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'Top Gun: Maverick': Patches On Tom Cruise's Jacket Spark Controversy

The Jackal

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smaller details are changed all the time for different markets. One that springs to mind is the list Captain America was making in Winter Soldier of things he missed while frozen that he needed to experience. Some stuff they left, some stuff they changed, because every audience isn't going to immediately recognize some of the references.

For my 2 cents worth, it makes more sense to me that he would simply have a different jacket or merely different patches after this many years.
 

Justhandguns

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For my 2 cents worth, it makes more sense to me that he would simply have a different jacket or merely different patches after this many years.

Isn't that Maverick inherited the jacket from his father who also served as a NAVY pilot? There's loads of nostalgia in the trailer the music, the jacket, the old GPZ900r and even the F-14 at the end, which we probably won't see in the final movie. At least we saw Tom Cruise wearing the new CWU jacket in there.
 
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If a Navy Officer (or for that matter any service) doesn't get promoted within a certain time-frame he is forced out. It's in the reg's.
He didn’t get promoted because he’s too damn good at flying. The best of the best. LOL. Although I agree it would’ve been cooler to have him serve as an instructor at top gun, unwillingly called back into action when only the very best pilot is needed to defeat the...whoever flies the mig. I always assumed it was the Russians.
Either way, time to cut some seriously short jorts, put sun-in on my hai...er, head, and enjoy a movie that will undoubtedly play (ing with the boys) on every bit of nostalgia possible for around 2 hrs. LOOL. It’s so bad it’s good and I love it.
 

The Jackal

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If a Navy Officer (or for that matter any service) doesn't get promoted within a certain time-frame he is forced out. It's in the reg's.

an 0-6 in the Navy is forcibly retired at the 30 year mark if not promoted, which would have been more than a few years ago considering the new movie takes place 34 years after the original, and one can assume Maverick had at least 6 years of service prior to that movie.

However the Navy is allowed to maintain officers past their standard term limits if deemed to be of exceptional skill or necessity, which I'm sure is the position they would take if someone questioned the movie hard enough.
 

Rich22

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I can't help but despise Tom Cruise. Precisely why I'm not sure... The huge success on limited talent perhaps? The scientology? The weirdness/creepiness he exhibits?

I did however enjoy the original Top Gun, but haven't found it has aged that well.
 

nick123

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AbbaDatDeHat

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I can't help but despise Tom Cruise. Precisely why I'm not sure... The huge success on limited talent perhaps? The scientology? The weirdness/creepiness he exhibits?

I did however enjoy the original Top Gun, but haven't found it has aged that well.
Ok great!! Thanks
So what do you think about the patches?
Lol
B
 

Seb Lucas

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I can't help but despise Tom Cruise. Precisely why I'm not sure... The huge success on limited talent perhaps? The scientology? The weirdness/creepiness he exhibits?

I did however enjoy the original Top Gun, but haven't found it has aged that well.

I was thinking that's a bit harsh but on reflection I can't think of a Tom Cruise film that I have enjoyed. He isn't a performer I like watching, maybe because he always seems too eager for us to like him in a role, even in Collateral. His 'huge success' doesn't bother me, I take it as axiomatic that talent or quality isn't a necessary ingredient of success, look at pop music, fast food and politics.
 
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I think Cruise did his best work in 'Collateral'. Anything else with him in it I can take or leave.

Right, Collateral too. He was great there but then again, Cruise has consistently been excellent in just about anything, really. Cruise often plays Cruise and that's okay. When the role demands more, Cruise delivers. It's okay to dislike him but there's no arguing that he has never given anything less but his best for any of his roles.

On the other hand, this man was given an Academy Award...
 

Edward

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For the record... I have seen it, and I found it to be your typical testosterone fueled '80s schlop featuring Hollywood's greatest one trick pony. Top Gun 2 is an easy pass for me.

Quite so. I must have been about thirteen when I saw it, and I found notihng to like abouyt it. I only hate it more as the years pass. If anythin,g it's the primary reason I shied away from US flying jackets for years because that was for so long the primary association.

Seriously? Even after Rain Man, Eyes Wide Shut, Valkyrie?

I'm in the same boat. Valkyrie and Minority Report were decent, but could only have been improved with pretty much any other competent actor. The problem with Cruise is, in large part, symptomatic of the wider Hollywood problem: he's only ever hired to play the Tom Cruise A-Lister persona. You could have often said the same of Steve Macqueen or Bogart, but I liked their personas. I also dislike his insistence on doing all his own stunts in roles that are simpyl not credible for a man his age. Especially when he was injured doing a stunt a while back ,and everyone else had to put their job on hold for weeks because his ego wouldn't have let him use a stand-in....

smaller details are changed all the time for different markets. One that springs to mind is the list Captain America was making in Winter Soldier of things he missed while frozen that he needed to experience. Some stuff they left, some stuff they changed, because every audience isn't going to immediately recognize some of the references.

Quite so. China is a big market and the old nationalist flag is a problem for the government; nixing it to avoid losing a lucrative market is a no-brainer. Very common nowadays, too. Remember Hollywood doesn't make art - it makes money. American capitalism at its most refined.

Isn't that Maverick inherited the jacket from his father who also served as a NAVY pilot?

THat was the original story, yes.

I never truly understand why he had so many patches on his jacket in the first place.

I'm told it's a sort of souvenir jacket, and supposedly the patches represented all the units with which the old man had flown in his career. I gather that for whatever reason that particular mix would have been impossible in real life; when called out on this the film-makers claimed it was deliberate, so as not to encourage Mittys. Not so sure I believe that, but....
 

Corsair42

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If a Navy Officer (or for that matter any service) doesn't get promoted within a certain time-frame he is forced out. It's in the reg's. It happened to the Captain of my unit. He was a nice guy but was dumb as a box of rocks and couldn't pass the promotion exam.

Thats not strictly true, for pilots, particularly highly skilled pilots with broad experience, they can be retained through to their mid 50s and used as test pilots, instructors and for special duties. The way promotion works for pilots is by the time they reach senior rank they are no longer flying regularly as they transition to a command role, clearly an air force cant afford to lose its most experienced pilots so accommodations are made to retain them while keeping them at a rank that keeps them flying. In the RAF, there are pilots who remain in less senior rank but are paid at a higher rank in order to retain them and skills and experience. In these instances, someone having 30 years under their belt but remaining at a relatively junior rank but acting as a test/display/instructor would fit with Cruise's character in the movie.
 

Corsair42

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In terms of equivalence across NATO ranks and
a US Navy Captain, (not to be confused with an OF2 Army Captain) is an OF5 and equivalent to a full bird USAF Colonel and an RAF Group Captain so not particularly junior and as an experienced pilot, not a particularly unusual rank to get stuck at if you want to stay in the cockpit vs moving up to non-flying senior staff and command roles.
 

Thuggee

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'Leaving Las Vegas', 'Wild at Heart', 'Bringing Out the Dead'. These movies are some of my absolute favourites for Cage ability and zaniness.

You forget Mandy now that’s a classic Cage movie

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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navetsea

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I instantly like whatever movie with tom cruise or nick cage in it:D,
Except for War of the World.... cool jacket and all.... but what a wacky plot:confused:... and obnoxious kids.
 

Rich22

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I think Cruise did his best work in 'Collateral'. Anything else with him in it I can take or leave.
Good call. That’s the one and only Tom Cruise film I’ve watched and liked since Top Gun. I’d rather a different actor had taken that role, but I liked the film regardless.

Minority Report, Edward? Nooooo, that was awful....
 

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