Corrected entry: In the first scene where the pilots are introduced to Charlie, Iceman's RIO is has blue Walkman earphones around his neck. You see him put them on and then the next scene you see him with them around his neck.
Corrected entry: In the bathroom, Charlie has a tube of lipstick, next cut it's gone.
Correction: You can't say "next cut it's gone" because it's simply not true. When Charlie is holding her lipstick tube it cuts to 3 consecutive closeups, which last approximately 30 seconds, where we don't even see her arms or hands. Plenty of time for Charlie to simply tuck her lipstick into her pocket, while her arms are offscreen.
Corrected entry: When Maverick does the flyby past the towers in Miramar and at the Enterprise, WHY does the controller in the tower spill his coffee over himself? Who would do such a thing? Isn't it a human reaction to spill coffee on the other side of the mug? NOT on yourself?
Correction: Nope. Hold a mug of water up to your face, and see what happens if you're startled by something while doing so. Your natural reaction is to jerk backwards, which will result in a wet face and clothing.
Corrected entry: At the beginning when Maverick and Cougar are flying back to the ship and they are sweating running out of fuel before Maverick can talk Cougar down, this would not have been that much of a big deal. The carrier would have launched a tanker and refuelled the planes. Even if Cougar was too shaken to land on the carrier, with the help of tankers, they could have diverted to a land based runway which is infinitely easier to land at.
Correction: The carrier in question was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, and as such, may not have been in range of a friendly air base for Cougar to divert to. Second, carrier landing is peanuts compared to in-flight refueling. Navy aircraft use a "probe-and-drogue" refueling system, in which the extendable refueling probe on the receiving aircraft is plugged into a two foot wide basket being trailed by the refueling aircraft. Often, this basket has seen some dents and dings, and oscillates somewhat unpredictably, making the connection even more difficult. As Stephen Coonts wrote in Flight of the Intruder, "One frustrated fighter jockey had been heard to lament, 'It's like trying to stick a banana up a wildcat's ass.' Cougar's ability to land on the carrier would have been well above his ability to plug into a KA-6D or S-3B refueling jet.
Corrected entry: After Mitchell drops out of TOPGUN, Viper tells him: "That isn't something the State Department tells dependents when the battle happens on the wrong side of some line." The State Department does not notify military dependents of the death of a service member. The Defense Department does. Goose got it right when he joked in the cockpit after being nailed by Jester.
Correction: While technically correct about which Executive Department sends notification to next of kin of deceased service members, its obvious from the context Viper means something else. When American military personnel are involved in "black" operations, or anything potentially embarrassing, e.g. combat "over the wrong line on some map" as Viper says, State would no doubt have some influence over the details released to family, being the department charged with overseeing our foreign relations. So what Viper means is, "The State Department doesn't let the Defense department tell people the true story."
Corrected entry: While in the trailer reviewing Maverick's flying, "put on the brakes and he'll fly right by..." Charlie is wearing a grey skirt. In the next scene while she is out by Maverick's bike she is wearing a black skirt.
Corrected entry: In the opening dog fight scene (which took all of a couple minutes) they go from bright sun (Cougar loses his bogey in the sun) to being almost night time when Mav attempts to land on the carrier the first time.
Correction: Two things: When an aircraft is at altitude, it will be brighter longer than down on sea level. Second, we don't know how long it took to fly back after the dog fight. If it was late afternoon for the dog fight, it could very well be getting dark on the return trip.
Corrected entry: At Top Gun, Maverick does a fly by of the tower. He flies by, the camera cuts to the guy drinking coffee who spills it on himself. Then the camera cuts back to the sky and Maverick flies by again.
Correction: This is an artistic choice to heighten the impact of the moment, not a mistake of editing, just as "slow-motion" isn't an accidental drop of film speed that makes everything happen unrealistically slow.
Corrected entry: When Cougar lost the edge after, he wouldn't have given his wings to his Commanding Officer. Handing in your wings is merely a phrase, not something people do.
Correction: Character choice. It may not be required, but it's certainly his option to hand them in, throw them out or even swallow them.
Corrected entry: Just before Goose and Mav go down in a flat spin, they are flying over desert and mountains, yet somehow after the crash they have to be recovered by a rescue chopper out in the middle of the ocean, with no land in sight.
Corrected entry: At Top Gun, when Ice confronts Mav wondering who was covering Cougar while Mav was "show boating" with the MiG, Mav should have pointed out that the first MiG had already "bugged out" and he was, in fact, covering Cougar by engaging the second MiG.
