Does “Maverick” Eject From An SR-72 in “Top Gun: Maverick”?
Interesting photos hit Hollywood social media via TheHollywoodPipeline.com this morning showing actor Tom Cruise on the set of “Top Gun: Maverick”. The photos, that appear to be “leaked” spy shots from a smartphone but could also be intentional studio publicity plants intended for social media to hype the upcoming 2020 release of the “Top Gun” sequel, may provide clues about a possible plot for the movie.
Before you keep reading, this article may contain plot spoilers for “Top Gun: Maverick” and is entirely speculative. We’ve received no insider information from script writers and the ideas expressed here are strictly those of this writer based on daily research of the media surrounding the ongoing production of the film. This is Hollywood entertainment reporting, not military aviation journalism. We’re taking some creative license with speculation we wouldn’t do with factual military aviation reporting. This is all about entertainment.
That said, continue under your own responsibility and don’t complain too much.
The set of photos that originally appeared on TheHollywoodPipeline.com show Cruise in his character as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell wearing an all-black flight suit. The interesting thing is that the flight suit appears to be a high-altitude pressure suit similar to the actual ones worn by high altitude reconnaissance pilots in aircraft like the U-2 and SR-71. Notice the wide, round neck ring for a pressure suit helmet and the two fittings to the suit for life support and pressurization.
It looks like Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell may be an experimental high altitude, hypersonic pilot based on guesses made from photos that surfaced today on the entertainment Instagram account thehollywoodpipline.com. (Photo: @thehollywoodpipeline)
It gets more interesting. Cruise appears to have make-up on and weathering to his high-altitude pressure suit that recall several scenes from previous aviation movies like “The Right Stuff” where a pilot has ejected from an aircraft. Cruise looks slightly “singed” in his costume and make-up, as if he survived ejection from an aircraft mishap in the plot of the story.
Let’s think about this: In the last “Top Gun”, U.S. Navy fighter pilot Lt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell rises to prominence as a renegade fighter pilot but suffers personal loss in a training accident when his Radar Intercept Officer in an F-14 Tomcat, Lt. JG Nick “Goose” Bradshaw dies in a training accident. Maverick goes on to find redemption in combat and the arms of lilting civilian Top Gun instructor and astrophysicist Charlotte “Charlie” Blackwood. Further plot twists provide secret revelations about how Maverick’s father and how he died a hero in combat due to classified circumstances.
Fast Forward to the production of the upcoming sequel, “Top Gun: Maverick”. Several observers of photos of the F/A-18F Super Hornet painted with Maverick’s callsign and MiG kills (although they look oddly like F/A-18 “kills”) noticed that Maverick has only progressed to a Navy Captain based on what is written on the aircraft. Was Maverick busted down for some additional transgression? Has he been held back in promotion because of involvement in some classified program? It has been 32 years since Lt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell went to Top Gun fighter weapons school and scored his first MiG kill. You’d think a career that long that started with so much promise combined with his Navy family heritage may have gotten him to flag rank by now. But according to what is stenciled on his canopy coaming, Maverick languishes along as an officer at a lower pay grade. Why?
Today actor Tom Cruise as “Maverick” was photographed on set wearing a singed high altitude pressure suit with smoke smeared on his face as though he just survived an ejection. This scene is being filmed at the leading edge of the movie’s production, and at the start of a break from filming on U.S. Navy ships that has been speculated as waiting for Navy F-35C capability to come online and be included in the film’s plot and production along with some use of remotely piloted aircraft or drones.
Is this patch on Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell’s high-altitude flight suit from a fictional top-secret new hypersonic aircraft test program like the SR-72? Photos surfaced today on the entertainment Instagram account thehollywoodpipline.com. (Photo: Via Instagram.)
Will we see (now) Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell as a secret test pilot for a highly classified yet-to-be released stealthy experimental hypersonic aircraft?
Think about the context of the black space suit photos here. It’s just a guess, but the elements of the plot could fit together- and again this is a total guess: The story may open with Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell now part of the secret development of the SR-72 hypersonic reconnaissance spy plane. Even more sensationally, his back-seater is a civilian test pilot and astrophysicist named Charlotte “Charlie” Blackwood, Maverick’s old flame from the 1986 “Top Gun”. There is another accident for Maverick in the secret test aircraft over a classified test range. Maverick manages to eject at ultra-high altitude and speed and barely survives, but his civilian test systems operator on board the aircraft does not survive the mishap. Remember; in a scene like this we would not have to see Charlotte “Charlie” Blackwood’s face, it would be concealed beneath a high-altitude flight suit helmet. Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell is thrown back into despair over the loss of “Charlie” in the accident and the plot accelerates from there. This plot guess meshes with additional scenes where Tom Cruise is shown on a new motorcycle with actress Jennifer Connelly who will play a single mother who runs a bar near the base. It could make sense that Maverick seeks consolation with Jennifer Connelly’s character in the film. This also may completely wrong- it’s all just speculation based on today’s “leaked” photos.
