Negative Ghostrider, the pattern is full

Nope, looks way worse 😉

Yep, had it all written out in my head that I was going to call Cougar out for exaggeration.

And.. Patrick **** Stewart! After all the soul baring stuff over never going back to Picard, but then I read the script etc… and he bought into this???

One little detail in the trailer has come to light that’s ruffling a few feathers, concerning a patch on the back of Cruises’ jacket. In the original, it’s in four quarters, the top two a US flag, the UN flag, the bottom two a Japanese flag and a Taiwanese flag. In the trailer, there’s also a large quartered patch, with the US and UN flags at the top, but at the bottom there’s a white rectangle with a red upward pointing triangle, next to a red rectangle with some apparently random design on it.
It seems that one of the co-production companies has ‘encouraged’ the change, due to the Taiwanese flag being deemed to be unacceptable, and possibly the Japanese flag as well.
Why? The co-production company is called Tencent, and they’re Chinese…

I briefly read some of the twitter links related to this. A few self-proclaimed aviation experts explaining it by saying the patches relate to a more recent mission, etc. No. It’s a work of fiction. The jacket is OBVIOUSLY meant to be the same one as in the original film, but it’s been rebooted/revised/redacted whatever you want to call it to avoid causing offence. I’m not saying the Chinese demanded it, could easily have been an overzealous Hollywood suit preempting a situation.

There was an interesting article in the NYTimes about how Chinese investment has drastically changed how films are made now (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/18/world/asia/china-movies.html), including how a film like 7 Years in Tibet just couldn’t be made these days (the director & Brad Pitt are forever banned from China due to their involvement!) as no major studio would have the bottle. About how there are no Chinese villains in movies any more (although you could argue that the propensity towards villainous Chinese pre-2000 was quite racist 😂). If you Google there are loads of similar articles… I found one from 2013 talking about how pro-Chinese scenes were specially filmed & added for the Chinese release of Iron Man 3.

Seems to be a potentially huge issue of censorship/revisionism that no-one really wants to talk about…

Seems to be a potentially huge issue of censorship/revisionism that no-one really wants to talk about…

Agree but it’s not new. When the USA finds films you get a USA bias [1], when China finds films you get a China bias.

Mind you, I prefer a democratic bias to a totalitarian bias.

[1] See almost any war film.

Agree but it’s not new.

You are right but until this particular issue was mentioned I’d never noticed or thought about it before!

You’re right about bias too but it’s not the same at all. Yes there are US-made films that are essentially just propaganda. But also there are always US made films coming out about US police/government corruption, criticising their own government, the White House getting blown up, etc. The same films about Chinese people or locations just wouldn’t happen.

there are no Chinese villains in movies any more (although you could argue that the propensity towards villainous Chinese pre-2000 was quite racist

Ming the Merciless was intentionally so, I believe. He was “Yellow Peril” propaganda in the 1930s.

The nostalgia is ahead of the quality of the Tony Scott ‘original’… But i don’t mind that at all.

Anything to make me feel younger.

Top Gun is the poor relation to Officer & a Gentleman. Really surprised that hasn’t been booted into existence. Sam Jackson? Too old?

Hmmm, I don’t agree @rone. Officer and a Gentleman was a very different sort of film about a man overcoming his past (and a woman overcoming her status) to achieve something others thought unachievable. It was first and foremost a love story. Top Gun is an action film with a love interest. The only thing they have in common is they are both stories set within the Services.

Still, a reboot of OAAG would be interesting to see.

That’s why it’s a poor relation.

There are a couple of similar plot points and Top Gun has always been referenced against OAAG.

Though, for sure the characters and training story are different.

They’re both love stories though.

@cougar

Surely you are ineligible to comment on this thread? You did shit your flight suit at the first sight of a mig, well actually a nicely resprayed f20 tigershark, and turned in your wings as a result…..

I think we can all agree that, despite the soft porn element of Top Gun, it is still better than Wings of the Apache

Wings of the Apache

😯

Everything is better than WotA*. What a load of crap that was.

*Apart from Snake Eyes

They’re both love stories though.

Although only one is about the love between a man and a woman.

@cougar

Surely you are ineligible to comment on this thread? You did shit your flight suit at the first sight of a mig, well actually a nicely resprayed f20 tigershark, and turned in your wings as a result…..

🤣

Fun fact, Top Gun actually was the initial inspiration for my username, some 30 years ago.

Fun fact, Top Gun actually was the initial inspiration for my username, some 30 years ago.

