Top Gun movie 30th anniversary
 

Am led to believe it's been 3 decades since Top Gun came out at the cinema 😎😎😅

I wonder what reactions from our Tonka / Rhino / Lightning and SHAR crews after watching it with stack of popcorn, , ...

Cheers

I seem to remember watching it, with the other flying sqns en-masse, in the station cinema at Laarbruch?

I remember going to Lincoln to watch it one black flag afternoon on BFTS. We bought the soundtrack on cassette for the drive home and nearly killed ourselves on the A15.

As ex Lightning, F15, Rhino and Tornado pilot my view was: great photography and music, otherwise rubbish. The F14 at that time was not close to being a dog-fighting vehicle.

The air-to-air shots when they were at Top Gun were brilliantly done. The fly-bys were as girlish as you might expect from the Navy, but still entertaining. The plot and the way the crews were portrayed were absolutely cringingely awful.

See a little bit of yourself in there did you Courtney? Which one, Maverick, Slider, Iceman, Kelly McG? :E

One of the best movies ever - and, one of the worse !! :ok:

30 years from now, I wonder if the same comment will be made about Top Gun II featuring the F-35C...:E

I actually enjoyed the film as a bit of entertainment and not worry to much about the detail. What concerns me is that the film is 30 years old and I am 30 years older. Where did the time go?:confused:

I saw the movie 30 years ago. At the time, I was playing "F15" in my Commodore64, so I could explain to my fellow classmates (I was 10 at the time) about the HUD simbology, Sidewinder missiles and so on.

Later in my life, I realized Top Gun was a gay movie:
How did Top Gun become so gay?

Still, I like the Mig 28s and F14s...

Regards,

Background Noise, Although not aircrew or invited, I can remember all aircrew attending that performance at Laarbruch by order of the CO.

Mind when I signed on the dotted line in 1965 I went and watched 633 Sqn at the cinema in the afternoon. I can recall being the proudest person there.

The use of F-5s (?) as MiG stand-ins always annoyed me.
Especially as they had a couple of the real things at Nellis which could have been borrowed at the time! (I jest).
Agree - it was so bad - it went right out the other side of bad and became good.

First movie I ever went to with my dad (just the two of us - the old Latvian didn't go to the "movie house' often) . I was a senior at UW Madison, AFROTC, and soon to attend UPT at Willie. He probably doesn't remember it, but I never will forget it.

The 9 minute version
 

A story I heard from one squadron at the time, was their 9 minute version made it much more interesting ... of just the flying sequences

Agree with that CM.


The film just proved to me that fighter pilots talk bollocks. :E

I was at university in Birmingham at the time and one of my friends who was in the UAS went to see it on 6 consecutive nights.

He never made it into the RAF but I believe he is now a Long Haul captain in BA.

And don't forget its biggest legacy: enabling the tabloid press to label any fighter pilot as a Top Gun for the last thirty years.

I watched it in '86 and was a Ab-Initio OCU stude at the time.

It made the film company millions of $$
It made Ray Ban shades millions of $$
It made Tom Cruise:
It made a whole load of BritMil aviators envious of US military aviation.
Lots of (female) school teachers & nurses became pilot groupies overnight.
Contrary to the bad press above - everyone went to see it.

The music is to this day awesome
Huge white Y fronts never were cool
Kelly McG isn't a patch on Susannah York

For me; the plot speared in when a Pilot cried for a Nav in public..
and I prefer 'Flight of the Intruder'; but then I can relate to a maverick (pardon the pun) pilot.

I dare say that military recruitment on both sides of the pond benefitted.

I saw the Australian version of the stage play during my four years as a controller at RAAF Williamtown so I gave the movie version a miss.

MJG

I first saw it projected in the ante-room of the mess at Bruggen at the end of a very boozy weekend landaway. The sound failed half-way through and I received something of a mixed reception when I started doing the sound effects. Shortly afterwards I insisted on Mrs 99 watching it at our holiday hotel in Corfu; she then lay awake all night because the navigator had died - oops!

