You Going to See Top Gun: Maverick?

[Sigmapolis]

I can't imagine sitting through a movie with you.

These are cheesy action films by all accounts. I know you're supposed to turn your brain off. That being said, I think it is still half the fun to laugh at their silliness, especially two films like Top Gun and Days of Thunder that lean so hard into clichés. A good example of that is shoehorning hot young women into the casting.

So I enjoy watching and occasionally laughing at absurd if enjoyable movies.

You evidently enjoy insulting people you've never met on the Internet.

I think I prefer my hobby.

 

[Drew0311]

These are cheesy action films by all accounts. I know you're supposed to turn your brain off. That being said, I think it is still half the fun to laugh at their silliness, especially two films like Top Gun and Days of Thunder that lean so hard into clichés. A good example of that is shoehorning hot young women into the casting.

So I enjoy watching and occasionally laughing at absurd if enjoyable movies.

You evidently enjoy insulting people you've never met on the Internet.

I think I prefer my hobby.

I mean you may say they shoehorn hot young women into casting. However, the reality is fighter pilots pull some of the hottest women you can find and so do Nascar driver's. So that might be the actual closest thing to accurate in both movies. Back in the day us grunts would not go near Miramar bars because the fighter pilots got all the girls. Well kind of. Plus, the bars around Miramar suck.

 

[carvers4math]

Have you seen both Lately? Kidman still has some good looks. McGillis is very grandma like.

The ten year age difference is most significant because McGillis is post menopausal. She won’t get plastic surgery or dye her hair at this point due to the damage she feels she did in denying who she is with her sexuality. She was brutally raped when she was younger and physically assaulted at an older age. Has lived a difficult life. But I am sure you guys will all look fabulous at 64.

 

[Drew0311]

The ten year age difference is most significant because McGillis is post menopausal. She won’t get plastic surgery or dye her hair at this point due to the damage she feels she did in denying who she is with her sexuality. She was brutally raped when she was younger and physically assaulted at an older age. Has lived a difficult life. But I am sure you guys will all look fabulous at 64.

I heard a little of the back story. I was just pointing out the difference in the two ladies looks these days.

 

[Sigmapolis]

I mean you may say they shoehorn hot young women into casting. However, the reality is fighter pilots pull some of the hottest women you can find and so do Nascar driver's. So that might be the actual closest thing to accurate in both movies. Back in the day us grunts would not go near Miramar bars because the fighter pilots got all the girls. Well kind of. Plus, the bars around Miramar suck.

I definitely agree there are few occupations more likely to land such women than fighter pilot and racecar driver. I worked with a guy for the year after he graduated from college who was on the crew team and, like most crew types, he looked like he enjoyed bench pressing tree trunks for fun.

After a year of software sales, he had enough, and he went and joined the Navy and he's now a Growler pilot -- the electronic warfare version of the Super Hornet. And guess what his callsign is?

Spoiler

Sex

...so I think your theory holds up. Super cool guy, way cooler than any of us.

The absurdity isn't a racecar driver like Tom Cruise picking up a 23-year old Nicole Kidman. The issues is a 23-year old Nicole Kidman pretending to be a doctor while being 15 years too young for that role.

 

[carvers4math]

I definitely agree there are few occupations more likely to land such women than fighter pilot and racecar driver. I worked with a guy for the year after he graduated from college who was on the crew team and, like most crew types, he looked like he enjoyed bench pressing tree trunks for fun.

After a year of software sales, he had enough, and he went and joined the Navy and he's now a Growler pilot -- the electronic warfare version of the Super Hornet. And guess what his callsign is?

Spoiler

Sex

...so I think your theory holds up. Super cool guy, way cooler than any of us.

The absurdity isn't a racecar driver like Tom Cruise picking up a 23-year old Nicole Kidman. The issues is a 23-year old Nicole Kidman pretending to be a doctor while being 15 years too young for that role.

The real absurdity is when they romantically pare actresses with actors who are old enough to be their grandpa

 

[Sigmapolis]

The real absurdity is when they romantically pare actresses with actors who are old enough to be their grandpa

Some of these charts are 5-10 years out of date but they get the point across...

