Transcript
Zach Sheets: Zachary Reality and welcome to the Everything Action Cast podcast week of May 11th, 2026. I'm your host Zach.
Chris Prime: I'm your co-host, Chris.
Zach Sheets: And this week we are heading into the danger zone talking about Top Gun, because it's celebrating its 40th anniversary. It came out May 16th, 1986. And actually, if you're hearing this before, I believe it's a May 20th, it was actually, I think Top Gun and Top Gun Maverick are in theaters. It started on the 13th, and then it's going until for like a week. So if you're hearing this before the week is up, you can go see Top Gun back in theaters.
Zach Sheets: Or, you know, just everywhere. 4K, streaming. It's everywhere. it's
Chris Prime: VHS, probably TBS.
Zach Sheets: it's i mean, it's it's it's one of the biggest movies of the eighty s But it's like, if you're talking like about Rushmore, like top five, but Top Gun's up there probably.
Zach Sheets: It's sort like cultural presence and just like popularity and...
Chris Prime: Oh yeah, it populates just like a whole, what is it like global movement where everyone learned about like fighter pilot jets and then
Zach Sheets: like Like literally increasing like naval, air force like recruitment.
Chris Prime: yeah It's such a big propaganda movie if you think about it, but like when you watch the movie, it's not that. it's the same It has the same principle of like an 80s movie between like the snowboarders and the skiers.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, or it's or it's kind of... it's I mean, for a lot of it, until it doesn't really matter anymore, is like it's kind of like a sports movie. It's like, who's going to win like the trophy? Who's going to be the top person?
Chris Prime: Yeah.
Chris Prime: that's it's like You think it's going to be like the slobs versus snobs, but then like you realize like how this is still like the U.S. Air Force. and
Zach Sheets: Well, Navy. Navy.
Chris Prime: Sorry, the U.S. Navy, but like they they sort of like... It's weird that like they're not the Air Force.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, well, cause like because they operate off of, like, aircraft carriers. They're like naval aviators.
Chris Prime: But, like, in terms of, like, just the flight school, it's like, yeah, you figure it'd be, like, them. Like, you figure it'd be fighting between their pilots versus, like, an international school or something.
Chris Prime: Like, we gotta represent, like, the American Top Gun or AKA Fighter Weapons School.
Zach Sheets: Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: Which is the the name of the program, but it's, like, Top Gun's just, like, the nickname.
Zach Sheets: Iceman's a preppy rich guy who bought his way into Top Gun, and Maverick is like the... He but he built himself up from nothing, and now he's going show what's the going on.
Chris Prime: Well, okay. So, yeah, and they they kind of, like, build that up, but that's sort of, like, in the background. In fact, like, they don't even have an air fight against each other.
Zach Sheets: Well, I mean, can it kind of it gets to it, like, they're in like that that, like...
Zach Sheets: They're like up against each other, and and like it's like the last one like when like Goose dies.
Chris Prime: They're not up against each other. They're just, they're in a team versus team dogfight.
Zach Sheets: But it's it but it's they they're they're like competing because they're close in points for like the Top Gun trophy.
Chris Prime: True.
Zach Sheets: so
Chris Prime: I mean, they are, I guess. It's like, but who can score, like, the most for...
Zach Sheets: Which is we just not is not a real thing at all.
Chris Prime: No. It's also because it makes no sense. It's like, okay, you get the most points. What's a... How do you get points? Like, never mind. We'll never discuss that in this movie.
Zach Sheets: if you get If you get kills, I guess. If you if you kill like the instructors or yeah like the quote unquote enemy planes, you get points.
Chris Prime: But is it like every day they had to do that during the training? Because I also don't understand how long they've been here. It's like a vague week of Top Gun.
Zach Sheets: i think well I think they say the weeks. I think it's like... like because like Michael Ironside keeps popping up doing voiceovers saying like, Hop 19! it's it's weak It's week 30! It's like week 10!
Zach Sheets: Iceman's the lead!
Chris Prime: So I guess it's like a month?
Zach Sheets: Yeah, I think it's i think's spread it's like...
Zach Sheets: yeah They base it on like... like i like yeah they They say like hops, which I guess is different training exercises. i feel But I feel like they say like like it's like week 20 or something. They've been there for like couple like it's a couple months.
Zach Sheets: But let's let's let's jump all the back to the beginning, though, because First of one of the most iconic openings of all time with that, like the the slow building Top Gun anthem and just like the kind of like hazy, like Tony Scott, like flight crew footage.
Chris Prime: Man, I don't know if... I mean, I get it's 1986 technology, so your your whole deck needs, i don't know, 40 guys pointing at things. But it is interesting that the the beginning of the movie opens for, like, a patrol.
Chris Prime: Like, it's not... It's just their daily patrol of the Indian Ocean.
Zach Sheets: against against the enemy, whoever that is.
Chris Prime: Oh
Zach Sheets: i i mean, i guess I guess the Soviets, but they never stay ever say who it is.
Chris Prime: oh my god.
Chris Prime: They never say, because they it's like, are they Soviet, like from the Soviet Union Soviets, or former Soviet Union, or are they Saudi Arabian planes that the soviet unit Soviets gave them in a made-up plane called a MiG-28, which is not real.
Chris Prime: I didn't know that as a kid. I was all like, oh, that's an interesting...
Zach Sheets: I've heard of Biggs.
Chris Prime: I've heard MiGs...
Zach Sheets: They always talk about Biggs.
Chris Prime: And then you realize, oh no, I think the cutoff is like 15.
Zach Sheets: Yeah.
Chris Prime: So like 28 is such a crazy number. I think at that point, it's like the F-14 was like being developed, just being developed in the 80s. So that's why they're like in the most advanced airplane like fighter. But it's not agile.
Chris Prime: So that's that's why like the MiGs are like faster
Zach Sheets: Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: I guess. I don't know. the The movie really tries to play up the the like everyone's got like a jet and that advantage but they really don't talk about it because they don't want to give the audience accidental Top Gun training.
Zach Sheets: and well ahead so They had to be like the Navy kind of being there like, don't don't show our secrets. Because like because i was because like the big thing movie is like the Navy was like super involved with this movie. and like They like obviously gave them all access to ships and fighter jets and pilots.
Chris Prime: Oh, this is like like a, I guess, Navy co-production just because it's it's shot so well with real life, like, locations and and props, I guess.
Zach Sheets: A real aircraft carrier.
Chris Prime: Yeah. And then you you figure the U.S. Navy would be like, oh, can we put like little bit more promotion? Where, like, okay, what do you think came first?
Chris Prime: Do you think the script was Tony Scott had like... Actually, did Tony Scott write this movie?
Zach Sheets: I don't think he really ever wrote any of his movies.
Chris Prime: Okay.
Zach Sheets: was Jim Cash, Jack Appleton.
Chris Prime: Wow. Two guys. Jim Cash and Jack... Jamex Jr.
Zach Sheets: there was There was an article in California Magazine called Top Guns.
Zach Sheets: about which must so It must have been about like like Top Gun. Or, what is it? naveval Naval... The Naval Fire Weapons School.
Zach Sheets: Was the official name of it.
Chris Prime: So I think yeah both of these writers, they wrote for like a lot of like at least one of them, Jack Epps Jr. He he wrote for more like kind of detective stories and and like.
Chris Prime: I guess more like dramas. And then Jim Cash is the one that wrote more of the like silly, like fun parts. And then he wrote more of the like fun dialogue and all that.
Chris Prime: So like, that's why like this movie does have two different tones.
Zach Sheets: Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: There's like a seriousness about like, like, you know, challenging authority and like the institution.
Zach Sheets: Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: And this case, it's like Mavericks, you know, loose ways with flying and all that. And then there's just like the goofy downtime that like happens. Hence like the the volleyball, the drinking, the like the dates.
Zach Sheets: Yep.
Chris Prime: they like There's so much like downtime that I'm like, what's going on here?
Zach Sheets: Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: And honestly, it's like they could have just focused more on one or the other, but then because it's both, it's got this beautiful blend that only works for certain movies.
Zach Sheets: Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: it's Because again, it's it's my like it's my rewatch. i haven't seen this movie in like a bit, just because... I saw it a lot as a kid. Because that's just what it was Everyone loved Top Gun.
Chris Prime: It was really hard not to like Top Gun unless you were part of that vague enemy side of the movie where it's like death to America.
Zach Sheets: Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: And then Top Gun kind of exploded again when I was young when they introduced the Top Gun ride at Six Flags.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, i think there's i think there's multiple Top Gun rides.
Chris Prime: So...
Chris Prime: Well, the one I remember was not really a ride. it was a sim. You just sat at a a rocky like seat. And then it just like it pretended that you were like in the cockpit, but you're just like in an open room with like a simulator chair.
