Tower, this is Ghost Rider requesting to talk about Top Gun

            I’ve already stated that fighter planes are friggin’ cool, but the people that fly them are probably the friggin coolest. They’re so great that they don’t even have names like normal folks. They have call signs.

           

There’s two O’s in Goose

            On the surface call signs seem kind of ridiculous. The ones used in the movie sound self-appointed since none of them are insulting like real nicknames, but I also read it’s official policy that you can’t pick your own call sign. I like call signs because they are way more effective than actual names. For one, they're basically just a description of the character. Maverick is too obvious to even discuss. Goose is just silly and lovable. They tell you Iceman is a description of how he flies, but it also works because he’s a cool guy while being emotionally cold and insensitive. Slider is a slimy jerk. Charlie isn’t really a stretch from Charlotte, but it does mean that even civilian contractors get call signs. It’s like these guys won’t even acknowledge someone who doesn’t have a sweet sobriquet. The more minor characters get more minor calls signs, but I do know that Hollywood and Viper were actual pilots who helped with the movie, and Wolfman’s civilian name was Leonard Wolf. As cool as the name Leonard is, it just can’t compare to something like Wolfman.

  

            Speaking of civilian names, who recognizes the names Rick Neven, Ron Kerner, Bill Cortell, or Marcus Williams? Well how about Hollywood, Slider, Cougar, or my man Sundown? I would be shocked if anybody knows who Nick Bradshaw is. If you do we should be friends, because you are clearly a Top Gun scholar. It’s Goose by the way. Goose’s real name is Nick Bradshaw. It’s questionable to say that’s his “real” name since even his wife calls him Goose. I guess “Hey Nick, you big stud. Take me to bed or lose me forever” just doesn’t have the same ring to it. Nick Bradshaw is never actually said in the film, so I don’t blame anyone for missing it. There are only four scenes where you can read it off the side of the plane.

Here it's upside-down and mirrored

The camera is panning fast across the plane here

This is probably the best shot

Here people are having too many feels to notice any details

            We’re told Charlotte Blackwood, Tom Kazansky, Mike Metcalf, and Pete Mitchell, but they aren’t as real as the call signs. When Charlie (not Charlotte) uses the name Pete Mitchell, it’s an insult. Maverick was the sexy fighter jock she fell in love with, but Pete Mitchell is nobody. Maverick is his true name. It’s how he introduces himself to people he’s never met. Some naming traditions wait until a person is an adult to give them a name that actually says something about them. Call signs are a lot like that, and it’s not a bad system. Think about how many people see Top Gun and don’t remember that the main character is called Maverick. Now how many remember the name of the Mission Impossible dude after one viewing?

            Not only are pilots cool enough for nicknames, they also have eyewear named after them. Not just any eyewear, but possibly the greatest eyewear in the history of things put on faces. I’m talking about aviator sunglasses here. If it wasn’t clear I’m a big fan, especially if they’re mirrored. Naturally, Sundown is one of my favorite characters in this movie for the sole reason that he’s the one with the mirrored sunglasses (I also find it funny how h's so obtusely insensitive to Maverick after Goose dies). It doesn’t hurt that he wears them in practically every scene he’s in. Check this out:

He doesn't have them on during the initial briefing

but puts them on the instant Viper stops talking

They're on in the bar (indoors, and poorly lit though it may be)

It's pretty sunny during Charlie's briefing, so he's got them on

Apparently he takes them off to shower

take a test

or look at sweet 1980's wireframe computer displays

He doesn't wear them while actually flying with Maverick

but as soon as they land he whips them out

He saves the best for last and wears them to his graduation

  

            I really don’t have any bigger point to make here. Aviators are great, and Sundown is great for wearing them. Sometimes that’s enough. I do hope that Tom Cruise gets free Ray-Bans for life, because he’s earned them.

            Top Gun set a lot of trends, but it was also a product of its times. Those times, of course, were the 1980’s, and what great times they were. The movie doesn’t have a ton of stuff that dates it since so much screen time is spent in planes (unless you can pick out features that were only on fighter planes in the 80’s), but they’re there if you look for them. The non-supersonic vehicles featured in the movie are Charlie’s car and Mav’s motorcycle. The car is a 1957 Porsche 356 Speedster, which isn’t from the 80’s at all. I don’t know enough about motorcycles to associate one with any particular time period, but the Kawasaki Ninja 900 was the fastest production bike at the time. It was pretty popular, at least after this movie.

  

            The fashion was all pretty restrained since it involved the military. I hear that the leather jacket and white tee became popular after the movie though. You get a little taste of 80’s clothes in the Officer’s Club scene, and the volleyball scene pretty much screams the 80’s (volleyball will be discusses more in a later essay). It’s the little touches that I get the most excited about. Like the fact that Slider has a Walkman, or that Goose keeps a Polaroid in the cockpit.  Maybe this is just because I’m an 80’s nerd, but instead of aging the movie, this stuff just makes it feel even cooler. I hope that fighter pilots still have Polaroids (they do in the best of all possible universes).

            There is also that unabashed pro-Americaness that could only happen during the Reagan years. Top Gun doesn’t pull a full Rocky IV and actually end the Cold War right in the movie, but it does point a clear finger at which side is better. Sure, they don’t actually say the enemy MiGs are from Russia, or any other country (they were most likely Libyan), but they sure weren’t NATO. Flying specially painted F-4’s sure made them look threatening, and the dark helmet visors are an extra sinister touch (that also hid the identity of the actual Top Gun instructors who were flying those planes). Really, the only piece of pro-America evidence I need to show is a picture of the back of my DVD case.

  

            The thumbs up is too great not to talk about. I did some research, and a pilot giving a thumbs up to the ground crew dates back to some of the earliest pilots in World War II. When Mav gives a thumbs up and then a salute before taking off from the carrier, it is the greatest farewell gesture I have ever seen. By no other means could one so succinctly and non-verbally convey “Hey, I’m going to go do something stupendous.” I just love it so much, and try to incorporate it at appropriate times in my own life. Those double high-low fives are also amazing (I’d like to see a fist bump pull that off).

  

            Every single thing about fighter pilots is cool. Just watching a plane take off is enough to make Mav do a fist pump, and he flies those things. Or how about whenever an enemy plane gets shot down they all cheer and yell random stuff like “Bingo”, “Wash that sucker”, “Scratch Four”, or “Concrete” (Concrete is what I heard anyway). And who paints their helmets? They seem pretty decorative for a piece of military equipment, but also totally sweet. There is also how they all have a shrine to fighter planes in their houses. Seriously, do they give them pre-furnished apartments with a wall covered in plane photos, or did Maverick bring his own? Viper has one too!

  

  

            Top Gun has a unique cultural status for me. I’m thrilled by every aspect of it, but I can’t actually tell if I like the movie because of all the great components, or if I like the components because of their inclusion in the movie. In the end, it doesn’t matter. Progress has been made in this Top Gun exploration, but it’s not over. Kenny Loggins hasn’t even come up yet, and you can’t discuss the volleyball scene without Kenny Loggins. Next time.