I was the controlling LSO for “Cougar’s” pass. Filmed behind Carl Vinson in W-291. The actual pilot was LT Ben Schneider from VF-51. If you watch the video he starts rocking his wings hard for Hollywood and the spoilers dumped tons of lift immediately and he started coming down like a safe, very evident in the video.I gave him one hard power call and immediately waved him off. I was seriously afraid he might hit the water. If you watch the belly camera video you can see the waveoff lights. And no, he didn’t trap on that pass.
And considering that 99.9% that sign up to be a pilot end up washing out and doing something else, they get many positions filled, other than pilots. There is never a shortage of people that want to fly. Navy wins.
As a Machinists' Mate, I was always bothered by ALL the catapults failing on a carrier AT THE SAME TIME! Trust me, if the designers of Nimitz class carriers worshipped one god, it was Redundancy.
No doubt due in no small part to failures like the one on the USS Kitty Hawk, where they were servicing one of the blast shields and forgot to place the mechanical braces. There was a hydraulic (or steam,not sure which) failure and the shield fell, killing one sailor who was working underneath it.
But but but... that would have meant more airborne fighters, and Maverick couldn't have been the hero who saved the day. (among probably hundreds of actual inaccuracies) While I find it amusing when people pick apart 80's movies, it's just that... an 80's movie. Comparatively, it's probably the most accurate to life movie ever made in that decade.
“Bullshit ten minutes, this thing will be over in two minutes. Get on it!” Even as a kid, I noticed how that was more to create tension than anything technically factual. Basically they want to convey that there’s no help coming for Ice and Maverick.
Any Tech movie, SciFi, Aviation, Medical, Space Travel will drive anybody nuts with all the errors in them. All one can say about Hollywood is that they make movies: Good, Bad, and, Ugly. Space travel is my great complaint.
Ditto! And the thing is - they have consultants. I understand "artistic license" but some of it is way too egregious and comes across as ridiculous (like "sedating" some one by jabbing them in the 'juggular' vein - perpendicular to the vein by the way - and using the wrong drug to boot! And forget ambu-bag, monitors etc!)
The biggest laugh was during the set of Top Gun Tom Cruise try to lay down a large sum of money in order to fly the plane himself! he got damn near laughed off the base by base commander what a joker (3rd party resources from a sailor friend who got to work on the set/ I was not present)
Great job Ward! I'm a retired Army officer & was teaching ROTC at The Citadel when Top Gun came out. I was the enrollment officer for the Army detachment & asked my Navy counterparts what impact the movie had on their enrollment. They were not fans because all of the cadets enrolling in the Navy program wanted to be Tomcat pilots which hardly met the "needs of the Navy." We laughed because we'd gone through the same thing with Rambo, everyone wanted to be a Green Beret.
@Ward Carroll Disregard his comment, as the UA-cam algorithm uses 10 minutes as the baseline for the classification of clips. Keeping clip length above 10 mins will help you get discovered.
My mom pulls +12g and -6gs flying her aerobatic plane with no g suit and you would never know. Also all of her friends do the same thing. They maintain calm communication walking the back seat threw what’s taking place. It’s all about tolerance. My passion is helicopters but I do fly fw crop dusting and extra 300s as well. My dad flew in the navy and then nasa. My mom gives him shit about he doesn’t like negative gs at all. He comes unglued at -1g. Not uncommon I’ve found with military pilots. Something about being allergic to -gs.
When I was a kid my dad was stationed in Miramar. He liked to point out the scene where Mavrick and Charlie meet in an elevator. There were no elevators there...
That was, if memory serves, a reshoot. They'd have shot at the production company's offices, or something, and dubbed some engine noise on. That's why Kelly McGillis has her hair stuffed under a baseball cap - she'd dyed it red for a subsequent role. Same reason behind the blue light in the bedroom scene.
And not only that, someone matched the Pings with the opening and closing of the elevator doors and found out that in one instance everybody exits through a closed door! 😂
As a former squadron safety officer, I was really impressed that the accident investigation team completed the complex investigation in what - one month?
fastest accident investigation ever. I guess when everyone gives the information, and the FDR is recovered and reviewed... oh what am I saying... the Navy can't do anything that quickly...
Yea they got the accident investigation done in a couple of days and somehow Maverick got another plane. Maybe they have extra planes at Miramar. I was 21 when it came out and I saw that movie at least 10 times before buying the VHS tape.
If you listen to a later scene where Maverick has been cleared by the investigation, returned to flight duty and had trouble getting "back in the saddle" Viper reminds Jester the accident had been "only a few days!". I thought omnipotence was the preserve of wives and senior NCOs.
I like the frontal shots of the pilot sitting in the ejection seat with the brass unlocking tool in place (behind his head on the left side) . The tool was used to unlock the seat from the rails when you pulled the seat out. Having worked for Grumman on Long Island building all models of the Tomcat the employees picked the movie to death, loads of fun.
I was a tech on ejection seats. Hunter, Buccaneers, Jaguar and Tornado. We called that brass tool a top latch plunger wheel. I was surprised that the seat didn’t fall when they went inverted. 😂Great movie though.
My first thoughts when I watched "Top Gun" in the theatre release was, "How does "Maverick" get away with riding his Kawasaki Ninja in California without a helmet?" California was one of the first states with a mandatory helmet law, that came out in the '70's. I was enlisted Navy from '78 to '85 and just to enter SSC/NTC, North Island, or San Diego Naval Station you had to be wearing a DOT certified helmet. The Navy required helmets before the State of California.
I was a crew member 82-85 on USS Enterprise when they were filming scenes for top gun. In later years watching the movie I picked out most of the errors you pointed out. I am a retired AT2 Having supported the F14 in AIMD most of my career. Thank you for your service sir and pointing out the blatant Hollywood goofs.
From a former Plane Captain of the Tomcat with VF-1 (1986-1990), the one error that gets me is when Maverick was getting ready to launch from the alert 5, the plane captain was holding the signal "Remove Electrical power" while the Tomcat was in Zone five on the cats... That always gets me...
Is that the “index and middle finger of one hand pressing into the palm of your other”? I couldn’t find what that meant but thought it may have been a sign to confirm both AB’s were functioning before releasing the cat. Your comment makes sense since I couldn’t find that sign anywhere
To be fair, Jester should have been reprimanded for deliberately diving to the arbitrary hard deck simply because he didn't want Maverick to get a 'kill'. Unless it was a Soviet technique to fly into the ground rather than be shot down?
Former Marine A4 driver. Took my 14 yr old daughter to see Top Gun - the movie was driving me crazy! the comm bable mostly. My daughter told me to settle down as it's just a movie & if they didn't 'bable', I'd be the only one in the theater that knew what the hell was going on. I settled down & watched what became the best recruiting tool for Pensacola for several years. Whiskey Mike
You can #22 to the list. As a former ABE (Catapults And Arresting Gear ) sailor, the scene at the end where Maverick is being launched from the Alert 5 right before he is launched the hand signal for "Hang Fire" is given and then he is launched. A 'Hang Fire" is when the fire button is pressed by the deck edge crewman or on carriers that have the bubble by the Shooter and the catapult fails to launch the plane. This is a serious situation and a Suspend of the launch would happen and the plane would be moved off the cat and the catapult shut down.
I”m not a”Karen” just adding to the main subject of this video. Plus since I actually worked, Trained and spent my career working Catapults and arresting gear on carrier I wanted to point out the stupid movie mistake made that Ward also made a list to. So come on give me a break. Also ask yourself who is the really “Karen”? Not me so must be you. just saying!
23: "Too close for missiles, switching to guns!" Now I was just a lowly F-16 weapons systems guy, but I'm pretty sure the Falcon and Tomcat both use the trigger, not the pickle button, for the cannon.
There is a flying sequence scene in the cockpit, where you can see over the pilot's left shoulder, that the top latch wheel is installed in the ejection seat. The top latch wheel is a specialist tool which enables the armourers to remove and refit ejection seats - it's screwed into the top latch to withdraw a spring loaded plunger which lock's the seat to the ejection gun. It is ALWAYS carried in the toolkit, and is only used to remove the seat and place it on a maintenance stand. And of course to remove the seat from the stand and refit back in the cockpit - whereupon it is unscrewed immediately and placed back in the toolkit. If an aircraft flew with the top latch wheel installed, then the moment the aircraft inverted, the seat would slide off the ejection gun guide rails and probably through the canopy, initiating the barostatic release unit, the drogue gun, the rocket pack and main gun firing unit along the way.
My dad was a firefighter at the crash house at NASF while the original movie was being filmed. I remember going on base to visit him and I saw a very small blue jet that I had never seen before. I asked my dad about it and he explained that it was a camera jet, and they were making a movie with some young hot shot star. Oh, and the flat spin happened about 15 seconds after we have a clear view of sand mountain, a convenient 300 miles from the nearest ocean beach, and about 500 from Miramar. I always laughed at how far he went while in a flat spin. That's the magic of movies. They film it hundreds of miles from the story's location and only the locals know. Basically, if you don't see the beach or palm trees in the shot, you are probably looking at Nevada.
@@tommitchell4570 isn't that the truth!?! My dad didn't know him by name, and I'm not sure I did either. I knew The Outsiders, but he was far from top of the bill for that one. I knew Risky business, too, but I'm not sure if I knew his name at that point, though the tighty whiteys scene you mentioned was known to almost anybody. Top Gun was the first of several successful films that made his name a household name that anybody should recognize.
Tom Cruise had been in about half a dozen or so movies beforehand, such as Taps, The Outsiders, and Legend. I remember in middle school when we took a field trip to see Top Gun and all the girls were so excited as we were filing into the theater and screaming when his name came on screen. I didn't recognize him at the time, but apparently the females were well-acquainted with him.
When Maverick is riding alongside the jet taking off, you can see the tie-down strap on the front of the Kawasaki as well as the bed of the truck he's riding on. Still a great movie.
Immediately upon rewatching it, right after the raised fist, he blips the clutch handle and the bike doesn't react at all... amazing the things you fail to notice in the theater. I guess that's the filmmaker's art, eh?
:-) made me laugh too… an orange would never take down a fighter engine… they are even supposed to ingest a certain size of birds and keep running fine. Plus if no one can have a short sugar kick before a dogfight :-)
Saw an A-7 try to eat a guy on the flight deck once. The A-7s and A-6s had the wicked jet blast that came on the bounce from the deck. Dangerous business being on the flight deck at almost any time.
@@completewith7 Pilot (seated) height can be a disadvantage with g-force "resistance". Not too mention you need to be able to fit in the cockpit. A tall pilot would have to fly a slower plane. Chad Hennings, a 6’6” defensive tackle who played the Dallas Cowboys out of the Air Force Academy had fly a warthog. He was too tall to be a fighter pilot.
#8. I love at the end of Hot Shots! When Charlie Sheen is trying to land and every one is on the deck celebrating, you hear him over the radio "Hey you wanna get out of the way we are trying to land."
Had I been in the production crew of "Hot Shots", I would have had Sheen call Winchester...land on the carrier....and get serviced (fresh load of missiles) and push-started off the deck by the Penske indy crew.
Most relevant scene from Hot Shots is obviously the "kill count" one from HS2 ... which parodied all 80s action movies as "requiring a bigger kill count than their predecessors". Sadly Hollywood hasnt learned from this yet, but today it is the CGI and not the special effects budget that goes through the roof for sequels to make them "better".
Fun Fact. Navy here. I went to AMS "A"School in Millington, TN back in 1988. There was a lounge room by our barracks. There was a VCR and a TV in the lounge area. Every day, Top Gun was on the tv, and and everyone would stop what they were doing and watch. We didn't know the facts at the time. It looked legitimate to out ignorant brains. Hindsight is always 20/20. Thanks Ward for pointing out the facts you know are wrong.
As a college freshman in 1986 I knew most of these having lived around Pensacola and watching the Blues fly for years. Still loved it and still love it. I recently spent a Saturday night with my Ukrainian goddaughter watching it so she would know why her dad and I say "Negative ghost rider" instead of no to each other.
Fantastic debrief. Thanks! I'd add one more thing to that list: 4B Even if the RIO had a fuel gauge in the back, what would be the point of tapping on an electronic gauge? Was he worried that the LEDs had become stuck?
