The Rewatchables - ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan

Episode Date: July 12, 2022

It’s not the podcast, it’s the podcaster. The Ringer’s Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan take a seat at the Hard Deck to revisit the instant classic ‘Top Gun: Maverick’, starring Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, and Jennifer Connelly. Producer: Craig Horlbeck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Take a look at this. The man, the legend. This is going to take you and your aircraft to the breaking point. Megas Brian. You're not going to make the same mistake. Those are your pilots. If anything happens to that, you'll never forgive yourself.

There we are. Top Gun Maverick. Ready PG-13. All right, Chris Ryan is here. We're doing this old school. In my little pool house where we basically formed the ring our podcast network, this is where we did the first rewatchable. This is where I debuted my Bono voice.

Yeah, you did. This is where we did the first heat a long time ago. And now we are making history here as we're heading toward 250 movies. This is the first time a movie that's still in the theater has ever been a rewatchable. I went twice in three days. The second time I brought my iPad, I sat on the aisle, and I took notes. I bought the seat next to me so I didn't know anybody. Is that why Bill Simmons was trending on Twitter?

Because people are like, this fucking guy with his iPad. What the fuck is he doing? This movie's incredible. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed it. You were saving it for yourself after the playoffs. I was. I waited until July. I was like, I got to get through the Celtics thing.

I got to get through the draft. I got to get through first day of free agency. And then I'm ready to really throw myself into the Top Gun Maverick universe. But everybody I knew was like, it's amazing. Yeah. I can't believe how good it was. I'm shocked. What a thrill ride.

I went twice, and then I went twice, and it was a throw ride. It was great. So this movie has crossed the billion-dollar global box office barrier. It's probably the biggest movie we've had. I think Fennessee was kind of comparing it, like, endgame three and a half years ago. I don't count those fucking Marvel movies. Well, I mean, a lot of people might be like this. But this is like our Marvel movies.

This is like the stuff that we grew up on. But I think the thing that I responded to because I saw it right when it came out and that saw it again this week when I knew we were doing this. And it hit me just the same way. It pulled on the heartstrings. It was still thrilling. It was still like, oh, my God. It's like the best blockbusters just make you emotionally invest in completely unrealistic

or extraordinary scenarios. Yeah. So like Jurassic Park, T2, The Matrix. You know what you're seeing is just a fantasy or a fantastical. But they do something in those movies where you feel like the stakes, they're huge, but they feel humans. Yeah. And that's the thing that I think that this movie really, really gets on a level that, like, Titanic got or, you know, Jaws got, where it's like, yeah, there's a shark. Yeah, there's a boat. Yeah, there's an, there's an F-18. But it's like the people flying the planes. It's the pilot, not the plane. Yeah, it's funny. The characters are great. And yet I have some issues with some of the characters who will get into. There's the same people from the first movie. It's just facsimile. Yeah. They did. They took a lot of easy way outs, and I still loved it so much. It's the biggest action movies.

since Dark Night. Yeah. It's the biggest movie of Cruz's career. That's unreal. That seems relevant. It flipped the streaming model again. I feel like this movie brought movies back in the right way. I mean, there were a couple other ones that did well, and people are like, hey, this is good.

There's some good signs here. Batman, whatever. It's like, it's coming. We're doing this. Yeah. This is the first one where Paramount's like, yeah, we're going to leave this in the theaters, and we'll let you know when we're going to actually stream this. But they don't really need to.

Yeah. And I went to the theater twice and three days. It was, what, 27 months after COVID started or 28 months. And I didn't think about it once. A guy coughed twice in the theater, whatever. I wasn't wearing a mask. He was probably holding back tears. I was having popcorn at M&M's.

The Val Kilmer scene, everyone's getting choked up. And, you know, I think every fear we had about movies over the last couple years is like, people just want to be home. They don't want to be in a theater. Guess what? It's really fun to show. share a movie with 200 people. Everyone clapped at the end. Both times I went.

