Some TOP GUN ‘communicating’

Unto the Breach ^ | Sept. 30, 2021 | Chris Carter

[fugazi]

TOP GUN fans will remember Lt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell communicating with the MiG pilot... "You know, giving him the bird?"

Well, while researching the Boston Beaneaters baseball club for yesterday's chronicle commentary piece I came across a team picture of the 1886 Beaneaters, which included future Hall of Fame pitcher Old Hoss Radbourn. If you look closely, you'll spot the first known photograph of a human giving another the middle finger. Seriously.

Old Hoss (tied with Oil Can as my favorite baseball nickname) was a machine, winning 310 games in just 11 seasons. To be fair to pitchers in the last 135 years, Radbourn only had to throw 50 feet; the distance between home plate and the mound wasn't moved to it's current 60 feet, 6 inches until 1893. Moving the mound also likely played a substantial role in Hugh Duffy batting .440 in 1894, as pitchers struggled to adjust to throwing 10-1/2 feet further.

TOP GUN pilots

Since we mentioned TOP GUN, it's worth pointing out that the real-life Naval aviators from the inverted "communicating" scene are Scott D. Altman (F-14) and Robert F. Willard (the "MiG-28," which was actually an F-5). Altman, then assigned to Fighter Squadron 51 (VF-51), the "Screaming Eagles." Altman was one of the Tomcat pilots chosen to fly for the movie and was also the pilot who got to buzz the tower.

Nine times.

Capt. "Scooter" Altman would become a NASA astronaut, flying on four missions: STS-90, STS-106, STS-109, and STS-125.

Willard was TOPGUN's operations officer and executive officer, and was the aerial coordinator for filming. After several commands (including VF-51), "Rat" ultimately became Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet in 2007 and U.S. Pacific Command in 2009...

[fugazi]

You should see the list of actors that were offered or considered the role of Maverick. Tom Hanks... John Travolta... Charlie Sheen... Emelio Estevez... Nicolas Cage? I don't know that we would have won the Cold War if anyone besides Tom Cruise was Pete Mitchell. All horrendous choices, and the only actor I've seen mentioned that might have done well in a supporting role would have been Lou Gossett Jr. (the Marine DI from Officer and a Gentleman), but definitely not if that meant he took Michael Ironside's role. Jester was so convincing that he actually fooled sailors during filming. It would be interesting to see a parallel universe where former UDT frogman Jesse Ventura was the fiery bald officer that told Maverick if he screwed up he'd be flying cargo planes full of rubber dog s--t out of Hong Kong, but "The Body" would be hard for anyone to beat the job James Tolkan did.

But TOP GUN is one of the only movies besides STAR WARS (1977) I've ever seen where I wouldn't change a thing. Best soundtrack of all-time.

[HighSierra5]

It’s hard to get that patriotic thrill up my leg when you have the military and US gubmint controlled by a bunch of commie dirtbags.

[fugazi]

Well the commie dirtbags still work for us, so if we burn up their phone lines, vote, and help the good candidates, maybe we can get the thrill back.

[HighSierra5]

I pray. Heavily.

[fugazi]

We need that more than anything.

[KarlInOhio]

1886 was definitely in the Era of the Moustache. Were the few players without one actually women playing baseball?

[fugazi]

Facial hair was definitely an art in the 19th Century. We are probably all snowflakes compared to those guys.

[Magnum44]

Other than the ‘flat spin heading out to sea’ from Fallon NV scene, I’d agree

[fugazi]

If I remember correctly, a chase plane pilot actually did die while filming the flat spin scene. Art Scholl wasn’t able to recover from his real-life flat spin and crashed into the Pacific Ocean off Carlsbad, Calif. The film is dedicated to him.