That scene where Maverick's plane is inverted over the Mig always bothered me, even as a kid. My immediate thought was "there is no way the planes could be that close to each other - the fins of the planes would be colliding"
Not just the fins ... the air turbulences COULD BE a problem ... and separating them again would pose the risk of having one plane in the hot exhaust of the other plane's engine ... which risks damage.
And not to mention that in order to fly that close without crashing into each other both pilots would have to be working together with nerves of steel... not knowing what another pilot might do like make a sudden maneuver, it would be suicide to attempt that.
Actually they wouldn't be colliding because the 'MiG 28' only had a single tail fin which would have been in the middle of the F-14 and the F-14 is so wide the twin tail fins wouldn't be touching anything.
Fins won’t get damaged my exhaust. Look up the USAF thunderbirds flying the F-100s. The plane in the slot has a black tail from the leads exhaust. That’s after hours.. not seconds. Suction between canopies? Just counteract it with control. That’s literally all flying a plane is… flying with a reference (surface of the earth, instruments, or another aircraft) and using your controls to maintain that reference.
I was one of those young guys that joined the Navy because of Top Gun. Was assigned to VF-213 seat shop 94-96. In the movie the star wheels are installed on the ejection seats as a safety measure. Enjoy your content sir. Thank you.
@@timm8973 not technically, they aren't a safety measure at all. They are a disassembly tool. The star wheels were there probably because someone missed removing them during filming.
When one of the F-14s is shutting off one of its engines, the Vulcan 20mm in the nose is shown firing. That always annoyed me along with the throttle getting shoved forward to "hit the brakes."
One of these years somebody is gonna make a movie that whacks the shit out of how a Hollywood director really does their job, and when Hollywood directors whine in all their insider parties throughout the Pacific Palisades, that somebody can piss all over them by paraphrasing Tony Scott. The arrogance of any popcorn movie maker thinking that they can cut and paste together anything more terrorizing than the basic, professional, calm reality of a modern jet fighter cockpit in an actual dogfight....
@@MoAndAye They made millions. They entertained millions. That was their one and only goal. Not creating a training film or a documentary. Every subject Hollywood touches gets cartoonized for the masses. We all know this going in. They have two hours to tell an elaborate story. They take shortcuts.
@@bartacomuskidd775 that is the short version of the quote, but the gist of his statement was that he made the movie for movie goers who wanted fun action, and not a documentary, he specifically said that he knew fighter pilots wouldn’t like it, but he didn’t make it for them.
I'll start by saying that I'm a retired pilot as well and while I never flew the F-14 (wrong branch) I do know a little something about that type of equipment. I love Top Gun and I've obviously known from the first time I saw it in the theatre that it was a tad less than accurate. I can overlook that though because it's such a fun movie. My only gripe here is that he brought up some truly piddly stuff and left out some things that I've always found much more egregious about the movie. Receiving their orders at the Top Gun ceremony for instance; that's never bothered me as much as the inference in that scene that of all the pilots in the entire US Navy, those particular guys are the ONLY ones who can deal with the problem. The pilots that were already on the ship weren't up to snuff? Or the fact that there's a hot blond telling active duty F-14 pilots how to fly their aircraft and what they're doing wrong. Again, needed the hot blond for the plot but come on. Or the story about Maverick's dad as told to him by Viper, anyone else noticed that it made absolutely no sense at all? Just a few plot holes. The tech stuff didn't bother me because most people wouldn't know about it anyway so it's not as in-your-face as things like the above plot holes.
@@TheticCrime Their canopies are only about two feet apart. Look at photos of an F-14 and compare the height of the vertical stabs to the top of the canopy. See the problem?
@@662wc5 the discussion is about touching tails ( vert stabs ) since the F 14 is 4meter longer than the F 5, the tails wont touch, the F 5 tail will touch the fuselage before the twin tails
The part that always bugged me was when Maverick is giving instructions to an angel under attack, "On 3 break right, 1,2,3, break right." I would have broken right on three.
Except he doesn't say "On 3, break right".....he said "Ice, on the COUNT of 3, break hard right. 3, 2, 1, break right". One could argue that a 'count of 3' is "1, 2, 3" I suppose.
This was fantastic. I laughed just about the whole time you were presenting this because, as a kid, when you watched this movie, you were in awe. As an adult, you see the glaring flaws in the movie, even though it's still awesome. The same goes for Iron Eagle and all the silly/incorrect/ridiculous inaccuracies you see in that movie, which too is still an awesome aviation movie. Great stuff Ward!
Absolutely correct! Iron Eagle was on a whole different level as far as inaccuracies go. Even as a teen, I found it impossible to swallow the fact a teenager would be allowed anywhere near an F-16. Training or otherwise.
@@krazykyfan WAS HE?!?!?! And then some! Had free reign of the base, and apparently all fighter aircraft, too! If we just had someone like him in the Pentagon! 😂
Alsoe that volleyball scene was all fake, they brought in a truck load of sand and a net,when production finished they dismantled it and that was the end of it.
First, thank you for serving our country, and second, thank you for your humility and professionalism. I've seen too many videos by so-called experts that seem to love the sound of their own voices. You, sir, have earned my respect. Subscribed.
Well done, sir. Very good stuff, Ward. Thanks for the memories and good gouge. I was a fleet A-7 guy (75-86), had a CAG ops tour, was CO of VF45 (Key West Adversary flying F16, F5 and A4) and finally AirBoss on the TR. Went on to enjoy flying a FEDEX. Be well, shipmate.
Was in 45 back in 84-87, PR2. Only had A-4s {TA-J & E's} back then. Actually, it was VA-45 when I first got there, changed in late 84 early 85 if I remember correctly.
This was so VERY awesome!!! Thanks for putting in the time and effort for this channel. You and CW Lemoine are captivating to listen to and learn from.
I always thought when the CAG/CO/Capitan who gave orders in the CIC the scene before, said "You can tell me about the MIG some other time" and dismisses them to Top Gun and being they were not in the U.S. dogfighting Migs, It would be a day or two before being near enough to a base that's within range of a C-2 Greyhound, so what was the hurry getting them out of his stateroom? They had plenty of time to give him their debrief of why a Mig got within 150 miles of the carrier task force
I suspect the Carrier Air Wing Intelligence Team and the Operations Officer were standing right outside the Squadron CO's door while Maverick was in there getting his butt chewed...when the two of them walked out the door..."Gentleman, we need to talk. Right now."
That's because it wasn't in the movie originally. It's a Mandela effect. Hey... I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't add in a conspiracy theory at some point.
The thing that bothered me the most you did not mention. That whole plot point about going below the hard deck chasing Jester, when the entire fight seemed to be below the deck given the flight scenes used. One time goose even says ‘Watch the mountains”. It seemed like most of that fight happened below 1000’.
My number 22. I was an E2-C Flight Tech in training when TG came out. I watched it in a Norfolk VA theater in a crowd of mostly Navy personel. After they got their orders the next seen was at sea and text on the screen said "24 hours later in the Indian Ocean." Many in the audience chuckled at that as it was virtually impossible to get to the ship that quickly.
Which makes me wonder what those MIGs were doing out in the Indian ocean, nowhere near Soviet territory. I think the mission briefing says there was a support ship that had broken down and "drifted into enemy territory", but there are no Soviet states bordering the Indian ocean.
Another one you've missed: Jester states in a voiceover that "the planes you are flying against are smaller, faster and more manoeuvrable, just like the enemy MIGs", but an A-4 is actually a lot slower than an F-14.
Yeah that’s a weird one. I think “quicker” instead of ‘faster’ would have been better. I think the only MiG at this time that was absolutely capable of a higher speed than the F-14 was the MiG 25.
and there's something that i really don't understand in that sequence: the hard deck was 10,000 feet right? Yet they were near ground level the entire time until the last engage o.o ... still loved that film anyway ;D
@@Rogar79 10,000 feet asl does not necessarily mean 10,000 feet higher than the mountains in the area. it would be correct to set the hard deck to a height that was safe clearance over most if not all of the terrain. still a stretch, i know, but......
The reason the Navy chose the A4 for adversary was because of its maneuverability. Note that in air combat, speed isn't everything. This presenter's remarks about dogfights, which are fairly common among air combatants, are described as being a "knife fight in a phone booth". The A4 was later supplemented by the IAI Kfir at Miramar because of its superb maneuverability as well as its resemblance to then-contemporary adversaries, many of which were flying French aircraft, of which the Kfir was a derivative. Captured Iraqi and purchased post-Soviet MiGs provided additional adversary training. Never underestimate the ability of an aircraft: an exceptional plane can perform poorly in the hands of a crummy pilot, but even a marginal/unremarkable plane can be lethal when flown by a very good pilot. This is what Top Gun (the training program, not the movie) was all about.
Any chance of a Flight of the Intruder video? Love this one, except for the entire dogfight at the end. Especially when one bogey moves in closer to the other bogeys and then pops up on radar! Thanks a lot for these videos, great fun to hear from a pro! And, thanks for your service! 🇺🇸💪
I didn't fly the A-6 but I was an Avionics Tech from 88-92. Not being a pilot I'm not sure about all of the nuances of actually flying it but as far as the technical details there was a lot of wrong going on. FOTI was set in 1972, a good chunk of the avionics see in the film was not period correct, the paint schemes were all wrong for the carrier scenes, and there were some pilot/BN actions that didn't make sense. For instance, towards the end of the movie I was always curious as to why the pilot decided call BINGO fuel, then turn on the canopy map light...during the day... Either way, still love the movie with all it's flaws. The one thing they did get right is the unique sound of the P&W J-52 engines and the background noises of the carrier.
I was already in the Navy for 2 years when this came out. My folks came to visit me Hawaii where I was stationed and we went to see it at the theater. I was on a submarine, so all this aviation stuff did not mean a lot to me, but I was checking things out like uniforms and ribbon placement when I could see what they had for accuracy I thought it was a fun movie and when it was released on VHS, everyone got a copy and played it all the time at the barracks . Good times. "Talk to me Goose!"
The truth is only interesting if used to motivate viewers to watch the movie - despite possible shortcomings: "based on a true story" or if it's really far fetched (or bad): "inspired by a true story"... =)
I ll save you all the trouble. It was gangland murderer Mark Ckopper Read. He wrote several somewhat suspect books on his activities..en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_%22Chopper%22_Read
"Tower, there's some lunatic on the flight line on a motor cycle shaking his fist at us!"....That"s PRICELESS!!!!! 😂😂 Seriously though, I enjoyed your breakdown of "TopGun" just as I did on "The Final Countdown". Both happen to feature my all time favorite fighter, the F-14. I actually have a distant cousin who is an Engineer and back in the day, worked on the design of one of the TomCat's initial systems, I believe it was radar. Above all, thank you for making this video and most of all, your service to our country! So many people have unfortunately turned those few words into a cliche', but military service, especially flying, runs generations deep in my family and I VERY much appreciate your service!! How INCREDIBLE it must have been to spend that time in the cockpit of the F-14!!!! Please keep your video's coming! They are informative and enjoyable! Thank you again "Mooch" and God Bless!!!!!
I’m surprised he missed this one - when everyone in the fighter pilot bar started singing Loving Feeling in unison. As an ex F4 jock I’ve been in a lot of fighter pilot bars and at no time did everyone start singing in unison.
F-4 is my favorite jet of all time, and I envy you. I first saw pictures of F-4Ds my pop took when he was stationed in Thailand, and even as a little kid I knew that jet was damn awesome. You're pretty awesome in my book lol.
When Top Gun came out, one of our local morning radio shows here did a funny skit about people joining the Navy because of the movie. It was a guy supposedly calling in to the station, yelling "I thought I was gonna meet Tom Cruise! I thought I was gonna be a pilot and meet hot women! I'm scrubbing decks and cleaning toilets!"
I remember an old Saturday Night Live commercial from the 70's about joining the Navy... showed guys scraping paint, peeling potatoes, mopping floors, and a bunch of other mundane, not fun jobs. Then at the end it said, "U.S. Navy. It's not just a job, it's $295 a week."
Have carried the nickname "Mav" for 34 years. Love it, though I actually failed my RAF flying tests at Biggin Hill so have never flown a fast jet (prop jobs only). Another great video from you Ward, best subscription I've made in years. Despite its flaws, still an awesome film and must have been the best recruiting aid the USN ever had.
Wait really? Oh my god that's hilarious. All the stories I've heard about the filming were Tom's first ride in a Tom cat, Anthony Edwards flipping a circuit breaker behind his seat, and how Michael Ironside saw the filming of the pass with the Tomcat flying at rooftop level.
