No longer in their primes, our hosts return to active duty for one last harrowing discussion of the 2022 movie Top Gun: Maverick, starring Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris, and Jon Hamm. The hosts fall all over themselves praising the breathtaking flying scenes and top-notch cinematography, then dig deep to think up unfair criticisms and worse endings. ---------SPOILERS AHEAD---------
No longer in their primes, our hosts return to active duty for one last harrowing discussion of the 2022 movie Top Gun: Maverick, starring Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris, and Jon Hamm. The hosts fall all over themselves praising the breathtaking flying scenes and top-notch cinematography, then dig deep to think up unfair criticisms and worse endings.
Reach the pod at DontEncourage@gmail.com
Discourage us on Instagram @DontEncourageUs
---------SPOILERS AHEAD---------
Transcript
00:00:00 Speaker 2
Welcome to don't encourage.
00:00:01 Speaker 2
This the podcast where we talk about the big ideas and fiction projects of all different times. Books, movies, TV shows, video games, nothing's off limits and make sure you stay away from those like and subscribe icon.
00:00:14 Speaker 2
So today we're going to talk about Top Gun, Maverick.
00:00:18 Speaker 1
Yes, the classic Tom Cruise film from 2022.
00:00:22 Speaker 2
It's right way back.
00:00:23 Speaker 2
By the time people are listening to it.
00:00:25 Speaker 2
They they barely remember.
00:00:27 Speaker 2
So are we going?
00:00:28 Speaker 1
The MP3 file.
00:00:28 Speaker 2
To are we are.
00:00:30 Speaker 2
We going to spoil this this movie.
00:00:34 Speaker 2
Is it possible to spoil this movie?
00:00:37 Speaker 2
Is there enough that you wouldn't anticipate that you could actually consider it a spoiler?
00:00:43 Speaker 1
This may be the most paint by numbers movie I've seen in the really, really long time, but I was highly entertained for some very odd reason.
00:00:54 Speaker 1
It's it's got everything, it's what you'd expect.
00:00:56 Speaker 2
Simple. Yeah, no.
00:00:59 Speaker 2
It's it's a money making formula for sure.
00:01:02 Speaker 2
So before we dive into that, we should talk a little bit about whatever it is that we've been reading lately.
00:01:09 Speaker 2
Anything you've been reading or watching.
00:01:12 Speaker 2
Other than Top Gun Maverick?
00:01:14 Speaker 1
Yes, I just.
00:01:15 Speaker 1
Finished a book called Lock Every Door.
00:01:18 Speaker 1
Which was kind of hitchcockian.
00:01:21 Speaker 1
It's about a girl who answers the help wanted, ad she ends up moving into an apartment building like a really fancy apartment building facing Central Park.
00:01:30 Speaker 1
She's supposed to be apartment sitting and they're paying her $4000 a month to do it for three months.
00:01:38 Speaker 2
OK.
00:01:39 Speaker 1
A lot of weird things start happening.
00:01:41 Speaker 1
The other apartment sitters who were there before they've gone missing.
00:01:46 Speaker 1
So there's this big mystery going on.
00:01:49 Speaker 1
And then it kind of goes into that formulaic kind of plot where she's trying to figure out what's going on.
00:01:55 Speaker 1
At first, she thinks it might be.
00:01:57 Speaker 1
Some kind of?
00:01:57 Speaker 1
Cult that the people in the apartment are part of.
00:02:00 Speaker 1
Maybe it's a serial killer, et cetera.
00:02:03 Speaker 1
But it turns out.
00:02:04 Speaker 1
Ohh, lo and behold, she spoiler alert in case you go go want to read this book.
00:02:12 Speaker 1
That it's actually old, very rich people who are looking for organ donors.
00:02:18 Speaker 1
So they lure these girls in there, mostly girls, young girls, and they usually don't have families or, you know, they're having money issues or they don't have a place to stay.
00:02:30 Speaker 1
So they they get them in there.
00:02:32 Speaker 1
And then one of the guys who's a doctor, he harvests the organs and the people who are living in the apartment actually get brought down to the basement where they do these organ transplants.
00:02:42 Speaker 1
So it's kind of interesting, but.
00:02:45 Speaker 1
The characters are very cookie cutter you know.
00:02:49 Speaker 1
But I give it a three out of five stars overall as a thriller.
00:02:53 Speaker 2
It sounds like a prequel to get out.
00:02:56 Speaker 1
It's kind of like a get out or rosemary's baby like that, sort of.
00:03:01 Speaker 2
Yeah, we're going to use your body.
00:03:04 Speaker 1
But once you know what's going on, it kind of devolves very quickly into just.
00:03:08 Speaker 1
She's gonna, you know, she's gonna escape.
00:03:10 Speaker 1
They end up tearing the building down at the end.
00:03:13 Speaker 1
There's a big scandal.
00:03:14 Speaker 1
Obviously, all these people were involved that were rich and famous.
00:03:18 Speaker 1
At the end.
00:03:19 Speaker 2
OK.
00:03:21 Speaker 2
Does she run up and down the stairs several times?
00:03:23 Speaker 1
She does that a lot.
00:03:24 Speaker 1
She uses the elevator a lot during fires, which she's not supposed to do, but she does anyway.
00:03:30 Speaker 2
Oh, no, unacceptable.
00:03:33 Speaker 1
How about you?
00:03:35 Speaker 2
A bunch of stuff I watched the.
00:03:39 Speaker 2
Pilot episode of Reacher.
00:03:41 Speaker 2
The TV series I think it might have been a series of books I I didn't look it up.
00:03:45 Speaker 2
I I think they were just sort.
00:03:46 Speaker 2
Of your generic ****** loner.
00:03:50 Speaker 2
Kind of series of books and Tom Cruise made two movies.
00:03:55 Speaker 2
The second one is probably the worst Tom Cruise movie that I've seen in a long time.
00:04:02 Speaker 2
Really, really bad.
00:04:03 Speaker 2
Like, borderline unwatchable.
00:04:05 Speaker 2
I wouldn't even recommend it.
00:04:06 Speaker 2
If you're curious how he could be in such a bad movie.
00:04:11 Speaker 2
But this pilot for the TV show was good.
00:04:14 Speaker 2
It stars Alan Richson, who previously was on the TV show Titans, which I don't even know.
00:04:21 Speaker 2
HBO is the only place I know where it it stream.
00:04:25 Speaker 2
But yeah, so he's he's bulked up a little bit and it's a lot of ****-*** action.
00:04:30 Speaker 2
It's good, it's really good.
00:04:32 Speaker 1
Well, I like those kind of movies first shows.
00:04:35 Speaker 1
I saw the Gray man on Netflix with Ryan Gosling.
00:04:38 Speaker 2
What do you think, Russo brothers.
00:04:38 Speaker 1
Really liked it.
00:04:40 Speaker 1
I liked it, I.
00:04:41 Speaker 1
Thought was pretty good I.
00:04:42 Speaker 1
Read the book and I really liked the book and I thought the the movie.
00:04:46 Speaker 1
I didn't think it was exactly like the book.
00:04:48 Speaker 1
I thought the book was a lot better, but for an action movie, I liked it.
00:04:51 Speaker 1
I thought it was pretty cool.
00:04:54 Speaker 2
I almost watched that.
00:04:55 Speaker 2
To check it out, yeah.
00:04:57 Speaker 2
So I also watched bullet train.
00:05:02 Speaker 1
I started reading that.
00:05:04 Speaker 2
Ohh, there's a book.
00:05:05 Speaker 2
OK, I didn't realize.
00:05:05 Speaker 1
Of the 12.
00:05:07 Speaker 2
OK.
00:05:07 Speaker 1
What you think?
00:05:08 Speaker 2
Well, you have to watch it because it is a companion film.
00:05:13 Speaker 2
To the lost city.
00:05:16 Speaker 1
Really. Yeah. Huh.
00:05:19 Speaker 2
Yes, so the lost city which we talked about starring Brad Pitt and some other people and then they made bullet train also starring Brad Pitt and some other people and that's.
00:05:31 Speaker 1
We should plug the podcast episode.
00:05:33 Speaker 1
Right in the description, if you missed it.
00:05:35 Speaker 2
Yes, that's true.
00:05:36 Speaker 1
There's a podcast episode around this topic.
00:05:37 Speaker 2
We should put the link.
00:05:38 Speaker 2
In there. Yeah, absolutely.
00:05:41 Speaker 2
So yeah, so there's a lot of interesting connections.
00:05:44 Speaker 2
I don't want to spoil it since you haven't seen it, but it's, you know, it's worth checking out.
00:05:49 Speaker 2
Yeah, it's it wasn't my favorite movie.
00:05:52 Speaker 2
Was a little.
00:05:53 Speaker 2
Disappointed, I thought the trailer looked great.
00:05:55 Speaker 2
How's the book?
00:05:57 Speaker 1
I haven't gotten that far into the book yet. So far so good. Probably only 20 pages in 25 pages in.
00:06:06 Speaker 1
So we'll see.
00:06:08 Speaker 2
Yeah, I'd be curious to hear similarities or differences, because often a book and a movie that can be very, very different.
00:06:15 Speaker 2
And this one had such a particular visual and storytelling style that was.
00:06:21 Speaker 2
One could say was a little disjointed at times, right?
00:06:25 Speaker 2
It was a lot of time jumps and montages inserted into the action and some sort of weird, almost surreal, or actually very surreal elements.
00:06:35 Speaker 2
So I'd be very curious how the novel compared in those regards.
00:06:40 Speaker 1
Yeah, I'll let you know for sure.
00:06:42 Speaker 2
Yeah, but definitely you should watch the movie at some point because of the.
00:06:46 Speaker 2
Connections to the lost city.
00:06:49 Speaker 1
I will definitely watch it.
00:06:50 Speaker 1
Yeah, I think I'll read the novel and then watched the movie.
00:06:52 Speaker 1
I saw the movie was available.
00:06:53 Speaker 1
I almost rented it because I was like, yeah, I don't know.
00:06:56 Speaker 1
I could probably pick up another novel that's really.
00:06:58 Speaker 1
Similar to this one, and not really.
00:07:01 Speaker 1
Lose too much.
00:07:04 Speaker 1
I like those kinds of books, though.
00:07:06 Speaker 1
Those assassin books, the loner books, you know, the lone assassin or the CIA guy or whatever.
00:07:14 Speaker 2
Yeah, well, Reacher has some things in common with that, but there the tone is very different.
00:07:20 Speaker 2
Reacher is very grounded.
00:07:25 Speaker 2
It reminds me a lot of the TV show, The Incredible Hulk from the 80s, because it's basically the same premise like the Hulk.
00:07:34 Speaker 2
Goes to small towns and solves crimes.
00:07:38 Speaker 1
And this is kind of the same deal like every episode is a.
00:07:40 Speaker 1
New crime or?