It's kind of become like a cliche to be like, you know you have to see this in theaters. But there's five or six things that happen in this movie that I think if you would watch this on even a great TV screen or God forbid a laptop screen, you would just be like, that's pretty

cool. Yeah. But you don't feel like it's so loud. They worked so hard to make sure that they were shooting stuff inside of cockpits and that the planes felt real and that everything felt real. There's so little CGI that you can't really explain it to somebody who hasn't seen it

in a theater. You wouldn't be able to... If I saw this movie at home, I think it would be like a 7 out of 10. But seeing in the theater is the 10 out of 10. I would have gone 8.5 out of 10. You know what I mean, though? It's like that extra 1 and a half points, though, is there in the theater experience.

The other thing is, the fact that it was delayed for three years, I can't believe it became an asset. That should have been an absolute catastrophe for this movie. When we did the Top Gun rewatchables, we did with the Mallory and Jason, right? And we knew this was coming, and we thought it was going to be summer in 2019,

and it was like, this would be great. And then they decided to delay it because they didn't feel like they got all the action scenes, right? They needed more time. They delay it. It gets delayed until 2020. COVID, delayed, delayed, delayed.

I can't remember another movie being in the can. Basically at the end of 2018, it's been three and a half years. So you, like, I was thinking about people like Miles Teller, Glenn Powell, who's a friend of, a friend of the ringer. Yeah. You know, who we know is, we're like, oh, we're happy for that guy. I loved them and everybody wants some. I'm psyched that he's going to get his break.

These people never got the big break. But now it's like belatedly they get a break. They're three and a half years older. It's summer of Teller. Yeah. You know? Eagles got A.J. Brown. He's in the offer.

He's in Top Gun Maverick. He's killing it. Oh, he's, and Zoe Simmons, my daughter. She's in love with Miles Teller. And I was like, you know, I had him on a podcast, showed her the picture. And she was like, he was in your office? Like, I was like, this is huge from my house teller. It's got 17-year-old girls fall in love with them.

This also, I think, was the model of what a sequel actually should be. You know, there's all these different sequels that we've had over the years. Like, there's the Rocky 2 type sequel where it's just like, run this back. We'll change the ending. It's a continuation of the last one. Or you have like the Terminator 2 where we're going to elevate. at this to a whole other level. It's going to be a few years later.

There's a million ways it could go. Lethal Weapon, too. It's like, we're going to do a better version of the first movie and make more money. This one, it's like, it's a combo that's going to make more money. It's more successful. It plays that in the nostalgia for people like you and I. But then at the same time, like, it picks up these stories in a really smart way. There's stuff over and over again where you're like that smart.

I mean, the great balls of fire scene, which we'll talk about. later, but just that scene, it's like, this is how you do a sequel. So there's like this metatechial element to Maverick where I think there's, here's the thing about Top Gun the first one. Incredible movie. Like one of the best, like, really one of the best blockbusters ever made. Wouldn't you say like one of the 20 most rewatchable movies probably ever made? But I wouldn't say I was like emotionally invested in Pete Mitchell.

You know what I mean? Like I wouldn't say that like Pete Mitchell is a guy that I've been thinking about since I saw top gun and that's like an indelible. it's what the character is is it's Tom Cruise. Yeah. And so then you watched Maverick, and I know this is a weird comparison, but it kind of almost reminds me of like when Unforgiven came out. Yeah.

And there's the movie Unforgiven, but then there's the like subtextual conversation about Clint. The point of his life that Clint is at. Yeah. And what's like this guy is aging, like this guy reckoning with the decisions he made, this guy kind of thinking about his, what his life is worth. And Tom Cruise is like obviously a pretty like, you know, contentious, but like important figure in popular culture. But this movie is just as much about, like, Tom Cruise as it is about Pete Mitchell or the Navy. It's funny you use the word contentious.

I would have used ambiguous, confusing. Yeah, I mean, like, sure. You know, you could use whatever. I think that he's had ups and downs. Yeah, I don't even, that's even how they, I thought how they promoted the movie was genius. He wasn't really involved. Yeah. It was like the aura of Cruz.

