Top Gun: Maverick
Top Gun: Maverick mistake picture

Deliberate mistake: On the Hawkeye's radar screen, the Bandits virtually stand still after switching course to defend target (after destruction of the enemies' runway). While the Daggers complete their way to the Uranium plant, destroy it, evade the SAMs and return (save for Maverick, who got shot down), the bandits are still in the same place. This is a deliberate error: If the Bandits had progressed with normal speed, the Daggers couldn't have possibly avoided a confrontation on their way back. (01:34:42 - 01:40:30)

KnightMove

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.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

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.

More mistakes in Top Gun: Maverick
More quotes from Top Gun: Maverick
More trivia for Top Gun: Maverick

Question: How were the ones who crashed/ejected rescued if they were in dangerous enemy territory?

Answer: Are you referring to Phoenix and Bob? They ejected over California, during training. The only members of Dagger Flight to eject/crash during the actual mission in enemy territory were Maverick and Rooster.

kayelbe

More questions & answers from Top Gun: Maverick

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.