00:07:41 Speaker 2
It seems like they're going to do the more modern version of that, which is like a season, is a crime.
00:07:48 Speaker 2
You know, I think that's what they're going to do.
00:07:50 Speaker 2
But the big difference between this one and the Incredible Hulk is that the, you know, guy who plays Jack Reacher, Alan Richman is much, much bigger.
00:08:00 Speaker 2
Than the Incredible Hulk.
00:08:01 Speaker 2
So that would be the the key difference.
00:08:05 Speaker 1
A little too step probably.
00:08:07 Speaker 2
Yeah, I mean you.
00:08:08 Speaker 2
Know I don't think the Hulk had the kind of muscle that this Jack Reacher.
00:08:11 Speaker 2
Has to throw at a problem.
00:08:14 Speaker 2
I mean, I don't.
00:08:15 Speaker 2
Know how he does that?
00:08:16 Speaker 2
The guys in his 40s.
00:08:19 Speaker 2
Maybe he lives in an apartment building where they harvest.
00:08:22 Speaker 2
Adrenal glands and.
00:08:23 Speaker 1
Yeah, exactly. And plant them.
00:08:28 Speaker 1
He's got his neighbors testicles.
00:08:30 Speaker 1
That's how he does it.
00:08:32 Speaker 1
Has anyone seen the rock lately?
00:08:34 Speaker 2
He's probably getting some surgery.
00:08:37 Speaker 2
Testicle implants going to 1/6 set.
00:08:40 Speaker 2
Maybe the rock?
00:08:40 Speaker 2
Will throw us a reaction video, you know, big giant eyebrow.
00:08:44
When that comes up.
00:08:46 Speaker 1
This whole podcast explodes.
00:08:47 Speaker 1
You got a million subscribers.
00:08:50 Speaker 1
Now we got to do another episode.
00:08:53 Speaker 2
I don't know.
00:08:53 Speaker 2
If we get a thumbs up.
00:08:57 Speaker 2
So should we dive into Top Gun, Maverick?
00:09:00 Speaker 1
Sure, let's dive in.
00:09:01 Speaker 2
All right, so this was your choice.
00:09:03 Speaker 2
What made you pick this movie?
00:09:06 Speaker 1
I wanted to see just an escapist type of action movie that was.
00:09:13 Speaker 1
You know, throwback to those 80s movies that and I'd heard such great things about it.
00:09:17 Speaker 1
So I figured, you know, it's definitely something to check.
00:09:20 Speaker 1
Out cause I.
00:09:20 Speaker 1
Really did like Top Gun when I watched.
00:09:22 Speaker 1
I haven't seen in a long, long time.
00:09:24 Speaker 1
So there were some things in the movie that I was like, Oh yeah, I had forgotten that part.
00:09:30 Speaker 1
You know, like the piano playing.
00:09:33 Speaker 1
And then when they they did the flashback, I was like, OK, I see.
00:09:36 Speaker 1
It's like, why was he playing that song?
00:09:38 Speaker 1
You know, it's like, it's such a weird song to be playing that everybody knows.
00:09:42 Speaker 1
But I had forgotten that that was a throwback.
00:09:46
But yeah it.
00:09:46 Speaker 1
Heard really good things that the action scenes were amazing.
00:09:49 Speaker 1
That the the way they shot the the planes was super realistic, so I had to see it cause I really like those types of escapist type movies when they're done well.
00:10:01 Speaker 2
And what do you think?
00:10:03 Speaker 2
What's the verdict?
00:10:05 Speaker 1
I enjoyed it.
00:10:07 Speaker 1
At first I thought, you know, this is going to.
00:10:08 Speaker 1
Kind of drag on for a little bit.
00:10:11 Speaker 1
I can see where this is going, but even the fact that I knew where it was going didn't really matter.
00:10:16 Speaker 1
You know the.
00:10:17 Speaker 1
The fact that everything comes just lined up perfectly in the movie, like every single sequence was alright.
00:10:23 Speaker 1
I pretty much know what's going to happen next.
00:10:25 Speaker 1
You know, it's like the I kind of thought about it like those cop movies.
00:10:30 Speaker 1
We were like ohh the bad boy cop.
00:10:32 Speaker 1
He blew up 20 cop cars and destroyed half the city.
00:10:36 Speaker 1
Give us your badge.
00:10:37 Speaker 1
And now we're going to give it back you.
00:10:40 Speaker 1
Know a couple of scenes later so you can come back and save the day.
00:10:43 Speaker 1
It was like that with a little bit of Star Wars mixed in.
00:10:47 Speaker 2
A little bit.
00:10:50 Speaker 2
Good. So you're satisfied.
00:10:52 Speaker 1
Yeah, I don't.
00:10:52 Speaker 1
I honestly don't think I'd watch it again.
00:10:54 Speaker 1
I talked to a friend of mine.
00:10:55 Speaker 1
He's like, oh, I've already seen it twice.
00:10:57 Speaker 1
I loved it.
00:10:57 Speaker 1
I saw in the theaters, and I I watched it on on TV, but I don't know.
00:11:03 Speaker 1
I think at that point it's just so predictable that that.
00:11:07 Speaker 1
It's not worth watching.
00:11:09 Speaker 1
Would you watch it again?
00:11:13 Speaker 2
So as you know, I watch it on my projector, so it's a big giant image that fills an entire wall and I got new speakers that have a little more bass, so it's it's visually really amazing.
00:11:29 Speaker 2
And I, you know, so the action sequences weren't really like.
00:11:33 Speaker 2
Burned into my brain so much that I don't think I would enjoy them again and the.
00:11:40 Speaker 2
The romance and the character development.
00:11:43 Speaker 2
It was fairly spread out and quick, you know, it's just a lot of Tom Cruise smiling.
00:11:50 Speaker 2
You know, and what is it, Jennifer Connelly.
00:11:52 Speaker 2
Yeah, a lot of her close-ups of her still gorgeous face.
00:11:57 Speaker 2
So I don't think I you know if I think if I gave it like a few months, six months or a year or two years or something like that, I think I could come back and and just re experience it having not thought about it really much.
00:12:10 Speaker 2
Since the last time I watched it, you know, I mean, I think I could just put it on and it would just be like a fun kind of adventure.
00:12:16 Speaker 2
And maybe I'd notice more details about what it was like to really fly on the planes.
00:12:20 Speaker 2
You know, things like that.
00:12:21 Speaker 2
So I think I.
00:12:22 Speaker 2
Could watch it again, but I think I'd give it a little bit of a.
00:12:25 Speaker 1
Yeah, I think I think those action scenes were were really, really well done.
00:12:31 Speaker 1
Now, like I don't know how they actually shot some of those scenes, right where the planes are like flipping upside down, one on top of the other.
00:12:39 Speaker 1
Do you know anything about the?
00:12:40 Speaker 1
Way they they actually did the effects.
00:12:41 Speaker 1
For that was.
00:12:42 Speaker 1
It all, you know practical effects, or were they?
00:12:46 Speaker 1
Was there a lot of like green screen that they used or computer generated?
00:12:51 Speaker 2
I think it was mostly just footage from the last film.
00:12:53 Speaker 2
Right. Then they just.
00:12:53 Speaker 1
That they threw in.
00:12:54 Speaker 1
There. Especially the end. Yeah. Spoiler alert. With the F14, that was just ready to go. Fully fueled, just sitting there. Why wouldn't it be?
00:13:01 Speaker 2
Yeah, of course. Well.
00:13:03 Speaker 2
What else you can do with the museum piece if you have fifth generation fighters, whatever that means, then you want to.
00:13:10 Speaker 1
I think that really good.
00:13:10 Speaker 2
Make sure you have some.
00:13:11 Speaker 1
Ones about backups is that the daily driver do they?
00:13:12 Speaker 2
Some first generation fighters.
00:13:15 Speaker 1
Just pick up.
00:13:15 Speaker 1
The pilots with that plane drive them to the the run lane and they they get into those fifth generation planes.
00:13:22 Speaker 1
Is that what that thing is?
00:13:22 Speaker 2
Maybe they maybe they feed the.
00:13:24 Speaker 2
Old ones to the new ones every so often.
00:13:27 Speaker 2
Just push it into the hangar and let it eat it.
00:13:30 Speaker 1
Where they where.
00:13:30 Speaker 1
They just walk out onto the runway 1.
00:13:33 Speaker 1
Of my favorite scenes.
00:13:34 Speaker 1
Don't mind us.
00:13:36 Speaker 2
OK, we're running.
00:13:37 Speaker 1
Yeah, we're headed to work.
00:13:40 Speaker 1
What did you think of the relationship between Rooster and Maverick?
00:13:48 Speaker 2
I thought it was good.
00:13:49 Speaker 2
You know, I was thinking a lot about when we pitch or when.
00:13:51 Speaker 2
I guess when I pitched speaking for myself, ideas for this podcast and.
00:13:56 Speaker 2
We talked about, you know, building a concept or building a story that you would film and would be a movie or a.
00:14:02 Speaker 2
TV show or whatever, and I often.
00:14:08 Speaker 2
I don't always think about as much about those relationships.
00:14:12 Speaker 2
I always assume I think of it as something that develops.
00:14:17 Speaker 2
As you dive into the details of the story right, you have a general sense of a relationship between characters and then as you're writing dialogue and you're writing scenes and you're getting a sense of the characters, then the complexities and the heart of their relationship really manifests.
00:14:34 Speaker 2
But I I think a lot of successful.
00:14:37 Speaker 2
Producers, writers, directors. They really.
00:14:41 Speaker 2
It's not fair to say, start with that, but that is an important part of their initial elevator pitch, so they come in really strong with.
00:14:50 Speaker 2
Oh, and here's why it matters right to them.
00:14:53 Speaker 2
Not because it's cool or interesting and plays off of other things.
00:14:56 Speaker 2
It matters because these two characters need to have this.
00:15:01 Speaker 2
Cliche relationship, you know, and that's what people this is gonna resonate with.
00:15:07 Speaker 2
Johnny moviegoer on Friday, date night or whatever.
00:15:12 Speaker 2
You know, I I think that's I think this was.
00:15:15 Speaker 2
That what you're talking about?
00:15:16 Speaker 2
The relation between Maverick and Brewster was the core.
00:15:18 Speaker 2
Of the pitch for this.
00:15:21 Speaker 2
I think it's.
00:15:21 Speaker 2
What probably hooked a lot of the key players involved?
00:15:26 Speaker 2
And I I think it.
00:15:28 Speaker 2
They certainly didn't overdevelop it.
00:15:31 Speaker 2
I think that's the fairest way to put it.
00:15:34 Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah, it was just enough tension to have them both kind of fulfill their role.
00:15:39 Speaker 2
Yeah, like Maverick is very much the star of this film.
00:15:46 Speaker 2
I hate to say this, but feels a little tacked on in places you know you know?
