Top Gun

Trivia: The "MiG-28s" in the movie are actually all Northrop F-5E Tiger II's, an American plane used for training and sold to other countries. In reality, there is no MiG-28.

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Suggested correction: It could be argued that in the alternate reality of Top Gun the fictional "MiG-28" was an improved reverse-engineered F-5 (VPAF gave the Soviets access to ex-VNAF F-5:s for evaluation after the fall of Saigon) explaining their similarity.

This isn't a valid correction for a trivia entry. There is no mistake being suggested, just letting viewers with limited plane experience know MiG-28 isn't a real plane.

Bishop73

Trivia: Charlie's date in her first bar scene is the real Viper from the actual Top Gun school, called Pete Pettigrew. He was the consultant on the film.

Trivia: Goose's real name is Nick Bradshaw. This is visible after he dies among his belongings that Maverick goes through. It also appears on the canopy of the F-14 he and Maverick are assigned to.

Trivia: After the (in)famous scene in which Maverick and Goose sing to Charlie, she leaves the bar (filmed in the rear bar area of the Miramar Naval Air Station Officers' Club) and goes to a restroom some 20 miles away (a men's restroom in the lobby of an administration building at Naval Training Center, San Diego). Maverick follows her, and after their exchange they both head back up I-15 to re-enter the bar at Miramar. The cramped restrooms at the Miramar O-Club were inappropriate for the scene.

Trivia: The scene where Maverick is making love to Charlie was shot in the dark for a reason. When reviewing the movie, the producers and critics felt that the movie needed a love scene after it was originally finished. Unfortunately, Kelly McGillis (Charlie) was doing another movie and had red hair. To shoot the scene, the dark was used to subtly cover the fact her hair isn't blonde, not just for the romantic effect.

Trivia: Val Kilmer did not want to be in the film, but was forced to by contractual obligations.

Trivia: When Maverick tells Charlie that he was flying inverted when flipping the bird to the MiG, Iceman coughs "bullshit" and gets a laugh from the others. That was actually an ad-lib from Val Kilmer.

Trivia: Ally Sheedy was the first choice for Charlotte 'Charlie' Blackwood but turned the part down because she thought that no one would want to see a movie with Tom Cruise flying a fighter jet.

Trivia: One of the pilots was killed during the filming. At the end of the film there is a reference in the credits to Art Scholl. He was an acrobatic pilot who flew the planes during the filming and was engaged to fly the difficult "flat spin" scene. During this scene, Scholl reported a problem with the plane. All contact was then lost and neither Scholl nor the plane were ever recovered.

Trivia: At the beginning of the class, Charlie tells the students that they will be using F-5's and A-4's as MiG simulators. Nowhere at the school do we see F-5's being flown by instructors as aggressors. The instructors only fly A-4's. The "real" MiG's are F-5's.

Trivia: Matthew Modine was originally selected to play Maverick but he turned the part down because he disagreed with the film's cold-war politics.

Trivia: The Navy only authorized two actual missiles to be fired for the film. Thus a couple of the missile shots are obviously repeated, and they're easy to spot. The rest of the missile shots were done with miniatures. The company responsible for the miniatures did such a good job that an investigation was done by the Navy to see if more than two missiles had been fired.

manthabeat

Trivia: At the end of the film Maverick throws some dog tags off the ship. We assume these are Goose's (albeit factually this cannot happen). If you look closely there are 2 different sets of tags - Rick Neven (Hollywood) and Mike Metcalf (Viper). Coincidentally these are the only two callsigns that are from the genuine fighter pilots in the credits. Seems a bit macabre!

Trivia: In the last dogfight, Maverick is ready on alert 5. When Hollywood is hit, Maverick is launched and Stinger says "Ready Willard and Simkin." Willard and Simkin don't sound like pilot call signs, but real names. They're the only pilots called by their real names during the entire film. That's because they're a homage to the dogfight choreographer Robert Willard and the casting director Margery Simkin.

Visible crew/equipment: When Charlie walks down to the front of the class in the hanger, Jester is the only one at the front. Look at the reflection of Maverick's glasses, and the reflection shows lots of people standing in front of him, likely film crew. (00:26:20)

More mistakes in Top Gun

Iceman: The plaque for the alternates is down in the ladies room.

More quotes from Top Gun

Chosen answer: The term "Ghostrider" refers to the squadron name. There used to be a Tomcat squadron called the Ghostriders. Usually in a radio call, the squadron name is followed by a number. For instance, in the first fight where we see Cougar get into a spot of trouble with the Mig on his tail, he radios "This is Ghostrider 117 this bogey's all over me, he's got missile lock on me, do I have permission to fire?" That is normally the correct term as to who is on the radio.

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