Random Top Gun thoughts

1. Can Cougar just basically quit the Navy like that? Isn't there some sort of years-of-service requirement or, more importantly, a contractual obligation? What did they do, stick him down in the mess or something? "Hey Cougar, man, tough going. Sorry." "Thanks, Mav." "Yeah, so can I get the salisbury steak?"

2. James Tolkan is Michael J. Fox's height. Which is to say he's shorter than Tom Cruise. Which is to say he's about 5'5". That's mind blowing if you think about it.

3. The hard deck for the first hop was 10,000 feet. While Mav knew it and broke it, the entire dogfight was under 10,000 feet, right? Racing just over the mountaintops, etc.

4. I still have no idea what time of day the opening scene takes place. Looks like it starts at early morning, but then when they take off it's bright, then the dogfight is in daylight but they keep cutting back to the carrier which is in the dark, and when they land it's in complete dark. But the fight is only a couple hundred miles away.

5. It really is pretty fucking gay.

6. Top Gun is my go-to movie for explaining to people who Adrian Pasdar is after I tell them Natalie Maines is married to Adrian Pasdar, and even then it doesn't always work. "He's sitting next to the black guy from Walker Texas Ranger during the commencement speech." "There's a black guy in Top Gun?" "Yeah, well, he's sitting next to him."

7. I posted yesterday about how the Hackman/Hershey relationship in HOOSIERS was maybe the most demagnitized screen romance possible, but I don't know. This one comes close.

8. People seem to forget that Tim Robbins was in this. Tim Robbins probably forgets it.

9. I love that the battle scene bookends are set in the Indian Ocean, the Pete Best of the oceanic realm.

10. Anthony Edwards was awesome as Goose. Seriously. Just throwing that out there.

11. There's no way Cruise would've been able to spike a volleyball over a regulation net.

Cougar lost it, turned in his wings. Not sure if that means that he simply resigned his flight status/stripes or meant to quit the whole thing. Where's Cobretti to answer this?

If by "subtle" you mean the one scene where there's actual sexual chemistry between them is where McGillis is dressed like a man (in the elevator), then yes.

No, seriously, I see what you're saying, but it still feels off kilter. Maybe it's because McGillis actually fits well in the role, so well that a woman seeking that intelligent wouldn't fall for some douchebag punk.

I just want to have sex with it. It's not like I want to pick out curtains or have a discussion about where to place furniture in a room with it.

Put it this way: It's gayer than THE TRANSPORTER.

No joke you're not getting, but the point is that Pasdar hasn't been in much that the casual movie fan would know, including NEAR DARK. More to the point, assume you're talking to someone who likes the Dixie Chicks and would know who Natalie Maines is and care about who she's married to. She probably doesn't even know what a movie is, let alone NEAR DARK.

I don't know. T2 shoots Statham more lovingly, but does it have an oily fight?

Guys, come on, let's stop fixating on Adrian Pasdar, shall we? I don't see anybody talking about Whip Hubley.

One funny thing about these pictures:

Amazingly, considering their looks and backgrounds, it was Hubley and not Rossovich who was cast as a Russian seaman in RUSSKIES.

(Apparently Rossovich had his fill of seaman in Top Gun.)

Another funny thing about these pictures:

They came from whosdatedwho.com. In the context of this thread that's outstanding.

"TOP GUN: Corrupting young impressionable boys since 1986."

Dammit Dickson, I can't be expected to catch your subtle wit on the first go-round.

This is one I should have addressed in the first post - what are the odds of that actually happening? 100 to 1? 1,000,000 to 1? 2 to 1? Particularly when the plane is in a flat spin; you'd think sheer momentum and physics would've separated the canopy from the fuselage in such a way that Goose would've necessarily gone in a different direction because of the time elapsed.

Also, Maverick shouts, "Watch the canopy!" Like, what the fuck is Goose supposed to do about that shit? He's blown out of an airplane at god knows what velocity, he's supposed to recognize in the nanosecond that his head is approaching the canopy at a possibly dangerous velocity? Even if he does catch sight of the canopy and his impending neural trauma, the fuck's he supposed to do about it? He's locked into the chair, it's not like he can duck. He's sure as hell not palming it.

So many questions left unanswered.