00:15:51 Speaker 2
Obviously not in the the spotlight for a lot of the movie.
00:15:56 Speaker 2
If I was approaching this film, I think I would have made the mistake of trying to beef up that role and give that character more nuance, and it would have come across as an attempt to pass the.
00:16:08 Speaker 2
Torch and keep doing Top Gun sequels with Rooster as the main character.
00:16:16 Speaker 2
But that would have been a mistake.
00:16:17 Speaker 2
This version is much better.
00:16:18 Speaker 2
Just keeping Rooster as ohh.
00:16:21 Speaker 2
I don't want to say.
00:16:21 Speaker 2
Two-dimensional he's.
00:16:24 Speaker 2
Borderline 2 dimensional.
00:16:25 Speaker 2
That bit about like he's too hesitant.
00:16:28 Speaker 2
He doesn't react.
00:16:29 Speaker 2
And coincidentally that's exactly Mavericks deal from the previous film is.
00:16:33 Speaker 2
Like if you think you're dead, you know.
00:16:36 Speaker 2
So having that be like Roosters one fault other than he's upset about his parents dying, you know, and he's got some misplaced anger.
00:16:44 Speaker 2
I guess, you know.
00:16:46 Speaker 2
But not really.
00:16:48 Speaker 2
It's not truly misplaced, but it's also not fair to the main character who we all sympathize with.
00:16:54 Speaker 2
So he has two things to overcome by the end of the film, and that's it.
00:16:58 Speaker 2
You know, it doesn't feel like a human being to me, but again, I would have made the mistake of trying to develop that character more.
00:17:03 Speaker 1
Yeah, really, beef it up.
00:17:06 Speaker 2
And that would would.
00:17:07 Speaker 2
Have been wrong.
00:17:08 Speaker 1
It's tough with an ensemble piece.
00:17:10 Speaker 1
Like this I think.
00:17:11 Speaker 1
Because you got to introduce so many characters so quickly and you have to have the audience latch on to all of them, or at least put them in their, you know, specific box, you know, so by the time.
00:17:20
OK.
00:17:20 Speaker 1
You action culminates.
00:17:22 Speaker 2
OK, so if you believe this is an ensemble piece name characters for me.
00:17:30 Speaker 1
OK, good, penny.
00:17:33 Speaker 2
You got Bob.
00:17:34 Speaker 2
OK and penny?
00:17:36 Speaker 1
But you know why I know these names?
00:17:38 Speaker 1
At the end of the movie The credits.
00:17:40 Speaker 1
Where they show you.
00:17:42 Speaker 1
So you got me.
00:17:43 Speaker 1
Maybe it's not an ensemble piece, but maybe it's a movie with a lot of different characters in it.
00:17:47 Speaker 1
OK, and they're not very important and Maverick is clearly the most important character in the whole thing.
00:17:53 Speaker 1
But my point was really that.
00:17:57 Speaker 1
Each one has to have their own, even small thing that you can kind of say, oh, that guy's kind of rebellious like the the main guy with our hangman or whatever. What did that guy really do? Right. He's.
00:18:08 Speaker 1
Kind of cocky.
00:18:10 Speaker 1
That's about it, yeah.
00:18:12 Speaker 2
Yeah, he's good with the toothpick.
00:18:14 Speaker 1
Yeah, really good with the toothpick and whatever.
00:18:18 Speaker 1
They're all good at playing that beach football or whatever, right?
00:18:23 Speaker 1
But yeah, I think in a movie like this.
00:18:26 Speaker 1
It's hard, I think, to balance the those action sequences right that everyone wants to see with, like an actual plot that people can actually hold on to, you know, so it just gets really watered down.
00:18:40 Speaker 2
Yeah, 100% right. Like I get your point and I don't want to come across as criticizing this film a lot because that's totally unfair.
00:18:48 Speaker 2
They made a lot of choices.
00:18:50 Speaker 2
They had limited time and I think they largely made the right choices.
00:18:54 Speaker 2
So, you know, none of this is a criticism, but just an observation.
00:18:58 Speaker 2
The fighter pilots the younger generation.
00:19:01 Speaker 2
We're very much like there are three or four.
00:19:04 Speaker 2
Of them and the rest.
00:19:06 Speaker 1
Uh, exactly how it ended up.
00:19:08 Speaker 1
The end, right, if you would.
00:19:09 Speaker 1
Have looked in the movie from that perspective like I've been like, Oh yeah, I know who's gonna get chosen.
00:19:14 Speaker 1
Can you imagine Roosters not chosen?
00:19:15 Speaker 1
He's, like, end up on the runway.
00:19:16
Right.
00:19:17 Speaker 1
No, like go Maverick, go.
00:19:19 Speaker 2
Like good luck, Maverick and Titan payback.
00:19:26 Speaker 2
Lady Gaga and.
00:19:31 Speaker 1
Go get him.
00:19:32 Speaker 2
In market segments and he has like.
00:19:32 Speaker 1
I'll be back here.
00:19:33 Speaker 1
I understand why you left me behind.
00:19:35 Speaker 2
About it. Alright, see you.
00:19:38 Speaker 2
It's like 5 pilots or what?
00:19:40 Speaker 2
Yeah, five other pilots that you hadn't seen up to that point, except they were in the back rows.
00:19:45
For the briefings.
00:19:45 Speaker 1
Don't worry, we're happy everyone in the front can step away now and they all clear out and.
00:19:51 Speaker 1
It's like 6 it's 6.
00:19:52 Speaker 1
Completely new or five completely new characters.
00:19:56 Speaker 1
This is ace.
00:20:00
Well, what are they?
00:20:00 Speaker 1
The ones from what is that show called?
00:20:03 Speaker 1
Whatever that laser.
00:20:07 Speaker 1
They all come back.
00:20:09 Speaker 2
Laser you go laser.
00:20:13 Speaker 1
Ohh that's so funny.
00:20:16 Speaker 1
I was wondering what happened to those guys.
00:20:18 Speaker 1
Can you imagine?
00:20:18 Speaker 1
They just put like flight suits on them and they're like they're ready.
00:20:21 Speaker 1
They're they haven't been here training for the mission.
00:20:24 Speaker 1
But they got the gist of.
00:20:25 Speaker 1
It we just showed them a highlight reel.
00:20:28 Speaker 1
They're really good at jumping off high pedestals and hitting people with with rubber mallets and jousts.
00:20:37 Speaker 2
Yeah, I really thought the movie was would make a mistake and show like a close up, not like a super close up but like nice face shots of all the people and recruited for this program, all the former top guns.
00:20:50 Speaker 2
But at no point do I recall them even really giving you a good look at about half.
00:20:56 Speaker 2
For the people in that space, I know they were in frame on occasion, but it was almost like their faces were fuzzed out like there was always somebody else doing something.
00:21:06 Speaker 2
There wasn't even like, a they're all just writing notes, like a panning shot like that.
00:21:10 Speaker 1
Right, right, right.
00:21:10 Speaker 2
I recall it was.
00:21:11 Speaker 2
It was as if they don't exist.
00:21:13 Speaker 2
Like, if if you were an actor in that movie who played that role.
00:21:17 Speaker 2
Where you were.
00:21:18 Speaker 2
One of the top guns that they recruited back and you're in the classroom right then I I think it would probably shock you that literally no one would recognize.
00:21:27 Speaker 2
You like ever like.
00:21:30 Speaker 2
Biggest movie of the year and no.
00:21:31 Speaker 2
One could pick you out of a crowd.
00:21:33 Speaker 1
So you go like Tom Cruise to Miles Teller to that hangman guy and then back to, like, whatever the conflict was, right?
00:21:41 Speaker 1
That was it.
00:21:42 Speaker 1
The rest was just filler seats.
00:21:44 Speaker 1
Almost like they were there, but not really there.
00:21:46 Speaker 1
So at the end, when they chose everyone from the mission.
00:21:50 Speaker 1
I don't know.
00:21:50 Speaker 1
At one point I.
00:21:51 Speaker 1
Was like wait.
00:21:52 Speaker 1
Who's that guy again?
00:21:54 Speaker 1
He's the guy they mentioned when they all have their masks on their oxygen masks in the planes.
00:22:00 Speaker 1
Like they're yelling for that guy, but I don't know who that guy really is until right now, which is kind of funny because they're the elite 5 that are chosen for this mission.
00:22:09 Speaker 1
Yeah, I see exactly what you're saying.
00:22:12 Speaker 1
I like how they did the.
00:22:15 Speaker 1
I guess the simulator tracking in the classroom and cutting out to the actual shots of where he was in real time or where they were in real time.
00:22:23 Speaker 1
I think that was really well done.
00:22:25 Speaker 1
Instead of just simplifying it where they just put them in.
00:22:27 Speaker 1
The plane it.
00:22:29 Speaker 1
Give you kind of a perspective like how far along are they in the mission time rise and also along that course.
00:22:36 Speaker 1
So you kind of after a while, once you understood what they had to do, fly low, you know, go up, get down, do the the missile strike and then.
00:22:45 Speaker 1
Take off out of that valley that you really understood that sequence and it became more and more.
00:22:50 Speaker 1
I think exciting as they showed it as.
00:22:52 Speaker 1
They got better at it.
00:22:54 Speaker 1
I thought that was really well done.
00:22:56 Speaker 2
That was excellent.
00:22:58 Speaker 2
They actually mounted 5, I believe IMAX cameras on The Jets and had the actors have.
00:23:06 Speaker 2
To they had.
00:23:06 Speaker 2
To act without really any communication with the director or the rest of the crew for these scenes because they had cameras pointed at them, their cameras pointed ahead, there were cameras mounted on the wings, etcetera, etcetera.
00:23:18 Speaker 2
So it was, you know, difficult to shoot and it was very technically, I think complicated and they probably shot a ton of footage that they couldn't use.
00:23:29 Speaker 2
But they were committed to it and they did it and it it really looks amazing.
00:23:34 Speaker 2
I'm sure it was expensive as hell.
00:23:36 Speaker 2
But it worked.
00:23:37
Yeah, it really works.
00:23:38 Speaker 2
And I like.
00:23:38 Speaker 2
You were pointing out the representation of people's progress on the training course and in the actual mission.
00:23:45 Speaker 2
I think that was a wonderful visual edition that really did kind of suck you in and it was cool.
00:23:49 Speaker 2
To see like John.
00:23:51 Speaker 2
And react to Maverick running the course that last time to like prove it could be done.
00:23:57 Speaker 2
You know, like that's so like so much more engaging than if he's like looking out a window with like binoculars.
00:24:03 Speaker 1
Right.
00:24:04 Speaker 1
And then he flies by and that's it.
00:24:06 Speaker 2
Right. And somebody's like with this, you know, sitting there going 30 seconds, 33 seconds sets a new record, you know.
00:24:13 Speaker 2
And you're like, oh, I guess that's good.