Zach Sheets: Oh, I think i think Canada's Wonderland, which is like, i think it's I think now it's a but it's hard to trick keep track because not because like Six Flags and Sierra Park is already combined and there's that other company now.
Zach Sheets: but like or I think at one point it was like a Paramount Park and they they had like top they like a roller coaster called Top Gun, which I think it's just called Flight Deck now because they lost Top Gun license.
Chris Prime: They lost the license.
Zach Sheets: Yeah.
Chris Prime: I mean, that'd be cool.
Zach Sheets: There's just...
Chris Prime: I wish I got a Top Gun roller coaster. But yeah, but when that I brought bring it up because that that ride came out like. I don't know four years after Top Gun. I think 90, I'm going to say the Top Gun ride.
Chris Prime: So that became popular. So, yeah, that's I was like, I haven't seen this. And then I ever now watching it again, I'm like all these little details you miss. as a kid or even just like sort of just the highlights, like the fact that a, it's technically called fighter weapon school, not top gun top guns, like the slang term.
Zach Sheets: The nickname of it, yeah.
Chris Prime: Yeah. The, the fact that Maverick's name is Pete Mitchell. like
Zach Sheets: Yep.
Zach Sheets: and Goose's name is Nick. It's like... it's ne
Chris Prime: what? Yeah.
Zach Sheets: it's like it's It's like never... i think internet No one calls him Nick ever in the movie. everyone just It's always Goose. That's it.
Chris Prime: Even his wife calls him Goose.
Zach Sheets: Goose, yeah.
Chris Prime: And then, What? That, like... We're just gonna ignore the fact that the there's a better story about 1969 first Top Gun than there is the current Top Gun?
Zach Sheets: Oh, yeah, like just like the mystery of like Maverick's father.
Chris Prime: Yeah. No, he's the 1965, but technically what happened to him is what led to the establishment of Top Gun.
Chris Prime: if Okay, here's here's the thing. So they say in the opening, in 1969, they opened up the first Top Gun school, and that's the one where a Viper,
Zach Sheets: so Yeah, Tom Skerritt, yeah, Viper was the first like Top Gun champion, yeah.
Chris Prime: like champ, yeah, And so that was because like he was, i guess, the first enrollment. They just took the best teachers and went, all right, figure it out. So then he did it at, a I think, guilt because like whatever like Maverick's dad was, he flew over the wrong side of a map.
Chris Prime: And because of that, he was like a combatant. Like he was he was like invading by accident. So then that's what happened to him.
Zach Sheets: was it was It was during a Vietnam, and then they were like, yeah, it was some sort of massive dogfight over Vietnam, and then he
Chris Prime: got shot over on the other side.
Zach Sheets: he he i think was He held off... He was like holding off the like the fighters, while like so yeah everyone else got to escape, and he had to sacrifice himself to like let everyone else escape.
Chris Prime: Yeah, but because he crashed on the other end, they couldn't, like, disclose that.
Zach Sheets: They couldn't acknowledge? Yeah. Yeah, mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: That's insane. Like, that's nothing think that there's such a, like, hey, do we miss that movie? What's going on with that?
Zach Sheets: That'll be the prequel. We're going to get like the the Top Guns. We're getting the Maverick sequel. yeah and Then they'll do like a prequel of like...
Chris Prime: It's gonna Iron Eagles. It's like his dad's still there. He's like 90. He's still hanging out in some enemy camp.
Zach Sheets: Yeah.
Chris Prime: As insane as it is, I would see it. It'd just be like... Tron.
Chris Prime: Because wasn't Top Gun Maverick directed by the guy that did Tron Legacy?
Zach Sheets: Oh, Maverick, yeah, matt yeah just because he's directed Maverick, and he's directed the new one, too, so...
Chris Prime: So that's like, oh, no, he might just pull a Tron and just be like Tron legacy, Top Gun style.
Chris Prime: But anyway, that's what's crazy about this movie. It's like they kind of mention all these things. And if you really piece together the other part, you're like, wait, so like we're just going ignore that for like a love story.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, because that's almost like a conspiracy thriller thing of like, what happened to, like, what happened to, why is, why is it classified? Why is no one telling Maverick about what happened to his father? and
Chris Prime: He brings it up in the after the the opening act about why he's so arrogant. He's trying to prove himself. and the the Even like what happens of the face-off with the MiG-28.
Zach Sheets: You're flying, it's like, yeah, it's like you're flying as a ghost, Maverick. You're always up there, it's like,
Chris Prime: always got to prove yourself. But when we get to that, let's get to the point that like this whole thing, this whole like, hey, you're on a top gun starts because there's two pilots, two sets of pilots.
Chris Prime: And they were patrolling and then the vague enemy shows up and then they were just pinging the lead pilot, which was Cougar.
Zach Sheets: missile locking yeah
Chris Prime: Right, they're they're missile locking on Cougar for a while. And that freaked him out. And that's the one where he's like, he was holding too close, as they call it, because he guess he wanted but he wanted to live more than he wanted to do cool aerial moves.
Zach Sheets: Yep. and he And he was the best. he he would have been going to He and Merlin would have been going to Top Gun and not Maverick Goose, but then he freaked out
Chris Prime: I don't... Okay, here's the other thing. i don't get why, like, only the best get to go to Top Gun. Because then, even when you go to Top Gun, if you get kicked out, do you just go back to your other position? Or, like, you you get kicked out of everything. and i don't understand the rules.
Zach Sheets: I mean, i guess I guess you just get like, i mean, if you're still enlisted, I guess you used to go but just get reassigned or go back to your previous posting or something, I guess. I mean, i literally Maverick literally goes back to the same Erica Carey who was on before.
Zach Sheets: for like for like their for the their actual like mission at the end.
Chris Prime: Yeah, so... But I think at that point, you're just the lead? Like, they send you out first all the time?
Zach Sheets: well he i mean he
Chris Prime: That doesn't make sense.
Zach Sheets: he was he was He was the reserve because Iceman was the the lead like the lead on that mission at the end.
Chris Prime: Well, that's because, like, technically, like, Iceman's the best, so it makes sense why you sent your best first, but then you need backup, and technically,
Zach Sheets: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: Maverick was the backup.
Chris Prime: So. It's not like Iceman's. Also, it's one of those movies that over time, Iceman's not wrong.
Zach Sheets: No, no.
Chris Prime: I know they try to portray him as the villain.
Zach Sheets: Although...
Chris Prime: I know he's like a dick. Don't get me wrong, but he's not wrong.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, it's like, you know how you how they like were like getting on like Glenn Powell in the new one of like, oh, he's Hangman, he'll leave you to dry. like that's what That's what Maverick's doing this entire movie, is leaving people to dry like to go like get his points.
Chris Prime: He literally wasn't like a team player. And then his hard lesson was he lost Goose.
Zach Sheets: Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: And then he decides maybe I should be a team player because I now know what it's like to lose a teammate. And it's like you he had it. You had it like do that to figure that out. Like you're not you're not morally just Maverick.
Zach Sheets: Although I feel like... Do you feel like Iceman... I feel like Iceman needs to like need to take a little bit of the blame for Goose's death because like he was...
Chris Prime: Oh yeah, he he cut in front of him.
Zach Sheets: he he was He was intentionally blocking them because he wanted the points to like to get the like the Viper kill. And then... So he's like holding there for like way longer than he should have been because Maverick was like had the better shot. And then when he like pulled away, that's when the the jet wash went over them and like caused like the flat spin.
Chris Prime: But like, yeah, he he kind of walks away from that problem. Like that tribunal...
Zach Sheets: Yeah.
Chris Prime: Do they even bring Iceman in?
Zach Sheets: i don't yeah andt I don't think it's it's even mentioned of like anything of like, oh, yeah, Iceman, when he like his maneuver caused like the the flat spin, like the jet wash. it's like it's all It's all just like kind of like on Maverick, but then like the Tribunal's like, well, there's no way you could have avoid that. It was a freak accident, Maverick. you You couldn't have done anything, so you're you're cleared. It's not your record.
Chris Prime: i mean, but again, that's the, like, legal jargon that happens. And that's where, like... The other writer took over was like, oh, let's put in something like that has happens where Maverick couldn't race his way out of it.
Chris Prime: You know, it's like in any kind of other story structure, this is when the friend dies from like a car accident or like a rival gang kills the friend.
Chris Prime: Very Shakespearean. But in In this case, it's friendly fire because it was a it was a team exercise.
Zach Sheets: Yeah. Yeah, they're tackling on a team.
Zach Sheets: But and in Iceman, he gets he gets pretty close. like He almost apologizes. He's like, hey, Maverick, sorry about Goose. Everyone liked him. And then he leaves. Yeah. you not wait
Chris Prime: Well, and I think the other thing is in this pilot world, you can't be friends.
