re: First photos surface from Top Gun 2 "Maverick" set

Some more set photos:

will Ice (cream) Man be making an appearance as well?

quote:

---

And Mav continues with the slowest career progression in US Naval History. Going on 35+ years as a fighter pilot, that can't possibly be good for your back. The past 30 of which he's been significantly older than his fellow pilots.

He probably should have retired from flight status in his 40's shortly after the 2nd Gulf War, poor guy.

My former CO is a little bit younger than Mav (who had considerable experience as a LT in 1986), now enjoying his life as Vice Admiral Sawyer

---

Feel better now?

quote:

---

I actually think they might be going in this direction

---

The space force would be a great angle.

Can Tom Cruise really even fly an F-18?

quote:

---

Val Kilmer Opens Up About His 2-Year Battle with Throat Cancer and How It Changed His Life

---

LINK

quote:

---

Feel better now?

---

Not at all!! Mostly because our real timeline provided some great fodder for Top Gun movies that actually line up with Mav's career and the Universe as it was established in the first movie.

For instance, the First Gulf War:

The technical hurdle you'd have to cross is that the Iraqis weren't great fighter pilots. But, this is easily (and plausibly) crossed by saying that former elite fighter pilots of the recently collapsed USSR blame the US for their demise and will easily fly "Top Secret" missions for Saddaam's Air Force as mercenaries.

Charlie catching wind of this is what sets the plot going. Charlie makes the mistake of letting her husband Mav know about these top secret missions before he actually has the "need to know" which creates drama and puts her career at the CIA in jeopardy.

Meanwhile Lt. Commander Mav, as squadron XO, struggles to deal with keeping his young punk fighter pilots in line - but at least the squadron CO lets him do his own thing. That is, until the squadron CO is replaced by newly minted Commander Iceman.

At home, Meg Ryan's character is getting married, and tensions rise between new husband and Mav, as new husband doesn't understand the brotherhood that Mav/Goose had and just how strongly Mav feels about Goose's son (now about 10 years old).

End of the movie, America wins after dramatic dog fight, Mav gets command of his own squadron based on a glowing recommendation from Iceman.

Secondly, I don't trust 2018 Hollywood to properly capture the patriotism if the first film without laying some type of "America sucks" motif over the top of it.

Instead, we don't see how these characters handle their first war, or how they handled 9/11. We just get an impossibly old fighter pilot on his command tour a decade or two too late. In addition, it looks like they're trying out Goose's son (now in his late 30's himself) as a young up and comer to the fighter pilot community.

This same son, per the original timeline, would have been about the right age to hastily join the military after 9/11 - feeding the plot of Top Gun 3 (this one with Mav as CO of Top Gun).

quote:

---

Even if he's a full bird Captain at 30 yrs the Navy would have probably forced him to retire if he wasn't in line for admiral.

---

Maybe a break in service? They had decent uniform and rank consultants last time - obviously the Navy LOVES these movies and I'm sure was more than happy to provide whatever support the filmmakers needed.