00:24:14 Speaker 1
Like I think yeah, it gave it a lot of context and the way they use that timer and that visuals, it was simple, you know, in a way.
00:24:23 Speaker 1
It's like, you know, representation of the plane and the.
00:24:26 Speaker 1
Timer but it worked so.
00:24:28 Speaker 1
And I also liked the scene that I really liked.
00:24:31 Speaker 1
It was really quick, was in the beginning to show how fast those planes were.
00:24:35 Speaker 1
When he's about to do his mock 10 or whatever he does that fly over and he like blows, literally blows the roof off that shed.
00:24:41 Speaker 1
That was such a cool, well framed shot that just kind of showed you how fast these planes are in relation to everything in the ground.
00:24:49 Speaker 1
You know, from that perspective, it was cool.
00:24:51 Speaker 2
Yeah, that was A1 take.
00:24:53 Speaker 2
Ohh wow yeah, they didn't intend for the shed.
00:24:56 Speaker 2
Roof to come off?
00:24:58 Speaker 2
So they did it in one and they wrecked the set, so they just took.
00:25:04 Speaker 2
It ran with it.
00:25:04 Speaker 1
That's really cool that they were able.
00:25:06 Speaker 1
To do that.
00:25:07 Speaker 1
Yeah, there were a lot of things about this movie.
00:25:10 Speaker 1
That we're, I mean.
00:25:11 Speaker 1
It's it's not a short movie.
00:25:13 Speaker 1
What is it?
00:25:13 Speaker 1
It's over 2 hours long.
00:25:15 Speaker 1
I think so. I think it might be 210.
00:25:19 Speaker 2
Two hours. 210 minutes? Yeah.
00:25:23 Speaker 2
Your internal clock is on it.
00:25:23
Right.
00:25:26 Speaker 1
It went by so quickly.
00:25:28 Speaker 1
Which I it's always a.
00:25:29 Speaker 1
Good thing in that type of movie.
00:25:31 Speaker 1
You were never really.
00:25:32 Speaker 1
Bored, you know again.
00:25:33 Speaker 2
No. Moved along.
00:25:34 Speaker 1
Even though you knew.
00:25:36 Speaker 1
Yeah, you know what's going to happen at the end, but actually the end was kind of surprising that whole him getting shot down into enemy territory and that helicopter showing up.
00:25:46 Speaker 1
That was kind of cool because they never talked about helicopters at all.
00:25:49 Speaker 1
I just always assumed it was these fighter jets, and once he once he was down on the ground.
00:25:55 Speaker 1
Maybe they'd stopped chasing him for a moment or whatever, but when that helicopter showed.
00:25:59 Speaker 1
Up that was.
00:26:01 Speaker 1
That was really good.
00:26:04 Speaker 2
I know so much in this film it in my mind it's almost a bad choice for a podcast episode, because for us it's, you know, it's great to do it and we should talk about it.
00:26:10 Speaker 1
I think so, yeah.
00:26:15 Speaker 2
And I I think it's great that we chose it, but it's challenging.
00:26:18 Speaker 2
When I was trying to prepare.
00:26:19 Speaker 2
Because there's a lot where it's like, hey.
00:26:21 Speaker 2
Remember that thing.
00:26:22 Speaker 2
Yeah, that was pretty cool.
00:26:24 Speaker 2
You know, and that's kind it.
00:26:24 Speaker 1
There's a lot of there's a lot of.
00:26:26 Speaker 1
That yeah, I.
00:26:27 Speaker 2
That's kind of it, you know.
00:26:28 Speaker 2
And you don't want to start tearing it.
00:26:30 Speaker 2
A new one, which?
00:26:31 Speaker 2
Is unfair because you know, I could be like ohh you remember the part when they're doing the Canyon run for the final mission and then Obi Wan Kenobi says.
00:26:40 Speaker 2
Use the full reason.
00:26:43 Speaker 2
But that's not fair.
00:26:44 Speaker 2
You know, it's not like they invented it.
00:26:47 Speaker 2
I could point out that Rogue One, a rogue squadron, the Patty Jenkins movie, got shut down.
00:26:53 Speaker 2
I think on the heels of realizing they can't really top this film that's going to be the comparison, right?
00:27:01 Speaker 2
Rogue Squadron is supposed to be about X wing and Y wing like Star Wars pilots, so you're what are you going to make?
00:27:07 Speaker 2
Real X wings.
00:27:09
How how are you gonna?
00:27:09
How are you?
00:27:10 Speaker 2
Gonna even remotely compare.
00:27:13 Speaker 2
To this film?
00:27:13 Speaker 2
No, they shut it down.
00:27:15 Speaker 2
They already did Star Wars better than Star Wars or as well as Star Wars, depending on how you want to look at, you know, the 40 year difference.
00:27:22 Speaker 2
Or whatever it is.
00:27:23 Speaker 2
So it's difficult.
00:27:24 Speaker 2
To get into this film, I mean it.
00:27:26 Speaker 2
There's so many things about it that I went into it like not wanting to, like, for example, not identifying the enemy.
00:27:34 Speaker 2
Yeah, I I.
00:27:34 Speaker 2
Well, that's gonna annoy me the whole time.
00:27:36 Speaker 2
They're gonna keep.
00:27:37 Speaker 2
Saying like the bad guys.
00:27:39 Speaker 2
Ohh, you know when the enemy does this and I'm gonna keep and they're gonna show like non descript uniforms. And you're never going to be able to tell anybody's ethnicity or anything at all.
00:27:49 Speaker 2
Like the terrain is going to be generic and I figured I'd be sitting there.
00:27:53 Speaker 2
Going this is dumb.
00:27:54 Speaker 2
Like this is so unrealistic.
00:27:57 Speaker 2
But I gotta be honest, it was the right choice.
00:28:00 Speaker 2
It it, it would have been a distraction.
00:28:02 Speaker 2
It would have dated the film.
00:28:03 Speaker 2
It would have alienated some people.
00:28:06 Speaker 2
It would have created backlash that you don't need to create it.
00:28:09 Speaker 2
It it really, honestly would have shifted away from where we very tightly stay the whole time, which is this group of pilots.
00:28:17 Speaker 2
And Maverick specifically as the sun and that universe.
00:28:21 Speaker 2
So it's not even.
00:28:22 Speaker 2
More broadly about the US military or anything else at all.
00:28:26 Speaker 2
It's just the most generic take on the whole bad guy thing.
00:28:31 Speaker 2
Which I didn't think I would like.
00:28:33 Speaker 2
But in the end, you know, like I said, good choice.
00:28:37 Speaker 2
I mean, to be honest, for all the little things that I'd be tempted to nitpick, this movie is a real triumph of Scientology.
00:28:45 Speaker 2
What else can?
00:28:45 Speaker 2
You say you.
00:28:46 Speaker 2
Know I'm convinced I'm signed.
00:28:48 Speaker 1
This is a tough one actually.
00:28:49 Speaker 1
When I when I chose this movie, I thought.
00:28:54 Speaker 1
Maybe we're not going to have much to talk about if it's really good.
00:28:57 Speaker 1
Well, we we really enjoy it.
00:28:59 Speaker 1
But then I thought, what are the?
00:29:00 Speaker 1
Chances that I'm actually going to enjoy it this much and that I'm not going to be able to tear it apart.
00:29:06 Speaker 1
In some way.
00:29:06 Speaker 1
But I'm having a really hard time having this conversation.
00:29:09 Speaker 1
Thinking like that was so stupid the way that this happened.
00:29:13 Speaker 1
Yeah, because the whole thing is kind of like a series of.
00:29:16 Speaker 1
Of cliche shapes, right?
00:29:18 Speaker 1
But in a good way.
00:29:19 Speaker 2
But it's a sequel to a film.
00:29:22 Speaker 2
That it fits perfectly like it's it's.
00:29:24
What you should.
00:29:25 Speaker 1
Right.
00:29:26 Speaker 1
What else was he going to?
00:29:28 Speaker 1
I mean, it was kind of like his character.
00:29:30 Speaker 1
Where else would he be?
00:29:31 Speaker 1
Well, he would probably be doing the same ****.
00:29:33 Speaker 1
You know, he's kind of responsible with his personal life.
00:29:36 Speaker 1
He's always pushing the limits.
00:29:38 Speaker 1
I mean this movie really boring.
00:29:40 Speaker 2
Gone to the wind or something?
00:29:42 Speaker 2
What are you going to do?
00:29:42 Speaker 1
Listen to Mark 10 now.
00:29:44 Speaker 1
He's older, so he's like guys, you know, I can't do March 10.
00:29:47 Speaker 1
I can do like Mach 7.
00:29:48 Speaker 1
They're like, oh, the Top Gun program's over. All right, see you later. Roll credits. He's back on his motorcycle, and then he.
00:29:53 Speaker 1
See his speedometer. It's like 55.
00:29:56 Speaker 1
And it says 65 on the on the speed limit.
00:30:00 Speaker 2
And he pulls into Mavericks lawn mowers.
00:30:06 Speaker 1
That's my old.
00:30:07 Speaker 1
I'm not like that anymore.
00:30:09 Speaker 1
It keeps telling people you know, and he's really not like that anymore.
00:30:09 Speaker 2
Right.
00:30:12 Speaker 2
He's got three kids.
00:30:12 Speaker 1
And in the movie, yeah, he's he's got his lawnmower business and he's happy with that.
00:30:19 Speaker 1
It would be like a short film it.
00:30:20 Speaker 2
What are they gonna do?
00:30:21
Would be a.
00:30:21 Speaker 1
Really funny one.
00:30:22 Speaker 2
Exactly like there's just.
00:30:24 Speaker 2
What are you sending to space?
00:30:26 Speaker 2
You know, like.
00:30:26 Speaker 2
OK, well, we need someone for.
00:30:27 Speaker 2
The Mars mission, but the flights going.
00:30:29 Speaker 2
To be too difficult.
00:30:30 Speaker 2
Who do we get, you know?
00:30:32 Speaker 2
This is what you this is the.
00:30:34 Speaker 2
Only way to really do not.
00:30:35 Speaker 2
The only way that's ridiculous.
00:30:36 Speaker 2
This is the.
00:30:37 Speaker 2
The simplest way.
00:30:39 Speaker 2
To emphasize the point of the original film, recreate it and just make another naval recruiting tool.
00:30:47 Speaker 1
Yeah, a really good one at that, I.
00:30:49 Speaker 1
Gotta give him credit, yeah.
00:30:51 Speaker 1
That thou Kilmer scene was really good, I thought.
00:30:53 Speaker 2
Yeah, I actually did want to talk about that a little bit.
00:30:56 Speaker 2
I started watching the Val documentary.
00:31:00 Speaker 2
About a year ago, I want to say it came out in 2021, so probably was a year ago. Popped up on Amazon as a.
