This is the place where the majority of the warbird (aircraft that have survived military service) discussions will take place. Specialized forums may be added in the new future
Sat Jul 05, 2008 10:50 pm
Craig59 wrote:Ah, yes. Top Gun. The movie where Tom Cruise says everything twice. Everything twice.
"I'm on him, I'm on him!"
"I'm firing, I'm firing!"
"Eject, Eject!"
I was glad not to hear "hammers down" over and over again
Lynn
Sun Jul 06, 2008 6:43 am
p51 wrote:I was in Air Force Junior ROTC when the movie came out and one of the pilots, CDR Denny Broska, came to the local airshow we were working at Tallahassee, Florida, with one of the F-14s supposedly he used in the movie. I reemmber asking about the "canopy to canopy" shot, and he swore they'd actually filmed it and got that close, but they couldn't keep up that distance for more than a few seconds and the camera geeks could never get a good shot of them doing it. After a few tries, they gave up and used the split screen. He said he was pretty ticked because his pilot buddies gave him crap about he couldn't really do it, when he knew he
could, and
had, several times.
mustangdriver wrote:The actors actually flew in the F-14's for some time.
Maybe
some of them got to go up, but I know for a fact Tom Cruise did not. He wanted to, and the Navy would have likely been fine with it, but the producers said heck no, because if something had gone wrong, their movie would have crashed (pun intended). I got that
personally from Tom Cruise himself a few years ago!
Moonlight wrote:Another quick fact associated with the flat spin scene where Goose is killed: Art Scholl, the famed aerobatic performer, was flying his Pitts w/ a camera mounted on it when he entered an inverted flat spin in order to get that footage for the movie, and wasn't able to recover from it. He crashed into the Pacific, and his body was never recovered.

I never knew that. I found more data on that here:
http://www.check-six.com/lib/Famous_Missing/Scholl.htm
Actually Tom did go up several times in fact. He got sick the first time and was able to hold it down the last few. If you watch the making of t he movie on the DVD there there is t he footage of all of them flying (Tom included), and talking about it.
Sun Jul 06, 2008 7:39 pm
mustangdriver wrote:Actually Tom did go up several times in fact. He got sick the first time and was able to hold it down the last few. If you watch the making of t he movie on the DVD there there is t he footage of all of them flying (Tom included), and talking about it.
Well then, I guess he's a lying sack, because
he told me to my face he wanted badly to go up and the Navy was OK with it, but the producers wouldn't have it. Sorry, I'll go with the man telling me that himself over a DVD commentary...
Sun Jul 06, 2008 7:57 pm
I met Tom Cruise once, rather pleasant fellow and rather short also, but pleasant!
Anyhoo, back to what this thread is about.
I wonder if they have one of the aggressor birds up at MCAS Miramars Museum area. I need to go up and check.
Also, I think the guys from Myth Busters might have had something to do with the movie since they always show a Tomcat model on that backwall of their shop in the show. Anyone know anything about this?
And btw, my good friend Skip Samples made a bunch of the stick models for the real Top Gun school and some ended up in the movie!
O.K. I am out of Top Gun stuff, but I can start swearing if you like!
Mon Jul 07, 2008 1:33 am
What happened to the 104 used int the music video from the film , cant remeber the name of the group , just remeber the lead singer standing on the 104
Mon Jul 07, 2008 2:04 am
Jamie Hyneman from Mythbusters was involved with building the scale models to be blown up I believe.
Mon Jul 07, 2008 3:05 am
the music video from the film , cant remeber the name of the group , just remeber the lead singer standing on the 104
Terri Nunn from the band Berlin.Also an actress in General Hospital....IIRC
Song was called Take my Breath away
Mon Jul 07, 2008 8:56 am
p51 wrote:mustangdriver wrote:Actually Tom did go up several times in fact. He got sick the first time and was able to hold it down the last few. If you watch the making of t he movie on the DVD there there is t he footage of all of them flying (Tom included), and talking about it.