TC rode a GPZ900R in it and I had one too. That's where any similarity ended.

Have always been upset at a Nav/WSO being referred to as a 'rear'.

Also, the best quote I ever heard in a film at that time. Contained the phrase '...long and distinguished....' I seem to remember.

The portrayal of a fighter pilot as a cringing, panic-stricken, frightened indecisive cry-baby did it for me. I saw it in Pompey the afternoon of doing decompression drills at Seafield Park. We laughed ourselves crosseyed.

A handful of good flying sequences but the rest was abject trash from end to end.

Parson
Even tho the two wing master race are often disparaging to GIBS (Guy in back seat) in this case I believe that the term used was RIO (Radar Intelligence Officer). Only found out when watching the film on the box with subtitles.

Dougie M - many thanks for clearing that up, I didn't know that :)

"Hello, Meg. Have you got any Courtney in you?" "Would you like some?"

Update after checking. RIO stands for Radar Intercept Officer. Most stupid made up name I've heard and Meg certainly would have got it then but the "modifications" she has undergone are a bit offputting.

It was the volleyball that made me want to join How disappointed was I when arriving at Cranwell in February.

'Hey Courtney ya big stuuuud'

'That's me honey'

'Take me to bed or lose me forever!'

'Show me the way home, honey!'

Top Gun.
 

Some of the best lines in aviation feature films ever……………..
“ Well, yer see,………..we were inverted……... “

However, the characterisations were embarrassing to anyone who’s been there.
Don’t think we were ever as dumb as that; at least, for a 22 year old, I like to think not ! Still, some great photography…..and Meg Ryan !

It also struck me that there was not a single mention of the half dozen RN AWIs’ connection. They basically set up the Top Gun course at Miramar to help the USN who were suffering too many losses in Vietnam. Still, American film I suppose. Bit much to expect !

One of the best has, I believe, recently passed on ; Lt.Dick Lord.RN, of 764 NAS, Lossiemouth.

Forgive a bit of thread creep, but Dick later became a Brg.Gen.in the SAA. Read his book, “Tail hooker to Mud mover” which contains quite a bit about the formation and development of “Top Gun” school.
Quite a career the like of which we are unlikely to see anymore.

Goes to show, 30 years ago being gay in the military was illegal, now it is apparently compulsory!

It is a very good principle never to go to any movie about anything you have the slightest knowledge of.

Warning. NSFW.

Hempy .... A simply excellent video find :D:D:D:D

Preferred flight of the intruder myself, a somewhat more accurate depiction....

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFZ7Woo53K4

Amazing gadgets those extendable little tape measures :E

Battle of Britain - pilot returns after a successful sortie and does a victory roll over the airfield - gets a huge bollocking from his CO.

Top Gun - pilot returns from a successful sortie and does a victory roll over the ship and is treated like a hero.

Sums up the Hollywood version of military flying.

Still in one respect Cruise makes a convincing FJ pilot - he is a shortarse after all!

A group of us sneaked into the cinema in central manchester (now a wetherspoons pub) aged 13. We picked out the oldest looking one of us to go and pay as it was rated 15. We had all given said boy £1 each and thrust him forward to the kiosk. We were most upset when the manager told us that if we were all 15 and above we would have to pay the adult price and not the child's price of £1.

In our deepest voices we all grumbled and chunnered to ourselves before stumping up a bit more cash to get in. We then sat on the back row, and smoked a pack of superkings between us.


It is still one of my favourite movies, but i do tend to fast forward any part which does not have aircraft in it.

Back in the 80s flying around Ireland at low level in the good old Wessex several of the pilots used to quote from the film at any and every occasion which prompted the comment from the crewman that Top gun was a film for ''Pilots and twelve year olds!!!!'' Still makes me smile when they repeat it on the TV.

Hey!!! I resemble that remark!