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)
Continuity mistake: At the end, a victorious Maverick is hoisted on the shoulders of the guys. As he goes up, he isn't wearing sunglasses. His head goes out of the shot, and when he comes down, he's wearing a pair.
Continuity mistake: During the whole elevator scene with Mav and Charlie, her earrings change.
Suggested correction: They are the same earrings the light just hits them at different angles.
Continuity mistake: In a scene soon after Cruise's partner dies, when he's flying with his new partner, you can see his call sign on his helmet, but when they get on the ground and he's talking to Cruise, all the letters on his helmet are removed.
Continuity mistake: In the final dog fight scene, Maverick is flying with Merlin as his co-pilot. Merlin's helmet is purple and can be seen many times behind Maverick. In one scene though, the helmet behind Maverick's is orange, which is Sundown's colour.
Continuity mistake: Throughout the film Maverick's plane has the number "114" on it. However, at the end when he is waiting on deck, the number has changed to "104". This is actually Iceman's plane, which has already taken off. When Maverick launches, the number has changed back to "114" again.
Continuity mistake: The Navy allowed only two live missile shots (one AIM-9 Sidewinder and AIM-7 Sparrow) for the filming of the movie. Maybe that is why we see so many missiles fired from an empty rack.
Continuity mistake: In the volleyball scene, Maverick can be seen looking at his watch because he has a hot date with Kelly McGillis, however while they are actually playing, it is easily noticeable he is not wearing his watch in some of the shots.
Continuity mistake: In the elevator scene with Maverick and Charlie, Tom Cruise's hair keeps changing. Both Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis were working on different movies when they added this in. Kelly had her hair dyed a different color and Tom's hair was longer.
Continuity mistake: In the final battle scene, which takes place way out over the water, in some of the F-14 shots, mountains can be seen in the background.
Suggested correction: How is this a mistake? The aggressors would have to come from a land base so there is every possibility of mountains being visible.
They are based in San Diego, Miramar Naval Air Station. Mountain can be seen from there but not what was filmed. Mountains shown are in Nevada.
Continuity mistake: When Maverick rides his motorcycle up the hill to Charlie's house, the sun is just about to set in the background. He stays at Charlie's a while, they drink some wine, then he leaves. As he is leaving, the sun is still setting in the background.
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)
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: In the dogfight where Cougar freaks out, when Maverick and Goose fly upside-down to give the MIG the birdie, the names of each pilot are not only upside down, but they are mirrored too. If you look at the names upside down, you can't read them.
Continuity mistake: Before the final dogfight the horizontal stabilizer (back wings) on Mav's jet say YYY, afterwards they say XXX.
Continuity mistake: After the final dogfight, how did the drop tanks get back onto the planes before they landed? They sure weren't there during the dogfight.
Continuity mistake: When the instructors are out on the flight line discussing Maverick's loss of confidence, in each shot Viper's sunglasses can be seen to alternate between Randolph (square type) and then Ray Ban (aviator style).
Continuity mistake: At Charlie's, she and Mav are having dinner and he asks for the wine. Throughout the entire scene the bottle of wine keeps getting rotated from shot to shot.
Continuity mistake: The weapons armament on the F-14's keeps changing from one cut to another.
Continuity mistake: During the second dogfight, Iceman shuts down one of his engines, but when they fly past the carrier while returning, there are two lines of smoke coming out of his plane.