One of my biggest needs with the movie has always been the hard deck sequence. Before the final engagement when they are below the hard deck for “a few seconds”, as maverick is chasing they are clearly way below 10,000 ft flying through desert peaks and close to the ground
1) engine flame out... Goose says No1 engine, but from the video, it was the right hand, #2 engine. 2) you should do this with The Final Countdown also!
Cringy tech aside, Top Gun is still the most badass fighter movie ever made. The opening crescendo with the Harold Faltermeyer music to the deck scene culminating in the cat shot transition to Danger Zone is hair raising every time I see it. And that’s dozens and dozens of times. Top Gun has been one of the first movies I’ve purchased in every format from theater tix in 1986 to VHS to DVD to Blu Ray to iTunes. 35 years and it is still kicking ass.
@@babboon5764 imagine working with Tom Cruise now, after that meltdown he had against the entire crew about masking up. Not raising a mask debate, just saying he went from an actor to producer with a lot of clout, much like his character Les in tropic Thunder
Finally someone breaking down the technical facts of the movie. I am not a pilot but found the description of actual flight controls in certain situations fascinating. You're right. I will never watch Top Gun the same way again. It will be Interesting to see how much the director gets right in the new movie. Thanks for your analysis!
One glaring lie in the movie was when they graduated, 5 guys got orders to head out to the tip of the spear like they were super special and only they could handle the danger. The carrier on scene had 2 squadrons of F-14's, and that time probably a squadron of F/A-18's. All of whose pilots would've gladly told Ice, Slider, Wood, Wolfman and Maverick where they could stick their TOPGUN graduation certificates if they thought they needed those 5 guys' help. That's WHY the carrier was there...to project America's military might across the globe.
The F14 was the only fighter in the inventory that could carry the long range Phoenix missile. A beautiful plane that would easily defeat an F35. A real turkey. My opinion is that the Tomcat is better than the overrated f18.
The one error I always get a kick out of is when Maverick gets pissed at Charlie and fly's off on his motorcycle but NOT from NAS Miramar but the Balboa NAVY hospital near downtown San Diego
Mike - That's actually Naval Training Center (NTC) San Diego and not Balboa. He drives past the commissary and through the gate that empties onto Rosecrans Street.
@@detsd59: Right! I won a bet with a fellow Naval officer over that when the movie came out. My last active duty billet was at NTC and by 1986 I was a civilian working at the Naval Hospital. After the film came out, I was accepted to work at the actual TOPGUN school, where I worked 'til Sept. of 1991.
I haven't seen it in awhile but it came on the other night and I tuned just at that point. I remember a building at the NAVY Hospital which is why I thought it was the place I commented on. But as I watched it it was clear that was NTC he came out of onto Rosecrans. I'm not sure what spot he stops at but you can see downtown San Diego in the background and not Miramar RD
#12 the fuel dump.. Man the things Hollywood will do for effect... Scratching my head... Thanks for the download Ward.. Always interesting watching your video's.
That one seemed odd to me even as a young teenager with very little knowledge of how the military worked. I knew they handed out decorations, ribbons, patches... but I was pretty dubious about a trophy. Trophies are for sports.
I was a 19 kid fresh out of A school in Millington for AT the summer Top Gun came out. I was excited when I saw I was going to Miramar. It didn’t take long to figure out a lot of tech discrepancies with Top Gun. I didn’t know that after Top Gun (the actual one) that pilots got new assignments. I was on ground crew when two of our pilots from VF-24 went to the course at Yuma and China Lake and I think we all just resumed our regular duties afterwards. I’m so glad I found this channel. It brings back great memories.
During my ROTC days back in 1989, I was assigned to spray cooling water to an M-61 Vulcan 20 mm gatling gun being fired from a parked Northrop F-5. Only worn minimal earplugs and almost got totally deaf and instead of my ears ringing, I hear only white noise - akin to the blank spaces on the FM tuner for 2 weeks. Luckily, my hearing returned to normal. BTW, the sound the M-61 Vulcan makes is akin to the bass riff intro of Elastica's Connection - only its a really, really loud WRRR....
@@laurentzduba1298 No you didn't, because the F-5 didn't carry an M61. It carried two M39 cannon. (Or in the case of the F-5F, a single M39). M39 are single barreled, multiple chamber "revolver" cannons, not gatling guns. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M39_cannon
@@bronco5334 our commandant said it was an M-61 Vulcan same one retrofitted on Vietnam War era F-4 Phantoms - unless I misread the plaque / badge of it. Back around 1989, there were already plans to replace the F-5s with F-16 the next semester in the airbase we were assigned to. After my ROTC stint, I concentrated on my carrer as a rock musician. If pressed, I can't even remember now how to tell apart the T-38 from the F-5.
You guys are all wrong. At no point in the movie Top Gun does a F-14 ever use guns! Only the "Mig-28" ever uses it's cannons, which fires frozen turkeys at 300 rounds per min!!!
This was a lot of fun. It's always good to hear from someone that actually knows what instrumentation is visible from which seat. I also boggle at that scene where Mav just "hits the brakes". Let's slow this thing down by applying full thrust, that sounds like a plan.
Excellent video! I have a burning question though! This movie was made with US Navy assistance and input - how were these glaring errors not caught whilst the movie crew was literally surrounded by professionals in the field. I mean any pilot (let alone an F14 pilot) would have caught that max throttle to "slow down" error for example.
Another miss (not called out in this video) can be seen during the “flat spin” sequence as Goose says “engine one is out!” The scene cuts to an rear external view showing engine two flame out instead of number one. Number one engine shuts down shortly after, but that miss was always pretty obvious.
@@therayven3147 - not to mention I seriously doubt they killed the engines in flight for that scene so I bet that was just the afterburners getting kicked off to mimic engine failure. Hollywood to Navy: we need you to shut down both engines on your 4 million dollar Tomcat so we can film the engines going off....by the way you're going have to be low and slow enough that our cameras can pick up the flameout clearly. Navy: uhhhh.... no. Lol
One of my pet peeves in aerial combat scenes is when a plane explodes and falls straight down like a brick, rather than the plane and pieces of it continuing on in a ballistic arc until it finally hits the ground. It just looks cartoonish. And all those people sweating buckets in CIC like they're on a WW2 submarine or something. They keep that place cold enough to use as a meat locker to help all the electronics stay cool. Even in the Summer I'd still have to wear a jacket in there to keep from shivering.
I ALWAYS enjoyed standing TAO in the Persian Gulf in a jacket. Every CIC I've ever been in is somewhere around 60 degrees ambient. As stated many other times, the equipment is really important, the watchstanders, not so much. . . When TG came out, I was assigned to Navy OCS as a company officer/instructor. Saw TG in Warwick RI with all the pilots from Navy War College in the audience. Watching them lean into the turns with the in-flight scenes was hilarious. Then we all went and got drunk.
I saw an interview with the pilots who flew the Tomcat scenes in the movie The Final Countdown, and they too, laughed at the inaccuracies in Top Gun and mentioned how much more accurate it was in Final Countdown.
Another great video Ward 👍 I watched Top Gun with my dad and we both laughed at the technical inaccuracies in the movie. My dad, being not only a aeronautical and methods engineer at both Republic and Grumman flew in SBD's in the Navy during WWII. He pointed out all the inaccuracies and would yell out, "That's F***ing bullshit!". lol
I wish we could watch “Maverick”, they have been talking about it for years now. Thanks for the error count. The “flat-spin heading out to sea” has bugged me every time I’ve seen it. The sad thing is the great pilot forcing the spin died while attempting “just one more time!” Its a movie, people shouldn’t die for a movie, although lots do.
The funniest part is that you can see the tie-down straps on the handlebars, because he wasn’t really riding the thing, it was strapped to a trailer. Little man, big ego, all image
Cool Chanel. I was an F-14A/A+ airframer and flight deck troubleshooter, VF-211, GAG 9, Nimitz, 87-91. Love the stories. We had a flight deck fire Nov 88 in the I.O. Would love to see you do a video about that. The Ordies were working on an A-7 20mm, they thought it was empty, it was not. Hit a fully loaded KA-6. The fire was higher than the Island. 2 died. The KA-6 was pushed overboard the next morning, I helped push and watched it sink. And about a dozen aircraft were damaged, mostly A-7s, none ever flew again. HB-1 was full of burnt planes for the rest of the cruse.
If you recall, Maverick & Iceman were always very competitive until the end: You can be my wingman any time. No, you can be mine. They buried the hatchet. Had absolutely nothing to do with receiving orders.
@@siskokidd that isn't how you spell point. while we are at it, the author of the vid criticised the exchange for reasons that had sod all to do with the context, so the explanation is a fair one. shame you got your panties in a know dear!
I switched my major in college after this movie. I went into an aviation program at a prestigious school and enjoyed being a flight instructor and charter pilot for a little while.
Really enjoy this channel. As a kid, seeing “Top Gun” absolutely made me want to join the Navy to fly an F-14. Even though poor eyesight killed my fighter pilot dreams, to this day the Tomcat is still my favorite aircraft of all time. There’s just something about its design, and of course the swept wings, that just screams ‘badass.’ Thanks for the videos, Gypsy 214.
"He wouldn't fly parade formation with a wingman who has been shot with a lot of bullets." - Ward. Good catch! I completely forgot he was shot to hell. Haha.
LOL... I love the movie but I never really thought about how ridiculous the parade formation would have been. Not only were they all shot up but I recall they even shut down one of the engines!
@@mdmoore37 that would also require a lot of functional engine and rudder correction, he should’ve been out of that fight after the first burst, but even better was after the second burst Iceman says “we’re hit again”, Slider replies “both engines are functioning we’re ok”... 🤷🏻♂️
@@CoffeeMatt10 I thought Slider said all systems not both engines, especially since Iceman had already shut the left engine down after the first burst.
Here's one for you that you--In the beginning, Maverick goes to land, but hears Cougar struggling, so when he hits the deck, he applies throttle and pulls back on the stick and takes back off. If he was coming in for a landing, that means he planned on grabbing a wire, it isn't like there is a run up area to the wires where you can make a decision to stay down, you land amongst them and hook one. If you apply full throttle, which you're supposed to do, but try to take off while hooked to a wire, that can't end well, you're either coming to a stop anyhow, barely getting back in the air and getting pulled back down, or something breaks, or all three. What would the effects of being hooked to a wire and trying to take off be? Wouldn't the only way the scene could play out in reality would have been if he missed all the wires in the first place?
Hey, Ward, GREAT video(s). I linked your clips to my aerospace engineering class to help provide context for some of the concepts in class. Great stuff. That being said, since we are being pedantic, I have one (minor) correction to one of your claims: you address (starting at 2:15 and specifically at 2:25) that if the F-14 and the "MiG-28" (actually a two-seater F-5F) were in "a 4G inverted dive" at that range that their V-Stabs would interfere catastrophically. Sadly, that's not correct. 1) To start, the Tomcat has a tip-to-toe length of 62' 9". The Tiger II measured only 51' 4". That 11' 5" allows plenty of room behind the Tiger for the Tomcat's V-Stabs to just hang out there. Additionally, with the Tomcat having two V-Stab, they would have been oriented wide enough to not be torched by the exhaust of the Tiger (more on that in point 2). 2) While the planes are in a very odd orientation considering their wings would be at an 8.87° convergent angle and tip-to-toe, they'd be at an overall 5.59° convergent angle, that can *maybe* be controlled by elevators and some tricks with the wings, so it's not really anything to be completely bugged about, but more on that later. What is noteworthy about that orientation, however, is that it would give additional room for the "MiG-28" V-Stab to not hit the rear fuselage of the F-14. The F-14, as you pointed out, had essentially a "lifting body" (as many fighter planes do, including to a degree, the F5F), the "hips" of the Tomcat are wide from the top, but low when viewed from the side. In other words, combining orientation and geometry of the aircrafts, the Tiger's VStab wouldn't interfere with the rear fuselage of the Tomcat. Then, of course, as noted above, even IF the Tomcat only had one VStab, this orientation would put it beyond the reach of the Tiger's exhaust, further insulating the "vertical tail planes." 3) Finally, as you imply/state in your video, many of the scenes (including this one) show the aircraft flying horribly close together. Sadly, that's mostly a consequence not of Hollywood camera/post-production tricks like those used in Harry Potter and The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings to fiddle with the scale of the size of the actors, but rather director Tony Scott's insistence that the planes actually fly in such tight formation. While the pilots didn't love the idea, they were actual Top Gun instructors who were able to perform those maneuvers while being filmed from chase planes. The in-cockpit shots were on the ground, in studio. At the orientation shown (convergent 5.6° or 8.9°, depending on measure; we are not shown relative AOA, I don't think), the cockpits are almost parallel (likely the goal of the cinematography). That puts the Tomcat's apparent angle at 1.3° and the Tiger II's at -2.27°, a *divergence* of 3.57°. When compared, then, to the actual convergent angles of the planes, 4) Based on (3), since we see Tom Cruise and Anthony Edwards through the canopy, that shot was, pretty much guaranteed, done in-studio and stitched together with post-production love. However, as noted in (1) and (2) it *could* have been done (though it would be ridiculously stupid and pointless from a tactical standpoint and the "MiG-28" would probably have flown up into the F-14 anyway, due to the convergent angles of the crafts and the low pressure that should exist between them, pulling them even closer together. However, suppose the crafts were oriented such that their wings were parallel- arguably easier to maintain the distance, then the MiG would have appeared to be at a 6.8° down angle while the Tomcat would have appeared to be at 5.64° up angle, a combined divergent angle of 12.44°, which would have likely caused the audience a great deal of confusion while they, uninformed of how tandem seat airplanes are typically arranged, argued that the planes *should* have been flying away from each other if they were in those relative orientations. Conclusion: Respectfully, I submit that you are incorrect about the stab-slice, though highly likely correct that this event could not have occurred in the way that they portray it in the highly Hollywood-ized film.