Zach Sheets: but yeah
Zach Sheets: Well, that's the crazy part, too like Almost everybody, after Goose dies, comes in and be like, get over it, Maverick. there's be other There'll be other guys. like viper Viper comes in and there's going to be people after like Goose. There's probably another guy after that guy.
Zach Sheets: People die. And even Meg Ryan's like, you know, he he would have flown with someone else. He would have hated him, he would have flow with someone else. like So you should probably fly with someone else, Maverick.
Chris Prime: I mean, it's the hard reality, but like that's what I'm saying. like This is a propaganda movie, are you sure?
Zach Sheets: Join a Navy. your Your best friend might get like smashed into a canopy and die.
Chris Prime: like, yeah, we we refuse to fix that problem.
Zach Sheets: That's also, yeah, that also seems like a pretty, like, major malfunction of, like, the but like the ejection canopy thing that it didn't, like, get out of the way quick enough.
Chris Prime: like it The fact that like it held a solid piece, and then the propulsion wasn't strong enough, it didn't make it sense where the... the like Okay, for this to be like a true freak accident, the plane would be upside down.
Chris Prime: So if it injected, the force of gravity is like pushing, or like you know like the ejection is trying to push against, like away. And the way like Goose smacked into it, it was like,
Chris Prime: did Did Maverick not smack into it? Or was like... It's like, did Goose release too soon from the canopy?
Zach Sheets: Well, it was because they were in a flat spin, so there was like tons of Gs, so Maverick couldn't... like He was like pinned to his seat. He couldn't he couldn't eject, pull his ejector seat lever, so like Goose had to pull like his behind his seat.
Zach Sheets: But I feel like either one... Whoever
Chris Prime: Whoever got into first, yeah. what
Zach Sheets: pulled it, like the campbell explodes. in like i mean i think there is like i think their seats have rockets in them to like eject them out of the plane, so they clear the plane. But, I mean, the canopy... It's weird that the canopy just hung... There's a chance you could like slam into the canopy and and get killed.
Zach Sheets: maybe Maybe it's just the way that the plane was like in... like the The flat spin caused the canopy to stay in place longer or something.
Chris Prime: kind close by. Yeah. I mean, I get it.
Zach Sheets: The centrifugal forces...
Chris Prime: it' That was the point.
Zach Sheets: Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: Yeah, that's the the like point of it being like a freak and they don't want it to be like, oh, no, this happens a lot. like But I'm like, huh. This is the part where the movie kind of has a downbeat where it's like, accidents happen. Top Gun.
Chris Prime: We killed the funny man.
Zach Sheets: yep yeah i feel like the scene right before that was like uh like like who's seeing like great balls of fire or something and it's like oh he's dead watch it watch his limp body get dragged into a helicopter
Chris Prime: So before that, though, I think we should mention that. I mean, it's really it's crazy how like maybe there is three paragraphs worth the plot.
Zach Sheets: Well, I was re-watching again this week. like this It's super segmented. I was surprised. like It's like very specific segments. It's like, this is the romantic segment.
Zach Sheets: This is the Sad About Goose segment. This is the like actual mission segments.
Chris Prime: yeah it's e it's I guess I'm going to say it's episodic, but segment's also a good part.
Zach Sheets: it' it's It's all themed with music too. like The entire romantic section is all taking my breath away.
Chris Prime: And if it's not the full like a lyrical version, it's the like slow... like I would say like computerized. It sounds very weird.
Zach Sheets: Well, they they they tease that song out. They just like they play like it like the opening of it, drop it out, and then they do like a yeah like you're saying it's like a MIDI version. It's like the MIDI the like of the the vocals, but not the vocals yet.
Zach Sheets: And then they just keep building up until you get like the sex scene. and Then it's like, here's the full song, finally.
Zach Sheets: and then yeah and then it's and then like other sections is like, oh, here's Danger Zone for the fourth time. i do I do appreciate like that they drop Danger Zone within the first like like two minutes of the movie.
Zach Sheets: Because they know it's like, here's one of the greatest soundtrack sounds ofs of all time. we're just going We'll get it to you right of away.
Chris Prime: i wasnt I was wondering if there was like a big lead-up to like this movie's release with Danger Zone, because that probably blew out blew a lot of people away of hearing Kenny Loggins like that. I know he was popular before Top Gun, but then this happened, and he pretty much...
Chris Prime: got pushed into the stratosphere of, like, fame.
Zach Sheets: I'm sure trying to think
Zach Sheets: Yeah, I'm trying to i try to think, because, I mean, i i obviously, a certain point, he just became, like like, the greatest soundtracks artist of all time. Like, on, like, Caddyshack and Over the Top and Footloose and all all these, like, 80s movies.
Zach Sheets: but yeah before But, yeah, before that, he was doing, like, Yo, is, like, Yacht Rocky, like that like, he was, like, a soundtrack guy.
Chris Prime: Oh. Didn't know that.
Zach Sheets: there's That was a whole joke in like the like the old Yacht Rock web series. <unk> like It's like, oh, yeah, the real money real the real money's in the soundtracks. He's talking Michael McDonald. It's like, yeah, can have a soundtrack, Michael. It's awesome.
Chris Prime: Is that wrong? I feel like Michael McDowell movie soundtrack and that one song was like popular in some of his other hits.
Zach Sheets: Oh, yeah, he had he was running scared. He had the Sweet Freedom.
Zach Sheets: Oh, yeah, yeah so Kenny Loggins did Footloose before this. So the year before this was Footloose, which I think it was the first big one.
Chris Prime: God.
Zach Sheets: And then after that, was just like all...
Chris Prime: Well, Footloose wasn't like a manly manly movie. that was like the teen movie of the time. And then Top Gun was like everyone who felt like, hey, that's like a dude movie.
Chris Prime: But then they got tricked into watching like a romantic naval movie.
Zach Sheets: Oh, I'm Alright was 1980. So like I guess right right when the 80s started, Kenny Liger was just like, I'm just going to soundtrack songs now.
Zach Sheets: And he's got two songs on Top Gun's soundtrack. He's got Danger Zone and Playing With The Boys.
Chris Prime: Which, uh, we'll get into that segment, because that comes out of left field. Anyway, yeah, this movie is mostly made out of music videos of air flight, like, footage.
Zach Sheets: Yeah.
Zach Sheets: Yes, lots lots of just training montages of, I guess, the the the various training missions. And then kind of like and then then them in like the classroom discussing the training missions.
Zach Sheets: well here It's like, Maverick, you flew this way in this mission, which was super risky, but but it worked, I guess. Yeah.
Zach Sheets: Or or it's like it's like training mission and like like all of them in the locker room just like like you know taunting each other.
Chris Prime: a lot of shower scenes where one guy is like a lot of men are just unbelievably wet.
Zach Sheets: In towels. yeah boy
Chris Prime: No, not even that, like in the classroom, too.
Zach Sheets: Oh yeah, i I was going to bring it up too. like i I noticed like everyone in this movie is like unbelievably sweaty all the time.
Chris Prime: I get I get that it's San Diego during the summer. It's hot. Don't get me wrong. But why are all the guys hot and like Charlie isn't?
Zach Sheets: even like the opening that the guys like the Erica carrier, just like dripping sweat and like that, like radar room. Like the first guy you see is like, he's just like covered in sweat.
Zach Sheets: And then, yeah. Yeah. yeah Everyone in the is always just like, like dripping wet.
Chris Prime: don't know.
Zach Sheets: but but but it Yeah.
Chris Prime: I always assumed that it was just like tension, but I don't know.
Zach Sheets: Super.
Chris Prime: It just seems like this is a Tony Scott like secret. Like, hey, just going to spray you a water for the scene right now.
Zach Sheets: Yes, yes. Before I ever seen you, he comes in with like a spray bottle and is all right, you're good, Tom.
Chris Prime: It's to be like in the morning before like the sun hits at its hottest and it's like, nope, you're dripping sweat.
Zach Sheets: It's the middle of night.
Zach Sheets: Speaking night, what do you what do you think Animal Night is at that like that club that they go to? you notice that sign outside?
Chris Prime: i think it's like, do they bring in an animal to the bar?
Zach Sheets: Or is like they're acting like animals? It's like, come in and act like an animal.
Chris Prime: Like for fun? I don't know. i also don't know. like We're talking about the same bar that like is attached to the Top Gun school, right?
Zach Sheets: Well, I think there's i think there's two different bars. There's like the the kind of like more like, like it's like the more of like a diner one where they play Great Piles of Fire. But then it's so like it's a restaurant.
Chris Prime: No, that's a that's a restaurant. that's a famous That's a famous restaurant in San Diego.
Zach Sheets: it's a rush Yeah. Restaurant. Yeah.
Chris Prime: But that is also like an hour away from the the like Top Gun school.
