# "You can ride my tail any time!" It's Top Gun 2: Maverick **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 19, 2019, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-ride-my-tail-any-time-its-top-gun-2-maverick/837280 "2019-07-19T00:02:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2019, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-ride-my-tail-any-time-its-top-gun-2-maverick/837280/21 "2019-07-19T16:14:19Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > In some cases you can have all the right parts and pieces and movements, but _something_ just doesn’t seem right, and it’s really difficult for anyone to say exactly what the problem is. See e.g. in the trailer at 1:00, when the engines are coming up to afterburner and the flight control surfaces are all being checked for movement. Contrast this with the matching sequence in the early moments of the original movie (see [here](https://youtu.be/bNxvXj9nff4?t=147)), and you can see what I mean. I can’t articulate the differences, but I’d bet money that that scene in the new trailer is CGI. Not really seeing it. However trying to see it led me to notice something heinous at 1:08 : he’s got the standard pair of Sidewinders on the wingtips, fine, but what are those hanging off the external pylons ? Are those… those are Paveways, aren’t they. Maverick’s become a _ground pounder_ ?! _shakes head_ shameful shit. ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2019, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-ride-my-tail-any-time-its-top-gun-2-maverick/837280/22 "2019-07-19T16:22:29Z")
The back seat of an F-18 flying 1v2 against F-16s makes every carnival ride I’ve ever been on combined feel tame. One of the best experiences of my life. I’ll watch this for the same reason I watched the first one, Airplanes going fast! ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2019, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-ride-my-tail-any-time-its-top-gun-2-maverick/837280/23 "2019-07-19T16:35:57Z")
From and old SDMB thread: [Which Shit is Faker: Dances with Wolves or Top Gun?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=560078) > [@](#): > > posted by \*\*Boyo Jim > \*\* > Top Gun is faker because Kelly McGillis is a lesbian but the movie made me believe she would fuck me if I joined the Navy. That was 4 years down the drain. > [@](#): > > posted by **nachtmusick** > > So…after watching Tom Cruise beat Val Kilmer in the finals of the Homoerotic Beach Volleyball Tournament, you concluded that your best chance to get laid by a beautiful lesbian is to join the Navy and ship out? ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2019, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-ride-my-tail-any-time-its-top-gun-2-maverick/837280/24 "2019-07-19T17:00:02Z")
One thing I saw that I doubt anyone else here will be as excited about as me… Midway through the trailer, Maverick pulls the sheet off his old GPZ900R Ninja, and I felt like I should stand and put my hand over my heard in salute to one of the old titans of the sportbike world. Then, in the very next shot, where he’s recreating the ride along the runway, he’s riding a new Kawasaki H2. 250MPH supercharged madness! ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2019, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-ride-my-tail-any-time-its-top-gun-2-maverick/837280/25 "2019-07-19T17:32:50Z")
What’s with the scenes featuring a high-altitude pressure suit (see and 0:53 and 1:58 in which you can see the suit’s collar, at 1:23 with helmet on)? [Other people are wondering, too. Here’s more photos of the suit.](https://fighterjetsworld.com/air/fighter-jets-photos/spoiler-alert-top-gun-maverick-in-high-altitude-pressure-suit-after-ejection/9190/) Are they putting him in a U2? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Vorlon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@The\_Vorlon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Vorlon)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2019, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-ride-my-tail-any-time-its-top-gun-2-maverick/837280/26 "2019-07-19T18:06:09Z")
Not a U2, maybe the Navy answer to a A-12 I guess the Tomcats must be CGI, as all of ours were crushed and melted so that a certain non-friendly adversary would be lacking for spare parts. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2019, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-ride-my-tail-any-time-its-top-gun-2-maverick/837280/27 "2019-07-19T18:35:54Z")
Whenever I hear that music I’m back playing the Nintendo game, trying to dock with that damned flying tanker. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2019, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-ride-my-tail-any-time-its-top-gun-2-maverick/837280/28 "2019-07-19T18:51:52Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Whenever I hear that music I’m back playing the Nintendo game, trying to dock with that damned flying tanker. _PTSD intensifies_ ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2019, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-ride-my-tail-any-time-its-top-gun-2-maverick/837280/29 "2019-07-19T21:22:01Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Tom Cruise’s demeanor/acting in the trailer is notably different from the original movie. Not sure whether he’s deliberately portraying an aged fighter pilot, or if it’s just that he himself has matured as an actor. He seems a lot closer to his Jack Reacher character than to the original Maverick character. I feel the need, the need for Motrin ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2019, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-ride-my-tail-any-time-its-top-gun-2-maverick/837280/30 "2019-07-19T22:31:30Z")
> [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#): > > The [first trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSqVVswa420) has been released for the sequel to _Top Gun_ (1986), entitled _Top Gun: Maverick_. > > … Not much indications of what the plot might be yet, but the few clues we’re given make it look a lot like the the previous movie, with a much older Tom Cruise. “Iceman”/Val Kilmer’s in it, although I didn’t notice him in the trailer, as are Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm and Ed Harris. Judging from all those snow-capped mountains I think those no-goodnik Swiss are at it again. ---
