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: In the scene in the bathroom, you see Maverick walking through the doors, they say 'ladies room'. When they are in the bathroom, though, the writing should be backwards, as it is the back of the door and reflected in the mirror but it is written exactly the same, the words are on the wrong side of the doors as well.
Correction: The writing on the back of the door would be backwards from the inside, but because it is reflected in the mirror it looks as if it is written properly.
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 bar scene at the beginning of the movie when Iceman is talking to Maverick the camera is behind Maverick and shows him drinking a beer. The scene switches views to where the camera is behind Iceman and Mav is not drinking, then the scene switches back behind Mav and he is drinking from the bottle again.
Correction: The bottle is merely being held out of frame. The bottle wouldn't have been held up to his face during the length of the conversation.
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: 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: 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 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: You can hear Iceman on the radio saying that Maverick is in a flat spin and is headed out to sea. When they're rescued much of the horizon is obscured by spray thrown up by the helicopter.
William Bergquist