00:31:07 Speaker 2
You know, we'll think you.
00:31:07 Speaker 2
We think you'd like this or.
00:31:09 Speaker 2
Whatever recommendation and I.
00:31:10 Speaker 2
Was like, well, watch a couple.
00:31:11 Speaker 2
Of minutes because I I like Val Kilmer.
00:31:14 Speaker 2
I like a lot of the stuff he's done like, you know, Tombstone.
00:31:17 Speaker 2
Obviously one of the greatest westerns ever made.
00:31:20 Speaker 2
You know, he was Batman.
00:31:22 Speaker 2
That was a disaster.
00:31:23 Speaker 2
I was kind of curious about that.
00:31:24 Speaker 2
He did the original Top Gun and there were a.
00:31:26 Speaker 2
Lot of notorious.
00:31:28 Speaker 2
Moments you know or or stories or rumors about the relationship between Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer during that film.
00:31:34 Speaker 2
And a lot of the other actors.
00:31:35 Speaker 2
Got pulled into that and stuff.
00:31:36 Speaker 2
So I was like, I'll watch a couple of minutes.
00:31:38 Speaker 2
And see what it's all about.
00:31:40 Speaker 2
And I ended up watching the entire thing.
00:31:42 Speaker 2
I just got sucked in and I was really interested.
00:31:44 Speaker 2
It was really well done, his son narrates.
00:31:46 Speaker 2
A lot of it.
00:31:48 Speaker 2
I believe his name is and it was just an interesting, you know, fairly candid history and update on like what it's like to.
00:31:57 Speaker 2
Be Val Kilmer.
00:31:58 Speaker 2
You know, and it was sad in some ways it was hopeful and so.
00:32:01 Speaker 2
Anyways, so then I I assumed that his work in the new top.
00:32:07 Speaker 2
Gun had already.
00:32:08 Speaker 2
Been shot because I think they wrapped on that film in like 2020 or 2021 depending on who you ask in the current lawsuit, but I'm assuming that was the sum of the prompt for this documentary, or maybe they just coincidentally.
00:32:23 Speaker 2
Started it and wrapped it around the same time.
00:32:26 Speaker 2
I don't know, but it's worth watching.
00:32:28 Speaker 2
It's really engaging in a lot of ways.
00:32:30 Speaker 2
If you're at all interested about the life of.
00:32:32 Speaker 2
Celebrities and some of the behind the scenes for these films.
00:32:36 Speaker 1
Did you mention this to?
00:32:38 Speaker 2
No, I don't believe so.
00:32:40 Speaker 2
If he did.
00:32:41 Speaker 2
It was brief but.
00:32:41 Speaker 2
I I don't recall it at all.
00:32:43 Speaker 2
But it it was pre.
00:32:44 Speaker 2
The launch of the hype for this.
00:32:46 Speaker 2
Film I mean this.
00:32:48 Speaker 2
Movie The Mavericks been done forever.
00:32:50 Speaker 2
They they could have launched it during the pandemic, but Tom Cruise, you know, uncharacteristically developed an ego and.
00:32:58 Speaker 2
Now I I think he thought how.
00:33:01 Speaker 2
Do I put this fairly?
00:33:03 Speaker 2
He wanted it to be a cinematic experience.
00:33:06 Speaker 2
Think he knew?
00:33:07 Speaker 2
That it was a good product and he wanted to place it for success.
00:33:11 Speaker 2
He's a little bit old school now, Hollywood, you know which if you consider 80s and 90s old school, but I think he's still holding on to that cinema experience idea and.
00:33:22 Speaker 2
I I would think.
00:33:23 Speaker 2
Probably most of the audience would consider that argument validated at the time.
00:33:28 Speaker 2
Again, another reason I went into this movie maybe not totally open minded is because I thought during the pandemic there was a lot of content.
00:33:35 Speaker 2
There was like a lot of gaps, but there was a lot of content that was done or nearly done that could have been released.
00:33:41 Speaker 2
As a way to help people cope with the pandemic is like hey, you know, Hollywood, we're all about entertainment, we're going to step up and we're going to put some stuff out.
00:33:49 Speaker 2
But instead I felt like they greedily held on to a lot of things.
00:33:53 Speaker 2
And again, I understand people still would have had to work, and that would have put some people at risk and it would have done.
00:33:58 Speaker 2
There's arguments on both sides.
00:34:00 Speaker 2
But it still felt like it was largely motivated by a lot of executives being afraid to be the one who was wrong.
00:34:10 Speaker 2
And so they just erred on the side of to me, what seemed like selfish choices and Top Gun.
00:34:16 Speaker 2
And my mind could have been released, right? But I think Tom Cruise's point in part would have been this film is not ideal for a streaming release. We're not dragging people back to theaters.
00:34:27 Speaker 2
So we'll just sit on it.
00:34:29 Speaker 2
So anyway, I think that.
00:34:31 Speaker 2
Was a probably the right choice again.
00:34:34 Speaker 1
It's a very cinematic movie.
00:34:40 Speaker 2
I think some theaters did this thing where they had like, a mini screen on the.
00:34:44 Speaker 2
Died to kind of create the illusion that you were in the plane.
00:34:48 Speaker 2
Or like moving.
00:34:51 Speaker 2
Yeah, it was some feature that I heard about.
00:34:52 Speaker 2
I think it was pretty rare, but I think a friend of mine said he saw the movie in a theater.
00:34:58 Speaker 2
So a lot of you know, a lot of really visual intense.
00:35:04 Speaker 2
You know, sequences intended to kind of grab you by the guts.
00:35:09 Speaker 2
Jerk you around.
00:35:10 Speaker 2
But well, they shot.
00:35:11 Speaker 2
The the third Act, largely in the Cascade Mountains, there's a Top Gun course there training course there, and they shot a lot of the film and that, you know, they were going sort of the snowy peaks and the, you know, river kind of weaving through the Canyon.
00:35:30 Speaker 2
So that was shot in in the Cascades, so that.
00:35:32 Speaker 2
Was kind of cool.
00:35:34 Speaker 2
The dark star.
00:35:35 Speaker 2
Oh, sorry, good.
00:35:37 Speaker 1
Was a lot of it, so a lot of it were actual jets that they were film.
00:35:42
Oh yeah, yeah.
00:35:42 Speaker 1
Lives like as they.
00:35:43 Speaker 1
Were flying, it wasn't like.
00:35:44 Speaker 2
I think minus a couple shots where something got blown up, you know, like a a jet, got, you know, ripped in half or something like that.
00:35:53 Speaker 2
I think a few of those were CGI, but minus that, I think it was almost all or entirely real jets doing real flying.
00:36:02 Speaker 1
So were the actors in some type of studio though, like.
00:36:05 Speaker 2
No, they were in planes.
00:36:07 Speaker 1
So where how are they getting?
00:36:09 Speaker 1
Are they getting flown around or like how?
00:36:10 Speaker 2
I would assume.
00:36:11 Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah, I, you know, I think a lot of these shots where it looks like they're in the front, they're probably in the back and it's just been altered to look like a one.
00:36:19 Speaker 2
Cedar and then other times probably some of.
00:36:22 Speaker 2
It was shot.
00:36:23 Speaker 2
On the ground or, you know, I know the I'm.
00:36:26 Speaker 2
I'm just assuming the actors, from what I understand, did not learn how to fly all these planes, right?
00:36:31 Speaker 2
And I know Tom Cruise only flew the last plane, the one he actually owns, that one with.
00:36:37 Speaker 2
With Jennifer probably like, that's one of his planes.
00:36:37 Speaker 1
Oh, I see.
00:36:40 Speaker 2
Which you know, I'm sure, was a nightmare for the insurance underwriters.
00:36:44 Speaker 1
Oh, I can't even imagine.
00:36:47 Speaker 2
Are you kidding me?
00:36:49 Speaker 2
So yeah, so I think.
00:36:51 Speaker 2
A lot of it was done.
00:36:52 Speaker 2
All of it.
00:36:52 Speaker 2
Was done as practically as you possibly could, which was very challenging, no doubt.
00:36:58 Speaker 1
Looked a lot like a Michael Bay film.
00:37:01 Speaker 1
In a lot of ways, or maybe I should say.
00:37:02 Speaker 2
Wow, that is mean that is mean.
00:37:05 Speaker 1
I mean, I don't know.
00:37:06 Speaker 1
I'm not such a hater on on Michael Bay because I think a lot.
00:37:09 Speaker 1
Of people I.
00:37:09 Speaker 1
Think he's really good at what he does?
00:37:13 Speaker 1
Again, he like that popcorn type of everything blowing up action movie.
00:37:17 Speaker 1
That's your guy, you know.
00:37:20 Speaker 1
The original director for this is who Ridley Scott.
00:37:23 Speaker 1
Or was it his brother, Tony Scott, right?
00:37:24 Speaker 2
Tony's got? Yeah. And he he started production on a sequel to Top Gun, and I think it was 2013 or something like that.
00:37:35 Speaker 2
No 20, I can't remember.
00:37:37 Speaker 2
He he's like, 20 tens around then early 20 tens.
00:37:41 Speaker 2
He or 20 teens.
00:37:43 Speaker 2
I guess whatever he started.
00:37:45 Speaker 2
Production on another Top Gun and they committed suicide.
00:37:49 Speaker 1
You know sad, but this guy seemed to have kept.
00:37:52 Speaker 1
The look and feel of the original in a lot of.
00:37:56 Speaker 2
Yeah, he previously did oblivion with.
00:38:01 Speaker 2
Is that right with Tom Cruise?
00:38:02 Speaker 2
OK.
00:38:04 Speaker 2
So yeah, I don't know what prompted him to grab a hold of this particular property, but maybe it's because he's worked with Tom Cruise and.
00:38:11 Speaker 2
He just saw an opportunity.
00:38:14 Speaker 1
Maybe Tom Cruise just approached him.
00:38:16 Speaker 1
You know, he's like, I like your visual style or whatever.
00:38:19 Speaker 1
I have this project, right?
00:38:21 Speaker 2
You know, I I'm sure a lot of people think they know I.
00:38:24 Speaker 2
I also imagine we'll never really know because as much as the film itself, there's a lore, there's a there are legends.
00:38:32 Speaker 2
There are stories that evolve around.
00:38:35 Speaker 2
A film and it's part of the film.
00:38:37 Speaker 2
It's part of marketing the film.
00:38:39 Speaker 2
It's part of, you know, the celebrity status of the everyone involved, right?
00:38:45 Speaker 2
As you create these stories that are part of a larger narrative and it's, you know, so yeah, OK, maybe it was Tom Cruise, maybe he was dead set against it.
00:38:55 Speaker 2
Maybe it was.
00:38:56 Speaker 2
You know the director, maybe.
00:38:58 Speaker 2
You know some someone else was involved.
00:39:00 Speaker 1
You know, there was just a studio, right?
