Top Gun Synopsis Maverick (Tom Cruise) is a hot-shot pilot. When he encounters a pair of MiGs over the Persian Gulf, his wingman is clearly outflown and freaks. On almost no fuel, Maverick is able to talk him back down to the Carrier. When his wingman turns in his wings, Maverick is moved up in the standings and sent to the Top Gun Naval Flying School. There he fights the attitudes of the other pilots and an old story of his father's death in combat that killed others due to his father's error. Maverick struggles to be the best pilot, stepping on the toes of his other students and in a different way to Charlie (McGillis), a civilian instructor to whom he is strongly attracted to.  Shaken up by the death of a friend, Maverick loses the Top Gun honor to Kasansky. Worried that he may have lost his nerve, Maverick is given a chance to redeem himself during a tense international crisis involving a crippled US vessel and a flock of predatory enemy planes. Discussion Guidelines 1. What is said in the room stays in this room. Confidentiality is vital to a healthy discussion. 2.No put-downs. Sarcasm and unkind remarks have no place in a discussion. If someone disagrees with another's comment, they should raise a hand and express an opinion of the comment but not of the person who made it. It is permissible to attack ideas, but not each other. 3. There is no such thing as a dumb question. Asking questions is the best way to learn. 4. No one is forced to talk. Anyone can remain silent about any question. 5. Only one person talks at a time. Each person's opinion is worthwhile and deserves to be heard. Listening is an expression of respect.   The Rules: Be respectful of others Don't be mean Keep your hands to yourself Stay in your seat Understand there is a time and a place for everything   Theme: It's fruitless for us to endlessly blame ourselves or others. Scripture: Psalm 19:9-14 More than a Movie: There's never a winner in the blame game. In a sinful world, evil things happen to good people with no satisfying place to lay the blame. Let God help you find release from any blame you might hold against yourself and others, opening a doorway to "blameless" living.   Discussion Questions: What's something in the past that you blamed yourself for? How did you finally come to terms with your feelings? Is it more natural for you to blame yourself or others when something goes wrong? How difficult is it for you to let go of feelings of blame? What emotions form the roots of blame? What reasons do you think people have for continuing to blame themselves or others? How do you think someone can overcome a pattern of destructive blaming? At home, read: Psalm 19:9-14. What do you think these verses have to say about blaming ourselves? others? Is all sense of blame inappropriate? Why or why not?   Theme: Pride convinces us to trust only in our own abilities. Scripture: Deuteronomy 8:11-18 More than a Movie: Talented people often fall into the trap of trusting in the abilities God gave them instead of trusting in God himself. This is a common pitfall. Humble yourself by relying ultimately on God.   Discussion Questions: How would you define pride? Is all pride sinful? What about pride in one's accomplishments? family? country? What's the difference between pride and self-confidence? Explain. What kinds of sinful behavior have their roots in pride? What sorts of pitfalls might befall someone who gets trapped by pride? What abilities or possessions do you have that might lead you into prideful behavior? Do you think you can develop to your greatest potential without succumbing to pride? Why or why not? At home, read: Deuteronomy 8:11-18. Can we trust in our own abilities and rely on God at the same time? Explain.   Questionable Content Sex & Nudity  A man and a women kiss, fane having sex, nothing is shown. Many men walk around in towels    Violence & Gore  Some mild war violence, including planes shooting each other down. One man is killed when he smashes into his canopy as he ejects from the jet fighter. When he comes down, blood is show streaked across his face   Profanity  Frequent uses of mild language (shit, goddamn, d*ck, etc)    Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking  Some alchohol and cigarette smoking, nothing serious    Frightening/Intense Scenes  Some of the dogfight and flight training scenes are quite intense   Goofs & Trivia Revealing mistakes: The F-14 crews were filmed in a discarded Navy cockpit that was not attached to the rest of the plane. This is why you can never see the wings or vertical stabilizers in the background when they show the actors "flying" in this cockpit. Continuity: The shot of the inverted F-14 cockpit (close to the cockpit of the MiG-28) is flipped, (lettering is reversed). Factual errors: There is no plane called the MiG-28 - all Mikoyan-Gurevich aircraft have odd-number designations. The planes used in the film to simulate the MiGs are Northrop F-5E Tiger IIs. Continuity: In the elevator, Charlie's ear alternates between being tucked under her cap and being untucked between shots. Continuity: The distance between the aircraft after Goose takes the picture. Continuity: The squadron markings on both Iceman and Maverick's Tomcats change a few times. Both of the original markings are not real Tomcats squadron markings. Continuity: Maverick's wristwatch changes several times during the training flight. Revealing mistakes: Several times you can see missiles that are supposed to be live for combat hanging from aircraft wings. The missiles have a blue band around them indicating they are inert training missiles. Live missiles would have a yellow band as a warning of the live high explosive warhead. Continuity: In close-up facial footage of Sundown, he has the word "SUNDOWN" on the front of his helmet. When you see him in the background of Maverick footage, and on the ground, he is wearing the same helmet, but without the writing on it. Boom mic visible: In Viper's office (visible in the top right as Jester and Viper converse following Maverick leaving the room.) Continuity: In the mission when Maverick has Sundown as his RIO, Jester's plane alternates between a plain gray paint job, and a camoflauge one. Continuity: During the final dogfight, we see several shots of Goose in the co-pilot seat when obviously he is dead and Merlin is Maverick's "RIO". Continuity: Iceman suddenly appears next to Wolfman in the locker. Continuity: Maverick's hair during the elevator scene. Continuity: When Maverick is cruising on his motorcycle right after arriving at Miramar, it is high