Corrected entry: In the final dog fight scene Maverick implies there is no way the F-14 Tom Cat can outrun a "5th generation" fighter jet. The F-14 is actually one of the fastest fighter jets in service history, with a top speed of 1540mph (Faster than the F-18 at 1190mph). The F-14's top speed is actually better than or comparable to most known 5th Gen fighters, which range between 1200 - 1600 mph.
Corrected entry: In all the scenes of the movie, only the aircraft carrier is shown. An aircraft carrier is part of a strike group or battle group protected by multiple ships to include cruisers, destroyers or frigates, and an auxiliary ship. All the scenes are of a single carrier and no protective ships.
Correction: The carrier strike group rarely travels close enough to be in frame, unless for a photo op or something similar. The Ticonderoga-class cruiser that fired the tomahawk missiles is shown.
Corrected entry: The SAMs in the movie, which are most likely SA-6s, are pretty old and would for one not be used anymore, and if they would, they would have a range of about 20nm. They also wouldn't be alone, and would most likely be accompanied by IR-guided SAMs, which are able to seek into the valley.
Correction: The SAMs are most likely SA-3's (NATO Designation GOA). While they do share similar shapes, the SA-6 is launched from a mobile platform with 3 missiles, and notably lacks the forebody fins of the SA-3. Furthermore, the SA-3 is indeed launched from a 4-missile rail that looks very similar to the platform in the Movie. As an additional mistake, the F/A-18's used in the movie launch flares against these missiles, while the missiles are radar guided. (Chaff is needed instead, which is not shown).
Corrected entry: When the Daggers take off from the carrier, Maverick can be seen holding onto a rail with his right hand until the aircraft leaves the carrier deck, and he is jolted as the aircraft drops. In reality he would have had both hands on the throttle and stick during takeoff. This gives away that he was sitting in the rear seat, as all the actors did during the flight sequences.
Correction: The pilots do not have control of the plane during carrier launch. They hold on to the handle as the plane flies itself for the first few moments. This prevents accidents and the stress of the pilot is reduced.
Corrected entry: Maverick's rank changes from captain to full bird colonel on his flight uniform during his ass chewing by the three star general following his inverted dive with Rooster.
Correction: Colonel is an Army/Air Force Rank. In the Navy the equivalent is Captain.
US Navy Captain is an O-6 which is equivalent US Amy / USAF Colonel - across all services they share the same Insignia in order to allow for all US military personnel to identify rank correctly across the services. So in this sense - Maverick's rank insignia as a US Navy Captain, is correct.
Corrected entry: The team is required to fly at high speed due to the anticipation of 5th gen fighters intercepting them on the way out. Issue 1 - They blew up the nearest airbase, so where would these fighters come from? Issue 2 - If they expected them from another nearby base, they should have launched the tomahawks later in the mission (as it was, they would have given the enemy a major head start by blowing up the runway about a minute to early). Note: The only planes that arrive were totally unexpected.
Correction: They say in the film that the point of the runway strike is to stop new aircraft taking off, but that some will already be in the air on patrol - those are the ones which come after the US planes.
I wondered too why they attacked the airfield when they did. That attack is what tipped the bad guys off, right? Without that warning the team could have flown up the canyon with less speed, have an easier shot at the target, and climb out with less danger. Escaping without crashing into the steep mountain was perhaps the most difficult part of the mission. So why not hit the airfield after the target it hit?
That is fair, but they seemed fairly surprised when the 2 bandits appeared on radar, and the Air Boss even asked where they came from. If they anticipated patrols, he shouldn't have been so surprised. They still launched the tomahawks way too early - there was no reason not to time them to hit at the approximate time that Maverick was in position to fire. Time was stated as their biggest adversary, and the tomahawks landing early cost them decent amount of it.
My assumption was that after taking out the initial aircraft, they'd assumed that was all there were, presumably with no others on radar. The final two may well just have been further away than radar range. The missile timing is a bit debateable - given their job was to stop any new fighters taking off, and the F-18s being under the radar would keep them secret anyway, it didn't need to be down to the second. Perhaps they wanted to hit the runway early enough to give the planes time to cancel the attack if the runway wasn't properly disabled.
