Top Gun: Maverick

Trivia: Despite long being one of Hollywood's most bankable stars, this was the first Tom Cruise film to earn more than $100 million at the domestic box office on its opening weekend. It also went on to become his highest grossing film, as well as his first film to gross $1 billion worldwide.

Phaneron

Trivia: Originally meant to be released in July 2019. It was then pushed back to June 2020 but further delayed, several times, due to the pandemic. It was eventually released in May 2022, 4 years after filming.

Trivia: Hangman chooses "86" on the bar's jukebox, referencing 1986 when Top Gun was released.

Trivia: In Top Gun, Maverick is told "We both know you won't be happy unless you're doing mach 2 with your hair on fire." In this film he achieves Mach 10, and does indeed come down in flames.

Trivia: The otherwise-unnamed "5th generation fighters" are Sukhoi Su-57 aircraft, currently only used by Russia. However only about 14 are operational, and Russia was unsurprisingly not going to loan their most advanced aircraft to a US movie production, so the planes seen onscreen are CGI. "5th generation" is an actual term, albeit somewhat loosely defined - the only 5th generation fighters in operation are the F-22 Raptor, the F-35 Lightning II, the Chengdu J-20, and the Sukhoi Su-57.

Trivia: Val Kilmer's role as "Iceman" mirrors his own health struggles - the actor is in remission from throat cancer and has had a tracheotomy, reducing his voice to a "rasp" and making it hard to speak and for others to understand him. An AI program was used to recreate his voice for the small amount of dialogue he has in the film.

Trivia: Tom Cruise wasn't happy with the results of the first beach football sequence, so it had to be reshot. Unfortunately for the cast that meant having got into peak physical shape for the first run and then "splurging" as they put it, on unhealthy food, they then had to hit the gym and get back into shape again.

Trivia: "Darkstar" flies low over the ground and its wake tears the roof off a shack. The roof wasn't actually meant to come off, but it looked so good and fit the scene so well they used that take.

Jon Sandys

Trivia: When Maverick and Rooster are in the F14 on the way back and are in a dogfight, Rooster tells Maverick "Come on Mav, do some of that pilot shit!" This is the exact same line Goose tells Maverick when they are in Top Gun. This will be obvious to people who grew up with the original, but may not be to new fans who haven't watched the original 100 times.

oldbaldyone

Trivia: The cast got to choose their own callsigns. Miles Teller chose Rooster as it was another bird, like his character's father Goose.

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Suggested correction: According to several sites, all the call signs were scripted. https://ftw.usatoday.com/2022/05/top-gun-maverick-call-sign-rooster-phoenix-payback. They were given the option to change them if they had wanted to, but none did.

oldbaldyone

Trivia: Most of the in-flight shots of the cast were filmed during actual flight sequences. Tom Cruise himself designed a training regimen for them so they could handle the strains of filming under those circumstances. As a result of the setup and being in the air, the cast were responsible for starting and stopping the cameras, also touching up their own makeup. On at least one occasion Miles Teller accidentally wiped the footage he'd filmed during one flight. The cast were only allowed in the fighters on condition that they didn't touch anything, as civilians aren't permitted to control any Defense Department assets.

Trivia: Admiral Bates' quote "Success, now more that ever, comes down to the man or woman in the box" is a paraphrase of the Manfred von Richthofen (The Red Baron) quote "The quality of the box matters little. Success depends upon the man who sits in it." (00:33:19)

David George

Plot hole: Any strike on a military facility by incoming aircraft would first take out the SAM sites with missiles to clear the way for said aircraft to operate freely. After all, the Tomahawks fly right past the attacking planes and take out the runway with no issues at all - no reason they couldn't hit the high and exposed SAMs.

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Suggested correction: The idea was to use the tomahawks to take out the airfield and prevent enemy planes from taking off. The SAMs could be evaded by flying through the canyon so the airfield was considered a higher priority target.

lionhead

While that may be so, those planes exit would have a difficult time out running and avoiding that many SAMs. It's not like the ship wouldn't have enough tomahawks to take out the SAMs as well.

Taking out the airfield was deemed necessary to complete the mission, taking out SAMs beyond the canyon was not. The original plan didn't take into account the pilots surviving the mission in the first place, so the Navy didn't bother with extra strikes on SAM sites. Maverick had to struggle to get them to approve this plan in the first place too, so he wouldn't be able to convince them to put even more effort into it.

lionhead

They still have to avoid the SAMs on the way out, no canyon to protect them then.

More mistakes in Top Gun: Maverick

Amelia: Captain, still?
Maverick: Highly decorated Captain.

More quotes from Top Gun: Maverick

Question: If these were the best of the best, going on a mission crucial to world peace, why were they in aircraft that were outdated and outgunned? It mentioned several times they would never stand a chance against the dreaded "5th generation" enemy fighters. Why not use the F-35?

Answer: The real-world answer is that F-35s only come in single-seat configuration, so there was no way to put the actors in one seat for filming while pilots flew the plane. It would also make for less of an "underdog" feel of going up against overwhelming odds. The in-universe answer is that F-18s are better suited for the kind of mission it is.

Answer: Just my observation, but I got the sense that the F-35 was too fast to make the adjustment to do the steep climb out, and as much as the plane needed to be fast, but it was more important it be capable to throttle lower enough to maneuver through the course, and make the climb...and that the F-35 could do one or the other...just my guess, but that's how I understood it from Maverick's initial analysis, from when he was called in to "Teach".

More questions & answers from Top Gun: Maverick

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