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.
Super Grover
21st Sep 2002
Top Gun (1986)
27th Mar 2007
Top Gun (1986)
Corrected entry: During the volleyball match, Maverick's dog-tag disappears.
Correction: During this entire scene, Maverick's silver chain is always around his neck, even when we don't see the dog tags. I confirmed this by pausing and enlarging the screen. In quite a few of the shots, Maverick's dog tags are hanging down at his back, so they may be overlooked. The tags are visible whenever Maverick turns and/or we see his back. However, what does actually vanish and reappear is his watch, which is noted in another mistake.
14th Jun 2016
Top Gun (1986)
Corrected entry: The scene in the TCTS room, when they are evaluating dog fight maneuvers, Charlie is sitting on the desk wearing a beige pencil skirt, a few moments later when chasing Maverick down outside, she is in a black pencil skirt.
Correction: It is not "a few moments later" between those scenes. During Charlie's review of Maverick's flight performance Maverick is wearing his uniform, and Charlie is wearing a polo top with a light colored shirt (00:51:30). Then sufficient time has gone by because in the next scene (00:52:30) when Charlie is trying to get Maverick to listen to her, both are dressed differently, Maverick is now wearing his civilian clothes, and Charlie is now wearing a different blouse and a black skirt.
27th Aug 2001
Top Gun (1986)
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.
15th May 2020
Top Gun (1986)
Corrected entry: The call of "going ballistic" is totally wrong. Calling "we're going ballistic" is a warning call to all other aircraft that you have no control of your airplane and it's only being controlled by the laws of physics (diving, turning etc) and not the pilot.
Correction: While you are correct technically, I don't believe Goose was referring to the technical use of the phrase/term. He was using it as a indication of excitement. "My daughter went ballistic when she saw the new puppy."
The fact that you point out the mistake is correct isn't a good way to open a correction. Plus, there's no indication he's expressing "sudden excitement." On top of that, even if he did intend to say "we're excited", it would still be a character mistake to use a specific phrase that has a specific meaning out of context like you're suggesting.
I did not point out of the "mistake" is correct at all. I pointed out that what the poster stated is true (to my knowledge) about what going ballistic means in the technical flying a plane sense. However, this is not how Goose is using it. He was absolutely expressing excitement. Maverick states that they are going vertical. Goose replies "We're going ballistic Mav, go get'em." He is not saying it to alert other craft (thus the call out specifically to Mav). This was a phrase used a lot in the 80's, but not much anymore. "Dad is going to go ballistic when he finds out", or "She is going to go ballistic when we get to Disney." It expresses anger, excitement, craziness. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/go%20ballistic.
The NATO Brevity Code manual (google it), specifically mentions "going ballistic" as a the term to be used once you have lost control of your aircraft, a warning to others. It's a term that was adopted *after* the movie for expressing excitement.
When the couples are all together at the restaurant/bar (01:01:45), Carole tells Maverick, "He told me all about the time you went ballistic with Penny Benjamin" (the Admiral's daughter). So considering his wife, Carole, uses this specific slang expression it's believable that Goose also uses the slang in this way despite its "technical" use. During the earlier training mission (00:31:55), when Goose reacted to Maverick going vertical after Jester goes vertical, Goose, perhaps inappropriately, casually used the term only while speaking directly to Maverick, so if this is to be listed as any kind of mistake it would be a character mistake. This movie was released mid 1986, and excitedly "going ballistic" (just like "going bananas") was indeed used prior to this movie's release.
Yet, they are not losing control of the aircraft in that scene, and he is not warning other aircraft since it's not happening AMD he is only talking to Maverick (the pilot who would be well aware if they were ballistic). I don't know exactly when the term hit the main stream as a term of excitement but it's pretty clear to me that he is saying it that way. Classifying this as an error would be like saying the lines "a walk in the park Kazinsky" or "the defense department regrets to inform you that your sons are dead because they were stupid" are errors because neither is true. He wasn't reporting to anyone that they were ballistic. He was encouraging his pilot and just happened to use an aeronautical statement in his excitement.
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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.
Super Grover ★