 

[Halincandenza]

Can't wait to see it. My cousin who is a pilot and actually went to Top Gun academy, and later was an instructor there was in charge of picking the jet crews for the movie.

 

[brianhos]

When it comes on HBO yes. I am not sure I will ever go to a theater again.

 

[Halincandenza]

Both their characters were pretty ridiculous, though.

McGillis was 29 and pretending to be some expert on air combat that senior naval officers deferred to on the matter. Was she a pilot? Did she have combat experience? Nobody knows...

Kidman is a better actress, definitely. Her successful and varied career since then (which still continues, she did great as the Queen Gertrude character in The Northman) proves that. But she was 23 at the time of Days of Thunder and pretending to be a neurosurgeon specializing in brain trauma.

Umm... assuming somebody starts college when they're 18 then...

AGE
18-21 = undergraduate
22-25 = medical school
26-32 = the SEVEN-YEAR residency required to be an attending neurosurgeon
might even add 1-2 research years or a fellowship to this

So you're not an attending in that field until probably your mid-30s if not late-30s. She's too young to be playing that character by a decade at least. Not sure they thought that casting through...

The script just needed an attractive woman for Tom Cruise to boink in both instances.

So to combat your problem with the McGillis character, my cousin went to the Top Gun academy and there was a woman in a the same civilian role at the academy and he actually ended up marrying her. And no she wasn't old. And if memory serves me, the character was based on a real person.

 

[Sigmapolis]

So to combat your problem with the McGillis character, my cousin went to the Top Gun academy and there was a woman in a the same civilian role at the academy and he actually ended up marrying her. And no she wasn't old. And if memory serves me, the character was based on a real person.

Wikipedia to the rescue to check out your theory --



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Fox

Interesting. I stand corrected.

I'm not backing down on the 23-year old neurosurgeon. That's the age of somebody early in medical school, not the age of an attending physician in one of the most difficult specialties in medicine.

 

[Halincandenza]

Wikipedia to the rescue to check out your theory --

View attachment 99105

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Fox

Interesting. I stand corrected.

I'm not backing down on the 23-year old neurosurgeon. That's the age of somebody early in medical school, not the age of an attending physician in one of the most difficult specialties in medicine.

Yeah, she would likely be closer to 40 or even older than that.

 

[ScottyP]

Can't wait to see it. My cousin who is a pilot and actually went to Top Gun academy, and later was an instructor there was in charge of picking the jet crews for the movie.

Cruise was around 24 when the movie was released. What age do most of the pilots go through Top Gun academy?

 

[Drew0311]

Cruise was around 24 when the movie was released. What age do most of the pilots go through Top Gun academy?

Have to think, 4 years of college would put him someone at 22. Then OCS, Then Flight school. Probably 24-26 years old would be realistic to be going to a school like that. I am no expert on that side of the military though.

 

[houjix]

I'm not backing down on the 23-year old neurosurgeon. That's the age of somebody early in medical school, not the age of an attending physician in one of the most difficult specialties in medicine.

Was the character 23? It's been a million years since I've seen that movie.

 

[Sigmapolis]

Was the character 23? It's been a million years since I've seen that movie.

Characters rarely have an exact age established for them.

Kidman herself was 23 at the time, though.

 

[Halincandenza]

Cruise was around 24 when the movie was released. What age do most of the pilots go through Top Gun academy?

I believe my cousin was in his mid to late twenties. Can’t remember exactly what age he was

 

[CRCy17]

Went last night and it was fantastic. Great mix of references to the original and having its own dedicated plot line.

 

[CYCLNST8]

Went last night and it was fantastic. Great mix of references to the original and having its own dedicated plot line.

Yeah- this thread took a weird turn. The movie exists purely to give the fans what they want. The theater I was in actually cheered. I don’t think I’ve experienced that since LOTR. Top Gun never claimed to be anything more than a popcorn flick. This one I would consider family friendly. Highly recommend.

 

[Goothrey]

It was a near perfect summer popcorn flick. Though I’m quite biased when it comes to flying/planes.