But really they used the other actors to promote it, right? And Cruz did a couple things, but I think in years past... Well, he's been shooting Mission Impossible. I think it's been... I mean, he did like a pretty good promo tour for this, but it wasn't like when they did night and day and he like rode a motorcycle into the movie theater or whatever. You know, it's like...

I think that there was a little bit of... Not humility, but just like, yeah, you're right. Like sharing the screen a little bit. Also, I think if you're the studio, you're like... Tom's like, hey, what can I do? And you're like... I think we'll let you know Todd's like I think I was thinking about doing Marin

Yeah like Tom Come on man Well that's the thing he can't He can't do like the podcast tour right Like I would love to have him on Yeah I don't know if his people would want him to come on my podcast So he can do like the late night shows

He can do the seven minute Goes tells two stories Does a bit with Guillermo Yeah Nothing's really gonna happen But they don't really want like crews unfiltered, I don't think, at this point. Especially like everybody gets weird when they're older. He was super weird 17 years ago. Yeah, and he's also, I think, probably like,

learned from past promotional tours that like maybe a little less is more. I can't believe for how long we knew this is coming, for how many times we had gotten hints and some of the reveals, like how much Miles Tower looked like Anthony Edwards and things like that. Like, we already knew this stuff. So there weren't a lot of surprises. And yet the movie is an absolute thrill. ride. It almost reminded me of like a great professional wrestling match where it's just so perfectly orchestrated. It's just perfect. It's when you count them out.

Structurally and it's like he's going to get pinned. No! He kicked out! It's got a couple of those. It's just it's great. But let's talk about the 40 years of cruise. So we have done on this podcast, we did call our money and Top Gun and Rain Man and Cocktail. We have done a few good men.

We've done the firm. We've done Jerry McGuire. we've done at least one mission impossible. We did eyes wide shut for the rewatchable's 99 feed. And we did collateral. Yeah. So I think this is our 11th cruise movie. He's far and away the MVP of the rewatcher.

Gosh, I guess you're right. Yeah. I was thinking about if you cut his career in phases, phase one is 83 to 88, where it's like risky business, all the right moves, color money, top gun, rain man cocktail. That's like early young,

I'm blowing up into a major star crease. Yeah. then you have from 89 and 94 you got born on the 4th of July days of thunder far and away a few good men the firm interview with the vampire he's solidified he's an A plus Lister He can do almost any kind of movie

If he's in a movie it's going to open And it's going to be huge He's one of the biggest stars we have He's probably the biggest under 40 star we have Then we get a phase three Which is the most interesting phase For a lot of different reasons Is this Spielberg PTA?

Well sort of It's Jerry McGuire Which I think is Probably the best character He's ever played Or in the running Mission Impossible, which starts a series that he's now made seven. Eyes Wide Shut, which is the most fascinating decision he ever made career-wise,

and then a movie that set him back. Magnolia, which is probably the best he's ever been in a movie. Probably. Could have won an Oscar? Mission Impossible 2 and Vanilla Sky, which is basically a Tom Carru's charisma movie. We did Magnolia, too, on rewatchables. Yeah, we did Magnolia.

So then phase four, this is where it gets a little weird. 2002 to 05, Minority Report, Last Samurai, Collateral, War of the Worlds, and then Oprah's Sofa happens. And then it just kind of tilts. And crucially, he stops working with Spielberg there, which I think you can love or like or whatever some of those movies, but that was like a major partnership that I think kind of goes unremarked upon, but they just stop working together after that.

And the baggage from whatever was going on with his personal life, his relationships, Scientology, all that stuff. Once Oprah Sofa happens, now it's like, all right, I love Tom Cruise, the movie star. Tom Cruise, the real person, a little odd. What's going on here? And then that leads. The next phase is basically 06 to 18. He has four Mission Impossibles, which I didn't realize he did four, just in that stretch.