One thing everyone misses for some reason, if a a jet is hostile it is no longer a bogey, it becomes a bandit. As for dumping fuel before an engagement being stupid, Dale Snodgrass even admitted in one of his interviews that he once did it to make himself be lighter in the merge.
.... In simulated combat... You have to wonder if he would have taken that gamble in real combat. Of course, in real combat you've already screwed up if the bandit survives to the merge.
Yeah... really dumb to dump your fuel in real life because a dog fight is energy management which also includes fuel that disappears very quickly at full burner. Sure would suck to win, get bingo fuel, and then have his wingman pick you off as you try to run away. Oh.. and a head on no advantage merge, has that ever happened, ever? Usually one side has an energy and positional advantage plus the element of surprise, and the other doesn’t. You should never enter any fight on equal terms.
Pretty sure Dale Retail Snodgrass wouldn't dump fuel for a real fight, in the middle of the Ocean with nooooooooo other place to land then the carrier. But yeah, dumping fuel works in DCS as well :D
"Because Goose did a shitty job looking behind him".... Love that assesment.. Always thought that myself while watching that movie that Jester just kinda snuck up out of nowhere.
@@tedwojtasik8781 At least make him overshoot a couple of times by turning back into him. As we say in the business, you can’t kill what you don’t see.
That was fun, Ward. I picked up on most of those, except the cockpit instrument details. As an engineer, I annoy my friends going "No, no, no!" when I see stuff like the inverted F-14 playing dueling fins with the "Mig." Keep it up.
Great video! I'm the Brazilian dubbed version of the movie, IIRC Iceman's wording when calling out about Maverick's flat spin implies that they were already over the sea when it happens and the plane is falling towards the sea instead of flying out to sea. But since it's been many a moon since I've watched it in Portuguese, I can't confirm that right now. Great stuff, Ward. I always learn something new with this videos. Thanks!
Hey Ward. I was a Scooter Driver in Vietnam embarked in CVA-62 and CVA-42. By the time I flew my last Navy aircraft I had accumulated 700 or so traps. With the rather large number of "Holy S--t" moments one collects during flying off the carrier that long, I've especially enjoyed your commentaries about carrier aviation. Because of your demonstrated knowledge of the behind-the-scenes history of Top Gun, you may be able answer a question that's been bugging since the first time I saw the move in our local movie theater. James Tolkin's hard boiled temperament and bald head is damn near the spitting image of my CO in VX-5. Long before I checked into the Vampires everyone told me what a hard ass Capt. Muncie was and to a man each of them warned me to NEVER comment about his bald head about which he was very self-conscious. Do you know if Tolkan's character was patterned on Capt. Muncie? At our first squadron party in VX-5 I introduced my wife to the skipper. My beautiful spouse shook the Skipper's hand, looked up at the CO's shiny bald, looked directly into the skipper's eyes and with wry smile said, "So, I understand we're not supposed to talk about your bald head. Game, set, and match point to my bride.
It wouldn't surprise me if they had retired Navy pilots as technical advisors on the film, and if so it's highly likely they served in the South China Sea around that time. Could well be some similar anecdotes about your CO got told to the production crew.
I was the controlling LSO for “Cougar’s” pass. Filmed behind Carl Vinson in W-291. The actual pilot was LT Ben Schneider from VF-51. If you watch the video he starts rocking his wings hard for Hollywood and the spoilers dumped tons of lift immediately and he started coming down like a safe, very evident in the video.I gave him one hard power call and immediately waved him off. I was seriously afraid he might hit the water. If you watch the belly camera video you can see the waveoff lights. And no, he didn’t trap on that pass.
The Navy got what they wanted. A multi, multi million dollar recruiting ad.
@MichaelKingsfordGray …what ?
@MichaelKingsfordGray what the fuck bro
Between Top Gun and the long running Naval tradition in my family, it hooked me too. (Grandfather, mother, father and 5 uncles all served in the Navy)
@@rockhardnipple6633 that sir is one hell of a tradition!
And considering that 99.9% that sign up to be a pilot end up washing out and doing something else, they get many positions filled, other than pilots. There is never a shortage of people that want to fly. Navy wins.
As a Machinists' Mate, I was always bothered by ALL the catapults failing on a carrier AT THE SAME TIME! Trust me, if the designers of Nimitz class carriers worshipped one god, it was Redundancy.
No doubt due in no small part to failures like the one on the USS Kitty Hawk, where they were servicing one of the blast shields and forgot to place the mechanical braces. There was a hydraulic (or steam,not sure which) failure and the shield fell, killing one sailor who was working underneath it.
But but but... that would have meant more airborne fighters, and Maverick couldn't have been the hero who saved the day. (among probably hundreds of actual inaccuracies)
While I find it amusing when people pick apart 80's movies, it's just that... an 80's movie. Comparatively, it's probably the most accurate to life movie ever made in that decade.
@@MOTO809 what about Back to the Future? That was totally realistic.
Okay, maybe not, but Breakfast Club was way more accurate than Top Gun.
“Bullshit ten minutes, this thing will be over in two minutes. Get on it!”
Even as a kid, I noticed how that was more to create tension than anything technically factual. Basically they want to convey that there’s no help coming for Ice and Maverick.
And that is why the Royal Navy uses ski-jumps Nothing to go wrong!
I’m a nurse and this is the exact reasons why I don’t watch medical shows on tv. It drives me crazy!!!
Any Tech movie, SciFi, Aviation, Medical, Space Travel will drive anybody nuts with all the errors in them. All one can say about Hollywood is that they make movies: Good, Bad, and, Ugly. Space travel is my great complaint.
Ditto! And the thing is - they have consultants. I understand "artistic license" but some of it is way too egregious and comes across as ridiculous (like "sedating" some one by jabbing them in the 'juggular' vein - perpendicular to the vein by the way - and using the wrong drug to boot! And forget ambu-bag, monitors etc!)
Yes! My wife's an RN and she's always yelling at the screen whether it's ER or something else: "DON'T LEAVE THE BED RAILS DOWN!"
@@dlee1947 The only modern aviation movie that even comes close is 'Sully'.
@@dlee1947 One word, Armageddon, excruciating movie.
My father was an RIO in Phantoms starting in the mid 1960's. He used to say that Top Gun was one of the greatest comedies put to film.
I love the f-4
There are two reasons, and two reasons only to watch "Top Gun". First the F-14, second the music.
The biggest laugh was during the set of Top Gun Tom Cruise try to lay down a large sum of money in order to fly the plane himself! he got damn near laughed off the base by base commander what a joker (3rd party resources from a sailor friend who got to work on the set/ I was not present)
Well In Maverick he does get to fly
All time favorite, Coolest aircraft ever!
Great job Ward! I'm a retired Army officer & was teaching ROTC at The Citadel when Top Gun came out. I was the enrollment officer for the Army detachment & asked my Navy counterparts what impact the movie had on their enrollment. They were not fans because all of the cadets enrolling in the Navy program wanted to be Tomcat pilots which hardly met the "needs of the Navy." We laughed because we'd gone through the same thing with Rambo, everyone wanted to be a Green Beret.
The recruiters have to have something to lie about to get the 18 year old kids to sign up.
I'm glad you did that quickly and not like Watchmojo or something like that and turned it into 30 minutes.
@Ward Carroll Disregard his comment, as the UA-cam algorithm uses 10 minutes as the baseline for the classification of clips. Keeping clip length above 10 mins will help you get discovered.
Would ALL of the catapults be down at the same time?
30 = 10 minutes of stated content, 20 minutes of repetition, plus alerting you that you will be given the stated content.
And watchmojo is shitty sometimes.
First thing I noticed. No explaining and the explaining what he just said.
Number 22: speaking coherently while pulling serious G turns.
Good point 👍
My mom pulls +12g and -6gs flying her aerobatic plane with no g suit and you would never know. Also all of her friends do the same thing. They maintain calm communication walking the back seat threw what’s taking place. It’s all about tolerance. My passion is helicopters but I do fly fw crop dusting and extra 300s as well. My dad flew in the navy and then nasa. My mom gives him shit about he doesn’t like negative gs at all. He comes unglued at -1g. Not uncommon I’ve found with military pilots. Something about being allergic to -gs.
@@klk1900 given this is the internet, proof of that?
@@klk1900 proof?
@@klk1900 maximum rated G pull for a fighter jet with G-suit=9 sure you can pull more but chances are you’ll only be doing that for a couple weeks
When I was a kid my dad was stationed in Miramar. He liked to point out the scene where Mavrick and Charlie meet in an elevator. There were no elevators there...
That was, if memory serves, a reshoot. They'd have shot at the production company's offices, or something, and dubbed some engine noise on. That's why Kelly McGillis has her hair stuffed under a baseball cap - she'd dyed it red for a subsequent role. Same reason behind the blue light in the bedroom scene.
And not only that, someone matched the Pings with the opening and closing of the elevator doors and found out that in one instance everybody exits through a closed door! 😂
As a former squadron safety officer, I was really impressed that the accident investigation team completed the complex investigation in what - one month?
They clearly hired NCIS, so they could get the whole investigation done within the week
fastest accident investigation ever. I guess when everyone gives the information, and the FDR is recovered and reviewed... oh what am I saying... the Navy can't do anything that quickly...
Yes Hollywood can finish investigations in 15 minutes 😳
Yea they got the accident investigation done in a couple of days and somehow Maverick got another plane. Maybe they have extra planes at Miramar.
I was 21 when it came out and I saw that movie at least 10 times before buying the VHS tape.
If you listen to a later scene where Maverick has been cleared by the investigation, returned to flight duty and had trouble getting "back in the saddle" Viper reminds Jester the accident had been "only a few days!". I thought omnipotence was the preserve of wives and senior NCOs.
I like the frontal shots of the pilot sitting in the ejection seat with the brass unlocking tool in place (behind his head on the left side) . The tool was used to unlock the seat from the rails when you pulled the seat out. Having worked for Grumman on Long Island building all models of the Tomcat the employees picked the movie to death, loads of fun.
It's called a star wheel. I was a ejection seat mechanic for the A6 Intruder. We laughed when we saw the star wheel on the seat
I was a tech on ejection seats. Hunter, Buccaneers, Jaguar and Tornado. We called that brass tool a top latch plunger wheel. I was surprised that the seat didn’t fall when they went inverted. 😂Great movie though.
I was an AME in VF-102 (‘93-‘98)and VX-9 Det. (‘98-‘00), and every time I see the star wheel, it’s like Dorothy looking behind the curtain.
GRUMMAN IRON WORKS!
You built some beautiful birds, Sir.
🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
No wonder Goose died!
My first thoughts when I watched "Top Gun" in the theatre release was, "How does "Maverick" get away with riding his Kawasaki Ninja in California without a helmet?" California was one of the first states with a mandatory helmet law, that came out in the '70's. I was enlisted Navy from '78 to '85 and just to enter SSC/NTC, North Island, or San Diego Naval Station you had to be wearing a DOT certified helmet. The Navy required helmets before the State of California.