Correction: There is no training school in the world that tells the pilot to engage an enemy aircraft by flying inverted above it. Maverick should have flown behind the plane and illuminated it with his missile control radar and attempted to achieve a lockon in order to send a message to the Mig pilot. If the Mig pilot had fired at Cougar, Maverick would not have been able to engage the Mig from his position ( apart from kamikazeing into it). He would therefore not have been able to stop the Mig from shooting again or to get revenge if Cougar had been hit. Iceman is correct when he asks who was covering Cougar.
Corrected entry: In the ejection scene where Goose buys the farm his helmet is clearly seen flying off during the sequence (it's even in slo-mo) yet when Maverick reaches him in the water he's wearing it.
Correction: Goose's helmet does not go flying off. In the slo-mo section of the ejection scene look closely and you will see Goose's head (which is still in the helmet) get forecd forward when it comes in contact with the canopy. At no time does the helmet ever come off his head.
Corrected entry: On the last flight that Maverick takes a line of dialogue is heard - "He's on your left at three o'clock." Three o'clock tends to be on the right.
Correction: Actually, the time referenced (3 o'clock) doesn't refer to the right or left side on it's own. By saying "on your left, 3 o'clock" it means, turn to your left, imagine a clock on your right, then imagine 3 o'clock on that clock. It could be on your right, 12 o' clock, on your left, 6 o'clock, dead ahead, 3 o'clock. The time alone isn't the indication of location, as a rapid height reference is needed too.
Corrected entry: Throughout the movie, Charlie keeps referring to Maverick as Lieutenant, even though his rank insignia (2 silver bars connected) is Captain. One silver bar is the rank for Lieutenant.
Correction: This is wrong. In the Air Force and the Army, the double silver bars are the insignia of a Captain (grade 0-3). In the Coast Guard, the double silver bars are the insignia of a Lieutenant (grade 0-3). The Navy does have a Captain rank, but it is a few grades higher (O-6) and is represented by a silver eagle (like an Air Force or Army Colonel), so Lieutenant is correct.
Corrected entry: In the opening scene where Goose takes a photo of the the Russian MiG you can see that if he was inverted at such a close range the tails on the planes would be touching. This is an impossible move (and the cut of sequence looks a little rocky too).
Correction: Not so...the F5 (Russian Mig) has a single tail. The F14 has dual tails, so the Mig's would just slide between.
Corrected entry: In the final battle scene the carrier's captain is told both of the ship's catapults are out, so no more planes can be launched to help Iceman and Maverick. The USS Enterprise has FOUR catapults.
Correction: When the statement was made that both catapults were broken and no planes can be launched, that can be a true occurrance. I have worked on Aircraft Carriers and if you have the Waist catapults go down on you, you can't just jump to the other two on the bow. In a situation where they were launching alerts, the bow would be fully loaded with other aircraft. The only time they would probably be open is if 3/4 of the jets were in the air already, which they weren't.
Corrected entry: When they are playing volleyball, you can see that between each scene sometimes they have dogtags on and some scenes they don't.
Correction: Because of the jumping around while playing, the dogtags are flipping around from front to back. So, depending on the camera shot, you may not see the tags.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Maverick is preparing for launch as the "Alert 5" aircraft, he's shown to slide the canopy forward to close it. The Grumman F-14 has an aft-hinged, one piece canopy that locks in place when it closes, after being lowered into place. The canopy does not slide in any direction once closed.
Correction: Actually this scene is correct (and actually filmed in a real F-14). The Tomcat's canopy comes down to the canopy rails and then slides forward about 3 inches to lock. The reverse happens when opening. It slides aft 3 inches and then lifts.
Corrected entry: In the opening flight scene when Cougar is having a nervous breakdown and can't land his plane or talk, you hear the controller say 'Cougar you are at three quarters of a mile call the ball'. Cougar then replies 'roger ball' in a cool calm voice which is inconsistent with the previous scene showing a speechless, rattled Cougar.
Correction: Cougar does say "roger ball." The LSO (Not air traffic controller) has a totally different voice when he asks Cougar to call the ball. The actual mistake is that neither Maverick or Cougar answer correctly ie "Maverick ball. F14 500", (callsign, acknowledge the FRESNEL ball, aircraft type, and fuel state).
Correction: Cougar doesn't say "roger ball", the air traffic controller says "rise your ball". So it is the air traffic controller who sounds rather calm.
Corrected entry: When Maverick and Goose are in the water after ejecting you can clearly see the boat that films them.
Correction: Not true!
Correction: Iceman's RIO is Slider, and he does have headphones around his neck. When Ice calls bull on Mav's inverted comment, at 00:27:45, Slider smirks and raises just the two blue foam ear pads up to his ears, leaving the metal headband still around his neck. It's not until 7 shots later that we see Slider, and now the blue foam ear pads are down at his neck again. It was more than enough time for them to have moved.
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