A close look at the pressure suit and astronaut-style helmet fittings on Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell from photos that surfaced today on the entertainment Instagram account thehollywoodpipline.com. (Photo: Via Instagram.)
Following the template for “hooking” audiences in movie plots that has been successful in every James Bond movie, “Top Gun: Maverick” may open with an action sequence where “Maverick” is in the new secret hypersonic test plane and experiences the accident we have theorized about (one more time, this is just a theory). That leads to what we have seen in the photos leaked (or intentionally “leaked”) today.
One essential part of Hollywood filmmaking solidly in place since the 1930 production of the Howard Hughes film, “Hell’s Angels”, which could be considered the original “Top Gun”, is the generation of hype and speculation. Different from factual reporting on military aviation news, entertainment hype is all about speculation and sensation. In the words of writer and film critic Karina Longworth who recently wrote a book about the real-life Hollywood starlet mistresses of Howard Hughes titled, Sex, Lies and Stardom in Howard Hughes’s Hollywood, Howard Hughes was a master at hype before a film release. “[Hughes] told everyone he was the greatest through publicity, and they believed it,” Longworth told the Hollywood Reporter’s columnist Katie Kilkenny in a November 9, 2018 interview.
Just like the leaks and rumors propagated through Hollywood media in 1930 for “Hell’s Angels”, speculating about the plot for “Top Gun: Maverick” with its delayed release is both entertaining and helps the keep the anticipated sequel top-of-mind for aviation film enthusiasts. In Hollywood, it’s all about the hype. In a year and a half, we’ll know if any of our wild guesses were right.
Three Times as Many Thumbs Down to “Wear My Medals on The Left” As Thumbs Up.
On Nov. 6, 2018, the Australian War Memorial posted a music video on YouTube by the choral group, “Sisters in Arms” of the Australian military. Just like the well-intentioned viral Rebecca Black “Friday” video of 2011 that garnered a staggering 127-million views with 3.3-million “thumbs down”, this attempt at a pop music/military inspiration mash-up seems to have stepped on a social media landmine.
As of this writing over three times as many people have given “I Wear My Medals on the Left” a “thumbs down” as have liked it. Despite professional production and sound quality, the video seems, well, just weird. And while supporting the troops and their sacrifices is a noble sentiment, the video and song have an uncomfortable feel to them. Even if you have stood in awe of a chorus of M1 Abrams tanks firing a salvo downrange, something about a fresh-faced folk singer doing sassy nose-crinkles while singing about it just feels off. It’s like casting Taylor Swift in a remake of “Full Metal Jacket”.
Dislikes for the video on YouTube have accelerated in the last 24 hours when we first checked in on it. Initially about 50% of the responses to the video on YouTube were “thumbs up”. Now the trend has rapidly reversed with 1,400 “thumbs down” compared to only 378 “thumbs up”.
“The Daily Mail” tabloid trounced the video. Columnist Hannah Moore of Daily Mail Australia wrote, “Three female defense force members have been slammed for their part in a song promoting women serving in the military.” Moore went on to write, “Members of ‘Sisters in Arms’, a three-piece ensemble made up of one woman from the army, one from the navy and one from the air force, have been subject to brutal attacks online since the song went up, with many believing the tune has disadvantaged women who are serving.”
This isn’t the first time a music video has portrayed women’s role in the military. Other depictions have not been subject to nearly as much social media vitriol.
In March 2012 pop sensation Katy Perry released the video for her single, “Part of Me” from her successful “Teenage Dream” album. The video depicted Perry as a jilted girlfriend who joins the U.S. Marines to become an infantryman after a relationship gone bad. The U.S. Marines contributed to the production of the video with U.S Marines, Marine equipment and aircraft featured in the video that earned 724,369,130 views on YouTube with 2.6 million “thumbs up” to 146 thousand “thumbs down”. The key difference is likely that the Katy Perry video was intended for and released to a young, pop music audience whereas “Wear My Medals on the Left” is a made by military, made for military production that appears to have not resonated with its intended audience.
Military themed music video like this one from Katy Perry with the U.S. Marines have worked in the past. (Photo: Via YouTube.)