**Author:** ![txtumbleweed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/278dde/32.png) [@txtumbleweed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/txtumbleweed)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2019, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-ride-my-tail-any-time-its-top-gun-2-maverick/837280/31 "2019-07-20T04:35:07Z")
There might be a little bit of interest in the movie, already about 13.5 million hits on the trailer. And according to Tom Cruise (apparently he premiered this the other day at Comi-Con) all of the flying shots are real. No CGI. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2019, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-ride-my-tail-any-time-its-top-gun-2-maverick/837280/32 "2019-07-20T09:40:40Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > I think that (skimping on technical consultants) has almost always been a problem; for example, many movies feature aircraft with ridiculous thrust-to-weight ratios and otherworldly maneuverability. But another part is about using CGI for footage that you would never attempt to produce IRL because it would be too hazardous, in which case you think “that’s gotta be CGI because they would never try to get that footage IRL.” See e.g in the trailer at 0:38; there’s no way they’re going to hover a camera drone and then fly a real aircraft within a few feet of it at a closure rate of several hundred knots. The problem with CGI is that, because everyone knows it is very good, if they don’t know how a shot could be produced with real objects, they assume it is CGI. The way I would shoot the scene you are talking about is out the back of a C130 with a fair amount of zoom on the camera. No need for camera drones or extreme closure rates. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-ride-my-tail-any-time-its-top-gun-2-maverick/837280/33 "2019-07-22T15:25:51Z")
Japanese and Taiwanese flags were present on Maverick’s jacket in the original movie. [They have been removed for this one.](https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/22/media/top-gun-flags-intl-hnk/index.html) > [@CNN.com](#): > > In the Paramount Pictures trailer of “Top Gun: Maverick,” two jacket patches that had originally shown the Japanese and Taiwanese flags appear to have been swapped out and replaced with two ambiguous symbols in the same color scheme — leading to social media speculation that the swap was done to appease China. > > Several Twitter users quickly pointed out that Chinese tech giant Tencent (TCEHY) is one of Paramount’s partners on the movie, which is slated to release next summer. Tencent said in December that its subsidiary Tencent Pictures is “an investor and co-marketer” of the highly anticipated sequel. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-ride-my-tail-any-time-its-top-gun-2-maverick/837280/34 "2019-07-22T19:31:03Z")
So based on his rank (O-6/Captain), Maverick is one of a handful of things on the carrier. The captain of the ship, the XO of the ship, the CAG (commander of the Carrier Air Group), or the Deputy CAG. All of them are typically O-6 billets, and the CAG/DCAG fly fairly regularly. But Maverick’s age is the real problematic thing… Tom Cruise is 57, which made him the right age (maybe even a tad young) for Maverick in 1986. But it makes him positively ancient for an O-6 in the real world- and Ed Harris’ character points that out. If you look at real-world things- the O-6es in charge of carriers are typically in their mid-late 40s. THe OLDEST officers in the military are Cruise’s age- the USN Chief of Staff is 59, and is a 4 star Admiral, for example. Meanwhile, they have Jon Hamm wearing 3 stars; that’s quite a bit higher rank than a 48 year old would typically hold in today’s military. I’m curious how they resolve/explain this. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-ride-my-tail-any-time-its-top-gun-2-maverick/837280/35 "2019-07-22T21:15:12Z")
[Moderating] **Walken After Midnight** , while NSFW links are allowed here, they must comply with the two-click rule: A reader must have to click at least twice before seeing the NSFW material. The easiest way to do this is to put the link in a spoiler box, as I have done. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-ride-my-tail-any-time-its-top-gun-2-maverick/837280/36 "2019-07-22T22:20:27Z")
> [@bump](#): > > So based on his rank (O-6/Captain), Maverick is one of a handful of things on the carrier. The captain of the ship, the XO of the ship, the CAG (commander of the Carrier Air Group), or the Deputy CAG. All of them are typically O-6 billets, and the CAG/DCAG fly fairly regularly. > > But Maverick’s age is the real problematic thing… Tom Cruise is 57, which made him the right age (maybe even a tad young) for Maverick in 1986. But it makes him positively ancient for an O-6 in the real world To be fair, Tom Skerritt was, what, 52 and, James Tolkan 54, when TOP GUN came out with them playing O-5, right? ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2019, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-ride-my-tail-any-time-its-top-gun-2-maverick/837280/37 "2019-07-23T14:45:54Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > To be fair, Tom Skerritt was, what, 52 and, James Tolkan 54, when TOP GUN came out with them playing O-5, right? Sure, but we don’t know how old their characters were supposed to be. Maverick pretty much had to be Cruise’s age, more or less when the movie came out, which means that his character is 33 years older. I mean, had they decided to cast another mid-50s actor and say he was an O-6 in charge of the carrier, it wouldn’t matter; you could hand wave that away and say he just looks old. But Maverick has 33 years of interim time between the movie and now, and I wouldn’t think that could be waved away easily. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2019, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-ride-my-tail-any-time-its-top-gun-2-maverick/837280/38 "2019-07-23T15:00:17Z")
> [@bump](#): > > But Maverick has 33 years of interim time between the movie and now, and I wouldn’t think that could be waved away easily. Did the story in the original Top Gun take place in the year the movie was released? Will the story in the sequel take place in the year it’ll be released? ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2019, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-ride-my-tail-any-time-its-top-gun-2-maverick/837280/39 "2019-07-23T15:38:30Z")
I’m wondering what airplane type they’re using as the foreign aggressor type. It needs to be something obscure enough to be unknown to 90% of the viewing public, but common enough to arrange for an American studio to be flyable for all of the movie shots (e.g. we ain’t getting an SU-xx planes). I’m putting my money on JAS39 Gripens, painted brick red with yellow tiger stripes to look fierce. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2019, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-ride-my-tail-any-time-its-top-gun-2-maverick/837280/40 "2019-07-23T18:34:27Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > Did the story in the original Top Gun take place in the year the movie was released? Will the story in the sequel take place in the year it’ll be released? How much latitude could there really be? To squeeze it in, you’d have to have it set in 1989 and 2014. I get the distinct impression from the first trailer that it’s present-day, and the original was probably not set 5 years in the future. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-ride-my-tail-any-time-its-top-gun-2-maverick/837280.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-ride-my-tail-any-time-its-top-gun-2-maverick/837280.md?page=3)