Top Gun: Maverick (2020)

Rajaah

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Watched this on my huge 65'' OLED. Yeah, I wish I'd caught it in theaters but I think this'll suffice. Phoenix (Monica Barbaro) was hot as hell and everybody here was likeable.

Great movie, but I'm a little confused. I think I missed something. Why did they use F-18s for the bombing mission instead of something newer? They were totally outgunned as soon as any enemy fighters showed up and they knew as much beforehand, so I assume there was a reason for going in so underpowered.

They never say the name of the "enemy country" for obvious reasons, but 95% chance the country in question was Iran. Mountainous terrain, near a sea coast, at the uranium enrichment stage of nuclear development, general tech level lined up. Target facility was probably at Natanz or Isfahan, but those might be too far inland considering they were able to fly back to the coast in around 10 minutes.
 
Mahes

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Rajaah said:
Great movie, but I'm a little confused. I think I missed something. Why did they use F-18s for the bombing mission instead of something newer? They were totally outgunned as soon as any enemy fighters showed up and they knew as much beforehand, so I assume there was a reason for going in so underpowered.
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I am guessing because they got permission to use the inside of the cockpit for F-18's and were told hell no for anything more advanced.
 
Foggy

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I believe it was because newer jets only have 1 seat so they couldn’t film in them.
 
Mahes

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Foggy said:
I believe it was because newer jets only have 1 seat so they couldn’t film in them.
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Yep, that was the reason.

Why do they fly F-18s in Top Gun: Maverick and not newer fighter jets? Another reason that F-18 Super Hornets are the jet of choice in the movie and not F-35s is because there are no two-seat F-35s. They needed to have two people in the airplanes for the filming, the actors and the highly-trained Navy pilots.
 
Downhammer

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If you want the "in movie" reason for the 18s, it's because they claimed 35s are too reliant on GPS and satcom and stuff like that which was jammed and/or spoofed over the target area.
 
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Seananigans

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Downhammer said:
If you want the "in movie" reason for the 18s, it's because they claimed 35s are too reliant on GPS and satcom and stuff like that which was jammed and/or spoofed over the target area.
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Man, bummer that billions of dollars of air hardware is nullified so easily by jamming and spoofing.
 
Fadaar

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Downhammer said:
If you want the "in movie" reason for the 18s, it's because they claimed 35s are too reliant on GPS and satcom and stuff like that which was jammed and/or spoofed over the target area.
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That'd be cool if all modern fighters didn't have some kind of laser designator, either built in (F-35) or external pod (everything else).

Also I just looked it up because I wasn't sure and the F-22 in fact can not use laser guided bombs. Dafuq? You'd figure with how prevalent and successful they were during the Gulf War they would have integrated a laser targeting system somehow.
 
Downhammer

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Because the F-22 was designed for Air-to-Air. It barely snuck in before the pentagon made all procurements one size fits all. It dominates F-35s in dogfights and only loses when they design fights to maximize F-35s situational awareness and stealth.
 
Lanx

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yea f22 is supposed to be the number1 air superiority fighter in the world, thats why we can export and whore out the f35, but the f22 is america only
 
Rajaah

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Downhammer said:
If you want the "in movie" reason for the 18s, it's because they claimed 35s are too reliant on GPS and satcom and stuff like that which was jammed and/or spoofed over the target area.
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Yeah my question was about the in-movie reason, but the real world reason is also interesting. So basically they had to use F-18s and worked around it with a plot contrivance.

And yeah I do consider that a plot contrivance, especially considering how outmatched they were. Don't see any reason they couldn't have done the same mission with better planes and just used their eyes instead of their jammed instruments. Which woulda put them in the same boat anyway, only with stronger equipment, and they wouldn't have been completely fucked and reliant on Hangman Ex Machina out over the gulf.

Well, they did what they had to do to match the real-world circumstances but it did take me out of it.

Also, this movie reminded me that I'm WAY behind on planes. As a kid, I studied guns and ammo, as well as tank designs, navy boats, and fighter jets. Even our ICBM types, I knew all of 'em, cause kids, especially potentially autist ones like I was, absorb information like a sponge. It's a super power in retrospect cause I sure as hell can't do that now. I've forgotten a ton of what I absorbed now too.