I thought every body was aware at this point that Top Gun is as realistic representation of Fighter Pilots as Indiana Jones is of Archeologists.
as someone who worked in archaeology and studied archaeology, i love this comment lol
This movie is no different than how Backdraft was for Firemen.. We all joked about it while in the theatre.
It is...... compared to Hot Shots. All things are relative.
Top Gun is to fighter pilots as Days of Thunder is to stock car drivers. Appropriate since they are the same exact movie, just different settings.
@@ChrisandEileen Or The China Syndrome is for nuclear professionals. One of the funniest movies I've ever seen.
I was a crew member 82-85 on USS Enterprise when they were filming scenes for top gun. In later years watching the movie I picked out most of the errors you pointed out. I am a retired AT2 Having supported the F14 in AIMD most of my career. Thank you for your service sir and pointing out the blatant Hollywood goofs.
Nice Job Ward, Error 22 there is no "Topgun Trophy" at least not when I went thru in F-4's in 81. Soupy
From a former Plane Captain of the Tomcat with VF-1 (1986-1990), the one error that gets me is when Maverick was getting ready to launch from the alert 5, the plane captain was holding the signal "Remove Electrical power" while the Tomcat was in Zone five on the cats... That always gets me...
Is that the “index and middle finger of one hand pressing into the palm of your other”? I couldn’t find what that meant but thought it may have been a sign to confirm both AB’s were functioning before releasing the cat. Your comment makes sense since I couldn’t find that sign anywhere
To be fair, Jester should have been reprimanded for deliberately diving to the arbitrary hard deck simply because he didn't want Maverick to get a 'kill'. Unless it was a Soviet technique to fly into the ground rather than be shot down?
"You see Ivan, if you goings into ground like this, Americans can never shoot you down because you are below ground. Profit for glorious Motherland!"
@@agp11001 Holy crap I just immediately read that with a Russian accent!!
😂😂😂
In Soviet Russia, hard deck breaks you!
LMAO...
Former Marine A4 driver. Took my 14 yr old daughter to see Top Gun - the movie was driving me crazy! the comm bable mostly. My daughter told me to settle down as it's just a movie & if they didn't 'bable', I'd be the only one in the theater that knew what the hell was going on. I settled down & watched what became the best recruiting tool for Pensacola for several years.
Whiskey Mike
You can #22 to the list. As a former ABE (Catapults And Arresting Gear ) sailor, the scene at the end where Maverick is being launched from the Alert 5 right before he is launched the hand signal for "Hang Fire" is given and then he is launched. A 'Hang Fire" is when the fire button is pressed by the deck edge crewman or on carriers that have the bubble by the Shooter and the catapult fails to launch the plane. This is a serious situation and a Suspend of the launch would happen and the plane would be moved off the cat and the catapult shut down.
Good one!
Ok Karen. Picky picky.
I”m not a”Karen” just adding to the main subject of this video. Plus since I actually worked, Trained and spent my career working Catapults and arresting gear on carrier I wanted to point out the stupid movie mistake made that Ward also made a list to. So come on give me a break. Also ask yourself who is the really “Karen”? Not me so must be you. just saying!
@@chrisgraeter373 calm down. I just having a little fun. I dont think anyone really took that movie verbatim
@@bigsarge8795 Way to fight for ignorance.
4:32 "Tower, there's some dork riding a motorcycle down the taxiway shaking his fist at us, and he's not wearing the appropriate safety vest." LOL
Or a helmet.
@@Rhojin83 White t-shirt not authorized as outer garment.
I never put that together and I’ve had to go through base motorcycle safety training.
Fun fact... Tom Cruise wasn't in control of the motorcycle. During that scene it was attached to the back of a movie truck.
Or helmet, for that matter. But hey, at those speeds it's ok. What could happen? It's not like he's flying! :D
23: "Too close for missiles, switching to guns!" Now I was just a lowly F-16 weapons systems guy, but I'm pretty sure the Falcon and Tomcat both use the trigger, not the pickle button, for the cannon.
There is a flying sequence scene in the cockpit, where you can see over the pilot's left shoulder, that the top latch wheel is installed in the ejection seat. The top latch wheel is a specialist tool which enables the armourers to remove and refit ejection seats - it's screwed into the top latch to withdraw a spring loaded plunger which lock's the seat to the ejection gun. It is ALWAYS carried in the toolkit, and is only used to remove the seat and place it on a maintenance stand. And of course to remove the seat from the stand and refit back in the cockpit - whereupon it is unscrewed immediately and placed back in the toolkit. If an aircraft flew with the top latch wheel installed, then the moment the aircraft inverted, the seat would slide off the ejection gun guide rails and probably through the canopy, initiating the barostatic release unit, the drogue gun, the rocket pack and main gun firing unit along the way.
Fave comment here.
Probably the best part of the internet is learning from real people with real experience. Thanks!
dayum, good eye!
Was an AME. And worked on those seats. Its the one huge mistake I see everytime that movie comes on.
I was a AME and when we saw the Star wheel on the seats we laughed. They gave Tom a flight and the pilot had him puking his guts out lol
My dad was a firefighter at the crash house at NASF while the original movie was being filmed. I remember going on base to visit him and I saw a very small blue jet that I had never seen before. I asked my dad about it and he explained that it was a camera jet, and they were making a movie with some young hot shot star.
Oh, and the flat spin happened about 15 seconds after we have a clear view of sand mountain, a convenient 300 miles from the nearest ocean beach, and about 500 from Miramar. I always laughed at how far he went while in a flat spin. That's the magic of movies. They film it hundreds of miles from the story's location and only the locals know. Basically, if you don't see the beach or palm trees in the shot, you are probably looking at Nevada.
They also get to "fall" for as long as it takes to say all the dialogue ... instead of "as long as it actually takes".
"Some young hot shot star" --- it's kinda weird that Tom Cruise was only known for dancing in his tighty whiteys before Top Gun came out
@@tommitchell4570 isn't that the truth!?! My dad didn't know him by name, and I'm not sure I did either. I knew The Outsiders, but he was far from top of the bill for that one. I knew Risky business, too, but I'm not sure if I knew his name at that point, though the tighty whiteys scene you mentioned was known to almost anybody. Top Gun was the first of several successful films that made his name a household name that anybody should recognize.
Tom Cruise had been in about half a dozen or so movies beforehand, such as Taps, The Outsiders, and Legend. I remember in middle school when we took a field trip to see Top Gun and all the girls were so excited as we were filing into the theater and screaming when his name came on screen. I didn't recognize him at the time, but apparently the females were well-acquainted with him.
@@grondhero --- Tom Cruise was apparently "hot" in the 80's --- girls were smitten with him --- this was before the Scientology stuff came out
When Maverick is riding alongside the jet taking off, you can see the tie-down strap on the front of the Kawasaki as well as the bed of the truck he's riding on. Still a great movie.
wow man, good observation.
I said that on another comment. That and the ham-fisted use of the clutch
Immediately upon rewatching it, right after the raised fist, he blips the clutch handle and the bike doesn't react at all... amazing the things you fail to notice in the theater. I guess that's the filmmaker's art, eh?
"Why is Hollywood eating an orange on the flightline?"
That one made me lol
:-) made me laugh too… an orange would never take down a fighter engine… they are even supposed to ingest a certain size of birds and keep running fine. Plus if no one can have a short sugar kick before a dogfight :-)
All these years and I’ve never noticed that
@@Spanishfutbol2010 me too
Oranges? Never, but gobs and gobs of junk food in paper wrappers? Totally acceptable says every Air Force pilot and crew!
Saw an A-7 try to eat a guy on the flight deck once. The A-7s and A-6s had the wicked jet blast that came on the bounce from the deck. Dangerous business being on the flight deck at almost any time.
Number 22. Tom Cruze had to sit on a phone book to see out the window.
Oh snap --- I was scrolling down to find a joke about Cruise's height
Would TC even be tall enough to be a fighter pilot?
Cruze or Cruise?😖
@@completewith7 Pilot (seated) height can be a disadvantage with g-force "resistance". Not too mention you need to be able to fit in the cockpit. A tall pilot would have to fly a slower plane. Chad Hennings, a 6’6” defensive tackle who played the Dallas Cowboys out of the Air Force Academy had fly a warthog. He was too tall to be a fighter pilot.
LOL
Missed one I remember the captain saying both catapults were down in the last fight but that carrier had 4.
"You! You are still dangerous. But you can be my Motion Picture Technical Advisor anytime."
"Bullshit. You can be mine."
🤣😂
#8. I love at the end of Hot Shots! When Charlie Sheen is trying to land and every one is on the deck celebrating, you hear him over the radio "Hey you wanna get out of the way we are trying to land."
Had I been in the production crew of "Hot Shots", I would have had Sheen call Winchester...land on the carrier....and get serviced (fresh load of missiles) and push-started off the deck by the Penske indy crew.
Hot shots is a 1000 times better than top gun! :oD
@@SimonRaahauge1973 Hey I agree with you 1000 percent! Just the fact that Hot Shots was made to "Fly in the face" of top gun made me say YAY!
Most relevant scene from Hot Shots is obviously the "kill count" one from HS2 ... which parodied all 80s action movies as "requiring a bigger kill count than their predecessors". Sadly Hollywood hasnt learned from this yet, but today it is the CGI and not the special effects budget that goes through the roof for sequels to make them "better".
I'm surprised how under-rated "Hot Shots" is --- one of the funniest movies I ever seen --- Lloyd Bridges is hilarious
Fun Fact. Navy here. I went to AMS "A"School in Millington, TN back in 1988. There was a lounge room by our barracks. There was a VCR and a TV in the lounge area. Every day, Top Gun was on the tv, and and everyone would stop what they were doing and watch. We didn't know the facts at the time. It looked legitimate to out ignorant brains. Hindsight is always 20/20. Thanks Ward for pointing out the facts you know are wrong.
As a college freshman in 1986 I knew most of these having lived around Pensacola and watching the Blues fly for years. Still loved it and still love it. I recently spent a Saturday night with my Ukrainian goddaughter watching it so she would know why her dad and I say "Negative ghost rider" instead of no to each other.
You *really* wanted your Ukrainian goddahgter to know her goddfather's a card-carrying, died in the wool nerd didn't you?
You mean "Negative, Maverick." Ghost Rider was a Nicolas Cage movie.
@@jbx1967 did you really watch Top Gun? Or are you just trolling around?
If you want to see a 100% accurate movie, watch Office Space.
🤣👍 Yep!
2006: Idiocracy is satire!
2021: Wanna bet?
...or Clerks.
not even accurate, you'd get hauled to jail a day or week after pulling the money-skimming shit
I didn't need a million dollars and I ain't anything much to look at. ;)
Fantastic debrief. Thanks!
I'd add one more thing to that list: 4B Even if the RIO had a fuel gauge in the back, what would be the point of tapping on an electronic gauge? Was he worried that the LEDs had become stuck?
That scene where Maverick's plane is inverted over the Mig always bothered me, even as a kid. My immediate thought was "there is no way the planes could be that close to each other - the fins of the planes would be colliding"
Not just the fins ... the air turbulences COULD BE a problem ... and separating them again would pose the risk of having one plane in the hot exhaust of the other plane's engine ... which risks damage.
And not to mention that in order to fly that close without crashing into each other both pilots would have to be working together with nerves of steel... not knowing what another pilot might do like make a sudden maneuver, it would be suicide to attempt that.
Actually they wouldn't be colliding because the 'MiG 28' only had a single tail fin which would have been in the middle of the F-14 and the F-14 is so wide the twin tail fins wouldn't be touching anything.
Fins won’t get damaged my exhaust. Look up the USAF thunderbirds flying the F-100s. The plane in the slot has a black tail from the leads exhaust. That’s after hours.. not seconds.
Suction between canopies? Just counteract it with control. That’s literally all flying a plane is… flying with a reference (surface of the earth, instruments, or another aircraft) and using your controls to maintain that reference.
I was one of those young guys that joined the Navy because of Top Gun. Was assigned to VF-213 seat shop 94-96. In the movie the star wheels are installed on the ejection seats as a safety measure. Enjoy your content sir. Thank you.
What would the star wheel do to save the seat? That just unlocks the main beam from the catapult.