Two Jack Reachers, edge of tomorrow. the mummy, oblivion, rock of ages, night and day, Valky, Lions for Lamb, Tropic Thunder, an American made. He's all over the place. And at some point, it seems like it's probably over except for the Mission Impossible remakes. That's, I mean, if you would ask me five years ago, it would have been like, it just seems like he's just going to make Mission Impossible's until he's physically unable to and maybe we'll do. And there's no other version of a successful, of a successful cruise movie. The saddest part for me is the fact that he no longer seems to be interested in doing things like being in the PTA Spielberg movies. And I do think that there is a

big what if, obviously, around the time of the Oprah couch, where he could have done some of the stuff that Tom Hanks has done over the last 20 years, say. Like, he could have done Captain Phillips. He could have played Ben Bradley in The Post. You know what I mean? Like there's like a world in which he does that. And now he seems to have kind of like, he's like, I work with Christopher McCrory, I make a certain kind of movie, a certain kind of way. When I make a movie, it's a two-year thing. I put everything I have into it. I'm usually going to be an action star.

And it's usually going to be an action star because I'm basically squeezing the last stunts I have out of my body. Reacher, you and I like the first one a lot, but really betrayed the book. And then the Amazon series was really what Jack Richard was supposed to be. This larger-than-life maniac guy. But then some of the other swings he took, you know, the mummy was just a classic,

hey, let's try to make as much money as possible with an action movie and it didn't work. Oblivion is an interesting movie. It's fine. Rock of Ages is super weird and probably the weirdest choice he made in the last 15 years. Night and day, I think, proved to everybody.

Nobody wants to see Tom Cruise with a romantic comedy. Like, that can't be the focal point of it. Valka, he just has an eye patch on. I thought it was over. Edge of Tomorrow's sick. Edge of Tomorrow's, amazing. And it was like, that feels like the last

stand for him. It's that. It's Mission Impossible. Top Gun Maverick, I don't know what happens now with him. I feel like the next eight to ten years he could have this, I think he's in phase six now and I don't know where it leads, but I'm optimistic. So he's going to do,

he's got Dead Reckoning part one, the Mission Impossible movie next year. So two more of them. And they're shooting them concurrently. So then the part two will be, I think, 24. So then you get basically to 25 before we're going to get like another Tom Cruise movie at least. Which will be at some point does he do the Paul Thomas Anderson washed up a list actor in

Hollywood like where he's just sort of playing himself but not totally. Like does he want to do a drama? Does he want to actually try to act anymore? It's a two-way street. Does he want to go back and do like small acting roles and will Hollywood kind of accept him in that? Is Hollywood even like the kind of movie like Jerry McGuire would not get made today. Jerry McGuire would be a limited series. And I don't think Tom Cruise will ever do TV, although I've said that before about actors and they wind up doing it. But I think he's the one that wouldn't. Yeah, him and DeCaprio seem the most kind of like, that's not what I do. But like, if Cruz was like at the end of Mission Impossible, if the end of Dead Reckoning Part 2, they're like,

that's it for Mission Impossible. We're going to reboot it or whatever in five years with somebody else. And he was like, okay, so like, what do I do next? And at that point, he's going to be what, like 63, right? I think his goal is just to die doing a Mission Impossible stunt. 72 just falls off a building and dies. He's like, that's how he would have wanted to go out. That's kind of what the story of Top Gun Maverick is, though. It's like basically like, is this guy going to die like making amends?

Well, the other thing, and this is, I mean, Cruz, this is 40 years of Cruz at this point. I saw, I saw Taps in the theater. I saw outsiders in the theater. It was before risky business became he's Joel Goodson. that sets his crew out. That's 1983. All the right moves the same year. We all went.

It's Cruz high school football. Great. And now we're in year 40 of Cruz leading movies. And what's interesting about TopCon Maverick, on the one hand, it's ludicrous, right?

He's got the dyed black hair. Guys in his late 50s, he looks younger than John Hamm. It's clearly had, I don't know if he's had work done or what, but he just almost, it's like impossible for him to look how he looks.

He's super stacked. Does the beach full. football scene. And you're like, God damn, Cruz is yoked. Yeah. But on the other hand, he pulls off. Like, it really does feel like the best possible version of Maverick 35 years later, if Maverich just stayed in great shape, he still had his fastball. So it's like both realistic and completely unrealistic. But look at everybody from his generation. Look at everybody around him, like, and what they kind of like look like now with the exception, with a few exceptions, like most guys, like, look at Tom Hanks. Tom Hanks. Tom Hanks is like, I'm a guy in my sister.