“Wear My Medals on the Left” has also taken a beating on the Australian War Memorial Facebook page where one viewer wrote on the comments page, “You may have meant well, but this is NOT a positive message. As a woman, I’m so embarrassed by this song I am almost lost for words. How are women ever meant to fit in and be taken seriously in their role in Defense when this is how you promote them? The lyrics are so weak and corny. Sorry but you totally missed the ball on this one.”
Debate about the song aside, the video provides a few good looks at the Australian Defense Force. Part of the video shows a Visit, Board, Search and Seizure (VBSS) mission being launched from the HMS Adelaide landing helicopter ship (LO1). The aircraft shown are an SH-60 Seahawk of the 816 Squadron and an MRH90 helicopter of 808 Squadron. There is also a brief glimpse at an Australian CH-47D Chinook on the flight deck of the Adelaide.
If you make it through the video you do a couple glimpses of Australia’s air arm. (Photo: Via YouTube.)
If you can hang in there long enough with the video you also get a look at some Aussie PC-9 trainers, a few Australian F/A-18s and an impressive formation of C-130s. Noticeably absent are any new Australian F-35A Lightning IIs.
The theme of the visuals and the feel of vocals and singers doesn’t seem to match well in a military/motivational setting. (Photo: Via YouTube.)
It’s also the Second Crash for Reagan in One Month Following MH-60 Seahawk Crash Last Month.
A two-seat U.S. Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet has crashed at sea while operating from the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76). The crash occurred at an unspecified location northeast of the Philippines on Monday, November 12, 2018. Reports indicate both crew members ejected and were rescued from the sea by helicopter.
The USS Ronald Reagan is currently embarked in the Pacific region with Carrier Air Wing Five (CVW-5). The Air Wing lists one unit as operating the two-seat F/A-18F Super Hornet variant, Strike Fighter Squadron 102 (VFA-102), the “Diamondbacks”.
According to the official U.S. Navy website, “CVW-5 is the air combat arm of Battle Force 7th Fleet, with warfighting assets that include the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, EA-18G Growler, C-2A Greyhound, MH-60R and MH-60S [helicopters], as well as the latest addition of the E-2D Hawkeye.”
The Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet is a successful, two-seat, twin-engine combat aircraft derived from the original F/A-18 Hornet first flown by McDonnell Douglas in 1978. The F/A-18F Super Hornet aircraft currently serves with the U.S. Navy and Australia’s military. The F/A-18F Super Hornet variant is an advanced variant of the original F/A-18 with a 25% larger airframe, larger wings, upgraded engines and two crewmen. It performs the attack role for the U.S. Navy.
This is the second accident for an aircraft from the USS Ronald Reagan in less than a month. On October 19, 2018, A U.S. Navy MH-60 helicopter attempted an emergency landing onboard the USS Ronald Reagan and crashed, injuring 12 crewmen. Three of the crewman remained hospitalized according to an October 25, 2018 report by Caitlin Doornbos published in Stars and Stripes.
In early October, journalist Kyle Mizokami of Popular Mechanics reported that the U.S. Navy had made changes to its Naval Safety Center Data Management web portal that previously published statistics for U.S. Navy aviation accidents. The crash statistics for U.S. Navy aircraft are no longer available for persons without military clearance. This change effectively hinders reporters from publishing statistics about cumulative aviation accidents within the U.S. Navy.
In his October 9, 2018 report for Popular Mechanics, Mizokami wrote, “The data is still there, but civilians, including reporters, are restricted from seeing it. The Navy has placed the data behind a digital wall where only Common Access Card (CAC) holders have access. CACs are only available to active-duty military, military reserves, government contractors, and civilian DOD employees.”
This is also the second deadly accident, involving a two-seater Super Hornet in 2018: on Mar. 14, 2018 an example of the Strike Fighter Attack Squadron (VFA) 213 “Black Lions” based at Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia went down one mile east of the runway at Boca Chica Field, Naval Air Station Key West. Both crew members were killed in the crash.
Previously, a single-seat F/A-18E of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 146 assigned to the USS Nimitz (CVN 68) departed the runway during an emergency landing at Bahrain International Airport on Aug. 12, 2017. The pilot successfully ejected. On Apr. 21, 2017, a VFA-137 F/A-18E crashed during a landing attempt on USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) in the Celebes sea, between Indonesia and the Philippines. The previous year, two VFA-211 F/A-18F jets from NAS Oceana collided and crashed 25 miles E of the Oregon Inlet, Nags Head, NC on May 26, 2016; earlier this year, on
Legacy Hornets have also crashed at an alarming rate as we have already reported in the past: two U.S. Marine Corps F-18 Hornets from MCAS Miramar crashed on Nov. 9, 2016 near San Diego. Another F/A-18C crashed near USMC Air Ground Combat Cente, Twentynine Palms, on Oct. 25, 2016. A U.S. Navy F/A-18C belonging to the Strike Fighter Wing Pacific, Detachment Fallon, crashed on Aug. 2, 2016, 10NM to the south of NAS Fallon. On Jul. 27, 2016 a USMC F/A-18 belonging to the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing crashed during a night strafing run on a weapons range near Twentynine Palms (killing the pilot). On Jun. 2 a Blue Angels Hornet crashed after taking off from Smyrna/Rutherford County Airport (KMQY), Smyrna, Tennessee: the only pilot on board was killed in the incident.
