Question: In many flight and pre flight scenes, Ice is shown wearing a blue collared shirt under his flight suit. Is it normal for pilots to wear street clothes under their flight suits as opposed to just an undershirt? What about pants?
James Rowell
14th Jun 2006
Top Gun (1986)
Answer: During the timeframe the movie was shot, polo shirts were authorized under flight suits. They no longer are for two reasons - 1) the buttons are a FOD (foreign object damage) hazard and 2) the v-neckish does not provide enough flame protection. However, regarding color, every navy squadron or command is authorized to choose a color for their crew/turtle neck undershirt. If a color has not been specified, the color shall be navy blue or black.
Thanks! That makes sense in the movie: You can see several other pilot / RIO pairs with the same color Polo or undershirts on (red and yellow). Also, Goose and Mav are wearing white and other pairs are wearing black.
13th Jun 2006
The Terminator (1984)
Question: When Kyle and Sarah change places in the pickup truck, if you play it in slow motion you can see Kyle's face transitioning to that of a stuntman. How did they manage to do that back in 1984? And more importantly, since they were driving straight ahead, why?
Answer: As for the transformation it appears to be an optical thing. It appears that Kyle was driving and doing the switch. the reason for the switch is so Kyle can toss out the pipe bombs. notice that Sara holds one up and Kyle and her then switch places.
4th Aug 2006
Jarhead (2005)
Question: Regardless of the Major's interference, what is the ideal way for a sniper to take out two targets in that situation with a bolt-action 7.62 sniper rifle?
Answer: Strange as it may sound humans take a long time to process the unknown. Once a sniper has patterned the subjects he will take the shot on the one furthest away. Hearing glass break and his friend thud to the floor. The remaining subject will take at least 4 seconds to comprehend what just happened. He will obsever, decypher, and react. Each one of those takes at least a second and a half, maybe a little less. By the time the second guy has comprehended what is going on the second bullet is already hitting its target. In the history of snipers this has been done.
1st Jun 2005
General questions
Only one film has had the "Universal Pictures" logo removed before the titles (not including films such as Jurassic Park and Waterworld that used variations of the logo). Does anyone know what it is?
Chosen answer: I think that was John Carpenter's the THING. He mentions that in the commentary on the new DVD.
22nd Jul 2005
Kelly's Heroes (1970)
Question: What type of Allied fighter destroyed the units vehicles? It doesn't look like any allied combat aircraft I've seen before.
Answer: It's a Yugoslav Soko 522 Ikarus.
Chosen answer: From the markings it looks like a P47 jug. Strange thing is it was equipped with rockets, which I have only seen outfitted on the P-38 lightning and the P-51 Mustang. Kelly's is a great movie but far from historically accurate. There is a country song Odd Ball Plays as the blow up the rail yard that not even close to having been released at the time.
27th Sep 2005
General questions
Many years ago I saw a cartoon where an old animal was telling the story of what happened to mankind. He told of a world war and the last scene is one soldier left in each side's trench. The first soldier shoots the second, but the second shoots the first before dying, thereby ending the human race. I think the last shot was one of the soldiers sinking into the mud of the trench. What is the title or production company of the cartoon?
Answer: It was called "Peace on Earth" - here's the IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031790/.
17th Nov 2005
General questions
I'm trying to find out the name of a television show that I watched in the early to mid-1980's. The only details I remember are that there was group of teenagers that worked on a newspaper and they would often get transported to a different time or area where a "bad guy" was always trying to get to them. Anybody have an idea?
Answer: I think it was "Read all about it." It may have been a Children's Televison Workshop production. Mind you that's just a guess.
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Answer: After being stationed onboard an Aircraft Carrier for several years I can say your observations are correct. They should have a regulation white T under there. None of the pilots I know would wear a civilian T under their flight suit because it could mark them as an American, and it could contain chemicals that in a pure oxygen environment of the flight suit could have produced fumes.
James Rowell