Like this is what happens. Like Michael Kitten. Yeah. Michael Keaton. Yeah. It's like this is what happens, dude. Like, and Tom Cruise like... Tom Cruise, like, that's not what happens.

I'm still Mitchell. And when you watched, did you get the message from Tom Cruise before the movie? I did. We could talk about that, but there's like this opening message before Maverick plays where he's just like, we made this for fans. So many people worked on it. And it's like, but it looks like he's like kind of like reading off of a cue card. Like, there's definitely something like kind of up there. but like, I don't know, it works for him.

I don't understand it. Best sequels ever. We've had this conversation before. For doing Mount Rushmore for best sequels ever. He must have to start backwards. Godfather 2 has to be on. I think Dark Night has to be on. I think Terminator 2 has to be on.

Yes, yeah. That's only one spot left. And we have aliens, we have Empire Strikes Back, we have John Wick 2, we have lethal weapon too. Would you, so when you say sequel, can it only be part 2? Has to be part 2. Okay. Bad news bears, breaking training.

I'd still in the discussion for me. Top Gun Mavericks in the combo. Oh, yeah. I mean, certainly of like the most recent spate of like part 2's for sure. I think it's going to go down. We're going to remember as one of the great sequels ever and one of the most the probable movie successes to where they took something

that was a beloved piece of pop culture and somehow did a better version of it. Because I think this movie's better than the original Top Gun, as amazing as that sounds. No, I mean, it's got a whole other spectrum of emotion there that I don't think that the first one

necessarily has. I don't know if there's any way to officially verify this, but it seems like it's the longest period of time between a movie and a sequel. It's 36 years. I think it's a record.

Yeah. And as we mentioned, it got delayed just a shitloaded times. They shot this in 2018, right? We did a trailer reaction to this movie. We did. In 2019, I think, in my office, in the ringer. And you and I might be the only people still working for the ringer from that trailer reaction.

Yeah, the, it's the whole thing is just amazing to me. We should mention Joe Kaczynski, the director. Yeah. I honestly think he should get nominated for Best Director. I think it's that good. I think it's that well done, well crafted. And I don't know. For some reason,

these big action movies, comedies, there's certain things that just don't get respect with the Oscars. The way things are going now, at this point in the year, I would imagine that he is at least on like the short list if he's not getting nominated. I can't imagine anyone doing a better job

with the hand they were dealt with this movie. It's insane. It's just perfectly crafted. I was so impressed. If you see his other movies, it's not that big of a surprise that he's able to capture the action sequences. The thing that's really amazing

is how he handles the Jennifer Conley scenes. And it's just how nice those are and how warm they are. You know, the other thing, this was supposed to be a Tony Scott sequel. When they first started talking about this early 2010, so it was Tony Scott. Tony Scott kills himself in 2012.

And then it just is in flux there for a couple years. And then finally, this works out. There's a bunch of people that wrote it. I think Cruz was heavily involved. Yeah, when McCory, I think, did like the cruise rewrite, but there's stuff from Aaron Kruger and Eric Horn Singer and a bunch of people yet. And then you have Brockheimer, Simpson's Long Gone.

Simpson gets a credit, though. It's a dog, it's a document. It's a document. It's a document. It's a document. It's a doc. It's a dollar movie. That was great.

I love that. $170 million dollar budget. It's paid $1.2 billion plus and counting. It's going to be one of the 10 most. successful movies of all time. You think so? By the time it's done, yeah. I went to the theater last night. It was packed at 8 o'clock. This movie's been out for a month. So we're going to move to the categories. We'll take a break because I added some special categories. I have a couple surprise categories for you. Oh, good. Yeah. So that's all next. We're going to take a break.