Foreign Hornet operators have also suffered losses.
In October 2017, a Spanish EF-18 Hornet, belonging to the Ala 12, crashed during take off from its homebase at Torrejon Air Base, near Madrid, killing the pilot. Then, in January this year, a Royal Australian Air Force EA-18G Growler, the electronic warfare variant of the Super Hornet, caught fire during take-off at Nellis AFB, Nevada while participating in the Red Flag 18-1 combat training exercise. Both crew members were uninjured in the incident.
Here’s what The Aviationist’s David Cenciotti wrote last year, commenting such crashes:
Aircraft may crash for a variety of reasons, not always technical ones. Still, the rate of Hornet crashes in the last years seems to be unusual and, as such, concerning.
According to a report published in September 2016 by Stars and Stripes, since 2012, the number of major Navy and Marine Hornet and Super Hornet accidents have increased by 44 percent as a consequence of sequestration and subsequent cuts in flight hours for training at home.
A Look Back at the F-35Bs deployed to the Middle East on the 243rd Birthday of the USMC.
Today is the 243rd Anniversary of the United States Marine Corps. The Marines were born on November 10, 1775 as an elite maritime-capable combat force by the Second Continental Congress with the decree:
“That two battalions of Marines be raised consisting of one Colonel, two lieutenant-colonels, two majors and other officers, as usual in other regiments; that they consist of an equal number of privates as with other battalions, that particular care be taken that no persons be appointed to offices, or enlisted into said battalions, but such as are good seamen, or so acquainted with maritime affairs as to be able to serve for and during the present war with Great Britain and the Colonies; unless dismissed by Congress; that they be distinguished by the names of the First and Second Battalions of Marines.”
In observance of this anniversary it’s worth watching this video of USMC F-35B Lightning IIs refueling from a U.S. Air Force KC-135 somewhere over the Middle East during the first U.S. combat deployment of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. We have already published shots taken during that very same sortie, highlighting the presence of the gun pod under the fuselage.
The video of the USMC F-35Bs was shot by USAF Staff Sgt. Rion Ehrman of the U.S. Air Forces Central Command Public Affairs on September 15, 2018.
Shooting video from a KC-135 Stratotanker of the 28th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron from Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, the USMC F-35Bs of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 211, 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit take on fuel somewhere over the Middle East using the drogue system on the KC-135 boom.
Because of the position of the lift-fan on the F-35B Lightning II STOVL (Short Take Off Vertical Landing) variant the aircraft does not have the refueling receptacle on top of the fuselage as with the F-35A, so the Marines use the hose and drogue method. You can see in the video that sometimes it gets tricky staying on the drogue as an F-35B bobs up and down taking on fuel. Another F-35B is seen on the drogue with a significant amount of fuel vapor streaming into the air just above the right intake.
The USMC deployment was the first time the U.S. deployed F-35Bs to the Middle East as part of Essex Amphibious Ready Group or ARG. The 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) is also the first combat-deployed MEU to operate the F-35B Lighting II. This is also the first-ever combat deployment of a supersonic STOVL aircraft in aviation history since the Israelis, who debuted the F-35A in combat in the Middle East, fly a conventional take-off and landing variant of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
On Sept. 27, 2018 U.S. Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 211, F-35B Lighting II Joint Strike Fighters hit insurgent targets in Afghanistan’s Kandahar Province. The mission, flown by an undisclosed number of aircraft from USS Essex but, interestingly, at least two aircraft, modex CF-00 and CF-01, made a stopover in Kandahar Air Field after the air strike before returning to the aircraft carrier.
Two U.S. Marine Corps F-35B taxi to the runway at KAF the morning after conducting the first air strike in Afghanistan.
The aircraft carried the external gun pod along with the two upper Luneburg lenses/radar reflectors.
On Sept. 28, a U.S. Marine F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter crashed near Beaufort Marine Corps Air Station, South Carolina on the U.S. East Coast. The pilot ejected from the aircraft. The incident led to a temporary stand down of the worldwide fleet, on Oct. 12, 2018 for safety inspections of their fuel flow systems.
