted sunset shots... just a Nimitz class carrier going through a time warp back to December 7, 1941!

Back to the books...

TM
« Last Edit: March 13, 2006, 05:05:36 AM by Turbomallard »
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fireflyr

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Re: >>>TOP GUN<<<
« Reply #3 on: March 13, 2006, 05:03:59 AM »
"I feel the need--the need for speed"     Loved it when they said that in top gun, it"s always been my mantra---never flown anything as fast as an F-14 but I love low and fast!

Got me in a little trouble 5 years ago on the last day of fire season when I rolled a Commander out of a high pass over San Bernardino and then blasted over the tanker base loading ramp at 200 knots plus at about 20 feet, the Forest Service guy with me was white knuckled and the folks in dispatch were somewhat startled but they loosened up over end-of season beers later that night.  All the pilots loved it!!!   Lifes too short to worry about the small stuff.

fireflyr

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Re: >>>TOP GUN<<<
« Reply #4 on: March 13, 2006, 05:09:28 AM »
OH YEAH TURBOMALLARD!

I love Final Countdown for the same reasons plus it turns me because I was born Dec 7 1941---in Canada though, not Hawaii.

I love the "what if" possibilities.

Offline Mike

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Re: >>>TOP GUN<<<
« Reply #5 on: March 13, 2006, 05:25:14 AM »
Of course there are mistakes in Top Gun, but which movie doesn't?!
Did you ever notice that almost every helicopter in the movie sounds like a Huey or a Jet Ranger?
(that must be the only soundbite they have....)

I love the movie!
I was pretty young when it first came out but I remember it was the only movie my friends and I would ever watch together. My brother and I grew up with a bunch of kids on the same block, boys and girls. We never agreed on what we liked except that movie. It had something for everybody, ..Tom Cruise for the girls and kick-@$$ flying scenes for the boys (well...plus Kelly McGillis) . I really don't remember how many times I've seen that movie but I know that every time it's on TV and I happen to click on it, I usually don't keep clicking....
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Offline Turbomallard

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Re: >>>TOP GUN<<<
« Reply #6 on: March 13, 2006, 05:26:24 AM »
OH YEAH TURBOMALLARD!

I love Final Countdown for the same reasons plus it turns me because I was born Dec 7 1941---in Canada though, not Hawaii.

I love the "what if" possibilities.

The film came out as I was in my last year of high school and wondering what to do with myself. I was a military history buff and unsure if I should try for the USN or USAF. The film did exactly what the USN would have wanted-- inspired a potential new recruit, and I signed up (and lasted all of three weeks when it was discovered I have asthma). Hadn't seen the film in over a decade, and when I put on the DVD a couple of months ago a LOT of memories came flooding back...

That aside, the making of commentary on the DVD is very interesting... they went through a lot to shoot aboard the ship, were on a very tight schedule, had limited access to things like the bridge, etc. Many of the bridge shots had to be done in port (they actually needed the bridge most of the time at sea). As a result, the camera angles are kept low so you don't see the dock out the windows or the complete lack of aircraft on the flight deck. Once you know this, it's almost funny to watch! Most of the shots on the bridge are about three or four feet off the deck! And the film pioneered all the camera mounts, etc. on the F-14 that were later used and improved on for Top Gun. And... most of all... you just can't beat an F-14 blasting a Zero out of the sky with a Sidewinder!

TM
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Offline Frank N. O.

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Re: >>>TOP GUN<<<
« Reply #7 on: March 13, 2006, 05:48:18 AM »
I've watched it tons of times too, in fact I found it cheaply on DVD last year and I got it just for the flying scenes since I love the Tomcat design, it's one of my favourites. I even had a Action Force aka G.I.Joe Tomcat model with swing-wings and parachute pilot as a kid, 2 ft long I think, man I wish I still had it.
There are tons of mistakes in that movie for real, like the fact that the nut-job known as Tom Cruise is way too short to be a navy pilot, that Goose would never have been killed by the canopy due to the seat-back, the Tomcat can't fly inverted for so long as shown with the non-existant Mig-28s due to fuel-starvation and that it can't go Mach-20 or how fast he'd needed to fly to close in to the carrier as fast as told in the final part of the movie and then there are tons of small things as well.