Zach Sheets: yeah
Zach Sheets: you know
Zach Sheets: Kelly McGillis.
Chris Prime: Kelly McGillis? She is like nowhere near that base. It's like where the old fighter town that they like, like now it's gone.
Chris Prime: Like they move that base.
Zach Sheets: Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: It's like there's so much like tourism and like air traffic now that like you just can't have like a fighter school by the water. Like you'll just clog like international flights. So they got moved that.
Chris Prime: But like that barbecue place is at the edge of San Diego. So I have no idea where they went. Like that's i'm like for for where they were supposedly for like the the like military part and then where she lives. She's like outside. That's why there's a part late in the movie where Maverick rushes to go on a date because he's got like an hour and a half bike ride.
Zach Sheets: yeahp Yeah, Taka makes it really seem like it's really easy to navigate that that city back and forth.
Chris Prime: Also, San Diego not known for good traffic. Their traffic was terrible. I think it's worse now, of course, but like. It's just like California roads and traffic. So it's like, oh, that would be like a stretch of land where no cars, but then it's like all the cars are stuck here.
Chris Prime: God help you if there's a baseball game.
Zach Sheets: like You can just like get get anywhere you want on a motorcycle.
Chris Prime: Oh, yeah. I legit like went there for San Diego Comic-Con a few years ago and I was like, wow, it's just like I'm in Totcom. And then we just sat in traffic. It was a 15 minute like distance between like the hotel and the airport. I was like, what's happening? And he's like, oh, San Diego.
Chris Prime: I guess I'll just turn the car off now. And I was like. Like, thank you, driver. I guess we'll just wait here for this to clear up.
Zach Sheets: save some gas, turn my car off.
Chris Prime: It was like a legit like half an hour, 45 minute a car ride just to go 15 minutes on another normal day.
Zach Sheets: Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: Because again, when I was leaving, I left early and it was like a breeze. I was just like, but like I could. It was just like, yeah, that that's what I thought it was. Just, oh, did you want to leave at a reasonable time?
Chris Prime: Leave a day before.
Chris Prime: That's why at the end, where after that beach but the beach scene where he drives that motorcycle, he he should have been... That's why, you know, in that date, i know we're jumping ahead a little bit, but like that's why he arrived late.
Chris Prime: He's like, oh, I'm so sorry. But like no, that's just San Diego traffic. like No one's on time.
Zach Sheets: like It wasn't because he played volleyball too long?
Chris Prime: No, he probably timed it perfectly. He just didn't expect San Diego because he's all forget he's not from there.
Zach Sheets: i mean... I mean, he did keep looking at his watch. like It's like the... I mean, every so everyone that sees is like is like just like doing like flexing, like just doing normal like like movements. like They pick up the volleyball and flex.
Chris Prime: Like, it's as if everyone it's as if everyone but Maverick wanted to delay.
Zach Sheets: it talks to...
Chris Prime: You know, it's like a comical thing where, like, everyone's kind of holding up time. And he's like, come on, guys. Like, I got a date. theyre Like, oh, I'll check this out. Ooh, check out, like, my veins. Ooh, like, it's just, it is so weird.
Zach Sheets: but But like, even Maverick's like looking his watch, but he's looking at it like, oh in a way, it looks like he's like flexing his, he's just like, let me look at watch. All right. Also, also, it's bizarre that Maverick plays volleyball in jeans.
Chris Prime: Yeah, it is.
Chris Prime: That's why he lost.
Zach Sheets: Probably.
Chris Prime: That's why they almost tied the game, but they they he failed. So that means they've been playing for so long that they they had like an uneven score.
Zach Sheets: yeah, late let me play a game where you need, like, a lot of, like, freedom of movement and, like, restrictive jean pants. Because everyone else is wearing, like, sweatpants or, like, swim trunks, and he's, like, in, like, jeans.
Chris Prime: Also, he must have smelled terrible on that date later.
Zach Sheets: Oh, yeah, because, like, he... they they They played, like... I think they played, like... I think Goose says they played, like at least two games of volleyball, because, it's like, oh we're tied now. we get we One more game until, like, We'll beat them. He's like, no, I got to go.
Zach Sheets: And he's so so my T-shirt on. was this like flight jacket on and drives over to Charlie's house. No shower. When he gets.
Chris Prime: He asks, like, hey, i want to take a shower. and She's like, no.
Zach Sheets: It's like, I want your musk.
Chris Prime: e And then like she just kind of talks on and on where like during that date he's like oh did you want to have She's like oh yeah I forgot to serve wine. And then they finish like half the bottle then he like drives away and I'm like whoa.
Chris Prime: I know your date didn't go the way you thought it would be like I guess he was thinking more of a hookup than an actual date. think that's the vibe I was getting like he thought it was going to be like a quick like hey.
Chris Prime: you want to, you want some of the Maverick, but then she made him like go on a date, like an actual, like, Oh, we're going talk. And then that's our first date.
Zach Sheets: let's Let's talk about the MIG and your dead dad.
Chris Prime: What? And then like, not only her, his dead dad, there's a part where like, he talks about music and how like he listened to like old, like six 50 songs.
Zach Sheets: his his his his His mom sat upstairs in their house just listening to like yeah old oldies, and then like then she died.
Chris Prime: Then she died like a week later after seeing that song for like nonstop. But then it haunts him because like he hated it. But like it's the core memory because it's one of his last memories of his mom.
Chris Prime: And then he's like, I'm going to go now. Like this date's over. Like you really can't draw. OK, as someone that like has gone on a few bad dates, but like, you don't drop that and then just say like, I'm gonna shower. See you.
Zach Sheets: Yeah.
Chris Prime: It's
Zach Sheets: I got a question, though. like cause he He says he hasn't heard Sitting on Top of the Bay in, like, years. I feel like...
Chris Prime: like one of the most popular songs.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, it's just like... i don't...
Chris Prime: Also, he's in the West Coast.
Zach Sheets: i don't
Chris Prime: like That is a very popular big song in like any coastal town.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, like, he's playing, is like he's like, oh man, I haven't heard this song in years. It's like, have you listened to the radio? Like...
Chris Prime: Have you seen a movie?
Zach Sheets: the
Chris Prime: like Every few years, it just that pops up.
Chris Prime: I don't know. Maybe she doesn't get out much. Maybe she doesn't like listen to music. Because that's like the only time they talk about music. Though this movie does have a weird fascination where all the music in the universe that they play is old.
Zach Sheets: It's oldies, yeah.
Chris Prime: And then all the music we hear is all like modern.
Zach Sheets: But then... Yes, yes, yes. Because, yeah, I would say you've lost that loving feeling try to, like...
Chris Prime: The Doobie Brothers, which is like from the 70s.
Zach Sheets: The Righteous Brothers.
Chris Prime: Oh, Righteous Brothers.
Zach Sheets: Which, apparently they've done that before, at least once.
Chris Prime: At least once at another place. And they've done it with like a whole different group because everyone in that school knows each other from like some people know each other from different flight schools, except when they got assigned their positions in whatever base they were out.
Zach Sheets: Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: That's why like Goose knows the most people, but Maverick doesn't. Because i also think like Goose went to the Academy, Maverick didn't. He sort of just showed up and they let him in.
Chris Prime: There's a thing where like Maverick didn't go to like traditional like officer training whatever.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, think I think i think James Tolkien mentioned something with like like about that. He's like, he's like, ring down his like Maverick, yeah yeah yeah you could have been flight leader like three times. You whipped out on that. You didn't go to Academy. You had the Admiral's daughter.
Chris Prime: because from i understand, he because he didn't do the traditional officer training, I think he just joined up, qualified, and then they just made him a pilot.
Chris Prime: But even then, you still like got to go to flight school, but I guess he didn't go for officer training, so he can't be a lead. And I think this is the one chance he could be a lead, but he chooses not to because he just likes being like a rogue pilot.
Zach Sheets: Well, I think it's where he like he could have been like like of like a flight leader or team leader or something, but he's like he's so crazy so reckless and crazy that he can't... like he he always like They don't want him to be because he's like he's too dangerous out there.
Chris Prime: Yeah, I mean, i don't know why.
Zach Sheets: but Like Iceman, you're too dangerous.
Chris Prime: that And it's like, again, everyone's got just concerns because he he basically was able to just do what he wants during the the combat training.
Chris Prime: I don't know, like they never go into like what he did before the events of the first movie. He just sort of like shows up and then just does fancy maneuvering.
Chris Prime: I mean, there's a scene later where they kind of analyze some of the other there are scenarios that he was in and whatever computer that they generate, which I can't even tell you what I was looking at.
Zach Sheets: Yes. they're're they're hot they're high but Their high-powered 80s Navy computer.
Chris Prime: i was like, what is this?