Tom Cruise May Be Learning to Take the Stick in Hornet, Hints at Plot from Video.
Unconfirmed rumors have been circulating about Tom Cruise learning to fly a Navy jet, possibly a two-seat F/A-18F Super Hornet or a T-45 Goshawk, for the filming of “Top Gun: Maverick“. More than one Hollywood and social media source suggested the rumored instruction is part of the reason for the recent delay in release of the anticipated sequel to June 26, 2020.
The rumors surfaced mid-week in several media outlets from MovieWeb.com, Entertainment Weekly (EW.com) and the Daily Mail.
The story in Entertainment Weekly by James Hibberd published on November 9, 2018, said that, “The story making the rounds is that production has halted on Top Gun: Maverick so star Tom Cruise can take some time and learn to personally fly Navy fighter jets. The story first took off in the U.K. tabloids (always a dependable source for future-debunked news).”
We recognize the “Top Gun” patch and the name plate also with “Top Gun” on it, with the VX-31 patch (Photo: Screen Grab via Instagram)
Entertainment Weekly went on to report that, “First, the Top Gun sequel is still shooting and will continue filming through spring (aside from the usual breaks around the holidays). So, production hasn’t shut down. Second, civilians are not allowed to use government equipment, particularly militarized jets — so even Tom Cruise can’t just take off in an F/A-18 Hornet, even if he does feel the need, the need for speed. (I know, we’re a bit bummed about that too).”
Hibberd is right about the Daily Mail being a tabloid rumor mill, but as an entertainment writer he can’t be expected to know that Cruise may be able to fly rear-seat in a two-seat F/A-18 and get some actual stick time. As you already know, it is not unusual for civilians on media or VIP rides with flight demonstration teams like the Blue Angels or the Thunderbirds to briefly be given the opportunity to hold the control stick and press on the pedals under the very close and careful management of the front seat pilot in command.
It’s also worth remembering that Tom Cruise is already a pilot with several ratings who owns a P-51 Mustang. Cruise learned to fly an Airbus AS350 helicopter for some of the scenes in last summer’s Mission Impossible: Fallout. Cruise was seen in his P-51 Mustang, registration number N51EW, flying out of Burbank Airport yesterday and heading up toward China Lake Naval Air Station.
Looks like Cruise may be commuting to work in his own P-51 Mustang. (Photo: Screen Grab via Instagram)
Even though the rumors about Tom Cruise’s personal “flight instruction” being the reason for the Top Gun: Maverick delay are making the rounds, the more believable explanation may be related to the inclusion of the Navy’s F-35C Lightning II in the film.
The U.S. Navy began testing the wide-winged, heavy landing gear variant of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter on the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) late this summer and early fall. Aircraft from Strike Fighter Squadron 125, VFA-125, the “Rough Raiders” from Naval Air Station Lemoore, and also from Strike Fighter Squadron 101, VFA-101, the “Grim Reapers” from Eglin Air Force Base performed carrier trials on board the USS Lincoln in August.
It’s likely the Navy would be somewhat reluctant to bring full Hollywood production crews on board the carrier during the F-35C’s trial and evaluation period. It is more likely the U.S. Navy would support the film’s production with F-35C media opportunities sometime next year, and that may be a contributing factor to the delay of the film’s release.
Perhaps the real reason for the one-year delay in Top Gun: Maverick could be the Navy getting their F-35C program up to speed so the aircraft can be showcased in the new movie. (Photo: U.S. Navy Official)
Meanwhile, the new Hollywood feature, Hunter Killer released on October 26, 2018 may have been the first Hollywood feature film to debut the Navy’s F-35C. The movie featured some brief stock footage of F-35Cs taking off from an aircraft carrier in support of a fictional U.S. Navy special operations mission.
Some clues about the plot of Top Gun: Maverick may have surfaced on Tom Cruise’s own social media and from some phone video that hit Instagram and Facebook last week. The stills and video showed Tom Cruise on a motorcycle with actress Jennifer Connelly. Connelly will play a single mother who runs a bar near the air base. The filming of Cruise and Connelly together on the motorcycle may suggest the two characters develop a relationship in the storyline. Recall the brief romantic scene in the original 1986 Top Gun when Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis rode together on Maverick’s motorcycle.
Military parody and comedy blog DuffelBlog couldn’t help but make fun of the production delay for Top Gun: Maverick in this fictional jab on Twitter. (Photo: Screen Grab via Twitter)
Top image: Tom Cruise and his fans are sharing photos on nstagram of him and Jennifer Connelly on set for Top Gun: Maverick. (Photo: Screen Grab via Instagram)
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