Continuity: Scene of Tom's last take off - the Tomcat's tail number changes before he lands OR TC changed planes mid-air.

Revealing: You can tell the scene where Goose dies is done in shallow water instead of the middle of the ocean, where it should be, because in the shot right after Goose splashes down into the water, Maverick takes a few steps to get to Goose instead of swimming over to him.

Revealing: Maverick and the others are supposedly on the Enterprise (CVN-65), which is a one-of-a-kind ship with a distinctive silhouette, but the movie repeatedly shows the Carl Vinson (CVN-70), a Nimitz-class carrier.

Continuity: When Maverick goes to land while Cougar is in fuel trouble, the tailhook is down. He decides Cougar needs help and launches back off the carrier, the tailhook is up.  The next view as he flies away from the carrier the tailhook is once again down.

Continuity: Count the doors opening and closing - Mav walks through a closed elevator door.

Continuity: During the dogfight with Jester, as both planes are going 'ballistic', from the ground view, the F-14 is in front. Aren't they pursuing?

Continuity: 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.

Continuity: In the final dogfight, Hollywood and Iceman are up against 5, count them, 5 Migs. Hollywood is shot down and Maverick is launched. Maverick takes out one Mig, Iceman takes out the next. That is two. Maverick takes out a third. For the finale, Maverick hits the brakes and lets him fly right by for a total of FOUR kills. Then the remaining Migs bug out. Two Migs are shown leaving. That adds up to 6 Migs, not 5. [Initially 5 Migs do show up on radar. But just after Maverick launches, Slider tells Iceman "We've got four on our tail. That makes 6 of them". So there isn't actually a continuity error when the remaining two Migs "bug out".]

Factual error: Pretty much everyone who fires a missile in this movie uses the stick's trigger. In a fighter aircraft, the trigger controls the radio/intercom. The red button on the far left fires weapons after the hat or castle switch selects them.

Factual error: 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?