Chris Prime: Which was a bunch of triangles, like a vector graphics.
Zach Sheets: Yep.
Chris Prime: And I'm like, I don't even can't make out what's going on.
Zach Sheets: Yep.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, that's what Charlie was like yeah tro is like Maverick berick went into a 4G dive roll, and which was an extremely risky maneuver. that like even though he got the Even though he got the kill, put the rest of his team at risk.
Zach Sheets: And then he also he also violated the rule of the hard deck in his like his first like the first mission.
Chris Prime: Which was, i guess, like flying too low.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, you you you couldn't you couldn't attack you couldn't get a kill below 10,000 feet. But then they chase they chased Michael Ironside down there and got they they killed him, but it didn't count because they were below the hard deck.
Zach Sheets: And then they buzzed the tower and got even more trouble.
Zach Sheets: Which I love i love the running joke of that guy. It's just like whatever officer that is that just keeps getting so coffee spilled on him.
Chris Prime: Yeah, we'd never really see that guy again. He's just the flight deck commander.
Zach Sheets: was isn' he he Isn't he on like the... I guess, is it a different guy the aircraft carrier? Because they buzzed the aircraft carrier tower at the end, the bridge at the end. and It's like it gets coffee spilled on him again.
Chris Prime: couldn't tell you. i actually thought it was the same guy, but it doesn't make sense for the same guy to get like assigned to the combat role now.
Zach Sheets: Reassigned. Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: It's like, what... I thought like their station, you know, like he's there for the training school. Why is the the training school flight deck guy going? Oh, I'm and going to I'm going on a mission. Cool.
Chris Prime: mean, I get it. I get it. If like that's the same guy, it's like they just keep pestering him.
Zach Sheets: He wants some butts! Just like, so many just random lines in this movie too.
Chris Prime: You think that was like written down or he just sort of made that up on the spot?
Zach Sheets: I wonder how many, like, there was like, if there was like a bunch of like, military, like, like, actual like military guys or like, top library guys there's like I don't know, just like, you want to be in the scene to say something?
Chris Prime: And he just sort guessed...
Zach Sheets: i I'll just say I normally say. is like i want Someone's butts give be on the lot like someone's butts line. I want some butts.
Chris Prime: yeah Yeah, man, that that's that's right.
Zach Sheets: Well, I think i think the... you like real people like like You know, like Charlie's date, who's like the old guy at the nightclub when they first meet her? I think that's that's the actual Viper.
Zach Sheets: viper
Chris Prime: The real life guy that they are trying to represent.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, who's...
Zach Sheets: he Like, he was, like, the main like technical consultant. Like, he shut out shut down a MiG in Vietnam.
Chris Prime: m
Chris Prime: I mean, that's hard. And also because like they weren't doing dogfighting. They kind of mentioned that everyone relies on the computers and then missile lock. It's like no one does actual aerial combat.
Zach Sheets: Well, that's, I mean, yeah that that's, like, the entire point of Top Gun is to train people, like, train pilots to be able to, do like, dogfight.
Chris Prime: But I figure you should learn that already in flight school.
Chris Prime: Like, you know what i mean Like, I feel that's a core lesson.
Zach Sheets: I mean, you probably like basic dogfighting, but then Top Gun's like, you know, it's like we're not we're pushing you to like the like the edge. It's like advanced like tactics and advanced techniques.
Chris Prime: Techniques. But do you figure they'll do that in training. It's like you'll you'll never not... Don't you want all the pilots to go to Top Gun? It just seems weird that, like okay, we only want like the best. It's like okay, what about everyone else? like Oh yeah, we we didn't think about it.
Chris Prime: Because that kind of fails on the education part where if you you basically have to qualify by, like in in Maverick's case, by luck, where Cougar dropped out.
Zach Sheets: I'm
Chris Prime: But you you figure like... You would just train them more. like Some people just need more training. And they can kind of get out of that fear. Because.
Chris Prime: Technically. Maverick quit Top Gun. And then he went. Psych. I guess I'm back.
Zach Sheets: back, yeah.
Chris Prime: And they're just like. Okay.
Zach Sheets: Well, he he quit, he came back for graduation, and then he and Iceman and Hollywood got sent on the the the mission to, like, the... Because now it's an actual, like, combat mission.
Zach Sheets: but Like, back back to, like, the... the Like, the... Eric McPierry that Maverick came from. With, like, James Cullick and everything.
Chris Prime: Yeah. They're just like, oh, but like, I guess that's where the mission was.
Zach Sheets: It's back yeah back in the ocean.
Chris Prime: so it's like, okay, that's where the mission is again, so. You kind of go with the work is. But I guess there was no one in the the craft.
Zach Sheets: on the and On the air carrier?
Chris Prime: Yeah.
Zach Sheets: Yeah.
Chris Prime: Like, we oh, we need Iceman. We need to like, yeah, Iceman didn't come from that that area, so
Zach Sheets: yeah he he has Yeah, he has any experience like that part that like in that like theater of war or whatever.
Chris Prime: Right. So that's why i'm like, it's a little weird that they're like, Iceman. All right. I know you just graduated, but now you're going to war. And then it makes sense for Maverick because he's like, you're about stand by. You're on the the like C team.
Zach Sheets: because you're still kind of like freaking out. and Like a self-confidence crisis. Yeah.
Zach Sheets: Which, i mean, poor poor Merlin, like poor Tim Robbins gets, like, first Cougar freaks out on him, and then he has to, like, meet with Maverick, who's, like, freaking out at first, too.
Chris Prime: Oh yeah, Cougar, I mean, Merlin has is unaware of what's been happening at Top Gun.
Zach Sheets: No, yeah, he didn't.
Chris Prime: he thinks He thinks he's welcoming like a trained professional that's like the best of the best.
Zach Sheets: Oh, ma Maverick. like he's He's awesome. like he's He was like like he like got us back on the plane like the the ship. like He's like the best pal here. it's like oh shit, he's like freaking out.
Chris Prime: I think it's the curse of Merlin.
Zach Sheets: It's Cougar all over again.
Chris Prime: You know, like, Maverick didn't really have... That much? He did freak out during the training, but that was because, like, I think, I don't know, like, and don't know how much time has passed between Goose's death and then Maverick getting back in the ship.
Zach Sheets: Tom's scared of Vipers. It's like, get it back up there. Put it back in the play. Get it back up there.
Chris Prime: I don't know why. Is it just because he's trying to wash him out or, like, get him out of his funk?
Zach Sheets: i think and he's like it's like, if he doesn't give it if he doesn't get back in the plane, he like he's done like he's done. He'll never get a plane again. He's too good of a pilot to lose him. So we got to try to get him up back up there and try to like like shake off like the the death.
Chris Prime: I just think maybe it's like he's got the yips.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, I mean, basically. basically but He's he he's like questioning himself now. He's like, I don't want to get anyone else killed. or like i I killed Goose, I don't want to like kill anybody else.
Chris Prime: Again, does Merlin know? He just sort of like, okay, like we'll fly. What's going on?
Zach Sheets: you with There should have been a scene where it's like, oh, it's just Maverick? Where's Goose? It's like, don't ask
Zach Sheets: Top Cut Train's like more dangerous than you thought it was.
Chris Prime: Yeah.
Zach Sheets: But yeah, there was some like the the actual comic mission is like, so there there was a ship that like drifted into hostile waters and then you know, unnamed enemy country is like sending MIGs out to like attack it.
Zach Sheets: So then, Iceman and Hollywood and Maverick have to like be like, the they have to probably cover for like the rescue planes to get the crew off the but the the ship.
Zach Sheets: And so it's actual dogfight, firefight, actual warfare, which
Zach Sheets: actual warfare which I feel like they they don't they don't like... They kind of brush away the fact that like we had like a an armed conflict with like an enemy country.
Chris Prime: Well, I don't know if it's like, just it's a conflict, not a war. So that's why you can have this one-on-one legal sanctioned dogfight.
Zach Sheets: Yeah.
Zach Sheets: i Well, like, James Tolkien at the end is like, oh, well, the other side's not acknowledging it happened. But if it's like, you're on the front page of a newspaper in the world. so it's it's being it's being publish it's It's being published that we had a the U.S.
Chris Prime: That's yeah, like a world incident.
Zach Sheets: had a like an armed like aerial combat with like a like a a country, but that country saying it didn't happen, so it's fine.
Chris Prime: Okay, I haven't seen Maverick in a while. I saw like one time. Did they even bring that up where it's like... Do you remember when you started a war?
Zach Sheets: Well, I think in Maverick, too, it's also like unnamed country.
Zach Sheets: I don't think they actually named the country that they're attacking. Hmm.