00:39:01 Speaker 1
It was like, oh, yeah, we have this this property.
00:39:04 Speaker 1
We have some screenwriters to.
00:39:05 Speaker 1
Write a sequel that's good.
00:39:07
Right.
00:39:07 Speaker 2
Yeah, they've been.
00:39:08 Speaker 2
Bugging Tom Cruise every year for 30 years to make another one, and this is the one.
00:39:13 Speaker 2
That hit, yeah.
00:39:14
Right.
00:39:15 Speaker 1
Yeah, but it doesn't make for such an interesting story, right?
00:39:18 Speaker 1
I had free time.
00:39:19 Speaker 1
I decided to do it, yeah.
00:39:21 Speaker 2
Yeah, it's here's the interesting story.
00:39:23 Speaker 2
Whenever a movie makes a lot of money, the actors get harassed to make a sequel until they die.
00:39:29 Speaker 2
So this is another example of that money.
00:39:31 Speaker 1
They called me so many times.
00:39:33 Speaker 1
I was just like, alright, fine, what is this movie again?
00:39:35 Speaker 1
Oh, Top Gun.
00:39:36 Speaker 1
OK, I'll do that.
00:39:38 Speaker 1
It's not risky business, too, which is probably going to.
00:39:41 Speaker 1
Come out soon.
00:39:44 Speaker 2
You know Tom Cruise bought a a cruise line Tom Cruise cruise line.
00:39:49 Speaker 1
Ohh Tom, Tom's cruises.
00:39:49 Speaker 2
And it it wasn't feeling well, Tom Cruise.
00:39:53 Speaker 2
He pulled his motorcycle 55 miles an hour and pulled it into Tom Cruise's.
00:39:58 Speaker 2
And he wanted that to be the.
00:39:59 Speaker 1
Actual movie like the Top Gun sequel, it's all about his cruise line, so he could tie it in.
00:40:04 Speaker 1
With his real business.
00:40:07 Speaker 2
But my point was.
00:40:08 Speaker 2
It fell through and he needed money.
00:40:09 Speaker 2
So we we got Top Gun, Maverick.
00:40:12 Speaker 1
He needed money.
00:40:16 Speaker 2
I don't know.
00:40:16 Speaker 2
Maybe Scientology wants to.
00:40:18 Speaker 2
Form the country.
00:40:18 Speaker 1
Is really training.
00:40:19 Speaker 1
I'm down to my last 100 million guys.
00:40:22 Speaker 2
Seriously, all the.
00:40:22 Speaker 1
Help me? Yeah.
00:40:23 Speaker 2
Lawsuits and bad PR.
00:40:24
Right.
00:40:25 Speaker 2
They're like, look, Tom.
00:40:25 Speaker 1
And the donations?
00:40:27 Speaker 2
Here's what we need you to do.
00:40:29 Speaker 1
I've given half a billion dollars in the.
00:40:30 Speaker 1
Past five years.
00:40:32 Speaker 1
What do you?
00:40:32 Speaker 1
Need me to do now?
00:40:34 Speaker 1
We need you to.
00:40:34 Speaker 1
Do Top Gun Maverick.
00:40:36 Speaker 1
That's what we need you to do.
00:40:38 Speaker 1
Forget about the cruise lining the.
00:40:40 Speaker 1
Lawn mower shop you're trying to hook in for.
00:40:41 Speaker 1
The past three years.
00:40:43 Speaker 2
We know you love lawn mowers.
00:40:45 Speaker 1
Can we do top?
00:40:46 Speaker 1
Gun on lawn.
00:40:48 Speaker 2
They've got a file like every time they have a PR disaster.
00:40:51 Speaker 2
It's like, alright, let's look through.
00:40:52 Speaker 2
OK.
00:40:53 Speaker 2
Risky business too.
00:40:54 Speaker 1
Two, you're now 60 years old.
00:40:58 Speaker 1
Your parents are away.
00:41:00 Speaker 1
What do you do?
00:41:05 Speaker 2
Hooray for Scientology.
00:41:07 Speaker 1
Yes, that will be an upcoming episode.
00:41:11 Speaker 1
Our Scientology episode, which every great podcast has to have.
00:41:14 Speaker 2
One of the.
00:41:15 Speaker 2
Many things that will get us canceled.
00:41:17 Speaker 1
Yes, or personally.
00:41:24 Speaker 1
I was just joking. Scientology.
00:41:26 Speaker 1
It's all a joke.
00:41:27 Speaker 2
He wasn't, though.
00:41:28 Speaker 1
Now we'll edit that out.
00:41:30 Speaker 1
Don't worry for.
00:41:31 Speaker 1
Our own safety.
00:41:33 Speaker 2
So yeah, what else?
00:41:34 Speaker 2
What else do you need?
00:41:35 Speaker 2
To squeeze out of this film, you know, would.
00:41:37 Speaker 2
You recommend it?
00:41:38 Speaker 2
Should people go see it?
00:41:39 Speaker 1
I think people should go see this one.
00:41:41 Speaker 1
I think they should leave their expectations at the door, not overthinking it and just enjoy it for the you.
00:41:47 Speaker 1
Know the ride that it is.
00:41:49 Speaker 2
Get some popcorn.
00:41:51 Speaker 2
Just sit there.
00:41:55 Speaker 2
I was going to mention the Dark Star.
00:41:57 Speaker 2
I thought, man, that looks like a real plane.
00:41:59 Speaker 2
Is that a real plane? I'm sure it doesn't go mock 1000 or whatever stupid thing but.
00:42:03 Speaker 2
I was like, maybe that's it.
00:42:04 Speaker 2
Looks like like I'm declassified or some sort of prototype or something.
00:42:09 Speaker 2
No, it's it's not.
00:42:10 Speaker 2
It's not a real plane.
00:42:11 Speaker 2
It was made-up, but it was.
00:42:12 Speaker 2
Made-up by people who.
00:42:13 Speaker 2
Make real planes.
00:42:15 Speaker 2
So I think Lockheed Martin actually put together a design.
00:42:19 Speaker 2
And the emblem for the group that makes the design is on the plane.
00:42:23 Speaker 2
You know that weird looking skunk?
00:42:24 Speaker 2
That seems kind of random on the back of the plane.
00:42:27 Speaker 1
I didn't notice it.
00:42:28 Speaker 2
It's got a Pepe le Pew on like the rear fence.
00:42:31 Speaker 2
That's their emblem, I guess so.
00:42:34 Speaker 2
They make all these, like, stealth ish aircrafts or these, like, black.
00:42:38 Speaker 2
You know, airplanes going back to looked like the SR71 when I googled it so anyway so they they designed this they just I guess threw it together.
00:42:43 Speaker 1
The black bird.
00:42:48 Speaker 2
There and then it was.
00:42:49 Speaker 2
It's not a real plane obviously, but they just made like a cardboard one or something and used it for the for the film and it looked totally believable.
00:42:56 Speaker 2
I was like is that?
00:42:57 Speaker 2
A real plane.
00:42:58 Speaker 2
So that was kind of cool.
00:42:59 Speaker 2
So you know, a lot of cool stuff.
00:43:01 Speaker 2
This was a quality production, no real problems with it.
00:43:04 Speaker 2
Jennifer Connelly is amazing.
00:43:05 Speaker 2
She looks great in it, but her character wasn't exactly like multi layered.
00:43:10 Speaker 2
She's not going to win an Oscar for this.
00:43:11 Speaker 2
Not her fault, obviously, but not that much to work with.
00:43:15 Speaker 2
There's just a lot of close-ups and facial expressions, and you know, like Jon Hamm was very good, but.
00:43:23 Speaker 2
You know, I guess he was acting in as much as that's not his real personality.
00:43:28 Speaker 1
Right.
00:43:29 Speaker 2
But it wasn't exactly a real show off of his talent.
00:43:33 Speaker 2
I'm looking forward to seeing his Fletch movie, which I'm sure probably won't be amazing, but I really like the original Fletch.
00:43:40 Speaker 2
Actually both of them, and I'm curious to see what they do to kind of resurrect that.
00:43:44 Speaker 2
And John Hamm has been funny in some roles, so we'll see.
00:43:48 Speaker 1
Yeah, he's pretty good. He's.
00:43:51 Speaker 1
He's a great actor, I think.
00:43:52 Speaker 2
Yeah. I mean, I think.
00:43:53 Speaker 2
He does some things very, very well.
00:43:57 Speaker 2
And that's more than I can say about a lot of.
00:43:59 Speaker 2
Actors. Not that that.
00:44:00 Speaker 2
I'm a great actor or anything like that, but I think some actors just sort of do a good job, not distracting you with their acting.
00:44:08 Speaker 2
But I think Jon Hamm actually can bring a lot to a role and can be really engaging and fun and interesting and carry scenes, and that's great.
00:44:17 Speaker 2
And it was interesting that he's not.
00:44:19 Speaker 2
I don't know if it's a conscious choice or not, but it doesn't seem like he's had a lot of leads.
00:44:24 Speaker 2
I don't know if he kind of blew it or it was the pandemic or he had other things going on in his life.
00:44:28 Speaker 2
But it was interesting to me to see him in a supporting role.
00:44:32 Speaker 2
In this film, especially one that's not, you would almost think like a character actor would would go in that role more so than than a lead.
00:44:40 Speaker 2
But I guess it just speaks.
00:44:42 Speaker 2
To the quality of this production, really.
00:44:45 Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah, I think.
00:44:46
But he's good.
00:44:46 Speaker 1
All the yeah.
00:44:47 Speaker 1
And all the actors, I think.
00:44:48 Speaker 1
Held their own.
00:44:49 Speaker 1
In this, there was no one distracting.
00:44:51 Speaker 1
No one who? Oh, my God. This this person's horrible. You know? It's all. Yeah. It was really well done. The editing I thought was was excellent. The sound design was great. I mean.
00:44:54 Speaker 2
None of that, Yep.
00:45:03 Speaker 1
Great work, Top Gun.
00:45:05 Speaker 2
Top notch you go make a sequel.
00:45:12 Speaker 1
It's kind of set up for.
00:45:12 Speaker 1
One, isn't it? Well, well.
00:45:14 Speaker 2
Well, better question if this IP landed in your.
00:45:18 Speaker 2
Right?
00:45:18 Speaker 2
Let's say you worked your way up in Scientology and they were like, all right, look, this is your big chance.
00:45:24 Speaker 2
We want to see that you can you can handle celebrities, you can you.
00:45:28 Speaker 2
Maybe you and Tom have developed.
00:45:30 Speaker 2
A A kinship over your shared love of almost killing yourselves.
00:45:36 Speaker 2
And so they're like, alright, you're our guy.
00:45:37 Speaker 2
You're the new Scientology head producer.
00:45:41 Speaker 1
What do you got?
00:45:42 Speaker 2
You know it's this or risky business too.