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Visit Carvana.com to sell your car today. Carvana. Pick up fees may apply. All right, most rewatchable scene. By the way, normally we play clips when we do some of these, but this movie's still in the theater. There are no clips. Yeah, so maybe there's stuff. from the trailer. There's a couple of videos up,

but you cannot find much of this movie at YouTube. Most rewatchable scene. First of all, Mach 9 Day. Dark Star. Just in general and say, hey, today's Mach 9 Day. Everything about it. What a great way for a movie to start. We get some Ed Harris.

Who doesn't love some Ed Harris? We get it set up. Hey, they don't want you to do this mission today. I'm going to do it anyway. He buzzes the tower, which is apparently real. And they shot it in one thing. The roof wasn't supposed to come up, but did. It jumped.

And fucking Ed Harris. What a moment for him. Our guy, comes off the bench. And surprisingly, you would think that he would be the number one, the betting choice for the Vincent Hanna. Give me All You Got a word. No, he keeps it kind of reserved. He really does. I did like when he called him a stick jockey.

You got balls. You got balls stick jacky. Cruz goes. goes to Mach 10. And then a great, first of all, what's better when the control room celebrates? We've talked about this before. Is that your single favorite thing that can happen in a movie, the control room celebration? Yeah, there's two really good control room scenes.

There's all the like go for launch, like thumbs up stuff that happens. I love that. And then I also love when something tragic happens and the reaction shots of all the people in the control room. When they start leaning in? Yeah. You know, if we do another ringer fake movie thing, we have to. figure out how to write it in a control room reaction. Because they always get me.

I love those. So Cruz goes mock ten, decides to put it up a notch, goes to like 10.3. Yeah. There's some sort of explosion. Shows up at the bar. I thought that scene was great.

It's just great. It's such a great way to get the movie going. And the kid who's just like, Earth. Like when he's like, where am I? He's like, Earth. And then, of course, the ridiculous movie premise where

instead of getting fired for, you know, blowing up this expensive of jet, he just gets immediately transferred top. It's just like, God damn it, Maverick, I have to promote you. I don't like it, but this is how it's going to go. Next scene,

the entire Great Balls of Fire scene. You shake my nerves and you're out on my brain. Too much love drops and ban and sing. You brought my will, but what it thrill. Goodness crazy, great balls of fire. I'll have to love.

First of all, that bar, the hard tech. the hard deck. Everything about that. Crews going in there, seeing Jennifer Connolly again, and then the new version, the 2022 Top Gun people start.

There's some billiards. Miles Tower strolls in, dressed exactly like goose. Nice Jeep. Yeah. And we're just off and the whole crew's trying not want to know

what people, you know, see him, and then it leads to the Miles Tower thing. I thought when he gets thrown out and then he sees Teller playing great balls of fire and it dawns on him.

I thought that scene was amazing. Yeah. Like, I don't know. Am I a loser? I was like getting choked up. Yeah. No, there's multiple times in the movie

where you get choked up, but it's also like just great staging. Teller, like, is playing piano so he doesn't see him. I was kind of like there are pictures of these pilots up everywhere. How do they not know?

This is Pete Mitchell. Yeah, seriously. You know what I mean? Like, it would be kind of like, okay, old man,

thanks a lot. Right. But like, yeah, everything about it. Also, old man who looks younger, than half the people that are calling

them old man. I know. I mean, it's like it's like they just get they do a really good job of establishing hangman is Iceman. Yeah. Rooster is the new Maverick. Phoenix and fanboy and payback are cool. Like, let's see, like let's just go from here. It's like I got it. It's shorthand

character work in such a good way. And they did a great job with the flashback. Oh, yeah. Just enough that you got see Goose at the piano. Holy Matt Ryan? Kelly McGillis just you couldn't see her.

She's kind of in the background, but they cut right before her face. Maybe she didn't want to sign off for the rights. We get a shot of Young Rooster on the piano. We get the explosion. We get the landing in the water. We get him cradling up in the parachute. And it's all, like, done really fast and well.

I just thought that scene was excellent. I really liked it. Next one, when he takes the Topkin kids out and they play the Who song. And he's just dusting. He's just dusting everybody. He goes between the two of them. They're just like, where is he?

