21 Cringeworthy Errors in the Movie TOP GUN

top gun came out in 1986 and since that time it's been one of the most popular military aviation movies of all time also very influential if you talk to anybody who joined to fly in the last say 35 years i guarantee you they probably would say that they did so because they saw the movie top gun when they were young but that doesn't mean the movie doesn't have some technical errors now before you jump into the comments and mansplain me about how top gun is just a hollywood movie let me say i know but here at this channel we take our tech detail very seriously further this episode is presenting presented very lovingly with great reverence for those who've ever strapped into a jet or will do so in the future all right so let's go through the most egregious among the technical errors and i tell you that if you watch this episode you may never watch the movie top gun the same again so that's a that's a warning so the first one at time five minutes goose's radar presentation shows the sweep going 360 degree which is what we call a ppi sweep like on a ship's radar now in real life the f-14s radar only went 65 degrees either side of the nose and you wouldn't want the radar sweeping 360 degrees because that means it was radiating back towards the crew in a high-powered radar like the aug 9 that can pick up targets at over 100 miles would definitely present a serious health hazard to the crew it was radiating at close range like that so that's a big error number two at time eight minutes cougar transmits this bogey's all over me he's got misalaka do i have permission to fire well whatever the rules of engagement cougars questions mood until he does some pilot and actually maneuvers his jet into an offensive position so do that and then maybe ask that question about the roe number three at time 901 as far as mavericks 4g inverted dive goes as charlie later labels it if the two airplanes were that close the tomcat's vertical stabilizers would be jammed into the top of the mig-28 number four at time 959 merlin taps on a fuel gauge that doesn't even exist in the rear cockpit of the f-14 only in the front cockpit the rio only has a fuel totalizer number five at time 1006 cougar rips his oxygen mask off to breathe more oxygen which would be in short supply at high altitude so he really should have just left it on number six at 10 12. cougar has a photo of his wife and baby for some mysterious reason taped over the air speed cage number seven time 1227 there is no way cougar wouldn't have been waved off by the landing signal officer based on that wild approach that he does he gets at least five power calls during the pass the airbus would have been very unhappy with the lso after that had the lso not gotten him out of there way before he tried to cross the ramp number eight time 1251. cougar traps and immediately shuts the jet down instead of taxiing out of the landing area meanwhile maverick is still airborne low on gas and still needs to land but now he can't because cougar has fouled the landing area and has to be towed out of the wires number nine at time 13. now we don't know exactly what the abilities of this bald-headed guy he's he's a commander he's an o5 and he's got a really nice stateroom for an o5 um later in the sequence he says you can tell me about to make some other time and dismisses the crew to head for top gun and that would be an act of professional suicide because he didn't get the only information that anyone above him in the chain of command would have cared about that particular day which is the stuff about the mig number ten um tower there's some dork riding a motorcycle down one of the taxi was ways shaking his fist at us number 11 at time 1252 a hangar is not the most conducive place for detailed flight briefs because there's a lot of noise with jets turning on the flight line and it's definitely not a space where you could have classified briefs number 12 at time 2953 the smoke effect is actually the tomcat dumping fuel stupid idea when you're about to enter a dogfight when you need all the gas you can muster because you're going to be using a lot of afterburner which definitely goes through gas number 13 at time 3131 maverick hits the brakes quote unquote by pushing the throttles forward which actually increases power doesn't decrease it now if you look at the trailer for top gun maverick it looks like they fixed that the directors got their act together probably because they heard about it for all these years and in top gun maverick trailer they pull the throttles back as he does that that same move so uh we have progress here number 14 at time 35 52 maverick explains why he's getting on about what he did out there during that first top gun mission he says we weren't below the hard deck for more than a few seconds i had the shot there was no danger so i took it so the hard deck actually simulates the ground so what maverick is basically saying is we didn't hit the ground for more than a few seconds number 14 time i'm sorry number 15 at time 5531 why is hollywood eating an orange on the flight line this this always bugs me that that visual i don't know why the directors or the screenwriters like have the guy be eating in oranges is about to go flying um that's bad practice seeds can actually you know get sucked into an engine or whatever number 16 at time 5726 so the logic of this entire engagement is just ridiculous first maverick lets chester go and then he flies in parade formation behind hollywood who's saddled in super close behind the other bandit hollywood whines at maverick not to leave him when he should just shoot the bandit right in front of him then maverick leaves to go after viper and ultimately winds up getting shot because goose does a shitty job of looking behind them for the bad guys number 17 at time 106 56 and this is the flat spin compressor stall sequence goose says we got a flame out engine is out however the rio doesn't have any engine instruments in the rear cockpit of the f-14 that would indicate to him that that engine actually did flame out there's no way he would know from the back seat that's a pilot call number 17 at times sorry number 18 at time 107 13. iceman transmits again the flat spin sequence mavs in trouble he's in a flat spin and headed out to sea as i described in the why goose died episode when an airplane's in a flat spin it's not heading anywhere except straight down number 19 time 126.50 aviators would not get orders at the top gun graduation they'd actually get them through a frustrating process of arguing with their detailers the guys who give them orders through email and occasional phone call over the period of a few months number 20 at time 139 47 maverick leads a two-plane flyby next to the carrier with a wingman that's been riddled with bullets and most likely has sustained major damage to the hydraulic system that powers the flight controls you're not putting the wings aft and doing a nice parade formation pass at low altitude if you have a wingman who's been shot with a lot of bullets and finally number 21 at time 1 41 14 iceman says that famous line you can be my wingman anytime which ignores the fact that unless he's the opso or the scheduling officer or the squadron co who signs the flight schedule he just needs to suck it up and fly with whoever he's assigned to fly with on the flight schedule okay now we there is some connective tissue between top gun and top gun maverick based on the teaser the trailer that we've seen which is at the very beginning a tomcat flies into the the frame so maybe the f-14 is still part of the fighter inventory we'll just have to see all right thanks to all the new subscribers if this first episode you've seen please ring the bell subscribe share like likes are very important so i appreciate the likes i love the comments and i look forward to talking to you again soon

Channel: Ward Carroll

Views: 451,376

Rating: 4.8923082 out of 5

Keywords: F-14 Tomcat, Top Gun, Top Gun Maverick, fighter jets, U.S. Navy, Ward Carroll, Punk's War, aircraft carriers, Goose, flat spin, carrier landing, Tom Cruise, Paramount Pictures, Naval Aviation, military, DCS

Id: 55aNs81oYSY

Length: 9min 35sec (575 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 20 2021