00:45:45 Speaker 2
And you say I'm going to go with Top Gun.
00:45:48 Speaker 2
Three, what are you going to do with it?
00:45:49 Speaker 2
Where you going to go with this?
00:45:51 Speaker 2
What's your pitch?
00:45:52 Speaker 2
What's your direction?
00:45:54 Speaker 1
The most obvious one would be to follow Rooster and see where he ends up.
00:45:59 Speaker 2
OK.
00:45:59 Speaker 2
So Top Gun Rooster, are you going to just are you going to put Tom Cruise in this one or is he going to like take a back seat or is he going to be flying planes?
00:46:01 Speaker 1
Top Gun rooster.
00:46:08 Speaker 1
It's a really good.
00:46:09 Speaker 1
Question because if you wanted to really dial up the characterizations and like the actual drama, you might want to do it.
00:46:17 Speaker 1
Is him turning into one of the.
00:46:19 Speaker 1
Only the instructor, right.
00:46:21 Speaker 1
And he doesn't end up flying.
00:46:22 Speaker 1
And there's like some kind of tension around that.
00:46:24 Speaker 1
Even more so than this movie.
00:46:26 Speaker 1
You know, where he can't fly or.
00:46:27 Speaker 2
Wait, you're going to put Tom Cruise in a Top Gun movie, and he's not gonna be like, a like flying.
00:46:36 Speaker 2
The final mission is that.
00:46:37 Speaker 2
Is that what you're pitching?
00:46:39 Speaker 1
Yeah, but it's not going to fly.
00:46:41 Speaker 1
No studio do it.
00:46:41 Speaker 2
Well, is this is this 2065 what?
00:46:42 Speaker 1
This is the one that doesn't get made.
00:46:44 Speaker 2
Year are you making this?
00:46:44 Speaker 1
I don't know. It's been 36 years since the original, so it.
00:46:47 Speaker 1
Might be 2065.
00:46:48 Speaker 2
OK.
00:46:48 Speaker 2
Well, if Tom Cruise can stand up, I'm pretty sure he he's not going to be.
00:46:51 Speaker 1
He's flying no matter what.
00:46:54 Speaker 2
Yeah, you're going to have to use, like, stock footage to kill him in the first opener.
00:46:55 Speaker 1
Well, why don't we?
00:46:58 Speaker 1
Why? Why don't we just do TomTom Top Gun drones? How about that? It's just drones. If they're all in A room.
00:47:03 Speaker 2
OK.
00:47:07 Speaker 1
And they're flying drones.
00:47:08 Speaker 2
They have apps on their phones.
00:47:10 Speaker 1
And they're just just flying drones and.
00:47:12 Speaker 2
Just holding their cell phones and tilting back and forth.
00:47:13 Speaker 1
It's just cutting between them.
00:47:16 Speaker 1
And it's all grainy drone footage.
00:47:18 Speaker 1
It's all black and white, so those are the scenes and them just talking to each other.
00:47:21 Speaker 2
Raining drone footage.
00:47:24 Speaker 2
Like muted audio like ********* noises and they they have like sodas and beers next to them while they're working like pasta.
00:47:32 Speaker 2
Take a drink and then drown like dip staff.
00:47:36 Speaker 1
Exactly the future, right?
00:47:37 Speaker 1
Didn't they say that in this movie, that was the future?
00:47:39 Speaker 2
You have the highway.
00:47:41 Speaker 2
Highway to the danger zone with the like elevator music version like playing.
00:47:45 Speaker 2
In the room that they're in during the final mission.
00:47:48 Speaker 1
In the final missions, the drone flying for like 13 hours over the Middle East.
00:47:55 Speaker 1
Just in the clouds.
00:47:56 Speaker 2
Just doing a big circle, big reconnaissance circle.
00:47:59 Speaker 1
The beginning starts off with him hitting autopilot and then just sitting back.
00:48:04 Speaker 2
To take a.
00:48:05 Speaker 1
Having a couple of beers and then he's talking about the other top guns.
00:48:08 Speaker 1
Ohh, remember that pardon.
00:48:10 Speaker 1
Top Gun, maverick.
00:48:11 Speaker 2
It's an elderly Tom Cruise playing the Top Gun video game.
00:48:16 Speaker 2
I got to beat this level.
00:48:18 Speaker 2
I can do it.
00:48:20 Speaker 1
But that's a big twist at the end, during the whole thing, you think he's actually doing this stuff.
00:48:20 Speaker 2
Goodnight.
00:48:24 Speaker 1
But no, he's in the basement.
00:48:28 Speaker 1
I think that's it.
00:48:29 Speaker 1
I didn't. I didn't.
00:48:30 Speaker 1
Really think about a sequel.
00:48:32 Speaker 1
I know that.
00:48:32 Speaker 1
End up for it.
00:48:34 Speaker 1
But I mean what are they going?
00:48:35 Speaker 1
To do now like.
00:48:35 Speaker 2
Did they really though? I.
00:48:37 Speaker 2
I feel like they learned their lesson, or Tom Cruise learned his lesson or whatever.
00:48:41 Speaker 2
Somebody did not to make these movies and try to set up a sequel.
00:48:47 Speaker 2
I think they learned that lesson like.
00:48:48 Speaker 2
They tried it with.
00:48:51 Speaker 2
God help me here.
00:48:52 Speaker 2
What was the one where they tried to make Jeremy Renner?
00:48:55 Speaker 2
Was it 4 or they tried to pass the torch, you know?
00:48:59 Speaker 1
Ohh yeah, I saw that one.
00:49:01 Speaker 1
What protocol or?
00:49:02 Speaker 1
Something there's another one.
00:49:04 Speaker 1
Got the name of the.
00:49:06 Speaker 2
Right.
00:49:06 Speaker 2
But they've tried that multiple.
00:49:08 Speaker 2
Times with these, you know.
00:49:09 Speaker 2
I don't want to call them.
00:49:10 Speaker 2
Fraudulent sequels, but these.
00:49:13 Speaker 2
Time enhanced, you know, time gap, enhanced sequels where they've they've tried to bring back the main actor and then like pass the pass the torch and it just it doesn't work I'm sure it's worked once but I can't think of a single example of when that's worked.
00:49:28 Speaker 2
So I think they've learned like just cut that stuff, you know, don't have, like, a final scene where Tom's like.
00:49:34 Speaker 2
Hey, maybe someday you'll you know you're ready.
00:49:36 Speaker 2
Maybe someday you'll be the instructor.
00:49:38 Speaker 2
You'll teach the kids a thing or two, and and then it's a, you know, cut to Rooster and it ends like they don't.
00:49:43 Speaker 2
They don't even do that much.
00:49:45 Speaker 2
It's like the if the lead actor dies, the property dies.
00:49:49 Speaker 2
Unless somebody comes up with a.
00:49:52 Speaker 2
OK, Indiana Jones.
00:49:54 Speaker 2
Example how many times have they tried to pass the torch?
00:49:57 Speaker 2
And what I mean, I think it's a classic example of don't do this.
00:50:01 Speaker 2
Right.
00:50:01 Speaker 2
It, you know, they're going to wheel India out.
00:50:03 Speaker 2
They're going to do, there's another Indiana Jones movie coming out and it may as well be, you know, weekend at Bernie's.
00:50:09 Speaker 1
Didn't he get?
00:50:10 Speaker 1
Injured or something?
00:50:11 Speaker 1
It they had to stop production forever like.
00:50:11
I mean these.
00:50:14 Speaker 2
You're going to have to be more specific.
00:50:15 Speaker 2
He's been injured on, like every film that they brought on, every OK Star Wars, this like I'm, I'm sure because he's he's not an action hero, but they wheel him onto the set.
00:50:27 Speaker 2
And they drag him around like weakened Bernie style, and now they're using CGI to like deage and all that because I hate to for this to be on record because I'm sure I'm going to eat these words, but Indiana Jones is Harrison Ford.
00:50:41 Speaker 2
He's not the only one, but without Harrison Ford, I really don't think you can sell Indiana Jones.
00:50:48 Speaker 2
Not in the ways they're trying.
00:50:51 Speaker 2
It's not as easy as just throwing another actor into that role.
00:50:55 Speaker 2
It's much, much more complicated or right.
00:50:56 Speaker 1
It's iconic like he.
00:50:59 Speaker 2
Well, more time has to pass.
00:51:01 Speaker 2
He had the actor has to be so far long gone that you can't even pretend like their corpses, you know, cracking a.
00:51:09 Speaker 2
Whip, you know.
00:51:11 Speaker 2
And what if that's the case?
00:51:12 Speaker 2
If the audience believes, even incorrectly, that that actor could play that role, then that's what they want.
00:51:21 Speaker 1
Yeah, I see your point.
00:51:21 Speaker 2
They they don't care.
00:51:22 Speaker 2
So I I think trying to.
00:51:25 Speaker 2
Do do Top Gun Rooster.
00:51:27 Speaker 2
I think it's a dead end.
00:51:28 Speaker 1
Yeah, it might may very well be.
00:51:30 Speaker 2
Until the actor is until Tom Cruise is completely retired and elderly, and they and this actor somehow who played Rooster has done some more films and he's if he's well loved and he has his own reputation not based on this film and not only based on this and he's done some really great stuff, then you could bring him back like 20-30 years.
00:51:51 Speaker 2
Down the road and maybe do something with it, but if you want to make a sequel.
00:51:56 Speaker 2
You know, anytime soon.
00:51:57 Speaker 2
I don't think.
00:51:58 Speaker 2
I think it has to be.
00:52:00 Speaker 2
It's got to be like another Mission Impossible.
00:52:02 Speaker 2
Whoa, I thought he retired, but he's.
00:52:03 Speaker 2
Back, you know.
00:52:05 Speaker 1
And what would the plot be?
00:52:07 Speaker 1
I mean, would it be kind of?
00:52:08 Speaker 2
Well, those bad guys are back, I'll.
00:52:10 Speaker 2
Tell you that much the enemy.
00:52:11 Speaker 1
They rebuilt the, they rebuilt the plant.
00:52:14 Speaker 2
No, no, no.
00:52:15 Speaker 2
It has to be something different, right?
00:52:18 Speaker 2
So we you've got most of this film.
00:52:19 Speaker 2
It's a short pitch, right?
00:52:21 Speaker 2
Tom Cruise is back, number one, second sentences and the enemies at it.
00:52:25 Speaker 2
The 3rd sentences has to involve the phrase Top Gun school.
00:52:30 Speaker 2
And then the four sentences.
00:52:32 Speaker 2
But what really makes it matter is fill in the blank relationship slash heart.
00:52:39 Speaker 2
And that's your pitch.
00:52:40 Speaker 2
Right. Like you know, having lost his best friend years ago and then his new best friend in the last film, Tom Cruise's Maverick, has to decide if he's going to make it work with Jennifer Connelly or go back one last time.
