Top Gun: Maverick

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Ending / spoiler

(21 votes)

The team destroy the processing plant, but Maverick is shot down when he puts his plane in the path of a SAM destined for Rooster. Believing him killed, the team are ordered back to the carrier. Having ejected, Maverick is approached by a helicopter which fires on him, but just as the killing shot is lined up the chopper explodes, shot down by Rooster who returned against orders, who is himself then shot down and ejects to safety. They approach the nearby destroyed airbase and discover an intact F-14, manage to get it airborne amid the chaos, albeit destroying their front landing gear in the process, and start to fly back to the carrier.

Two enemy fighters approach them, not initially realising who the pilots are. Maverick uses the element of surprise to destroy one, and after a protracted low-level dogfight shoots down the other. En route to the carrier a third fighter appears - Maverick evades as best he can but with no flares and no ammunition left, and with the ejection handles not working, they both seem doomed until Hangman arrives in the nick of time and shoots down the fighter. They land/crash on the carrier, and celebrate their victory, with Maverick and Rooster clearing the air. We later see them both working on Maverick's P51 together before Penny appears, and she and Maverick fly off into the sunset together.

Jon Sandys

Plot hole: Any strike on a military facility by incoming aircraft would first take out the SAM sites with missiles to clear the way for said aircraft to operate freely. After all, the Tomahawks fly right past the attacking planes and take out the runway with no issues at all - no reason they couldn't hit the high and exposed SAMs.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: The idea was to use the tomahawks to take out the airfield and prevent enemy planes from taking off. The SAMs could be evaded by flying through the canyon so the airfield was considered a higher priority target.

lionhead

While that may be so, those planes exit would have a difficult time out running and avoiding that many SAMs. It's not like the ship wouldn't have enough tomahawks to take out the SAMs as well.

Taking out the airfield was deemed necessary to complete the mission, taking out SAMs beyond the canyon was not. The original plan didn't take into account the pilots surviving the mission in the first place, so the Navy didn't bother with extra strikes on SAM sites. Maverick had to struggle to get them to approve this plan in the first place too, so he wouldn't be able to convince them to put even more effort into it.

lionhead

They still have to avoid the SAMs on the way out, no canyon to protect them then.

More mistakes in Top Gun: Maverick

Amelia: Captain, still?
Maverick: Highly decorated Captain.

More quotes from Top Gun: Maverick
More trivia for Top Gun: Maverick

Question: Isn't Hangman's ammo still full after he hits the bandit chasing Mav and Rooster? Shouldn't it be short of the fired rocket?

Answer: You're correct - when you see Hangman's loadout before he lands back on the deck - he still has all weapons on the rails - it should be that he is short an AIM-9 or an AIM-120 AMRAAM depending on what was fired.

In all shots of Hangman's F/A-18E after the final battle (especially in the close-up right before he lands on the carrier), it is shown that there is an AIM-120 loaded onto the right air intake weapon station. The left air intake station is empty - indicating either no weapon was loaded or an AIM-7/AIM-120 was fired.

You can see that all his missiles are still intact and even if one is missing it would be very unlike to only load on the right and not the left as well. But where he says "This is your savior speaking" you can see all missiles are still on the plane and unfired.

More questions & answers from Top Gun: Maverick

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