And you’ve held on to it since then? Some would say you are holding on tight. Too tight.

And re the homoerotic stuff, even the opening scene includes the words ‘bring it back hard right, help me engage’. No wonder Hollywood had a constant boner with all that filthy chat going on.

well actually a nicely resprayed f20 tigershark, and turned in your wings as a result…..

It’s an F-5E Tiger II.

It’s an F-5E Tiger II.

Yep, twin tailpipes would give that away, doh. My twelve year old self is now cringing as I wouldn’t have made that mistake back then!

Slightly OT, but the F20 must have been built as an export model as the US had no need for it….?

Member
Slightly OT, but the F20 must have been built as an export model as the US had no need for it….?

Yep specifically designed for export sales, the idea was to produce a decent fighter / multi role aircraft and sell it to allies without compromising the really high end US only tech in the top end fighters.

But then US foreign policy changed and everyone just bought F-16s because they’d seen them in Iron Eagle!

And you’ve held on to it since then?

By the time there was any real need to change it, it’d stuck.

By the time there was any real need to change it, it’d stuck.

I only wanted to engineer an opening for the ‘holding on too tight’ line.

I have just had a thought, though, imagine if all the dialogue in Top Gun had been read by Kenneth Williams and Frankie Howard…..

But then US foreign policy changed and everyone just bought F-16s because they’d seen them in Iron Eagle!

When I was a kid, all the books and aviation mags raved about the F16, particularly in a direct dogfight with the Fulcrum. Turns out the F15 and F18 were both better aircraft. But then people used to deride the Tornado, but it was a far, far better all round aircraft than anyone gave it credit for.

https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/arts-entertainment/top-gun-sequel-to-focus-on-erectile-dysfunction-20190731187834

😀 😀

When I was a kid, all the books and aviation mags raved about the F16, particularly in a direct dogfight with the Fulcrum. Turns out the F15 and F18 were both better aircraft. But then people used to deride the Tornado, but it was a far, far better all round aircraft than anyone gave it credit for.

Citation needed…

The ground attack versions of the Tornado were, I will admit, very good at what it was originally designed to do, basically dropping bombs on things from low level. When they bolted on a big radar and made it an interceptor, it was a bit rubbish, especially as it would have been up against specialist air attack craft like the Flanker.

All aircraft generally have a niche where they excel. If you build a multi-role vehicle it will, in my opinion, always be compromised in some way. Case in point… Eurofighter2000. Build air superiority fighter based on 80’s/90’s specs, deliver it way past the 2000’s that it was supposed to be awesome in and then, when it is deployed fully, spend a fortune modifying it to drop bombs. Then sell the later ones to Saudi.

Sorry, ranting a bit there. This is not a place to discuss procurement decisions.

F16 is a cracking plane, but it’s not the interceptor that the F15 is or carrier capable like the F18. It’s still bloody good as a fighter though and I would say better than both in a dogfight.

What we really need is an Airwolf remake….

No we do not. Leave Airwolf alone.

You could do a remake of Blue Thunder, the premise of the film is still valid today, but Airwolf needs to be left alone.

You could do a remake of Blue Thunder

I’m hoping Cruise is on a roll and remakes Days of Thunder!

He could just do a melange of all his early movies. They all basically have the same plot.

Risky Cock Thunder or somesuch.

Thunder in paradise too, with the rock filling in for Hulk Hogan.

Blue Thunder in Paradise?

I’ve not seen a wrestler fight a helicopter since Pat Roache in Indiana Jones.

Actually, there’s probably a thread to be had in this…

You could do a remake of Blue Thunder

Read this and had an instant flashback to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1Jb9aTSoSchttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1Jb9aTSoSchttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1Jb9aTSoSc

Trailer 2 is out.

Oh and put it on your TV and play it loud

I have a sneaking suspicion that the more cerebral cinema goers will not be well catered for here.

Can. Not. Wait.

F-14 check
F-18 check
P-51 – check
GPZ – check

I’m in.

Looks awesome!

One for the IMAX. The opening of the original at max volume cannot be matched though.

From the moment I heard the he’s the best of the best of the best type voiceover I knew it was going to be absolute shite.

Can’t wait.

I wanted to hate this so much but I cant.
Proper goosebumps stuff.

From the moment I heard the he’s the best of the best of the best type voiceover I knew it was going to be absolute shite.

The Men in Black thread is over there.

Proper goosebumps stuff.

Happened to me also!