Do you see him? It's just like, holy shit. Yeah. That's a lot of preships. Well, they don't call on an exercise for nothing, sir. You got yourself a deal, gentlemen. Lights on. Let's turn and burn.

Fanboy, you see him? Nothing on the radar off ahead. He must be somewhere behind us. This is a good, used to be the best, still is the best movie, which we've seen premises and westerns and different, you know, whatever. Roadhouse even has it. But at some point, the guy's got to lay the side down. So what do you think of his teaching style?

Which is basically like, I'm going to kick your ass over and over and over again. It certainly wouldn't work in media. But he's just like, you're dead, you're dead, you're dead, you're doing push-ups. I'm like, are these guys learning anything? Or they just find it out they're not as good as you? The only person who liked it was Jimmy Butler. He's like, this is great. That's right.

I think Mavericks had a great leader. This is T-wolves practice. You're kidding me? That scene was great. Oh, man. Cruz and Kilmer. Yeah. So this is, I didn't know.

This is one of the great scenes in the history of the rewatchables. Like for me personally. Yeah, they bring, I think there had been enough, like, Kilmer's in the movie stuff that I was, like, waiting to some, in some capacity to see him. Because we have this whole backstory where we know he's had throw cancer and he can barely talk. It was so tasteful. The computer, the typing is such an, like, I will never forget, like, when he turns and he starts typing. And that's the moment that really hit me where you're just like, this movie is, yeah, it's about this movie or it's about this story, but it's also about, like, the people who are in this movie and, like, their entire lives.

Yeah. And it's just kind of, like, overwhelming in a weird way. Which I think about, like, Val Kilmer and Tom Cruise, the different paths of their lives of taking. and to see the two of them like sharing a scene like that. And it was just like it could have gone so many different ways in the way they handled it. The like the fact that it's not too long, the fact that it doesn't get, it's just very, very, very clean and beautiful. He types, you have to let go. Cruz just dust it off, man.

The Tom Cruise crying face. We've been with it for 40 years. Yeah. Nobody's better at it. Nobody's better at the I'm getting choked up, but I'm going to fight it off. but I can't fight it off and now I'm choked up face. This might have been the best one he's done because I think he honestly was choked up.

I mean, the other moment in this scene that I love is when Kilmer writes, I want to talk about work, and Cruz is like, oh no, come on, anything but this.

You know what I mean? Like, work doesn't even matter compared to what's going on with you. He doesn't say that, but that's like kind of the gesture he makes. Yeah. And Kilmer just like points at the screen

because he's like, this is actually gives me a sense of like purpose. You know what I mean? Like, I thought he was exceptional. He was great. Like the dude doesn't fucking say anything for four minutes. Yeah.

And he's typing and all he's doing is kind of just sizing up Cruz. Lightly getting frustrated with him. Yeah. Yeah, but it was, I actually thought it was like exceptionally well acted. And then they used some AI technology so he could talk a little bit. But everything. And then they have the hug and the pilot joke. And Cruz says, why do you have to ruin a next moment?

This is a nice moment. Let's not ruin it. Let's not ruin it. It's just, that's one of the best five-minute scenes in a long time. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't, Valcomer's not going to get Best Supporting Actor. It's not in it long enough for a nomination for it. But man, that's one of the most powerful one-scene cameos in a movie that I can remember.

That's also like a real, like you can hear a pin drop in the movie theater. Oh, yeah. Yeah. A little liberties, like I'm still a little dubious that Maverick and Ice were that close after the 1986, whatever conflict that was. Ice was terrible to him the entire time. And then at the tail end, he saves his ass.

He does the, you! And then gives the hug, and you could be my wingman anytime. Also, Mav spends, like, the entire dog fight not engaged

and then finally at the last time. Yeah, almost gets ice killed. So now they're best friends, whatever. Also, ICE's wife played by Mr.

Holland's opus. Oh, yeah. Jimmy Pataro's wife. Is that Jimmy Pitaro? Charles' wife, who was Rowena, Mr. Hollad's Opus. Oh, my God. Yeah, so it was good to see her. I just, I love their house.