Chris Prime: Okay. I mean, they really wanted to play it safe by not upsetting... that many people. It's just, it was still the eighty s so it was the anti-Soviet time. I guess. I mean, it's so weird because you forget about the unnamed country from the beginning part because there's, like, so much that happens in the middle, but, like, nothing really happens besides training and then goose dying and then a love story that is very, like, I feel like an HR problem.
Zach Sheets: Extremely, yes.
Chris Prime: Okay, let's get into that. So, yeah, let's jump into this part.
Zach Sheets: Jump back to
Chris Prime: Because the movie kind of really glosses over the love story. I mean, it happens. It's like a big part of the movie that I'm like, is everyone everyone remember that Top Gun is technically a love story?
Zach Sheets: this that. It starts with Maverick busting into the ladies's ladies' restroom.
Chris Prime: Yeah, so that and then it's like a joke that he could brag that, you know, they had carnal knowledge. That's a line. Like, that's a line that Goose tells
Zach Sheets: they bet they yeah They bet. They bet $20 that he could have sex with someone in the club.
Chris Prime: that day.
Zach Sheets: And then it's like she's an she's an instructor and he's a student. at it So it's like positions of power. Yeah. Yeah.
Zach Sheets: was it like
Chris Prime: Just code of conduct.
Zach Sheets: positions of power like yeah
Chris Prime: It's a code of conduct violation.
Zach Sheets: hu
Chris Prime: Okay, so that's already, like, dicey. But then, like, is it me or everyone in the classroom that every time that, like, Carrie McGinnis is teaching and looks right at Maverick, like, everyone knows and, like, can feel the sexual tension in the air?
Chris Prime: And
Zach Sheets: Probably.
Chris Prime: it's kind at that point where, like, someone needs to be like, hey, i really want to learn. I'm here to, like... There should be, like besides Iceman, because he seems like he didn't really need lessons. He's just doing well just by him being Iceman, right?
Zach Sheets: Yeah.
Chris Prime: So I get how he could just like zone off.
Zach Sheets: Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: But like there have to be other pilots in that that aren't that aren't like part of the Maverick and Iceman team. That's like the fifth or like last place. That's just like, hey, like can can the instructor and like Maverick not make scroomy eyes? like I need to learn like this.
Chris Prime: Isn't the guy from Walker, Texas Ranger, like, in the...
Zach Sheets: Yeah. Yeah.
Chris Prime: Yeah.
Zach Sheets: Sundown.
Chris Prime: And then... Well, Wolfman was Iceman's radar tech.
Zach Sheets: There's Wolfman. There's Hollywood. There's Hollywood.
Zach Sheets: No, Slider is Iceman's tech.
Chris Prime: Oh, whose wolfof and who's Wolfman?
Zach Sheets: Rick Rostovich is... Wolfman wolf wolf man is
Zach Sheets: Wolfman is like... feel like he's always like's like lurking in the locker room constantly. like There's a weird scene where like like like he's like in the locker room and like he's like he goes to the phone and is like, hey, by the way, Maverick just quit.
Chris Prime: Yeah, who does he call?
Zach Sheets: I think he called Charlie? Charlie?
Chris Prime: Why does he have her number?
Zach Sheets: yeah
Chris Prime: So it's assumed that he calls, but like that's because he knew like they were doing something like that's I'm saying. Like end of the movie, like it seems like everyone knows and doesn't care that like they're dating.
Chris Prime: And like they really don't keep it a secret because, like I said, they they go to lunch like or dinner like at that barbecue place where they sing Great Balls of Fire.
Chris Prime: I thought that was in the movie as a kid. i was like, oh, they're just that's fine. I'm like, wait a minute. I know it's not much of an age difference, but it's more like a position of power difference between the teacher's pet and then like the teacher.
Zach Sheets: Yes.
Chris Prime: understand like waiting and see the movie should have waited till he graduated. Then she's like, oh, now we can date because now like. You know, I'm not your instructor.
Zach Sheets: But then she apparently also gives up like some sort of huge promotion because she's... I think Charlie's writing a paper or doing some sort of report on the MIG.
Zach Sheets: Because that's why like initially she's like, oh, I need to talk to you about the MIG.
Chris Prime: Yeah, she's a researcher to then go to Washington to like talk about that.
Zach Sheets: Yeah. Pentagon. so So she's yeah she got some sort of like like promotion at the Pentagon or something. but then And end the movie, she's like, oh, yeah, by the way, I'm back.
Zach Sheets: I'm back here at Top Gun.
Chris Prime: Okay.
Zach Sheets: give my promotion.
Chris Prime: So, fun fact. She's based on a real person, Christine Fox, who did not do any of that.
Zach Sheets: Yeah. Yep.
Chris Prime: She was just like, i Just want to learn about this. i don't care about any of you guys who, like, risk my career. And she's, like, a very pivotal, like, person to figure out the defense of the U.S. Like, she was just like, I just need to learn from all these things to come up the best plans to work on, like, better defenses.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, i'm sure i'm sure I'm sure the actual Taken is like much a much like drier, more like academic setting.
Chris Prime: Yeah.
Zach Sheets: so like up It's not like beach volleyball and drunken, like just going to the bar.
Chris Prime: It is weird for a movie to represent you and you're like, what is happening? You're like, oh yeah, like you fall in love with like this pretty boy pilot and then you give up your like career-defining role for love.
Chris Prime: That's you.
Chris Prime: i just feel like Shiyu was just like, I've got questions. Please and like don't take this the wrong way.
Chris Prime: But yeah, and then she kind of like leaves, i think I think. Or does Maverick try to see her, but then she's not home or does...
Zach Sheets: Well, it's like he so he like it's like he quits, and she's like, well, all right, I guess, i get well, you're quitting then. so like, I guess this is goodbye. and then she And then he, like, and he goes to talk to Viper, and then is like and a guess he decides to, like, go back. But he drives by her house, and there's, like, a for rent sign in front of the house. So she's she left.
Zach Sheets: you I guess she like she took her job and, like, did a job and, like, left. And then he goes to graduation and it's like, oh, by the way, guys, there's a war going on. We're having a skirmish with an enemy country.
Chris Prime: Well, then the war is sort of like finished. It's not like they followed up immediately with like, hey, Maverick, like we need you to go back into the fight. Like the war just began. Here comes the real Top Gun. Like, you know, it doesn't end on a cliffhanger. it ends on a love story where it's that's i'm like, oh, you forget at the end of the war. He just wants to go back to Top Gun school so he can have lunch.
Zach Sheets: To be an instructor, yeah. to instructor now.
Chris Prime: Which i don't think plans out, right? isn't just goes back and just goes to be like a regular pilot.
Zach Sheets: i think I think in Maverick they said he never like he like rejected all the like the a sort like promotions. And then he didn know obviously in the beginning of the movie, he's in Maverick, he's like a te like a test pilot for hypersonic jet.
Chris Prime: At least it didn't go the way where they wanted to replace the jet with, like like, that stealth movie where it's like, we don't need pilots, we have, like, the AI thing.
Zach Sheets: Yeah. Like, like so yeah, stealth.
Chris Prime: Stealth is an unofficial Top Gun movie.
Chris Prime: But, uh... Yeah, again, I forget how like this movie is more like the romance heavy than you remember it to be.
Zach Sheets: Well, yeah, so i mean so yeah that there's like the whole... There's like a whole, like... like, what, 20-30 minute chunk that's just like the like Take My Breath Away scored like just like them falling in love.
Zach Sheets: And then, yeah, it's it's like it's like training, Goose's death, the war, the great like the battle, and then oh we won. Danger Zone again.
Chris Prime: Yeah.
Zach Sheets: Although, actually, no, they don't, it's weird, it's weird like, Danger Zone is not the c credit song, though. It's, is it, is is Mighty, wing I think Mighty Wings is the credit song?
Chris Prime: I don't remember.
Zach Sheets: It's, it, it, yeah, it's definitely not Danger Zone, which you you would think, I guess because they played it, like, four times already, they didn't want to play it again for the credits.
Chris Prime: It would fun if it ends with playing with the boys again.
Chris Prime: Because you hear that song once and there's no like rev up to it. It just sort of happens where it's like tough guys.
Zach Sheets: it like
Chris Prime: Let's all play volleyball together.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, it's it's just like slam cut to like Velcro or spinning a volleyball on his finger. It's like, oh, i guess this is what they do on their downtime. They just grease up and play volleyball.
Chris Prime: do you think that's part of the competition or it's like they were just the best volleyball group and it's like the in-game tournament or they always play against each other? I don't know.
Zach Sheets: Is volleyball like the official sport of like Top Gun? at least in Maverick, they tried to kind of like have like a point to like the beach. It's like, we're we're showing them, it we're playing beach football, but we're both teams are offense, and it's supposed to feel like a lesson about how you have to be attacking and defending at the same time or something.