Seats were probably pulled by the AME’s and all CADS removed. Just assuming. Yes, technically the star wheels were not a safety measure. Thanks.
@@timm8973 not technically, they aren't a safety measure at all. They are a disassembly tool. The star wheels were there probably because someone missed removing them during filming.
When one of the F-14s is shutting off one of its engines, the Vulcan 20mm in the nose is shown firing. That always annoyed me along with the throttle getting shoved forward to "hit the brakes."
Yep, was coming here to say that as well.
is this show in this video? i want to see, but i dont know where to look lol
@@michaelwerkov3438 ua-cam.com/video/iakSFXk4ypI/v-deo.html At about 6:23 or 6:24
That is the slowest firing M61 I’ve seen. Also seeing the AIM 9 coming off of the same rail twice! Otherwise a fun movie to watch!
Yeah, I’ve been in aviation industry for 20 years thanks to this movie. It’s riddled with flaws, but I still love it. Thanks for the great video
Thx, Russell
To quote Tony Scott when asked about errors in the details... “I didn’t make the movie for fighter pilots.”
One of these years somebody is gonna make a movie that whacks the shit out of how a Hollywood director really does their job, and when Hollywood directors whine in all their insider parties throughout the Pacific Palisades, that somebody can piss all over them by paraphrasing Tony Scott.
The arrogance of any popcorn movie maker thinking that they can cut and paste together anything more terrorizing than the basic, professional, calm reality of a modern jet fighter cockpit in an actual dogfight....
@@MoAndAye They made millions. They entertained millions. That was their one and only goal. Not creating a training film or a documentary. Every subject Hollywood touches gets cartoonized for the masses. We all know this going in. They have two hours to tell an elaborate story. They take shortcuts.
i wouldnt have asked him to detail the type of person he did make it for..
@@bartacomuskidd775 that is the short version of the quote, but the gist of his statement was that he made the movie for movie goers who wanted fun action, and not a documentary, he specifically said that he knew fighter pilots wouldn’t like it, but he didn’t make it for them.
I'll start by saying that I'm a retired pilot as well and while I never flew the F-14 (wrong branch) I do know a little something about that type of equipment. I love Top Gun and I've obviously known from the first time I saw it in the theatre that it was a tad less than accurate. I can overlook that though because it's such a fun movie.
My only gripe here is that he brought up some truly piddly stuff and left out some things that I've always found much more egregious about the movie. Receiving their orders at the Top Gun ceremony for instance; that's never bothered me as much as the inference in that scene that of all the pilots in the entire US Navy, those particular guys are the ONLY ones who can deal with the problem. The pilots that were already on the ship weren't up to snuff?
Or the fact that there's a hot blond telling active duty F-14 pilots how to fly their aircraft and what they're doing wrong. Again, needed the hot blond for the plot but come on.
Or the story about Maverick's dad as told to him by Viper, anyone else noticed that it made absolutely no sense at all?
Just a few plot holes. The tech stuff didn't bother me because most people wouldn't know about it anyway so it's not as in-your-face as things like the above plot holes.
I've noticed most of those errors in the past and often wondered about them. Cheers for explaining them in such detail!
I was laughing my ass off when both planes were flying above each other and not touching tails.
They were inverted
@@NaeMuckle thats why they should be touching tails
@@pppooppoo7763 the Mig 28 tail would be in the middle of the F 14 tails
@@TheticCrime Their canopies are only about two feet apart. Look at photos of an F-14 and compare the height of the vertical stabs to the top of the canopy. See the problem?
@@662wc5 the discussion is about touching tails ( vert stabs ) since the F 14 is 4meter longer than the F 5, the tails wont touch, the F 5 tail will touch the fuselage before the twin tails
The part that always bugged me was when Maverick is giving instructions to an angel under attack, "On 3 break right, 1,2,3, break right." I would have broken right on three.
Right!? Great point.
Murtaugh: Wait! Wait. Do we go on 3 or is it 1, 2, 3, and THEN we go?
Riggs: It's your ass, Cochise...
Boohoo! Buzz kill
@@jbx1967 LOL this was the first thing I thought of when I read the post. Bahahaha!
Except he doesn't say "On 3, break right".....he said "Ice, on the COUNT of 3, break hard right. 3, 2, 1, break right". One could argue that a 'count of 3' is "1, 2, 3" I suppose.
This was fantastic. I laughed just about the whole time you were presenting this because, as a kid, when you watched this movie, you were in awe. As an adult, you see the glaring flaws in the movie, even though it's still awesome. The same goes for Iron Eagle and all the silly/incorrect/ridiculous inaccuracies you see in that movie, which too is still an awesome aviation movie. Great stuff Ward!
Absolutely correct!
Iron Eagle was on a whole different level as far as inaccuracies go.
Even as a teen, I found it impossible to swallow the fact a teenager would be allowed anywhere near an F-16. Training or otherwise.
@@timg2088 Dougie was the man lol.
@@krazykyfan WAS HE?!?!?! And then some! Had free reign of the base, and apparently all fighter aircraft, too!
If we just had someone like him in the Pentagon! 😂
No because if they showed what it's like in real life it would be boring.
Iron Eagle was horrible.
The most laughable thing about Top Gun is that apparently flying close to a MIG fighter jet can get you laid
That says more about the lady then.... 😄
@@mikaelbiilmann6826 not going to lie, if a lady knows what a MiG is, that's pretty hot! ;)
there is nothing laughabla about Top Gun
Now she is for the other team. Had a nice restaurant in Key West, at least many years ago.
Alsoe that volleyball scene was all fake, they brought in a truck load of sand and a net,when production finished they dismantled it and that was the end of it.
First, thank you for serving our country, and second, thank you for your humility and professionalism. I've seen too many videos by so-called experts that seem to love the sound of their own voices. You, sir, have earned my respect. Subscribed.
Welcome, sir. And thank you.
Well done, sir. Very good stuff, Ward. Thanks for the memories and good gouge. I was a fleet A-7 guy (75-86), had a CAG ops tour, was CO of VF45 (Key West Adversary flying F16, F5 and A4) and finally AirBoss on the TR. Went on to enjoy flying a FEDEX. Be well, shipmate.
Was in 45 back in 84-87, PR2. Only had A-4s {TA-J & E's} back then. Actually, it was VA-45 when I first got there, changed in late 84 early 85 if I remember correctly.
This was so VERY awesome!!! Thanks for putting in the time and effort for this channel. You and CW Lemoine are captivating to listen to and learn from.
In a lot of the flying scenes over the ocean, suddenly mountains appear in the background.
There are mountains outside San Diego, just not those mountains! And they go from desert to ocean without crossing Orange Co! 😁
I always thought when the CAG/CO/Capitan who gave orders in the CIC the scene before, said "You can tell me about the MIG some other time" and dismisses them to Top Gun and being they were not in the U.S. dogfighting Migs, It would be a day or two before being near enough to a base that's within range of a C-2 Greyhound, so what was the hurry getting them out of his stateroom? They had plenty of time to give him their debrief of why a Mig got within 150 miles of the carrier task force
I suspect the Carrier Air Wing Intelligence Team and the Operations Officer were standing right outside the Squadron CO's door while Maverick was in there getting his butt chewed...when the two of them walked out the door..."Gentleman, we need to talk. Right now."
I’ve seen this movie maybe 40 times since childhood (37 now) and I never noticed the damn orange Hollywood is eating until this video 😂😂
It will bug you for the next 140 viewings!! That radar spinning is gonna freak me out when I watch it for the 63rd time :)
Orange= DEATH (See The Godfather) 🍊🍊🍊☠️☠️☠️
That's because it wasn't in the movie originally. It's a Mandela effect. Hey... I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't add in a conspiracy theory at some point.
I did... often wondered about that one too!
It's about the same as cruise eating an apple as a JAG during a high-level meeting, in a few good men...
No shit, we're even same age, talk about FOD, fruity object debris!
How about the fact that the "MIG 28" is completely fictional?
That's only what the public thinks.
u probably know this but the name is fictional but its actually a f5 with black paint
@@zhasnogirls close, but still a miss, the twin seater F-5 is called T-38 😉
How about the fact that if you look properly the MiG 28 changes from a single seater to a twin seater several times during the movie?
@@B-A-L that’s pretty normal. A lot of jets come in multi and single seat config’s so that makes some sense
The thing that bothered me the most you did not mention. That whole plot point about going below the hard deck chasing Jester, when the entire fight seemed to be below the deck given the flight scenes used. One time goose even says ‘Watch the mountains”. It seemed like most of that fight happened below 1000’.
My number 22. I was an E2-C Flight Tech in training when TG came out. I watched it in a Norfolk VA theater in a crowd of mostly Navy personel. After they got their orders the next seen was at sea and text on the screen said "24 hours later in the Indian Ocean." Many in the audience chuckled at that as it was virtually impossible to get to the ship that quickly.
Just wait until "Top Gun 3" comes out in 2030 and geriatric Maverick is dogfighting aliens LOL
Which makes me wonder what those MIGs were doing out in the Indian ocean, nowhere near Soviet territory. I think the mission briefing says there was a support ship that had broken down and "drifted into enemy territory", but there are no Soviet states bordering the Indian ocean.
That's what I thought too, you would think the 'makers' would check for such details etc:)
Another one you've missed: Jester states in a voiceover that "the planes you are flying against are smaller, faster and more manoeuvrable, just like the enemy MIGs", but an A-4 is actually a lot slower than an F-14.
Yeah that’s a weird one. I think “quicker” instead of ‘faster’ would have been better. I think the only MiG at this time that was absolutely capable of a higher speed than the F-14 was the MiG 25.
and there's something that i really don't understand in that sequence: the hard deck was 10,000 feet right? Yet they were near ground level the entire time until the last engage o.o ... still loved that film anyway ;D
@@Rogar79 10,000 feet asl does not necessarily mean 10,000 feet higher than the mountains in the area. it would be correct to set the hard deck to a height that was safe clearance over most if not all of the terrain. still a stretch, i know, but......
@@familyhelpdeskhelpdesk270 understood! Thx man!
The reason the Navy chose the A4 for adversary was because of its maneuverability. Note that in air combat, speed isn't everything. This presenter's remarks about dogfights, which are fairly common among air combatants, are described as being a "knife fight in a phone booth".
The A4 was later supplemented by the IAI Kfir at Miramar because of its superb maneuverability as well as its resemblance to then-contemporary adversaries, many of which were flying French aircraft, of which the Kfir was a derivative. Captured Iraqi and purchased post-Soviet MiGs provided additional adversary training. Never underestimate the ability of an aircraft: an exceptional plane can perform poorly in the hands of a crummy pilot, but even a marginal/unremarkable plane can be lethal when flown by a very good pilot. This is what Top Gun (the training program, not the movie) was all about.
Any chance of a Flight of the Intruder video? Love this one, except for the entire dogfight at the end. Especially when one bogey moves in closer to the other bogeys and then pops up on radar! Thanks a lot for these videos, great fun to hear from a pro! And, thanks for your service! 🇺🇸💪
Don't dare besmirch that movie! It was straight-up legit!! ;)
@@scottsee5766 It is a great movie, that's why I'd like to see someone review it before the Intruder community dissappears.
I didn't fly the A-6 but I was an Avionics Tech from 88-92. Not being a pilot I'm not sure about all of the nuances of actually flying it but as far as the technical details there was a lot of wrong going on. FOTI was set in 1972, a good chunk of the avionics see in the film was not period correct, the paint schemes were all wrong for the carrier scenes, and there were some pilot/BN actions that didn't make sense. For instance, towards the end of the movie I was always curious as to why the pilot decided call BINGO fuel, then turn on the canopy map light...during the day... Either way, still love the movie with all it's flaws. The one thing they did get right is the unique sound of the P&W J-52 engines and the background noises of the carrier.
I was already in the Navy for 2 years when this came out. My folks came to visit me Hawaii where I was stationed and we went to see it at the theater. I was on a submarine, so all this aviation stuff did not mean a lot to me, but I was checking things out like uniforms and ribbon placement when I could see what they had for accuracy I thought it was a fun movie and when it was released on VHS, everyone got a copy and played it all the time at the barracks . Good times. "Talk to me Goose!"
As a famous Australian once said. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
The truth is only interesting if used to motivate viewers to watch the movie - despite possible shortcomings: "based on a true story" or if it's really far fetched (or bad): "inspired by a true story"... =)
I think the Democratic party said that!