noon. In the very next shot, the sun is setting. Continuity: Amount of ice in Maverick's glass in the airport bar. Revealing mistakes: When Maverick is riding his motorcycle along the runway, you can see the tie-down straps that hold him onto the trailer, visible on his front fender. Continuity: In the elevator scene, Maverick walks through a "closed" elevator door. Continuity: First date between Charlie and Maverick, level of wine in bottle goes down then up and down then up and then some before the first drop is poured. Continuity: Viper's sunglasses after Maverick's first landing after the accident. Continuity: In stairwell Iceman puts on watch twice. Continuity: When Maverick leaves Charlie's house after he has dinner with her, there is a For Rent sign in her yard (as there is when he drives by her house later in the movie), but there wasn't one when he arrived. Continuity: After Charlie hands out the dinner invitation to Maverick, Slider tells him "Crash and burn, huh, Mav?" while holding a plane model in front of his face. In the very next shot the plane disappears. Continuity: In the final battle scene, Iceman's jet is hit by machine gun fire and he says he is shutting down engine 1. Later in the sequence, they are hit again by machine gun fire. Slider says they've been hit again to which the reply is that everything is ok, both engines are functioning normally. It would be really hard for that to be considering he already shut down one engine. Continuity: The bird cage at Charlie's place disappears from behind her when 'Dock of the Bay' starts playing. Factual errors: In the movie Maverick, (the pilot), selects targets, selects the weapon and fires the weapons. In reality, the RIO, (Radar Intercept Officer, Goose in this case), performs these tasks. The pilot just flies the plane and will only operate the weapons if the RIO is either dead, incapacitated or has weapon system failures. Anachronisms: When Maverick and Charlie are having dinner, Otis Redding's "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" comes on and Maverick remembers his "folks loved it", then states his father "disappeared in an F-4 November 5th, 1965". However, this song was not written until November 1967. Factual errors: When singing You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling, the crew sings the (incorrect) line "But baby, believe me I know it." The line is actually "But baby, baby I know it." It seems highly unlikely that every man in the room would make the same mistake like that. Continuity: Though the final battle scene supposedly occurs in the open ocean, the carrier is clearly docked in port during the celebration scene. The water around the carrier is calm and reflections of buildings can be seen in the water. Continuity: After the final live dog fight with the MIGS, the Commander of the carrier comes into the pilots' locker room with a lit stub of a cigar to tell Maverick that he (Maverick) can choose his next assignment. During the scene the cigar becomes significantly larger than the first stub. When the Commander departs, the stub cigar reappears. Continuity: During Charlie's first briefing, Chipper Adrian Pasdar's sunglasses alternate between being on and off.   Interesting Facts Val Kilmer did not want to be in this film, but was forced to by contractual obligations. Charlie's "older man" date at the officer's club is the real-life "Viper", Pete Pettigrew. He is a retired Navy pilot and TOPGUN instructor, and shot down a MiG during the Vietnam War. He served as the technical consultant on the film. The piano scene and the final bar/jukebox scene were shot in a San Diego restaurant called Kansas City BBQ, at the corner of Kettner Blvd and W. Harbor Drive. The restaurant housed many props and memorabilia from the film, including the jukebox and Maverick's flight helmet sits behind the bar in a locked display case. However, on June 26, 2008 Kansas City BBQ suffered a grease fire that destroyed the establishment, including all of the Top Gun memorabilia on display. Director Tony Scott wrote a quick check for $25,000 to the commander of the aircraft carrier in order to capture one vital external shot. Riding on the back of this film's success, the US Navy set up recruiting booths in the major cinemas to try and catch some of the adrenaline charged guys leaving the screenings. They had the highest applications rate for years as a result. Most of the actors who portrayed F-14 crewmembers received backseat rides in the F-14, and several of the scenes which appear in the film were filmed with the actors in the air. The pilot that gets "flipped off" by Maverick and Goose is Admiral Robert F. Willard, the lead flight choreographer for the film. He is now (2009) the Commander, United States Pacific Fleet. After the "Car chase" when Charlie tells Maverick that she didn't want anyone to find out she was falling for him, Maverick originally had a line to say. Tom Cruise forgot the line and "ad libbed" by kissing Kelly McGillis instead. The director liked it so much, he left the scene like that. Director Tony Scott was officially fired three times during production. The callsign 'Ghostrider' that Maverick uses for his plane was the name of a real F-14 squadron (VF-142), and a model of a Tomcat from that squadron can be seen behind Sundown in the shot where Maverick tells Slider he stinks. In early drafts of the film, the character whose call sign is Merlin actually had the last name of Merlin, and his call sign was Wizard. The movie's line "I feel the need - the need for speed!" was voted as the #94 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100). In preparation for his role, Tom Cruise was allowed to take 3 rides in the F-14 Tomcat. He vomited during the first trip but was okay during the other two. While many terms used in the movie either match or are closely based on real terms used by naval aviators and the pilots in general, the term "going ballistic" is a real phrase that was wrongly used to describe a pilot successfully reaching maximum speed, when it actually meant that the pilot was going too fast to keep control of his aircraft. Ironically, "going ballistic" is now in common usage by pilots, and is used for any maneuver where the aircraft is put into a vertical or nearly-vertical climb. Kenny Loggins was not the first choice to record the song 'Danger Zone' for the film. Toto and REO Speedwagon were two of the groups considered prior to Loggins. The motorcycle ridden by Tom Cruise in the movie is a Kawasaki Ninja 900 / GPz900R, then the fastest production motorcycle in the world.