They WERE surprised when they appeared on their radar. That's the point of the 5th generation stealth technology! The "where'd they come from" response was spontaneous, since the radar picture was clear and then it wasn't.
Corrected entry: Maverick and Rooster parachute down and throw their helmets when they meet. They then find the runway and the F14, towards which they run without their helmets. When they steal the F14 they have their original helmets with their names back on.
Correction: Their helmets are clipped onto their far hips when running to the F14.
Corrected entry: When Jennifer Connelly is in the bar chatting with Tom Cruise for the first time, the iconic song "Let's Dance" from David Bowie is playing in the background. Connelly and Bowie had starred together in the film "Labyrinth" in 1986, and featured a similar upbeat song called "Magic Dance." A subtle reference, perhaps?
Correction: While it wouldn't surprise me if the David Bowie song being in the film is a reference to the fact that Connelly was in "Labyrinth" with him... I feel like it should be pointed out that "Let's Dance" is not from "Labyrinth." You're getting it confused with "Magic Dance," which was the song in "Labyrinth." (Albeit both are similar, upbeat tunes.) "Let's Dance" was released in 1983, whereas "Labyrinth" (and "Magic Dance") came out in 1986. I'll submit a word-change.
Corrected entry: Maverick and Penny are on a motorcycle without a helmet with in the state of California and on bases which are still highly illegal.
Correction: These scenes were entirely intentional and reinforce the essential theme of the movie. The titular character is in fact a "maverick" who disregards the rules when it suits him - and usually gets away with it.
Works for me. I was just making the statement from a legal aspect. :).
Corrected entry: During the final mission, it's mentioned that a T-LAM strike from the Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Leyte Gulf will precede the Top Gunners and destroy the airfield. However, the number of tomahawks shown in flight is far too many to have been fired from a single ship given how close together they are (practically in close formation).
Correction: Yes we can fire that many in a short amount of time.
Granted it's been over 20 years since I was on a Tico (a snipe at that), and we only fired a dozen in a single strike, but maybe our mission profiles didn't call for rapid succession. I would defer to someone who has more contemporary experience.
Corrected entry: The only export customer for the Tomcat was Iran. But the "fifth gen" enemy fighters were PAK FA (Sukhoi T-50 / Su-57) which are flown only by Russia.
Correction: Entertainment films deliberately fictionalize something in our world, per their story-telling tradition. That's deliberate and is exactly what sets them apart from a security camera feed. Another thing that you see in the film that doesn't exist IRL is Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell.
Corrected entry: Tom plays a Captain but there is a scene in the hangar where he is wearing the rank of Lt Colonel on his shoulder.
Correction: I've rewatched this scene (I assume the one where they find out who POPS really is) in particular and there's not a really clear shot of his rank patches, and from what I could tell they were the eagle of a USN Captain.
There is no rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the US Navy. The equivalent rank (three stripes or a silver oak leaf cluster) is Commander.
Corrected entry: Maverick apparently owns a P-51D Mustang, an aircraft that costs anywhere from $2-4 million dollars. He purchased this ostensibly on an O-6 salary, which maxes at around $13,000 a month.
Correction: It's not mentioned, but the few scenes showing the Mustang show Maverick performing maintenance on the plane; He restored it, which would not necessarily cost as much as if he outright purchased it. He's been flying for nearly 40 years and may have connections/friends/acquaintances who helped him get the plane.
Correction: He never had a family and he fixed it up. Pretty easy to save up that much money when you make 120k with no expenses.
Corrected entry: When Maverick and Rooster crash in enemy territory the terrain is snowy but when they are flying out the background isn't snowy, it looks like summer.
Correction: They crashed in the mountains, but are flying out over lower elevation. High mountains can be in winter conditions when the lowlands are in spring/summer.
Corrected entry: Only the USAF (via Lockheed) builds, tests and flies strategic reconnaissance aircraft like the U-2, SR-71 and rumors of a new SR-72, Darkstar etc. The Navy wouldn't be running the project.
