Top Gun: Maverick

[Supermoon]

See this here? This is how you end up with the plot they ended up with. Nobody says no to anything.

[subtle plague]

How has no one mentioned the "surviving a catastrophic airframe failure at hypersonic speed" thing? The whole plot was dogshit but that stands alone.

But, what if the plot actually goes much deeper than it first appears? What if the plot is stolen not just from Star Wars and Dam Busters, but also from Lost?

Hear me out here. He died in the hypersonic crash. The rest of the movie was Maverick's afterlife, his soul's quest to find peace. It fixes everything that appears to be wrong with the plot when viewed literally.

"It's time to let go."

Yeah you don't do mach 10 eject. I gladly drove over that Story bump.

[jono]

Yeah you don't do mach 10 eject. I gladly drove over that Story bump.

The plane doesn't get fully detailed, but if you were building a scramjet test bed to fly with a human onboard (most unrealistic thing in the movie?) the cockpit would be built into a crew escape capsule, F-111 style. Hypersonic ejection just means he climbs out of the capsule before walking to the diner.

That said, yeah, he probably died. Either way, it was a dream he had when he ran low on oxygen during that ejection and the whole thing played out before impact. In real life (aka the original) the pilots would have been given detailed descriptions of the enemy nation, the capabilities of potential adversaries etc. The tell is that in dreamscape the details his brain doesn't already know become ambiguous: "5th generation fighters" of an unknown nation with detailed but unfamiliar hand signals and black-lensed goggles covering the dream-extras' faces. And he can take 10 g's because that was the mach number target and it's ringing in his brain.

[Bronco]

I was sort of skeptical of the delay in releasing the film during the pandemic but glad they waited until folks were comfortable with going to the theatre. Definitely fun to watch on the big screen!

[Dantheman]

The plane doesn't get fully detailed, but if you were building a scramjet test bed to fly with a human onboard (most unrealistic thing in the movie?) the cockpit would be built into a crew escape capsule, F-111 style. Hypersonic ejection just means he climbs out of the capsule before walking to the diner.

You know the scene in The Expanse where the slingshot racer tries to fly through the Ring and and the deceleration peels his flesh right off his skeleton? That's probably about how things play out when the escape capsule hits atmosphere at 7,000 mph.

[Brownski]

See this here? This is how you end up with the plot they ended up with. Nobody says no to anything.

Absolutely. You want some skis in it? We can find some skis.

[jono]

You know the scene in The Expanse where the slingshot racer tries to fly through the Ring and and the deceleration peels his flesh right off his skeleton? That's probably about how things play out when the escape capsule hits atmosphere at 7,000 mph.

The deceleration is why I assumed a capsule is needed to have an aerodynamically stable and slippery shape in place for a while. I'd expect the escape capsule is largely already in contact with atmosphere before "ejection," but...who knows what you'd need at that speed? But it may include things like the windshield and be built like the survival cell in a racecar, which can basically shed everything else and has bulkheads that would be the last things to fail. In this case, slippery ones.

There's definitely a huge deceleration, though, and no need for a chute for quite a while. But you're not doing mach 10 in thick air, either, so think reentry for Spaceship 1.

I haven't read it all, but there's the wiki on this kind of thing (interesting to note the pressure suit/no capsule approach for the SR-71--I think a mach 10 prototype would likely skip the very good low speed/altitude performance if it meant ensuring it worked going fast, but Kelly would know better than me):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_crew_capsule

[Brownski]

I think to go that fast even a scramjet has to be above most of the Earth’s atmosphere so the deceleration and friction wouldn’t be as dramatic as you’d think. You still need to protect the pilot from the low pressure, lack of oxygen, cold, heat etc of course. Hence the spacesuit. They just showed the plane breaking up on radar. I guess we could conclude that Maverick pulled the ejection handle after losing control but before being engulfed in a fireball?

[Dantheman]

You can only go so high before there isn't enough oxygen to burn fuel. It's hard to comprehend what Mach 10 actually means.

[dookeyXXX]

It's hard to comprehend what Mach 10 actually means.

To put it in perspective, Speed Racer’s car only went Mach 5…

[NW_SKIER]

To put it in perspective, Speed Racer’s car only went Mach 5…

That cleared it right up. Thanks

[Dantheman]

To put it in perspective, Speed Racer’s car only went Mach 5…

Heh.

From NASA:

"When the third and final X-43A flies in November, blistering temperatures created by the Mach 10 (7000 mph) speed will be in the neighborhood of 3600 degrees"
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/resear...0the%20vehicle.

"The Mach 10 research vehicle featured additional thermal protection, since expected heating was roughly twice that experienced by the Mach 7 vehicle"
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstro...-040-DFRC.html

[jono]

It's hard to comprehend what Mach 10 actually means.

Thanks to your death theory I've made my peace with most of it. But Mr. Cruise really could have brought a little more method to that U-turn before the breakup. At least give it some O-face before cranking up 300 g's.

[PB]

RLY
At least a Minority Report sag face.

[jono]

RLY
At least a Minority Report sag face.

Right? Gimme something! People are passing out and planes are being scrapped over a little 10g pull-up and he just lazily rolls it 20 degrees or so and whips a bitch like it's nothing. He's pretty short, but I think he'd still weigh about 25 tons for those 3 seconds.

[DeepHelmet]

Maverick killed Goose.

You shut your whore mouth.

[babybear]

Andrew just casually mentioned earlier today that he took Goose and his family on a Yellowstone tour a couple of years ago.

[NW_SKIER]

You shut your whore mouth.

Iceman killed Goose

[Supermoon]

Iceman killed Goose

Yep

[MiddleOfNight]

^^
Only thing missing from that pitch is a skiing sequence.

switch to the parking lot.

[JimmyCarter]

Iceman killed Goose

With a maul?

[Vets]

[Savicchini]

I am incredibly glad I went and saw it in the theaters. Not going to be the same on the small screen. Same with Parasite.

[basinbeater]

I rewatched hot shots the other day. Good for quite a few laughs.
Like everytime someone sits on a Chihuahua.

[Core Shot]

With a maul?

Of course.

https://www.military.com/off-duty/20...s-top-gun.html