Zach Sheets: Like Maverick was trying to like like do some sort of weird lesson about it. Yeah.
Chris Prime: I just think Maverick likes volleyball. like You know what mean? It's such a like, okay. He sort of justified it, but I mean, honestly, he just wanted to play volleyball.
Zach Sheets: And then it's so weird that Point Break had like almost the exact same scene, except it was it was speed it was beach football.
Chris Prime: Yeah, but they didn't have like a cool soundtrack scene, if remember.
Zach Sheets: No, they yeah didn't. Well, think yeah there was a song it was a song, but was it was like a playing of the boys level song.
Chris Prime: yeah You want to talk about the cultural impact after this movie? We did mention like the increase in people trying to be fire pilots and join the Navy.
Zach Sheets: Which apparently was very... I think there was a stat at one point where it was a 500% increase, but guess it was more like an 8% increase in reality. It wasn't some insane number of recruitments.
Chris Prime: Or maybe they tried and then they went, yeah, you're not. but like Everyone's wearing glasses. it's like You can't be a fire pilot with nearsightedness.
Zach Sheets: Well, I think i mean i think they i mean they had... like some theaters had recruitment booths outside the theater, I believe. so I read.
Chris Prime: Whoa.
Zach Sheets: So, like, Navy said, of like, recruitment booths in some theaters.
Chris Prime: Okay, so it's 1986 this movie comes out.
Zach Sheets: Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: Okay, what movies came out 1986?
Zach Sheets: Well, like, Iron Eagle the same year that got completely overshadowed.
Chris Prime: lo
Chris Prime: It's funny, okay, some people might have seen Heat and then been recruited. Some people have kind of got could have gotten out of Platoon and got recruited.
Chris Prime: Little Shops of Horror, Wildcats, Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
Chris Prime: Highlander.
Zach Sheets: Well, this but this i mean this this was the highest grossing movie of the year.
Chris Prime: Cobra.
Chris Prime: Okay, that makes sense. so It kind of blew out everyone else, and these are all movies that came out later on or before. Man, what was like competing with Top Gun in the theaters?
Zach Sheets: yeah like may of 86 i don't oh crock crocodile d was the second biggest movie of 86.
Zach Sheets: yeah the the the top the top five was top gun crocodile and d platoon credit card two and star trek for the voyage home was the top five movies 86.
Chris Prime: Okay, that's the group talking about. moon They got of theaters and then like, hey guys, you want to join? You like you like space and stuff? You want to join a real fleet?
Chris Prime: And just getting recruited because you went to go see like Star Trek in theaters and now you're like in the Navy.
Chris Prime: It would have been a fun marketing move. It probably wouldn't make that much sense, but kind of how they did Oppahheimer and Barbie. Just like Star Trek 4 and Top
Zach Sheets: i don't I don't know if they were like in the same month or anything, but...
Chris Prime: would have been funny if that was.
Zach Sheets: I did read that like Top Gun like it it didn't lose a single theater and until six weeks into its run. like It had the same number of theaters the opening weekend, and it and then six weeks later, it had the same number of theaters still.
Chris Prime: Like, people were still going it.
Zach Sheets: it was it was It was that popular, yeah.
Chris Prime: Like,
Zach Sheets: which i mean That there was also like what like how theaters worked back then. It wasn't a totally different time. Movies just sat in theaters for like months at a time.
Zach Sheets: now like like Now it's like, oh, two it's been in theaters for two weeks? so You can rent it now on digital.
Zach Sheets: It's 45 days. That's a super long time in theaters for movies now.
Chris Prime: Yeah, I mean, if you think about it, that's also when movie theater like were affordable, so you could just see Top Gun for like $3. three dollars
Zach Sheets: Yeah, there was like there was a whole thing of like, oh, but it's in the multiplex and then it goes down to like the the dollar theater or whatever, the cheap the cheap theater. And then eventually you'll be on, you can rent it on VHS.com.
Chris Prime: Man, different times. I think I own a copy of Top Gun. I think everyone owns a copy of Top Gun somewhere.
Zach Sheets: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: I'm not sure if I bought it. My family bought it through like a store or got it from like one of those like giveaways where it's like, buy three, get one.
Chris Prime: So it's like, all right, Top Gun, I guess.
Zach Sheets: Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: But like yeah, I always see Top Gun in flea markets. It's always like somewhere. It's a very iconic box. And then, can the Top Gun video games that like either try to retell the movie or did its own little fun like spin where it's like the what-if future part where like Maverick's like a teacher at Top Gun and all this?
Zach Sheets: Well, didn't the first and NES game have you, like, the last level was that you had to, like, blow up a space shuttle?
Chris Prime: Which doesn't happen in the movie, of course.
Zach Sheets: No, yeah.
Chris Prime: And then i had the PS2 and the PS1 Top Gun, which was, like, unplayable. It's just, like...
Zach Sheets: Was that Fire at Will? Top Gun Fire at Will?
Chris Prime: I don't know.
Zach Sheets: i because i'm looking I'm looking at the video, it's like Top Gun Fired Will and then there's Top Gun Hornet's Nest.
Chris Prime: I think it's fire at will. But it's so glitchy. It just looks like they just, they figured out VR, like not even VR, but you know I mean? Like it's just so polygonal, but Ace Combat came up and just no more Top Gun for a while.
Zach Sheets: Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: I think like Top Gun Hard Lock, the one that does like kind of was made, don't know, 2010 or 2012. Wow. So like, martin
Zach Sheets: It came in 2012. Oh, yeah,
Chris Prime: twenty twelve wow so like that's the one where they kind of mimic Ace Combat, and it's slightly playable, but it's not, like, a great game.
Chris Prime: But yeah, it's this weird thing where, like, you figure naturally, like, the fighter pilot games based on, like, Top Gun was so influential for those, like, so i like like fighter pilot sims.
Chris Prime: And even, like, Star Fox.
Zach Sheets: oh yeah huh
Chris Prime: So it's a big, like, influential, like, dogfighting, and, like, Just air combat and showing the intensity, I guess, of it.
Zach Sheets: his His dad died, and he's trying to live up to his legacy.
Chris Prime: don't know. star It's Star Fox. So just as long as they do that and don't include the whole fact that Star Fox or Fox McCloud was hitting on his instructor. We'll be fine. So listen's like there's a lot of like subtle influences.
Chris Prime: I think Star Fox was 1998. nineteen ninety eight
Zach Sheets: Well, probably, like, Star Trek 64, but, like, the... like which Super NES game the Cess game.
Chris Prime: No, 1993. The
Chris Prime: original SNES game was 1993. So, like, definitely they were inspired by Top Gun. They said, hey, Top Gun. But now everyone's an animal.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, and then a but yeah a bunch of movies have like also like been inspired by or tried like you know cash in on it. I put a, I got a list of like, if you head over to everything, I got a list of like five movies to watch. If you want like after Top Gun, you want more like aerial action. Like, you know, there's like a whole like internet, like India made one called fighter. It's like basically like Top Gun.
Zach Sheets: it was like a, it's like a South Korean one called R2B return to base with rain.
Chris Prime: What? He's in more movies? I thought he was just in that one.
Zach Sheets: No, that yeah that was the last movie he did before he had to do his mandatory military service, apparently. And also, like, like Firebirds, the Nicolas Cage one, where it's like, instead of fire dresses, it's Apache helicopters.
Chris Prime: i do I did watch Firebirds. that That one you could always find at a rental store if Top Gun was taken. And then just because they also saw the same plot, but I think the fact that like instead of like his instructor, it's his co-pilot he's in love with.
Zach Sheets: Well, it's... His ex-girlfriend is also in like the Apache training program, and then it's like... I think they they like rekindled their relationship during the training or something.
Chris Prime: And then Tommy Lee Jones is somehow involved. He's like the Viper.
Zach Sheets: easy
Chris Prime: and
Zach Sheets: yeah he's yeah He's the Viper, basically, yeah.
Chris Prime: and Which is also an another thing we got to bring up. that like Michael Ironside and and invite and Tom Skerritt, they don't come back for the end.
Zach Sheets: Tom Skerritt?
Chris Prime: It's like a separate movie for them. you know They're just like, whatever, we're done training you, see you. like They don't come back. They're like, oh no, got to all hands on deck. like Even bring out the instructors. like We're all going to... like Top Gun, like, everyone, Top Gun, we're going to so we're going to go to, like, battle.
Chris Prime: You know, they're just like, alright, bye.
Zach Sheets: Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: You know, like, that's that says kind of like a big separation from the middle of the movie to the last ten minutes.
Chris Prime: It's just that. It's like, oh, you're here's just a random mission. Okay, has nothing. It's like, that's one of many.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, because, i mean cool, I mean, obviously we're like, well, we gotta have, like, we have, no one's, no one's fire but we have it no one's fired a missile or shot anything. Like, we there hasn't been any actual, like, combat in this movie. We need to have some sort of, like, like, an actual, like, conflict.
