History Film / TopGunMaverick

* AsYouKnow: In the first training exercise, Maverick instructs the other pilots via radio on the parameters of the exercise; guns only, no missiles, hard deck at 5,000 feet. He starts the instruction with "As briefed,..." because all pilots would have been briefed on the parameters on the ground, the airborne explanation is there purely for the audience.

* CaptainObvious: A couple of times, pilots describe things to each other that military pilots would already know. At the beginning, Maverick describes the effects of high G-forces, and at the end, Phoenix says out out that 5 kills makes Maverick an Ace. Presumably, this is for the movie audience.

** Special shout-out goes to Hangman, the only American pilot who has shot down anything during the 21st century.[[note]]TruthInTelevision: There were no RealLife American air-to-air victories between Iraq in 1993 and the Chinese Balloon Incident of February 2023, which occurred [[HistoryMarchesOn after this film was released]].[[/note]] This undoubtedly informs his GloryHound and ItsAllAboutMe attitude.

* IdiotBall: [[spoiler:The pilots of the Su-57's are definitely clutching theirs tightly during the climatic dogfight. To summarize: The pilot of the first Su-57 that Maverick shot down would not have stayed so close, in a vulnerable position, after Maverick failed to respond properly to his TrustPassword handsigns. Since the F-14 was potentially hostile, he would have immediately backed off with his wingman. After the 2nd Su-57's missile is decoyed by Maverick to strike the damaged jet of his wingman, he ''flies through the debris cloud of the exploded jet.'' No pilot is going to do this, the debris cloud is full of, well, ''debris'' that could easily damage and bring down his aircraft when he collides with it. When Maverick lures him into the canyon, then manages to get behind him, he obligingly ''stays in the canyon'' while Maverick shoots at him. The whole reason Maverick wanted to bring the fight down to ground level was because his aging F-14 was no match for the Su-57 in a high-altitude dogfight. The smart play would have been for him to leave the canyon, get altitude, then drop back down behind Maverick. Lastly, the third Su-57 must have been ignoring every single warning screaming at him from both his own aircraft and his ground controllers that Hangman was intercepting him and had achieved missile lock.]]

** Honorable mention goes to [[spoiler:the second Su-57 pilot, who gives Maverick the hardest fight of his life in the climax. In addition to flying a far superior plane than Maverick's F-14A, the enemy pilot is skilled enough to perform a ''Blinchik'' supermaneuver effortlessly to dodge Maverick's missile, then follows Maverick into the canyon below once he finds out that his missile guidance system doesn't work due to the nature of the canyon so he can finish Maverick off with guns. Even when Maverick manages to get behind him, the pilot really makes him work to take him down, and he actually manages to bail out once Maverick finally shoots him down. His efforts drained all of Maverick's ammunition and left him and Rooster sitting ducks for the third Su-57 pilot, who would've definitely killed both of them were it not for Hangman's BigDamnHeroes moment at the last second]].

* GunsDoNotWorkThatWay: During the dogfight scene, the sound of F-14's and Su-57's guns (actually rotary cannons) sound nothing like they do in real life. You can hear each individual shot being fired, whereas these guns usually fire between 4,000 to 6,000 rounds a minute and the noise they make is a continuous, roaring buzz. This happens a great deal in film, as the moviegoing public generally does not know what these weapons actually sound like, so a sound that more conforms to expectations is dubbed in.

** The F14:

** Rooster is an ''Aviator,'' not a Naval Flight Officer, who came up through the fleet flying exclusively F/A-18 Super Hornets. Without his father's specialized training in operating the radar systems of the F-14 Tomcat, he's reduced almost entirely to being Maverick's backseat spotter during their flight in the stolen F-14. He also fails to arm the F-14's ejection seats before buckling in, which nearly has catastrophic consequences for himself and Maverick.

* DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale: The first thing Phoenix does on seeing Rooster is smack him in the groin with the end of a pool cue, for some unexplained reason.

* GunsDoNotWorkThatWay: During the dogfight scene, the sound of F-14's and SU-57's guns (actually rotary cannons) sound nothing like they do in real life. You can hear each individual shot being fired, whereas these guns usually fire between 4,000 to 6,000 rounds a minute and the noise they make is a continuous, roaring buzz. This happens a great deal in film, as the moviegoing public generally does not know what these weapons actually sound like, so a sound that more conforms to expectations is dubbed in.

Creator/TomCruise reprises his role as [[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks US Navy]] aviator Peter "Maverick" Mitchell, who, after a 30-year career, hasn't been able (or did not want) to RankUp beyond Captain. An unauthorized hypersonic jet test flight gets him in trouble... which gets him sent back to the former[[note]]the Navy moved the training program out of San Diego in 1996[[/note]] home of TOPGUN at Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego, this time as a flight instructor. There, he finds himself having to train a whole team of elite pilots for a perilous mission to destroy an unsanctioned uranium enrichment plant in a hostile nation. The team happens to include Bradley Bradshaw (Creator/MilesTeller), the son of Maverick's late friend Nick "Goose" Bradshaw, which causes a certain amount of personal issues.