Top Gun (1986)

Alright, that was fucking cool. I'm assuming they were just shooting from the ground because there wasn't a chase plane, but they just had a jet flying straight up with afterburners and then diving. It's about 7pm so just at dusk. Never seen afterburners at night like that, but it was awesome. They did it three times. Kind of got bored waiting to see if they were doing anymore though.

Oh, and I did try to record it, but it's so dark that you couldn't see shit.

So, have you actually gotten to see Tom? Pretty cool.

No matter what it costs, the military or McDonnell Douglas wouldn't sell to a private citizen... Or Scientologist

Braen said:

No matter what it costs, the military or McDonnell Douglas wouldn't sell to a private citizen... Or Scientologist

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*Boeing

Ah sorry, you are right. McD/D did the original, Boeing does the Super Hornet

Even the Supers were originally developed by McD, but Boeing has been manufacturing all of their stuff since the merger in 1997. Same with the all the F-15 variants that have been manufactured since then though almost all of those have been overseas sales.

Xarpolis said:

So, have you actually gotten to see Tom? Pretty cool.

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Nah. In fact, if not for the rumor mill, you'd never even know they were filming. The only reason I do is because I work out near the flight line and there were mystery signs that went up on this part of the base Monday (most people on the base don't have flight line access).

Seven More Set For "Top Gun" Sequel - Dark Horizons

Kara Wang (“Good Trouble”) will play one of two female pilots in the film, opposite the already announced Monica Barbaro, while Jack Schumacher (“Empire”) is also joining as a pilot.

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In case you doubted even the slightest that this wouldn't be a serious non-pandering movie.

So they're actually filming in our building this week. In fact, I passed a Paramount truck on my way to lunch just now. Pretty neat, although kind of meaningless since I can't actually go watch the filming or anything.

I'm actually a little pissed because I missed the meeting they had where they were looking for extras.

Wow, what a fucking madhouse it's become. All the other filming days I was kind of vaguely aware of their presence, but today they're all over the place.

There are 5 or 6 trailers in our parking lot (Tom Cruise is definitely here; one of my coworker's husband is currently babysitting him since it's a secure facility), dozens of trucks and equipment fucking everywhere. From hearing people talk, it sounds like they'll be filming until midnight tonight. And likely the next couple days. Should be interesting. They took over one of our labs to build into an office, which is strange to me since I feel like you could make an office in a studio for way cheaper. They also got permission to use some base police SUV's that it sounds like will be involved in some kind of stunts.

I wish I could take pictures, but there's no photography allowed here at all. That's why everyone is being babysat, to ensure they're not sending pictures (for some reason they're being allowed to have phones even though we're not).

I'd say there's a good chance our pilots will be doing some flights tonight. Might be able to get some cool video if that takes place. I'll do my best if I see it.

Awesome. I'll hopefully look forward to it.

In today's news from...close to...the set. Yesterday afternoon they apparently did a call back to the motorcycle on the runway scene. They used the same bike from the original. Also, confirmed that Val Kilmer and Jennifer Connolly are both here (although I haven't seen them, nor Tom, myself).

In a big surprise to me, as I was leaving work about 45 minutes ago, a Blue Angels jet took off. Unless it's some crazy coincidence, I would imagine the Blue Angels will be making an appearance. It was only one jet and he's been circling for the entire time, so I'm pretty sure they're spotting. I may get an impromptu Blue Angels show tomorrow during work. So that'll be fun.

Not sure what else. I'm sure I'll have more news tomorrow once I get into work. I don't really know wtf is going on. We're going to try to see if we can get on the actual set tomorrow. Apparently the "escorts" I mentioned earlier were the lowest paid government employees we have here for the most part (since Paramount basically gave us a chunk of money, they're trying to stretch it as far as possible). Since we're apparently on the very high side of the pay here, we're hoping we can leverage it into a short "tour."

Took some video of the Blue Angels jet circling my house. I'll edit and post later. Not that it's particularly interesting.

Blue Angels jet still circling. Been almost an hour now. Got a few videos of it going right over the house.

Edit: Video. My other ones were kind of potato looking (hard as shit to get a good video of a jet in the air, especially flying so low). Best one was only a 4 second clip.

So today they had one of our SAR SH-60's flying right outside our building. They kept going straight up about 50 feet and then pulling hard, almost on its side, and then turning around to do it again. Tom Cruise was definitely in the helicopter, because my wife looked at the flight schedule and T. Cruise was on it for a 0800 safety brief.

I also got to go on set today, although, unfortunately they weren't filming at the time. I just missed it by about 15 minutes, because they were out near a little guard shack they built for this where Tom was riding around on his motorcycle.

I'm home early right now because they basically told everyone to leave if they could, because at 4 (15 min) they're going to be doing low flyby's on the guard shack (I think with the Blue Angel jet that's here?). Going to go out in my back yard again to see if I can see anything, although I'm far enough away that it probably won't be exciting. I was tempted to stay there, but it sounded like we'd be stuck for at least an hour. And it's windy and cold, and I see jets flying low most days anyway (our building is at the end of the runway).

Anyway, the set is just a hangar so not super exciting. They had a mock SR-71 made of wood inside (it fooled me, as I've seen one in person and it looked real enough). Also a little office they built. Otherwise it just looked like our normal hangar with a bunch of cameras setup. There's another set in the lab that I didn't see, but I think they're done filming there. In case anyone cares though, they wanted "nerdy" extras for it, because I guess it's actually going to be some kind of lab/research setting in the movie.

Just wondering what airbase this is all happening at?

Doing a google search, stated this.

"The Navy moved TOPGUN from Miramar to Naval Air Station Fallon in western Nevada in 1996. So, a new “Top Gun” would be pretty light on motorcycling up the coast, training sorties over the Pacific and pilots crooning and carousing in the nightclubs of downtown San Diego."

Gamma Rays said:

Just wondering what airbase this is all happening at?

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If I told you, I'd have to kill you.

Filming at our location will be wrapping up this weekend, and unfortunately, I didn't get to see any of the principal actors (I may have seen some of the others, just not recognized them). My "cool story bro" for today is that Tom flew up his "coffee guy" yesterday who made everyone coffee. My coworker's husband said it was the best thing he's ever drank. So I guess he's worth the money. I suppose if I were that rich I'd have random people I flew all over the country too.

Gravel said:

If I told you, I'd have to kill you.

Filming at our location will be wrapping up this weekend, and unfortunately, I didn't get to see any of the principal actors (I may have seen some of the others, just not recognized them). My "cool story bro" for today is that Tom flew up his "coffee guy" yesterday who made everyone coffee. My coworker's husband said it was the best thing he's ever drank. So I guess he's worth the money. I suppose if I were that rich I'd have random people I flew all over the country too.

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All other coffee has thetans - his is clear coffee that's why it's so good, no alien souls.