Chris Prime: conflict.
Zach Sheets: So we can, like, shoot missiles and fight fire machine guns and stuff. And have explosions.
Chris Prime: I mean, if anything, it would have been weird and very hard to explain. Is that like Goose gets killed by like an enemy that sneaks into Top Gun training to like mess?
Zach Sheets: Oh, shit.
Chris Prime: You know i mean? Like it doesn't make sense, but at least then you have like a villain.
Zach Sheets: Hmm.
Zach Sheets: Or like, or like the they because they... Because they're not like actually firing... They're just getting a missile lock, and if you get a missile lock at someone, you'd kill them in training. But like if it's like, oh no, a missile actually launched by accident.
Chris Prime: Or like Cougar comes back and he's like the villain now.
Zach Sheets: I had a complete mental break.
Chris Prime: I've joined the enemy side and now I'm flying the MiG.
Zach Sheets: Yep. Yep.
Chris Prime: It would have been cheesy, but I don't know. I feel like, uh,
Zach Sheets: I feel like they could have built up, like, the the guy they flipped off at the beginning of the movie, they could have, like had like, have him be, like, a distinctive, like, character, and then he, like, comes, like, he's, like, leading, like, the enemies at the end.
Chris Prime: He's their Maverick.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, he's their Maverick.
Chris Prime: And it's like his thing is that. But then you know what happens? Maybe because becomes like the opposite of Maverick. So Maverick learns to be a team player and then the other guy tries to be more like Maverick.
Chris Prime: Old Maverick. And that's what defeats him in the end. So like.
Zach Sheets: he's like he's so he's desperate for revenge he breaks away from his squadron yep
Chris Prime: Yep. And then he tries to do the 4G turnover flip off maneuver. But then he doesn't understand you need someone like Goose to like radar to detect the distance and all that.
Chris Prime: So then he just crashes. Did you see that like physically that shot is impossible because like the tails of both fighter pilots would be like in each other? It's like, oh, we were a meter apart.
Zach Sheets: yeah
Chris Prime: it's like No, your fin is higher than a meter. youre You would definitely like scrape or even be like piercing each other's hull.
Chris Prime: But I get it. He wanted to like shock the pilot, but then it's like, I think the pilot was just like, this guy is crazy. I'm leaving.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, because they scare them off in the the opening kind of skirmish. And then the final skirmish is like, now it's live. We're it's missiles and we're shooting missiles and machine guns.
Chris Prime: And it's like, that's the same army, right? It's the same everything, I guess.
Zach Sheets: like Yes, the same same unknown country, I guess. Because they're cause they're in the same Indian Ocean territory, too.
Chris Prime: the vague enemy.
Zach Sheets: at least, they couldn't... Iron Eagle came up with a fake country. like they They had like a fake Middle Eastern country that they like was like the enemy.
Chris Prime: True. It was still like vaguely Middle Eastern, but you got to like walk around their base, look around. And we also said that this, this movie came out as Iron Eagles, but like Iron Eagles, let me top gun Maverick really steals Iron Eagles at the end.
Zach Sheets: but Yeah.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, i think i think I think Iron Eagle was like later in the 86. But then it's but it's like Gun, but then, you know, obviously Top Gun come out, so it's like, oh this is just a rip off of Top Gun.
Chris Prime: I think I did read that Iron Eagles was like separate. Initially, it was because it follows the same story as like a kid doing something, you know, but then Iron Eagles gets into like, OK, we can't not compare ourselves to Top Gun, but might as well like, I don't know lean into certain parts, but it's Top Gun for kids.
Zach Sheets: pretty Yeah. Iron Ego came out first. Iron Ego came out in January. Iron
Chris Prime: I knew it was like something. It's like you everyone compares it, but technically like... I
Zach Sheets: Ego's like the GoBots and Top Gun's like the Transformers.
Chris Prime: moon i mean, it's... It just it happens to be about flight school, but one is like the true underdog flight school slash like... I don't know, like... Forgery method?
Zach Sheets: aren't i mean, they're not really training in Iron Eagle. He's just like, he's like a hot, like he's like a hotshot pilot. he He wants to join the Air Force, but then it's like, the athlete it's like, you know, come with this rescue mission gar rescue his dad.
Chris Prime: He trains in like, I don't know, two weeks and he's fine to go rescue a POW.
Zach Sheets: as long As long as he has like sweet tunes to listen to, then he's like a maverick little pilot. Which I'll give the credit, like, the like the soundtrack in Iron Eagle is actually like, it's like pivotal plot because it's like, he has to listen to the soundtrack to'll be to be awesome.
Chris Prime: Where just in in Top Gun, he's just talking to me, Goose, and that's it. Like, that's his like, mantra.
Zach Sheets: He's like, hearing danger zone.
Chris Prime: Well, yeah, I think Top Gun still holds up as its own timepiece. Is it going be a forever classic? I don't know. I mean, it's still shaky when it comes to, like, all the small details.
Zach Sheets: I mean...
Zach Sheets: very very Very good vibes. It's just like you wanted to like vibe out to like awesome 80s music and cool fighter jet stuff. and Oh, yeah.
Chris Prime: It's also like a great summer movie. Like I don't watch Top Gun during like the winter.
Zach Sheets: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Chris Prime: It makes no sense to watch a movie like that where it's like you feel like the humidity in this movie from just everyone's sweating and then just the the beautiful like sunsets and sunrises.
Zach Sheets: yeah
Chris Prime: So for an anniversary, it's like such a great like this movie is a seasonal movie.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, this is this is like like you know like Apex like summer blockbuster.
Chris Prime: Agreed.
Zach Sheets: but you think of like a summer blockbuster, it's like Top Gun.
Zach Sheets: And then Top Gun Maverick came out. It was also awesome. so
Zach Sheets: And hopefully whatever the third one is, is is you can keep keep keeps up the trend.
Chris Prime: It's called self, man.
Zach Sheets: the the' use serious talk they ever is math like it'snna be like like They're focus Top Gun Rooster.
Chris Prime: So wait, is is Tom Cruise returning for that one?
Zach Sheets: oh talk yeah tacker is definitely returning
Chris Prime: I feel like the legacy could be taken over. cause See, are they focusing more on the school and how the school does? Or is it about the instructor?
Chris Prime: Because Maverick is now like the Tom Skerrick character.
Zach Sheets: i know I don't know. There's no details yet. so Hopefully in the next like year or two we'll get some more details.
Chris Prime: I mean, we just want more of a like the prequel movie where it's like, what happened to like Dutch Mitchell, whatever his name is.
Zach Sheets: Yeah. The
Zach Sheets: yeah the the cool the cool like Vietnam like air combat movie
Chris Prime: Then it goes back even further. It's like the first dogfight between two prop propelator planes.
Zach Sheets: It's all... Yeah, it's just like all the Mitchells are like fighter pilots. It's like World War There's a Mitchell that's fighting the Red Baron or something. Yeah, Yeah, they keep doing good. They'll just bleed the Top Gun franchise dry.
Chris Prime: Oh man, I'm excited for that new ride that opens up.
Zach Sheets: i mean i don't there's I mean, there's no Paramount parts anymore, so I don't know who would like license Top Gun for like a music park, but...
Chris Prime: Hershey Park. Just someone that's just like, hey, come to Hershey.
Zach Sheets: Yeah. Some, like, some like one of those like like Saudi Arabia parks. like we're building We're building Paramount Land.
Chris Prime: but they're going to build in, like, if it's in, like, that area, they might be the enemy. It's like, MiG-26 or 28. You're like, what? Like, they don't get the irony of it?
Zach Sheets: Alright, so yeah, so we should probably wrap things for this week. So, come back next week, we we we're we doing some CarFu and talking about Speed Racer, because it's it's getting a four k i feel like that i feel like it's kind of like the culmination of its kind of like like re-evaluation over the last couple of years, where everyone's like, oh, Speed Racer is actually a masterpiece.
Chris Prime: I kind of believe that. Like, I didn't see it in theaters just because, like, I just didn't want to, but I see clips of it. I've seen, like, that, like, visually it's a good adaptation.
Chris Prime: So, I'm excited to talk about it.
Zach Sheets: Yeah, so yeah, so we'll we'll dive into that next week. Head over to the site, we all the news up there. We got news, reviews, trailers. I got a review of The Punisher One Last Kill, the Marvel special presentation that came out this week. And also have that list of the Top Gun, other movies that are like Top Gun to check out. So head out and check out both those articles out.
Zach Sheets: And yeah, all the news stuff is up there as well. So check everything in Action.com out. And yes, for Chris, I'm Zach and we will see you next week.