Well then, I guess he's a lying sack, because
he told me to my face he wanted badly to go up and the Navy was OK with it, but the producers wouldn't have it. Sorry, I'll go with the man telling me that himself over a DVD commentary...
I don't know what to tell you man, but in the DVD there is this whole section aout him being nervous about flying, and then actually going up and how he got sick.
Mon Jul 07, 2008 1:12 pm
p51 wrote:mustangdriver wrote:Actually Tom did go up several times in fact. He got sick the first time and was able to hold it down the last few. If you watch the making of t he movie on the DVD there there is t he footage of all of them flying (Tom included), and talking about it.
Well then, I guess he's a lying sack, because
he told me to my face he wanted badly to go up and the Navy was OK with it, but the producers wouldn't have it. Sorry, I'll go with the man telling me that himself over a DVD commentary...
Yeah I remember that on the making of DVD feature. TC says prior to the start of filming he went up in a TA-4J and even says the pilots callsign: 'BOZO'. "Great, I'm going up with a guy called Bozo!" He also mentions that he had just filmed Legend and had a pony tail, so all the Navy guys were looking at him like who is this Hollywood kid?
As far as upcoming Navy/Aviation movies goes, I've heard that the book "KEROSENE COWBOYS" is in pre-production as a major motion picture.. Anyone read this one?
Apparently the story is being updated to the present day and it will feature full support from the Navy and the Russian Air Force.
Pete
Mon Jul 07, 2008 1:36 pm
p51 wrote:Sorry, I'll go with the man telling me that himself over a DVD commentary...
Don't distract me with the evidence! I'm going with what a man says rather than the video of him doing it!
Mon Jul 07, 2008 3:43 pm
Maybe he meant that he didn't go up in the F-14 but really wanted to opposed to going up i the A-4?
Mon Jul 07, 2008 4:06 pm
Back in about 1987 or so, I had the pleasure of spending most of the day with Cmdr. Duke Cunningham. He told me a lot of interesting stories that day about the Top Gun movie and his own life, with a lot of the events from the movie that were based off of either his experiences or people he knew.
Cunningham was one of the technical advisors on the film, so he had lots of great stories. One I remember, is from the scene of when Tom sang the "You've Lost That Luvin' Feeling" song to his love interest in the O'Club. Cunningham told me that was patterned after him, as that was one of his "ploys" in order to meet ladies at the Miramar O'Club back in the day.
The scene where the two pilots were flipping each other off flying inverted, were based off of something the Navy pilots used to do. I can't remember if Cunningham said he actually did this, or one of his friends, but he said it was a standard salute to Russian Bear Bombers, when the Navy used to intercept them over international waters. He told me he had some interesting photos of flipping off the Ruskies.
Cmdr. Cunningham was a nice, pleasant, easy to talk to individual back then. He even let me copy a videotape he had of a lot of flying outtakes from the movie Top Gun. Unfortunately, we know what happened nearly 20 years later. Needless to say, the respect I had for him since then was lost when he was convicted. My impression of spending the day with him, was that he was an "ends justifies the means" kind of guy, with doing whatever it takes to accomplish the mission or goal. I got the distinct impression that he was not into abiding by rules.
Mon Jul 07, 2008 4:54 pm
warbird1 wrote:Back in about 1987 or so, I had the pleasure of spending most of the day with Cmdr. Duke Cunningham....
... Unfortunately, we know what happened nearly 20 years later. Needless to say, the respect I had for him since then was lost when he was convicted.
I didn't know what happened...until I Googled his name. Yikes!
Sad end to a distinguished career...
Mon Jul 07, 2008 4:59 pm
Django wrote:Maybe he meant that he didn't go up in the F-14 but really wanted to opposed to going up i the A-4?
That's a possibility. Good point.
Mon Jul 07, 2008 6:25 pm
My recollection from the DVD voice over was that the Navy technical advisor Pete Pettigrew (? or it might have been Admiral Cassidy cuz he appeared inthemovie) said the main actors went up in a jet and promptly upchucked. They couldn't get over it fast enough for the movie so they built the cockpits and had guys shaking them from the outside.
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