Can anyone explain to me why people liked the first one so much? To me, its parody, Hot Shots, was a ton more memorable. I seen Top Gun once back then and forgot about it fast. I guess it is for those who have a fetish for fighter jets and the USAF? Seeing the new trailer made me think "they should have given Tom Cruise make-up to make him as old as he is". They talk about him retiring when he barely looks 45. Also, given that there have been no big wars in the past, what could they even be doing if this is set in present time, but doing test flights? Unless they want to do the Iraqi wars and I doubt they will touch such a subject with a 10-foot pole. Never understood why the Navy has its own air force. Why not station some Air Force pilots on a ship? Why keep two separate teams who both do the same thing, fly planes? Even the Imperium of Man does that in Warhammer 40K, and they have the most bogged-down bureaucratic army system ever.
I think its mainly because aircraft that operate from carriers or at sea have different requirements in their construction, maintenance and utility than airbase aircraft. The Army has its own air wings as well, although they're more focused on logistics but it does contain combat aircraft, usually helicopter gunships. And maintaining its own aircraft means the Navy get to set the standards for its pilots and aircrew and a whole bunch of other bureaucratic reasons I'm not aware of.
Iron Eagle was set to get full US Air Force Support, however once the AF found out Jets would be "stolen" they removed support - Doesn't matter if good guys/bad guys steal a plane, Plane gets stolen in the script, AF drops support. Nope - It also serves as a technology demonstrator as the 1st ship in her class, ie lots of highly classified stuff. Example - You need a secret clearance to even look inside an Infantry Stryker vehicle - so normal Grunts need a clearance if assigned to a Stryker "Whispering Death" Unit.
Considering the nature of aircraft carriers and how they are essentially floating landing strips, it makes less sense for someone NOT trained as a seaman to just hang out on a boat and expect the same kind of experience as taking off from an airfield with plenty of stable, non-moving land. Besides, Air Force sprung out from the Army. Look up "Army Air Corps."
National Security Act of 1947 officially created the AF from the Army Air Corps, among other things, such as the creation/transition to the CIA from the OSS
Top Gun had Navy Aircraft, not Air Force. To answer your question, for years it was the only film of its kind to be filmed in high quality(as in regard to choreography and photography). The closest thing to it in the 80's was Iron Eagle and before that, Final Countdown. The former doesn't get as much raves but the last one does for different reasons. Since then there's only been 2 movies that come close, 1 is a documentary(Speed and Angels which gives you a glimpse of the real Top Gun and the tactics the last Tomcat class employed) while the other is Les Chevaliers du Ciel in France which was subtitled here as Sky Fighters.
Heh, yup, or the far more nutshelled version: It was essentially the first big budget action movie in the 80's about F-14 fighter jets that live on aircraft carriers starring dudes like Tom Cruise & Val Kilmer - what typical 8-20 something year old guy wouldn't be all over that like a fat kid on a smartie?!? It's easy to be cynical about it now, I guess, but I'm surprised anyone ever could wonder what made that movie a big deal back then.
Naval aircraft are a compromise... not as fast or heavy payload as land-based on the same engines, because they have to have a significant amount of structural reinforcement. A carrier landing is best summarized as a "controlled crash," and NAVAIR airframes have to be built such that they can shrug off that crash and immediately take stresses equal to another crash getting the next cat-shot after refueling and rearming with no repairs. This is why part of navalizing a landplane design starts with beefier landing gear, and beefing up whatever structures connect to the tailhook.
Folding wings to conserve stowage space also seems to be prerequisite of most Navy planes. Sure there are VTOL and STVOL variants of aircraft like the F-35B Lightning II but vertical takeoff and landing fixed wing craft is the province of the Marines. Suffice it say, there are differing platform/mission requirements and thus pilot training regimens between the various armed services. I can only imagine what the Space Force vehicles and pilot programs will look like decades from now (Top Gun in space ).
Man, that is an absolutely beautiful trailer. So many just *artful* shots. Pure filmatism. Who knows if the whole thing will hold together as a film, but the visuals and cinematography are on point.
Looks good. This movie will definitely have better flight-footage/dogfights than the original. I seem to remember them using the same poor quality aerial footage over and over in the first movie.
You know a sequel is doing it right when you watch the footage and the series main theme plays along in your head..
