Top Gun: Maverick

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

2 corrections since 26 Jan '25, 08:53

★★★★☆

(21 votes)

Continuity mistake: At the end Hondo is getting the harness out to catch Maverick when he lands, Hondo is wearing his flight deck uniform helmet, flak jacket etc but when he greets Maverick seconds later when he lands his helmet and flak jacket are gone, and he's wearing his camouflage uniform he had on underneath.

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Suggested correction: Sufficient time has passed after the crash landing of the F-14, the fire extinction, and Maverick and Rooster getting out of the plane, so Hondo could easily have taken it all off. This is too weak for a "continuity error."

KnightMove

Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the final dogfight, when the 5th gen fighter releases its first missile after achieving missile lock, a second missile is in flight for two seconds, missing the F-14. This missile must have been released first and is missing the F-14 to the left by a long shot. (01:51:18)

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Suggested correction: This is not a missile; this is the other 5th gen Su-57, set aflame by Maverick (and subsequently used by Maverick as a "flare" to dodge the missile fired at them).

KnightMove

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Mistakes

Plot hole: Any strike on a military facility by incoming aircraft would first take out the SAM sites with missiles to clear the way for said aircraft to operate freely. After all, the Tomahawks fly right past the attacking planes and take out the runway with no issues at all - no reason they couldn't hit the high and exposed SAMs.

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Suggested correction: The idea was to use the tomahawks to take out the airfield and prevent enemy planes from taking off. The SAMs could be evaded by flying through the canyon so the airfield was considered a higher priority target.

lionhead

While that may be so, those planes exit would have a difficult time out running and avoiding that many SAMs. It's not like the ship wouldn't have enough tomahawks to take out the SAMs as well.

Taking out the airfield was deemed necessary to complete the mission, taking out SAMs beyond the canyon was not. The original plan didn't take into account the pilots surviving the mission in the first place, so the Navy didn't bother with extra strikes on SAM sites. Maverick had to struggle to get them to approve this plan in the first place too, so he wouldn't be able to convince them to put even more effort into it.

lionhead

They still have to avoid the SAMs on the way out, no canyon to protect them then.

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Quotes

Rear Admiral: The end is inevitable, Maverick. Your kind is headed for extinction.
Maverick: Maybe so, sir. But not today.

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Trivia

Trivia: Originally meant to be released in July 2019. It was then pushed back to June 2020 but further delayed, several times, due to the pandemic. It was eventually released in May 2022, 4 years after filming.

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Questions

Question: If these were the best of the best, going on a mission crucial to world peace, why were they in aircraft that were outdated and outgunned? It mentioned several times they would never stand a chance against the dreaded "5th generation" enemy fighters. Why not use the F-35?

Answer: The real-world answer is that F-35s only come in single-seat configuration, so there was no way to put the actors in one seat for filming while pilots flew the plane. It would also make for less of an "underdog" feel of going up against overwhelming odds. The in-universe answer is that F-18s are better suited for the kind of mission it is.

Answer: Just my observation, but I got the sense that the F-35 was too fast to make the adjustment to do the steep climb out, and as much as the plane needed to be fast, but it was more important it be capable to throttle lower enough to maneuver through the course, and make the climb...and that the F-35 could do one or the other...just my guess, but that's how I understood it from Maverick's initial analysis, from when he was called in to "Teach".

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