Continuity mistake: When Maverick hits the brakes on Jester he's wearing a stainless steel Rolex Submariner. Later when he lock-s on and "kills" Jester he pumps his fist and is wearing a "blacked-out" different watch. (00:31:00)
Continuity mistake: In the final battle scene, Slider sees two MIGs dead ahead and Iceman says he will "Take them down the left side." In a front view the two MIGs come towards them, but cut to a side view and the two MIGs pass, suddenly followed by a third.
Continuity mistake: The night before graduation, Maverick is parked on his bike at the runway. An incoming jet is seen, with gear and hook down. But in the next shot the jet just keeps flying. And it's not a test landing and take-off. It's two different planes mixed.
Continuity mistake: Towards the beginning of the movie Goose loses a bet to Maverick and must pay up. He extends his hand out with a bill folded. The camera switches back and forth and the bill changes from being folded in half to being folded in quarters.
Continuity mistake: While in the opening air scene, the names of the pilot and his RIO are backwards.
Continuity mistake: In the elevator scene Kelly McGillis's hair is a different colour (I think a shade of red) than earlier or later in the film. Apparently this scene was filmed months after Top Gun filming was complete while McGillis was shooting another film. This explains the baseball cap and ponytail.
Continuity mistake: When Charlie is briefing the pilots on what a MiG can do, Slider and the guy behind Maverick have their sunglasses on in one shot, then off in another and then on again in another.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Charlie picked up Maverick from the hospital, you can see the rear view mirror of her car is low, between the actors' faces. The camera zooms in and the mirror can be seen raised slightly above the top of the windshield. The camera zooms out and the mirror is low again.
Plot hole: In the debrief in Viper's office following Maverick and Goose's first flight at Top Gun (in which they defeat Jester), Viper states that "Commander Heatherly lost sight of you and called no joy." However, during the actual flight scene, you never hear Jester call "no joy." I've always assumed that this part of the scene was accidentally left in the editing room.
Factual error: Maverick's total disregard to follow orders, land his plane when instructed too, plus his dangerous stunts while flying would immediately result in him being grounded, going before the naval board, and possibly having his flight status taken away for his disobedience. And he certainly wouldn't be chosen or invited to go to any TOP GUN school.
Other mistake: During the dog fight at the end the officer questions the status of Willard and Simpkin, previously designated the pilots on alert on catapults 3 & 4. The reply was "both catapults are broken". But carriers have four catapults - nobody even considers using nos. 1 or 2.
Continuity mistake: After the volleyball game, when Maverick leaves on his motorcycle he's not wearing a belt on his way to Charlie's house. When he jumps the porch rail at Charlie's house to go around back, he is now wearing a belt. (00:42:25)
Character mistake: The Commanding Officer, CDR Metcalf (Viper), is wearing is CO pin under his ribbons on the left pocket. That means he used to be a CO, but is not currently. He should be wearing it over is right pocket to show that he is currently a commanding officer.
Factual error: After the initial contact between the F-14 and the 'Soviet' MiGs, Maverick is on final approach and the LSO (Landing Signal Officer) instructs Maverick to 'Call the ball', referring to the ships 'meatball' landing light system. Maverick calls back 'I have the ball'. The correct phraseology would have been 'Tomcat ball' followed by fuel state, such as 5 point 5 meaning 5,500 lbs fuel remaining.
Continuity mistake: In the beginning scene of the movie, Maverick and Cougar encounter 2 Soviet Migs. When one of the MIgs is first shown from the camera angle on its right side, it is a delta winged aircraft. The next scene that shows the Migs, they have standard wings. The wings change at least twice during the opening air encounter.
Other mistake: The guy in the tower drinking coffee works at both Mirimar and the Enterprise? It is the same guy. Identical looking, hair color, wearing the same exact style of sun glasses, etc. The second scene, the air boss seems to refer to the first scene as well, making a statement of "g** d*** that guy!" and laughs after having spilled the coffee, as though this has happened before. Seems to me they are making it pretty clear its the same guy. I would think the air boss on a land based training facility would be a different person that the one assigned to the Enterprise.
Suggested correction: He got reassigned in the 8 weeks.
Continuity mistake: 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".]
Continuity mistake: When Maverick and Goose land in the sea by parachute, they are virtually on top of each other. But on the way down they are quite far apart, and would definitely not have landed in exactly the same spot.
Factual error: If a ship drifted into Russian waters, they wouldn't send for pilots that just graduated. They would use diplomacy first. They would send other ships and subs. They would only engage pilots if they were prepared to declare war. They would have hundreds of other pilots available. If any planes were shot down, it's an act of war. The two remaining MIGs would be joined by dozens more.
Continuity mistake: When Cougar is looking at the picture of his wife and child, it's a girl. When he is interviewed by the Captain, he says "I almost orphaned him..." (00:10:14 - 00:13:03)
Suggested correction: He actually says "I almost orphaned 'em out there today" ie. Orphaned THEM not him.
Except he follows it up with "I've never even seen him." So he's talking about a boy. And before the orphan line he said "wife and kid", not "wife and kids", implying only one child.
And he couldn't have orphaned them anyway if their mother is still living. Dude was all shook up and couldn't think straight.