I didn't know Mark Twain was Australian...
I ll save you all the trouble. It was gangland murderer Mark Ckopper Read. He wrote several somewhat suspect books on his activities..en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_%22Chopper%22_Read
@@lloydlynn8084 was said LONG before Chopper Read.
Kinda fitting quote tho to attribute to someone else. Ironic
"Tower, there's some lunatic on the flight line on a motor cycle shaking his fist at us!"....That"s PRICELESS!!!!! 😂😂 Seriously though, I enjoyed your breakdown of "TopGun" just as I did on "The Final Countdown". Both happen to feature my all time favorite fighter, the F-14. I actually have a distant cousin who is an Engineer and back in the day, worked on the design of one of the TomCat's initial systems, I believe it was radar. Above all, thank you for making this video and most of all, your service to our country! So many people have unfortunately turned those few words into a cliche', but military service, especially flying, runs generations deep in my family and I VERY much appreciate your service!! How INCREDIBLE it must have been to spend that time in the cockpit of the F-14!!!! Please keep your video's coming! They are informative and enjoyable! Thank you again "Mooch" and God Bless!!!!!
hear hear!
I’m surprised he missed this one - when everyone in the fighter pilot bar started singing Loving Feeling in unison. As an ex F4 jock I’ve been in a lot of fighter pilot bars and at no time did everyone start singing in unison.
Pretty sure WW1 and WW2 pilots did a lot of singing in unison around a piano..
Clearly this is an F-14 jock thing.
F-4 is my favorite jet of all time, and I envy you. I first saw pictures of F-4Ds my pop took when he was stationed in Thailand, and even as a little kid I knew that jet was damn awesome. You're pretty awesome in my book lol.
I'm an ex-Phantom Driver too and we never sang in the O-Club...until this movie came out. Then for a year or so after it was pretty commonplace!
I've been in a fair number of bars frequented by military and I never saw women as hot as a young Kelly McGillis LOL
When Top Gun came out, one of our local morning radio shows here did a funny skit about people joining the Navy because of the movie. It was a guy supposedly calling in to the station, yelling "I thought I was gonna meet Tom Cruise! I thought I was gonna be a pilot and meet hot women! I'm scrubbing decks and cleaning toilets!"
Reality
I remember an old Saturday Night Live commercial from the 70's about joining the Navy... showed guys scraping paint, peeling potatoes, mopping floors, and a bunch of other mundane, not fun jobs. Then at the end it said, "U.S. Navy. It's not just a job, it's $295 a week."
Ground crew: *"Why is Hollywood's cockpit instruments all sticky again??"*
Smells like orange juice!
Have carried the nickname "Mav" for 34 years. Love it, though I actually failed my RAF flying tests at Biggin Hill so have never flown a fast jet (prop jobs only). Another great video from you Ward, best subscription I've made in years. Despite its flaws, still an awesome film and must have been the best recruiting aid the USN ever had.
We have a sim opening there (BH) for CAE if you want to teach!
I still love the fact that when Mav hits the breaks during the first top gun engagement - a rather expensive camera rips off the F14
Wait really? Oh my god that's hilarious. All the stories I've heard about the filming were Tom's first ride in a Tom cat, Anthony Edwards flipping a circuit breaker behind his seat, and how Michael Ironside saw the filming of the pass with the Tomcat flying at rooftop level.
Iiiuuuuhuuj
I'm sure a lot of Russian pilots laugh at this attempt at the Cobra maneuver.
Brakes
One of my biggest needs with the movie has always been the hard deck sequence. Before the final engagement when they are below the hard deck for “a few seconds”, as maverick is chasing they are clearly way below 10,000 ft flying through desert peaks and close to the ground
Depends I’d the hard deck was ago or asl
Agl or asl. F#$king auto correct
1) engine flame out... Goose says No1 engine, but from the video, it was the right hand, #2 engine.
2) you should do this with The Final Countdown also!
Being an F14 fan myself, I have DVDs of both movies, The Finial Countdown is by far the best movie if you love watching F14s flying.
@@elkarlos1 couldnt agree more. I love Top Gun...but the Tomcats vs the Zeroes with John Scotts music? Its just too awesome
The Final Countdown is the best F14 movie. I've said it before, I'll say it again....
@@elkarlos1 Love that movie!
@@kensnyder3311 Ken what did you think of the Supercarrier movies that came out soon after ?
07:08 Goose yells "Engine 1 is out!" Then engine 2 goes dark.
It get's real confusing in a flat spin, all that lateral G and what not
Yup, In Naval Aviation, engine one is the left one.
In ALL of Aviation, engine one is the (most) left one.
@@MadNotAngry I only *have* *one* engine.
@@MadNotAngry The DC6 was a 4 engine 3 bladed prop aircraft, the DC7 was a 3 engine 4 bladed prop airplane.......
Cringy tech aside, Top Gun is still the most badass fighter movie ever made. The opening crescendo with the Harold Faltermeyer music to the deck scene culminating in the cat shot transition to Danger Zone is hair raising every time I see it. And that’s dozens and dozens of times. Top Gun has been one of the first movies I’ve purchased in every format from theater tix in 1986 to VHS to DVD to Blu Ray to iTunes. 35 years and it is still kicking ass.
I don’t know if this would be considered an error, but everyone in the movie is dripping in sweat every scene.
The two locations are Southern California and the Indian Ocean so....
So true, even when not playing volleyball!
Bab Boon
Of course they're all sweating - That's because the director kept telling everyone how much each days shoot was costing.
Except Kelly McGillis --- she was wearing that sexy white blouse and not a drop of sweat anywhere
@@babboon5764 imagine working with Tom Cruise now, after that meltdown he had against the entire crew about masking up. Not raising a mask debate, just saying he went from an actor to producer with a lot of clout, much like his character Les in tropic Thunder
Finally someone breaking down the technical facts of the movie. I am not a pilot but found the description of actual flight controls in certain situations fascinating. You're right. I will never watch Top Gun the same way again. It will be Interesting to see how much the director gets right in the new movie. Thanks for your analysis!
Thx for watching, Dave!
One glaring lie in the movie was when they graduated, 5 guys got orders to head out to the tip of the spear like they were super special and only they could handle the danger. The carrier on scene had 2 squadrons of F-14's, and that time probably a squadron of F/A-18's. All of whose pilots would've gladly told Ice, Slider, Wood, Wolfman and Maverick where they could stick their TOPGUN graduation certificates if they thought they needed those 5 guys' help. That's WHY the carrier was there...to project America's military might across the globe.
F-14 is one of my favorite jets of all time.
Same
I don't know it took hours to repair
It's a very stately and beautiful jet.
So it turns out their is no fuel gauge in the back seat......
The F14 was the only fighter in the inventory that could carry the long range Phoenix missile. A beautiful plane that would easily defeat an F35. A real turkey. My opinion is that the Tomcat is better than the overrated f18.
The one error I always get a kick out of is when Maverick gets pissed at Charlie and fly's off on his motorcycle but NOT from NAS Miramar but the Balboa NAVY hospital near downtown San Diego
Mike - That's actually Naval Training Center (NTC) San Diego and not Balboa. He drives past the commissary and through the gate that empties onto Rosecrans Street.
@@detsd59: Right! I won a bet with a fellow Naval officer over that when the movie came out. My last active duty billet was at NTC and by 1986 I was a civilian working at the Naval Hospital. After the film came out, I was accepted to work at the actual TOPGUN school, where I worked 'til Sept. of 1991.
Nope. That's bldg 1 at NTC and he stops her at Laurel and 3rd
Fly’s?
I haven't seen it in awhile but it came on the other night and I tuned just at that point.
I remember a building at the NAVY Hospital which is why I thought it was the place I commented on.
But as I watched it it was clear that was NTC he came out of onto Rosecrans.
I'm not sure what spot he stops at but you can see downtown San Diego in the background and not Miramar RD
#12 the fuel dump.. Man the things Hollywood will do for effect... Scratching my head... Thanks for the download Ward.. Always interesting watching your video's.
Still have my boyhood crush on the F14 Tomcat.
The pride of the Iranian Air Force! 🇮🇷 Classic aircraft. I remember making an Airfix kit of it.
You could have included the Top Gun trophy. There is no Top Gun trophy and never has been one.
Do all who complete some level at the Top Gun" school at NAS Fallon get an insignia to have sewn on their flight suits?
That one seemed odd to me even as a young teenager with very little knowledge of how the military worked. I knew they handed out decorations, ribbons, patches... but I was pretty dubious about a trophy. Trophies are for sports.
I was a 19 kid fresh out of A school in Millington for AT the summer Top Gun came out. I was excited when I saw I was going to Miramar. It didn’t take long to figure out a lot of tech discrepancies with Top Gun.
I didn’t know that after Top Gun (the actual one) that pilots got new assignments. I was on ground crew when two of our pilots from VF-24 went to the course at Yuma and China Lake and I think we all just resumed our regular duties afterwards.
I’m so glad I found this channel. It brings back great memories.
And don't forget having the F-14's cannon sound like a machine gun, when it's a gatling gun which would go BRAAAAP!
During my ROTC days back in 1989, I was assigned to spray cooling water to an M-61 Vulcan 20 mm gatling gun being fired from a parked Northrop F-5. Only worn minimal earplugs and almost got totally deaf and instead of my ears ringing, I hear only white noise - akin to the blank spaces on the FM tuner for 2 weeks. Luckily, my hearing returned to normal. BTW, the sound the M-61 Vulcan makes is akin to the bass riff intro of Elastica's Connection - only its a really, really loud WRRR....
@@laurentzduba1298 No you didn't, because the F-5 didn't carry an M61. It carried two M39 cannon. (Or in the case of the F-5F, a single M39). M39 are single barreled, multiple chamber "revolver" cannons, not gatling guns.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M39_cannon
@@bronco5334 our commandant said it was an M-61 Vulcan same one retrofitted on Vietnam War era F-4 Phantoms - unless I misread the plaque / badge of it. Back around 1989, there were already plans to replace the F-5s with F-16 the next semester in the airbase we were assigned to. After my ROTC stint, I concentrated on my carrer as a rock musician. If pressed, I can't even remember now how to tell apart the T-38 from the F-5.
The Final Countdown got the M61 sound right
You guys are all wrong. At no point in the movie Top Gun does a F-14 ever use guns! Only the "Mig-28" ever uses it's cannons, which fires frozen turkeys at 300 rounds per min!!!
This was a lot of fun. It's always good to hear from someone that actually knows what instrumentation is visible from which seat. I also boggle at that scene where Mav just "hits the brakes". Let's slow this thing down by applying full thrust, that sounds like a plan.
Well by applying the power to full you need that thrust to push you up and not stall when you pull up
Excellent video! I have a burning question though! This movie was made with US Navy assistance and input - how were these glaring errors not caught whilst the movie crew was literally surrounded by professionals in the field. I mean any pilot (let alone an F14 pilot) would have caught that max throttle to "slow down" error for example.
I guess you could say that they just didn't care as they knew that most of the people watching wouldn't have that knowledge so wouldn't pick up on it.
Another miss (not called out in this video) can be seen during the “flat spin” sequence as Goose says “engine one is out!” The scene cuts to an rear external view showing engine two flame out instead of number one. Number one engine shuts down shortly after, but that miss was always pretty obvious.
Now you mention it, your right... engine 1 would have been the port side (left) engine, but in the movie, it was the starboard (right) engine...
@@therayven3147 - not to mention I seriously doubt they killed the engines in flight for that scene so I bet that was just the afterburners getting kicked off to mimic engine failure.
Hollywood to Navy: we need you to shut down both engines on your 4 million dollar Tomcat so we can film the engines going off....by the way you're going have to be low and slow enough that our cameras can pick up the flameout clearly.
Navy: uhhhh.... no.
Lol
One of my pet peeves in aerial combat scenes is when a plane explodes and falls straight down like a brick, rather than the plane and pieces of it continuing on in a ballistic arc until it finally hits the ground. It just looks cartoonish.
And all those people sweating buckets in CIC like they're on a WW2 submarine or something. They keep that place cold enough to use as a meat locker to help all the electronics stay cool. Even in the Summer I'd still have to wear a jacket in there to keep from shivering.
LIke all the sweaty Russians on the Konovalov in Hunt for Red October.