What makes me sad is the fact that a great pilot was killed while filming the flap-spin scenes, the same pilot that flew the Aerobat in the stunning start-scenes in Iron Eagle the year before. RIP

If I want some flying fun the Hot Shots is quite funny, and it has a nice lady in it too, and as a pilot even, can't get better! Did you know that while of course most flying scenes were model-shots and such then those tiny low jets they flew are actually real? Folland Gnats made in England and formerly used by the Red Arrows.

Frank
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Offline FlyingBlind

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Re: >>>TOP GUN<<<
« Reply #8 on: March 13, 2006, 12:41:13 PM »
FLYIIIING TOOO THEEEE DANGER ZONE!!!!!!

I love Top Gun :) It just kicks ass....totally my favorite aviation movie when i was a youngster...
We should make a movie night somewhere in europe sometime :D

Offline Firegirl

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Re: >>>TOP GUN<<<
« Reply #9 on: March 13, 2006, 03:26:39 PM »
Yes!!!  I Love Top Gun!!

"Requesting permission for flyby." ......  "That's a negative ghostrider, the pattern is full."
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Offline Sleek-Jet

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Re: >>>TOP GUN<<<
« Reply #10 on: March 13, 2006, 04:27:12 PM »
Probably the most often quoted movie in any Hanger, or any flight line, or cockpit in the world today.

"...Talk to me Goose"
"This is what I call a target rich enviroment!"
"Yeehaw!!! Jester's dead!!!"
"Smile for the birdie. :) "
"This gives me a hard-on"

It's almost endless.  Cool air to air scenes as well.  ;D

I've got in on DVD, but need to pick up the 20th anniversary addition (jeez, has it been that long???)


The Best flying scene in any movie has got to be Art Schoals (sp?) Aerobat sequence in "Iron Eagle"... that movie has a better sound track as well, even if the story line is outlandish.  ;D
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Offline Gulfstream Driver

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Re: >>>TOP GUN<<<
« Reply #11 on: March 13, 2006, 04:28:57 PM »
Gotta love Queen!
Behind every great man, there is a woman rolling her eyes.  --Bruce Almighty

Offline Mike

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Re: >>>TOP GUN<<<
« Reply #12 on: March 13, 2006, 04:35:14 PM »
Yeah, I loved that scene where he is racing the dirt bike with his aerobat (?wasn't it?).
The first thing I wanted to do when I was soloing was to got one of those walkmans so I can
strap it to my thigh ;) . . .

Top Gun music is one of the best as well though. (I used to have the Iron Eagle sound track...what a nerd...)

The only scene I don't get in Top Gun is where they all play beach volley and have to flex the whole time. That's so 80's. It's funny to watch now actually...
And about one of the best scenes:
The need to buzz the tower is engrained in every aviator! Is it because of Top Gun???
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Offline Sleek-Jet

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Re: >>>TOP GUN<<<
« Reply #13 on: March 13, 2006, 04:50:17 PM »
Yeah, I loved that scene where he is racing the dirt bike with his aerobat (?wasn't it?).
The first thing I wanted to do when I was soloing was to got one of those walkmans so I can
strap it to my thigh ;) . . .

But only after Chappy adjusts the mixture on the caruburator with the dip stick tube... ;D  Man, Hollywood is great.

I knew an ag pilot that set up a walkman on a kneeboard just because of Iron Eagle.  What a dork!!!! ;D   
A pilot is a confused soul who talks about women when he's around airplanes, and airplanes when he's around women.

Offline Mike

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Re: >>>TOP GUN<<<
« Reply #14 on: March 13, 2006, 05:06:38 PM »
Of course today it would have to be an i-pod . . . HA HA    :D
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