00:52:58 Speaker 2
To to save his his new best friend or his best friend's kid, or.
00:52:59 Speaker 1
To the highway.
00:53:00 Speaker 1
To the danger zone.
00:53:05 Speaker 2
The son of ice man or whatever, right?
00:53:08 Speaker 2
He's he's got to go back one more time because he's been taken hostage, you know, not Tom Cruise.
00:53:14 Speaker 2
But whoever it is is taken hostage or whatever.
00:53:16 Speaker 2
You know what I mean?
00:53:17 Speaker 2
Like it's gotta be it's it's paint by numbers.
00:53:20 Speaker 1
So like Tom Cruise behind enemy lines, because his like friend's kid got shot down and now he's being held prisoner.
00:53:28 Speaker 2
Yeah, I mean, it's got to be something like.
00:53:31 Speaker 2
Oh, man, like ice Man's kid has been taken hostage.
00:53:36 Speaker 2
He's a marine or a a marine, probably.
00:53:40 Speaker 2
And you know, or she.
00:53:41 Speaker 2
Whatever been taken hostage behind enemy lines and Tom Cruise gets involved again, using the status that he's gained.
00:53:51 Speaker 2
After this last mission and he finds out that their plan is to send drones in.
00:53:57 Speaker 2
But Tom believes that the drones are going to kill, you know it's going.
00:54:00 Speaker 2
It's not going to work and it's going to end up with the death of whatever.
00:54:01 Speaker 1
Oh, that's good.
00:54:02 Speaker 1
I like this one.
00:54:03 Speaker 2
So he sets off to prove that it can be done with, you know, some ****-*** plane, you know, or the latest, whatever the Navy has flying these days.
00:54:13 Speaker 2
Whenever this phone finally comes out and he has to earn his way back into the.
00:54:18 Speaker 2
It just to prove whatever and some of the characters from this film are back in supporting roles to play key, you know, key part in his journey back to whatever.
00:54:29 Speaker 2
And then ultimately, Nope, he's he doesn't succeed.
00:54:32 Speaker 2
He's just gonna be on the aircraft carrier while they launched the drones.
00:54:37 Speaker 2
But then a surprise.
00:54:38 Speaker 2
Attacked by the enemy disables the drones and Tom has to take off from.
00:54:42 Speaker 2
A short runway.
00:54:42 Speaker 1
I love it.
00:54:44 Speaker 2
And you know his final mission and everybody's sure that he's gonna die because he's old and it's impossible, and he doesn't even have a wing man because the one wing man is too far away or has to engage in a dog fight.
00:54:56 Speaker 2
And that's Rooster or.
00:54:58 Speaker 2
And it's Tom Cruise alone and.
00:55:00 Speaker 2
You know he's gonna die.
00:55:01 Speaker 2
But Oh my God, he, you know, they exploded and he pulls out of it right at the.
00:55:04 Speaker 2
End and he doesn't die.
00:55:06 Speaker 2
And then ohh Nope.
00:55:07 Speaker 2
There's a twist and it looks.
00:55:08 Speaker 2
Like he's gonna die, but actually just the jet gets destroyed.
00:55:11 Speaker 2
And in in a in a move that Harkins back to the original tap gun, he survived somehow and he's back.
00:55:18 Speaker 1
It's the only face I got and that's it.
00:55:22
That was what does.
00:55:23 Speaker 1
Well, you don't have to.
00:55:24 Speaker 1
Keep saying that it's it's.
00:55:25
They're talking about your.
00:55:27 Speaker 1
You're talking about your emotions.
00:55:30 Speaker 1
I don't get.
00:55:31 Speaker 1
I don't get.
00:55:31 Speaker 1
The nuance it's the only.
00:55:32 Speaker 1
Face I got, I mean.
00:55:33 Speaker 2
They're trying to be empathetic and connect with you.
00:55:36 Speaker 2
They're trying to offer support.
00:55:37 Speaker 2
It's been an honor knowing you because clearly you cannot connect as a human being.
00:55:43 Speaker 2
So I'm just.
00:55:43 Speaker 1
And he's like.
00:55:43 Speaker 2
I'm not going to.
00:55:44 Speaker 2
Mess with you.
00:55:45 Speaker 1
What are these sounds coming out of those now?
00:55:47 Speaker 1
House weird, alright?
00:55:49
I'm gonna put.
00:55:50 Speaker 1
My my helmet back on that was weird.
00:55:53 Speaker 2
I don't have feelings because I've gotten rid of my feelings.
00:55:58 Speaker 2
Stop trying to engage with me.
00:56:00 Speaker 1
No one needs feelings, but I like that plot.
00:56:02 Speaker 1
It brings in the drones.
00:56:04 Speaker 2
What else are you going to?
00:56:04 Speaker 1
It brings in, Tom.
00:56:06 Speaker 1
It brings in the solo mission that he can only do, right?
00:56:12 Speaker 1
The twists and turns.
00:56:14 Speaker 1
Everyone's worried about the nail.
00:56:17 Speaker 1
Everyone's against it.
00:56:18 Speaker 1
He has to steal the plane, of course, because someone leaves the keys in.
00:56:21 Speaker 1
The plane, he's.
00:56:23 Speaker 2
Ohh, to prove it earlier.
00:56:24 Speaker 2
Yeah, no, I think there should be a scene where they pull the cover off of like a fighter and they have to blow the dust off.
00:56:31
Of it and.
00:56:32 Speaker 2
Then the dust lands on Tom Cruise.
00:56:34 Speaker 2
And then they have to.
00:56:34 Speaker 2
Blow the dust off.
00:56:37
But they don't think it's.
00:56:38 Speaker 1
He stands perfectly still.
00:56:40 Speaker 1
And they think it's like.
00:56:43 Speaker 1
Mommy, or like a museum piece, you know?
00:56:46 Speaker 1
And then he moves and then he shakes off the dust and then he's back in the ****.
00:56:49 Speaker 1
OK.
00:56:50 Speaker 2
Yeah. OK, so you know.
00:56:52 Speaker 2
I think that another interesting question, what are the odds that?
00:56:54 Speaker 2
They're going to make a sequel.
00:56:57 Speaker 2
Obviously this movie has made.
00:56:58 Speaker 2
A ton of money it'll keep making.
00:56:59 Speaker 2
Money. But I don't know.
00:57:02 Speaker 2
I think it depends on how much trouble.
00:57:04 Speaker 2
Scientology gets into.
00:57:07 Speaker 2
What do you think do?
00:57:08 Speaker 2
You think they'll make another one?
00:57:09 Speaker 1
I don't know.
00:57:09 Speaker 1
I don't know how this works in terms of like, who owns that proper.
00:57:13 Speaker 1
Is it the studio that owns the OR the rights to Top Gun?
00:57:16 Speaker 1
Or is it like an individual producer who owns?
00:57:19 Speaker 1
I guess that's.
00:57:19 Speaker 2
Well, actually, yeah.
00:57:19 Speaker 1
A big question.
00:57:20 Speaker 2
There's a lawsuit right now.
00:57:22 Speaker 2
Some dude wrote an article about the Top Gun school.
00:57:26 Speaker 2
I guess paramount, whoever it was, bought the rights that article and made the movie The original.
00:57:31 Speaker 2
And then I believe those rights reverted back to him.
00:57:35 Speaker 2
And there's there's a lawsuit where he's suing, he said.
00:57:38 Speaker 2
Like, well, you didn't finish the new film until after the rights reverted back to me.
00:57:43 Speaker 2
So you should have paid me for that, but I guess at this point, regardless of the outcome of that lawsuit, that guy who wrote that article technically owns the rights or part of the rights, so they'd have to write him a big check.
00:57:53 Speaker 2
But I mean, when's that?
00:57:55 Speaker 1
Been an obstacle?
00:57:56 Speaker 2
Right.
00:57:57 Speaker 2
I mean it's I guess as soon as Disney buys paramount or whatever, then the next thing they're going to do is get the rights to Top Gun and create an animated series or something.
00:58:07 Speaker 2
But yeah, so it's.
00:58:09 Speaker 2
No doubt there's enough money.
00:58:10 Speaker 1
I'm surprised that it's not a series now and has never been made into a series about Top Gun school.
00:58:15 Speaker 2
How would you do that?
00:58:18 Speaker 2
It's just going to be a lot of, like, you know, muscly people pushing each other around and, you know, locker rooms and stuff like, is that really?
00:58:25 Speaker 1
You know the drama, the drama of their personal life.
00:58:29 Speaker 1
Like, you know, they deal with firefighter shows or like the police precinct or whatever, the same concept.
00:58:33 Speaker 2
Ohh OK I I get what you mean.
00:58:34 Speaker 1
You know what I mean?
00:58:36 Speaker 2
I get what you mean.
00:58:37 Speaker 1
ER, but this is at the flight.
00:58:38
Right.
00:58:39 Speaker 1
School. So it's, you know.
00:58:41 Speaker 1
Every episode has the you know the flying aspect to it, but it's mostly about their personal lives and.
00:58:49 Speaker 2
Right.
00:58:49 Speaker 2
But you don't mean as part of this universe or as a reference to these films, you mean just the Navy, Naval Aviator School, right?
00:58:59 Speaker 2
Yeah, OK, I agree.
00:59:01 Speaker 2
Yeah, actually with.
00:59:02 Speaker 2
I wonder if.
00:59:03 Speaker 2
They ran into a rights issue because it is weird that they you know what, maybe it is the expense.
00:59:09 Speaker 2
Because they're like, yeah, a bunch of CGI planes, and it's we'd have to every week, there'd have to be some.
00:59:14 Speaker 2
Sort of dog fire, yeah.
00:59:15 Speaker 1
You have to put them.
00:59:16 Speaker 1
In the air, there's gotta be something, yeah.
00:59:18 Speaker 2
Cost prohibitive, maybe.
00:59:20 Speaker 1
Yeah, that's probably why.
00:59:21 Speaker 1
Otherwise, it makes perfect sense that.
00:59:23 Speaker 1
They do it, yeah.
00:59:23 Speaker 2
It's a slam dunk.
00:59:24 Speaker 2
Yeah, for sure.
00:59:27 Speaker 2
So again you picked it.
00:59:29 Speaker 2
Any thoughts about this you didn't cover?
00:59:32 Speaker 1
Final words is that it's really a great popcorn flick, so if you're into action movies with a lot of things blowing up and you suspend disbelief about some of the silliness that happens.
00:59:46 Speaker 1
It's a great ride.
00:59:48 Speaker 2
If you want your kids to become fighter pilots or enter the military, you probably want to drag them to this film.
00:59:56 Speaker 1
As most parents do.
01:00:00 Speaker 2
This one for this one to rest for another 30-5 years.
01:00:04 Speaker 1
Until Tom Cruises Cruises comes out.
01:00:09 Speaker 1
Thanks a lot.