I ALWAYS enjoyed standing TAO in the Persian Gulf in a jacket. Every CIC I've ever been in is somewhere around 60 degrees ambient. As stated many other times, the equipment is really important, the watchstanders, not so much. . . When TG came out, I was assigned to Navy OCS as a company officer/instructor. Saw TG in Warwick RI with all the pilots from Navy War College in the audience. Watching them lean into the turns with the in-flight scenes was hilarious. Then we all went and got drunk.
5:41 "And, it looks like we have 'progress' here!" priceless! awesome analysis!
I saw an interview with the pilots who flew the Tomcat scenes in the movie The Final Countdown, and they too, laughed at the inaccuracies in Top Gun and mentioned how much more accurate it was in Final Countdown.
My uncle was a yellow jacket on the Nimitz for the final countdown
Fox Ferrall?
This was great Ward!
Thanks for watching, Rick! Great to get awesome feedback from the YT master (and the greatest musician I know).
Now you're going to have to do an episode on your channel covering Navy/War movie music Rick.
Beato, huh? Didn’t expect to see you here.
Ahhh so cool to find you here. Music and Navy!,!
@@elbrauer I was thinking the same thing!
Another great video Ward 👍 I watched Top Gun with my dad and we both laughed at the technical inaccuracies in the movie. My dad, being not only a aeronautical and methods engineer at both Republic and Grumman flew in SBD's in the Navy during WWII. He pointed out all the inaccuracies and would yell out, "That's F***ing bullshit!". lol
I wish we could watch “Maverick”, they have been talking about it for years now.
Thanks for the error count. The “flat-spin heading out to sea” has bugged me every time I’ve seen it. The sad thing is the great pilot forcing the spin died while attempting “just one more time!” Its a movie, people shouldn’t die for a movie, although lots do.
Tower there’s some dork on a motorcycle pumping his fist at us 😂😂😂 I lol for real at that one
That dork isn't whering a helment, that's a no no on all millitary bases
The funniest part is that you can see the tie-down straps on the handlebars, because he wasn’t really riding the thing, it was strapped to a trailer. Little man, big ego, all image
@@MrGunnytom yup, and that gay little vest.....dont ask dont tell....
Cool Chanel. I was an F-14A/A+ airframer and flight deck troubleshooter, VF-211, GAG 9, Nimitz, 87-91. Love the stories. We had a flight deck fire Nov 88 in the I.O. Would love to see you do a video about that. The Ordies were working on an A-7 20mm, they thought it was empty, it was not. Hit a fully loaded KA-6. The fire was higher than the Island. 2 died. The KA-6 was pushed overboard the next morning, I helped push and watched it sink. And about a dozen aircraft were damaged, mostly A-7s, none ever flew again. HB-1 was full of burnt planes for the rest of the cruse.
If you recall, Maverick & Iceman were always very competitive until the end: You can be my wingman any time. No, you can be mine. They buried the hatchet. Had absolutely nothing to do with receiving orders.
Excellent mansplation.
@@siskokidd You know whenever you use that word you instantly become thought of as a child.
You just saved me scrolling through the entire comments! I wanted to check and see if someone else said something like that before posting my own.
@@siskokidd that isn't how you spell point. while we are at it, the author of the vid criticised the exchange for reasons that had sod all to do with the context, so the explanation is a fair one. shame you got your panties in a know dear!
I switched my major in college after this movie. I went into an aviation program at a prestigious school and enjoyed being a flight instructor and charter pilot for a little while.
Really enjoy this channel. As a kid, seeing “Top Gun” absolutely made me want to join the Navy to fly an F-14. Even though poor eyesight killed my fighter pilot dreams, to this day the Tomcat is still my favorite aircraft of all time. There’s just something about its design, and of course the swept wings, that just screams ‘badass.’ Thanks for the videos, Gypsy 214.
"He wouldn't fly parade formation with a wingman who has been shot with a lot of bullets." - Ward. Good catch! I completely forgot he was shot to hell. Haha.
Thx, Eldridge!
Hay. Iceman stayed in the fight so it wasn't too bad. Maybe he thought it was a A-10
LOL... I love the movie but I never really thought about how ridiculous the parade formation would have been. Not only were they all shot up but I recall they even shut down one of the engines!
@@mdmoore37 that would also require a lot of functional engine and rudder correction, he should’ve been out of that fight after the first burst, but even better was after the second burst Iceman says “we’re hit again”, Slider replies “both engines are functioning we’re ok”... 🤷🏻♂️
@@CoffeeMatt10 I thought Slider said all systems not both engines, especially since Iceman had already shut the left engine down after the first burst.
Here's one for you that you--In the beginning, Maverick goes to land, but hears Cougar struggling, so when he hits the deck, he applies throttle and pulls back on the stick and takes back off. If he was coming in for a landing, that means he planned on grabbing a wire, it isn't like there is a run up area to the wires where you can make a decision to stay down, you land amongst them and hook one. If you apply full throttle, which you're supposed to do, but try to take off while hooked to a wire, that can't end well, you're either coming to a stop anyhow, barely getting back in the air and getting pulled back down, or something breaks, or all three. What would the effects of being hooked to a wire and trying to take off be? Wouldn't the only way the scene could play out in reality would have been if he missed all the wires in the first place?
Good one (and one of the ones in my "79 Cringeworthy Errors" article a few years back.
Hey, Ward, GREAT video(s). I linked your clips to my aerospace engineering class to help provide context for some of the concepts in class. Great stuff. That being said, since we are being pedantic, I have one (minor) correction to one of your claims: you address (starting at 2:15 and specifically at 2:25) that if the F-14 and the "MiG-28" (actually a two-seater F-5F) were in "a 4G inverted dive" at that range that their V-Stabs would interfere catastrophically.
Sadly, that's not correct.
1) To start, the Tomcat has a tip-to-toe length of 62' 9". The Tiger II measured only 51' 4". That 11' 5" allows plenty of room behind the Tiger for the Tomcat's V-Stabs to just hang out there. Additionally, with the Tomcat having two V-Stab, they would have been oriented wide enough to not be torched by the exhaust of the Tiger (more on that in point 2).
2) While the planes are in a very odd orientation considering their wings would be at an 8.87° convergent angle and tip-to-toe, they'd be at an overall 5.59° convergent angle, that can *maybe* be controlled by elevators and some tricks with the wings, so it's not really anything to be completely bugged about, but more on that later. What is noteworthy about that orientation, however, is that it would give additional room for the "MiG-28" V-Stab to not hit the rear fuselage of the F-14. The F-14, as you pointed out, had essentially a "lifting body" (as many fighter planes do, including to a degree, the F5F), the "hips" of the Tomcat are wide from the top, but low when viewed from the side. In other words, combining orientation and geometry of the aircrafts, the Tiger's VStab wouldn't interfere with the rear fuselage of the Tomcat. Then, of course, as noted above, even IF the Tomcat only had one VStab, this orientation would put it beyond the reach of the Tiger's exhaust, further insulating the "vertical tail planes."
3) Finally, as you imply/state in your video, many of the scenes (including this one) show the aircraft flying horribly close together. Sadly, that's mostly a consequence not of Hollywood camera/post-production tricks like those used in Harry Potter and The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings to fiddle with the scale of the size of the actors, but rather director Tony Scott's insistence that the planes actually fly in such tight formation. While the pilots didn't love the idea, they were actual Top Gun instructors who were able to perform those maneuvers while being filmed from chase planes. The in-cockpit shots were on the ground, in studio. At the orientation shown (convergent 5.6° or 8.9°, depending on measure; we are not shown relative AOA, I don't think), the cockpits are almost parallel (likely the goal of the cinematography). That puts the Tomcat's apparent angle at 1.3° and the Tiger II's at -2.27°, a *divergence* of 3.57°. When compared, then, to the actual convergent angles of the planes,
4) Based on (3), since we see Tom Cruise and Anthony Edwards through the canopy, that shot was, pretty much guaranteed, done in-studio and stitched together with post-production love. However, as noted in (1) and (2) it *could* have been done (though it would be ridiculously stupid and pointless from a tactical standpoint and the "MiG-28" would probably have flown up into the F-14 anyway, due to the convergent angles of the crafts and the low pressure that should exist between them, pulling them even closer together. However, suppose the crafts were oriented such that their wings were parallel- arguably easier to maintain the distance, then the MiG would have appeared to be at a 6.8° down angle while the Tomcat would have appeared to be at 5.64° up angle, a combined divergent angle of 12.44°, which would have likely caused the audience a great deal of confusion while they, uninformed of how tandem seat airplanes are typically arranged, argued that the planes *should* have been flying away from each other if they were in those relative orientations.
Conclusion: Respectfully, I submit that you are incorrect about the stab-slice, though highly likely correct that this event could not have occurred in the way that they portray it in the highly Hollywood-ized film.
One thing everyone misses for some reason, if a a jet is hostile it is no longer a bogey, it becomes a bandit.
As for dumping fuel before an engagement being stupid, Dale Snodgrass even admitted in one of his interviews that he once did it to make himself be lighter in the merge.
EXACTLY!!! That was a Brilliant Snodgrass move including many other angles to get the most out of that tomcat!!!
.... In simulated combat... You have to wonder if he would have taken that gamble in real combat. Of course, in real combat you've already screwed up if the bandit survives to the merge.
@@brianwright9514 And if I remember correctly he said he did that so that there couldn’t be a rematch because he was low on fuel.
Yeah... really dumb to dump your fuel in real life because a dog fight is energy management which also includes fuel that disappears very quickly at full burner.
Sure would suck to win, get bingo fuel, and then have his wingman pick you off as you try to run away.
Oh.. and a head on no advantage merge, has that ever happened, ever?
Usually one side has an energy and positional advantage plus the element of surprise, and the other doesn’t. You should never enter any fight on equal terms.
Pretty sure Dale Retail Snodgrass wouldn't dump fuel for a real fight, in the middle of the Ocean with nooooooooo other place to land then the carrier.
But yeah, dumping fuel works in DCS as well :D
"Because Goose did a shitty job looking behind him".... Love that assesment.. Always thought that myself while watching that movie that Jester just kinda snuck up out of nowhere.
To be fair, you simply do not F with Michael Ironside. Dude is HARDCORE!
@@tedwojtasik8781 At least make him overshoot a couple of times by turning back into him. As we say in the business, you can’t kill what you don’t see.
That was fun, Ward. I picked up on most of those, except the cockpit instrument details. As an engineer, I annoy my friends going "No, no, no!" when I see stuff like the inverted F-14 playing dueling fins with the "Mig." Keep it up.
Great video! I'm the Brazilian dubbed version of the movie, IIRC Iceman's wording when calling out about Maverick's flat spin implies that they were already over the sea when it happens and the plane is falling towards the sea instead of flying out to sea. But since it's been many a moon since I've watched it in Portuguese, I can't confirm that right now. Great stuff, Ward. I always learn something new with this videos. Thanks!
Thx, Leandro!
Cringeworthy ! LOL I got the same laughs when I saw "Backdraft", the most utterly ridiculous movie about firefighters
Referring to Backdraft, you mean the smoke from a inside a building fire doesn't actually breathe back and forth under a door?? Come on MAN!!
@@desertodavid LOL !
Hey Ward. I was a Scooter Driver in Vietnam embarked in CVA-62 and CVA-42. By the time I flew my last Navy aircraft I had accumulated 700 or so traps. With the rather large number of "Holy S--t" moments one collects during flying off the carrier that long, I've especially enjoyed your commentaries about carrier aviation. Because of your demonstrated knowledge of the behind-the-scenes history of Top Gun, you may be able answer a question that's been bugging since the first time I saw the move in our local movie theater. James Tolkin's hard boiled temperament and bald head is damn near the spitting image of my CO in VX-5. Long before I checked into the Vampires everyone told me what a hard ass Capt. Muncie was and to a man each of them warned me to NEVER comment about his bald head about which he was very self-conscious. Do you know if Tolkan's character was patterned on Capt. Muncie? At our first squadron party in VX-5 I introduced my wife to the skipper. My beautiful spouse shook the Skipper's hand, looked up at the CO's shiny bald, looked directly into the skipper's eyes and with wry smile said, "So, I understand we're not supposed to talk about your bald head. Game, set, and match point to my bride.
It wouldn't surprise me if they had retired Navy pilots as technical advisors on the film, and if so it's highly likely they served in the South China Sea around that time. Could well be some similar anecdotes about your CO got told to the production crew.
Haha “Some dork is riding next to the runway with his fist extended” lol