Correction: There are several civilians on the project team. The project is past the prototype phase and is being tested. The Navy controls the purse strings, and the Test and Evaluation Squadron, VX-1, is operating the aircraft. As to why the Navy is running the project, a fictitious one in the movie? Maybe the Navy will be flying it. Maybe it's a joint project with the USAF.
Corrected entry: When the camera pans over the wrecked air field and shows the one remaining hanger with the F14 in it, you can see the engines/back of the plane pointing toward the taxi way. The next frame and when they get to the hanger, the plane is flipped and it's the nose that is pointing out at the taxi way.
Correction: The engines point at the actual runway on the other side of the aircraft shelter. The nose consistently points out at the taxi way.
Corrected entry: The beginning footage shows the USS Roosevelt CVN 71 as the carrier being used for flight ops, yet they refer to it in the movie as the USS Lincoln, CVN 72.
Correction: You are absolutely correct, except it's never suggested they are the same aircraft carrier. The opening sequence is just for "flavor."
Corrected entry: In the shot where the first two-ship descends into the crater, the bombs on screen seem to be a pair 1000 or 2000 bombs that are laser guided, but when they are dropped, they suddenly become small unpowered rockets.
Correction: The bombs used in the final assault are GBU-24 laser guided 2000 lb bombs. When dropped, additional fin surfaces extend from tail. Could this be what gave them their "rocket" appearance?
Corrected entry: Lt. Robert "Bob" Floyd Is a F-18 pilot wearing glasses. As far as I understand all fighter pilots are required to have 20/20 vision.
Correction: On top of that (which is a relatively new policy) - he's a Weapons System Officer (WSO), not a pilot, and he wouldn't have the same vision requirements, anyway.
Correction: To become a pilot, that means the candidate's vision can be no worse than 20/70 (correctable with glasses to 20/20) in each eye.
Corrected entry: Phoenix says Hangman is the only active-duty pilot in the Navy with a confirmed kill, but she is wrong because Maverick has 3 confirmed kills and is still an active-duty Navy pilot, even though he has been flying test aircraft. (00:25:10)
Correction: She says, "you are looking at the only naval aviator on active duty with a confirmed air-to-air kill." She isn't wrong. Maverick was not an active-duty navy aviator since three years before that moment and would not become one until near the end of the film, i.e, a week later. Second, films are allowed to show characters that make in-universe mistakes. She corrects herself near the end of the film at 1:58:20, saying Maverick is an active-duty navy pilot with five kills.
Maverick is still an active duty Naval aviator the entire time.
Active duty yes; his designator was a test pilot, not a naval aviator at the time.
People on active duty get promoted based on their service length. In this film, Maverick has not received a promotion for 30 years, and more importantly, has not scored a single aerial kill in 30 years.
He's had a few promotions in 30 years. In 1986, he was an O-3. In this film, he is an O-6. He hasn't been promoted at the same rate as his peers, for sure, but that's just who he is. He didn't want to be in a position where he couldn't fly anymore. On that note, he's not assigned to a Fighter Squadron at the beginning of the film, but to a test pilot billet - so technically, Phoenix was correct in her thinking if not her choice of words.
Cyclone graduated in 1988. 34 years later, he's an Admiral and air boss. Maverick graduated two years earlier and stayed a Captain for Amelia's entire life, despite having flown missions in Iraq, among other things. Where did all his service time go? The answer is a "dishonorable discharge." He got his service time annulled because of his escapades involving "The Admiral" (Penny's father), "the Other Admiral", and Admiral Cain. He got fired. In the real world, he'd get fired upon.
You are assuming way too much. While it's true that the Navy would likely encourage him to retire long before the events of the new movie, it's spelled out in the film that he hasn't advanced because he wants to keep flying. He's a maverick, plain and simple. If he has to piss off an Admiral to keep from getting promoted to a desk job, he'd do it.
Let me quote what you just said: "it's spelled out in the film that he hasn't advanced!" There you go. Do you know what else has been spelled out in the film? That at 00:25:10 film time, Hangman was the only active-duty pilot in the Navy with a confirmed kill.
No, it's spelled out that he is the only active naval aviator with a kill. Maverick is not a naval aviator anymore; he is a test pilot. Different designators.
Correction: Maverick states that they can't outrun their missiles and guns.