Continuity mistake: When the F14 lands in the opening scene, it is number 205. When it comes to a full stop, the number has changed to 114. (00:03:30)
Continuity mistake: When we are first introduced to Maverick and Goose, their Tomcat crosses the screen, right to left, in close-up, slowly. It's nose is marked 203. Then we see the other Tomcat flying with them, and it is number 114, and its crew is Cougar and Merlin. But all the shots after this place Maverick and Goose in 114. (00:04:35)
Factual error: In the first flying scene where Goose says he has got contact with the enemy on his radar, the display shown is sweeping in a full circle. The AWG-9 radar of the F-14 is mounted to the front of the airplane and can only scan 60° left and right of the Tomcat's centre. (00:04:50)
Deliberate mistake: In the shot where the F-14 and F5 canopies are only 3-feet apart, you can see that the writing on the side of MAVs F-14 is backwards. Also, if the F-14 was inverted, with the sun more-or-less above, its cockpit would be in shadow, not with sunlight on the nose, as seen. (00:08:55)
Continuity mistake: In the first dogfight, when Cougar freaks out he removes his face mask. When Maverick takes-off again to guide him down the shot shows Cougar and Merlin's plane from the side where Cougar is again wearing his mask. Then it cuts back to a face shot of Cougar and his mask is off again. (00:09:35 - 00:11:00)
Continuity mistake: When Cougar is looking at the picture of his wife and child, it's a girl. When he is interviewed by the Captain, he says "I almost orphaned him..." (00:10:14 - 00:13:03)
Suggested correction: He actually says "I almost orphaned 'em out there today" ie. Orphaned THEM not him.
Except he follows it up with "I've never even seen him." So he's talking about a boy. And before the orphan line he said "wife and kid", not "wife and kids", implying only one child.
And he couldn't have orphaned them anyway if their mother is still living. Dude was all shook up and couldn't think straight.
Continuity mistake: When Maverick does the go around to assist Cougar in landing, Cougar has on his left side a TOPGUN patch which is not present when he presents to the CO/CAG post flight. Cougar is also seen with a mask on in this scene when all other shots show Cougar with mask off during the landing. (00:11:23)
Continuity mistake: Right before the pilots know who Charlie really is, the mechanics inspecting the plane behind change positions between the first and second shot. (00:22:51)
Continuity mistake: When "Charlie" is first introduced to the class, she struts down the aisle in heels. When she follows Maverick into the building, you can briefly see that she is wearing flats to compensate for Maverick's short stature. (00:26:00 - 00:28:50)
Visible crew/equipment: When Charlie walks down to the front of the class in the hanger, Jester is the only one at the front. Look at the reflection of Maverick's glasses, and the reflection shows lots of people standing in front of him, likely film crew. (00:26:20)
Continuity mistake: When Maverick hits the brakes on Jester he's wearing a stainless steel Rolex Submariner. Later when he lock-s on and "kills" Jester he pumps his fist and is wearing a "blacked-out" different watch. (00:31:00)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where the guy tells Cruise "Maverick, you and Goose get your butts into Viper's office now", when the scene is close up on his face, the black guy is on the right, but as soon as it goes back to the regular scene the black guy is on the left. (00:34:30)
Continuity mistake: Charlie shows up while Mac is studying his flying moves. His hand is raised holding a pencil. From the opposite angle it's lowered. (00:36:10)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Maverick and Slider are studying and Charlie slips Maverick the piece of paper with her address on it, Slider changes seats. First he is at one end of the table near the wall, then at the end of the scene he, and all of his stuff, is at the opposite end of the table. (00:40:30)
Continuity mistake: After the volleyball game, when Maverick leaves on his motorcycle he's not wearing a belt on his way to Charlie's house. When he jumps the porch rail at Charlie's house to go around back, he is now wearing a belt. (00:42:25)
Continuity mistake: When Maverick leaves Charlie's house after their first date, there is a "For Rent" sign in front of her house, but it's not there when he arrived for the dinner date. It appears to be the same shot of Maverick leaving her house towards the end of the film, when she's actually put the "For Rent" sign up and moved. (00:43:00 - 00:48:03)
Continuity mistake: Maverick and Charlie are having lunch. The wine hasn't been served, but the wine bottle spins between close-up shots with the label half shown to fully showing. (01:00:45)
Character mistake: In the scene where Maverick flies into Iceman's jetwash, as they are descending, Maverick calls out the altitude as 6,000 however the metre is displaying between 2,000 and 3,000. (01:04:25)
Continuity mistake: Iceman's jet gets hits twice on two different occasions in the final dogfight segment. The hits were in the same portion of the jet. The goof is that the particular portion of the jet was magically clean again (no holes) just prior to the 'second-time' hit. That's because they used the same 'prop' for both the first and second hits - simply filmed from different angles. (01:36:53 - 01:37:24)
Deliberate mistake: During the final dogfight, Maverick tells Merlin he's going to "hit the brakes" then when Maverick gets a good lock on the enemy he fires. The shot of his last missile firing is a flipped shot, note "VF-213" is backwards. (01:38:50)