Out of all of the above, I think fighter jets had the most advancement. When I was really into fighter jets, we were using the F-14 Tomcat and the F-15 Eagle. They were both super bad-ass and I was never sure which one of them I liked more than the other. Then the F-16 Falcon became a thing and I didn't really like it, didn't look anywhere near as bad-ass and cool as the F-14 or 15. And that's it, that's as far as I got. Now I'm seeing F-18s in this movie, which are new to me, referred to as outdated/weak. They're referencing F-35s and UFO-looking stealth planes I've never even seen before. Yeah, I need to get back up to date on this stuff.
 
Rajaah

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SU-57 was my guess after looking at some "fifth generation" lists. Not certain Iran has those in the real world, but I'm still gonna stand by my assessment that the "enemy country" was Iran. Movie certainly isn't above taking liberties.
 
Ambiturner

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Rajaah said:
Yeah my question was about the in-movie reason, but the real world reason is also interesting. So basically they had to use F-18s and worked around it with a plot contrivance.

And yeah I do consider that a plot contrivance, especially considering how outmatched they were. Don't see any reason they couldn't have done the same mission with better planes and just used their eyes instead of their jammed instruments. Which woulda put them in the same boat anyway, only with stronger equipment, and they wouldn't have been completely fucked and reliant on Hangman Ex Machina out over the gulf.

Well, they did what they had to do to match the real-world circumstances but it did take me out of it.

Also, this movie reminded me that I'm WAY behind on planes. As a kid, I studied guns and ammo, as well as tank designs, navy boats, and fighter jets. Even our ICBM types, I knew all of 'em, cause kids, especially potentially autist ones like I was, absorb information like a sponge. It's a super power in retrospect cause I sure as hell can't do that now. I've forgotten a ton of what I absorbed now too.

Out of all of the above, I think fighter jets had the most advancement. When I was really into fighter jets, we were using the F-14 Tomcat and the F-15 Eagle. They were both super bad-ass and I was never sure which one of them I liked more than the other. Then the F-16 Falcon became a thing and I didn't really like it, didn't look anywhere near as bad-ass and cool as the F-14 or 15. And that's it, that's as far as I got. Now I'm seeing F-18s in this movie, which are new to me, referred to as outdated/weak. They're referencing F-35s and UFO-looking stealth planes I've never even seen before. Yeah, I need to get back up to date on this stuff.
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Their planes being significantly outmatched isn't just a throwaway line on why they had to used a specific plane.

It's crucial to the whole plot. Also makes Maverick more badass when he has to take out the even older plane. Almost all movies nowadays would have had the old white man be outmatched and realize its time to hang it up or some other bullshit.

This movie saying "Fuck you, none of you are shit compared to him" is part of why it's so refreshing
 
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Rajaah

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Ambiturner said:
Their planes being significantly outmatched isn't just a throwaway line on why they had to used a specific plane.

It's crucial to the whole plot. Also makes Maverick more badass when he has to take out the even older plane. Almost all movies nowadays would have had the old white man be outmatched and realize its time to hang it up or some other bullshit.

This movie saying "Fuck you, none of you are shit compared to him" is part of why it's so refreshing
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Yeah. I got a small whiff of "lol white man dumb" early on when they were all in the bar and Phoenix was acting more like an overconfident ace pilot man than any of the actual men were and that one timid nerd showed up. But no, the movie didn't continue on that track at all. Everyone in the movie was strong and likeable regardless of what they looked like and it was refreshing. Maverick got to be heroic rather than "passing the torch" or whatever. It was a pleasant surprise on all levels.
 
Xarpolis

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When my wife and kids went to Japan last month, they watched this movie on the plane both flying out and coming back. They love it.
 
gak

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I'm glad Tom is still cranking out thrillers like this, but once he hangs 'em up I dunno who can take up the slack ?

p.jpg
 
Kirun

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gak said:
I'm glad Tom is still cranking out thrillers like this, but once he hangs 'em up I dunno who can take up the slack ?

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I really liked the dude who played Hangman. You could also bring back Miles Teller for more of that Iceman/Maverick style tension, focusing more on them this time rather than Tom.
 
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