I liked how it looked out on the water. Everything. I could watch that scene. When this becomes a rewatchable, when this is on cable or Netflix or Paramount, whatever, that scene, and then it goes immediately into dogfight football. Yeah. That's one of the best 10-minute rewatchable sequences because dogfight football, we left the theater.

My son, I took my son the second time, he loved it. My daughter went twice with me, she loved it. And we leave the theater, and my son goes, that's one of the best movies I've ever seen.

No, he said, that's the best movie I've ever seen. I was like, the best? He's like, well, it's one of the best. And then he goes, what the fuck was dog fight football? What is that? What were they doing?

And I'm just like so confused by it. I have a lot of thoughts on dog play football. I mean, do you want to do it now? I mean, first of all, It's either the most brilliant, like, idea ever, or it's, like, absolute evidence that, like, nobody in the creative side knows anything about football. And, like, Miles Teller and Glenn Powell didn't feel confident enough to be like, hey,

this doesn't make any sense. There's no way they can keep score or have any rules. Cruz even acknowledges it near the end. It's like, yeah, they stopped keeping score a while ago. It's like, yeah, because this game's insane. But I was kind of, like, I waited the second time I saw it, I watched the whole credits just to see if there was a dogfight football court. of like Cliff Kingsbury

was like, yeah, we like to run this with Kyler, you know? So it seemed like it was sick. We just get all oiled up, get out there, offense defense in the same time. It seemed like it was six on six.

Yeah. There were two balls hiked simultaneously. But how could it be six on six and there's all this like pressure on both quarterbacks but also all these guys running routes? It's one of those things when it comes out on cable or paramount.

by frame analysis. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I really, I've saw, it left me with so many more questions than answers. I don't know what my strategy would be. Like, what if you just sent five guys at the quarterback? Yeah. And then just had your quarterback just kind of wait and then run around.

I don't know. I don't even know. How do you win? What happens if both sides score at the same time? Is there like a version of this is ground and pound? It's like real, we were just getting chunks of yards. We're not going for it. And then there's like, I mean, as far as beach football scenes in action movies goes,

I don't think we'll ever eclipse point break. No, I mean, we'll never eclipse. Even when Cruz ran into the water a little bit on his touchdown, I got upset. Yeah, I was like, come on, guys. I was like, come out of Johnny Utah's water. Come on. Yeah. How dare you guys? But yeah, they paid the right kind of homoerotic kind of homage to the beach volleyball.

They didn't go over the top like that one did. But, you know, some shirtless, some, they let us. out of yaha at some point somebody did that. Bob gets his little touchdown in. They get one pass to Bob. I think when Ham comes up to him, blocks the sun while Mavsitting in the beach chair, I think he's got a point where he's like,

you know what, time is of the essence. Yeah. Like I get that you've heard building team here, but this is ridiculous. The uranium's going in in about eight days, guys. So then, yeah, well, when we finally get the entire scene. Yeah, we'll have to break down the route. be a special addendum to this.

I have four more rewatchables. Mav flies the test mission when it seems like... When Ham's trying to undermine him after the doccom or funeral. And that's the part where you're like, this is a movie about people loving Tom Cruise.

Because it's the entire cast listening to the radio broadcast of him doing it, watching it on the screen. And they're just like, he's gonna do it. Hell yeah. Like, they're just like,

there's no like division in the camp. They're all just like, this guy is like, Tom Cruise is the fucking. man. That's the point of that scene. It's the opposite of when Jimmy Butler's like, I'm going to take the four worst timber wolves and I'm going to beat the fuck at all, you guys. And then the last 30, I don't even know how you separate it.

I mean, there's the final mission itself. So I just have the last 35 minutes. The final mission, there's Mab gets saved. You told me not to think. There's them stealing a plane, them getting the last fight, hangman saving their ass, everyone's celebrating. it's all kind of one scene. But it's like professional wrestling where

you think they did the mission, but no, no, there's like a couple more moves left that we don't understand. The ending on the deck when they get out of their planes, and he's like, that's what my dad would have done. You're like, I can't be any happier or more satisfied. And then it turns out I was when I saw Jennifer Connolly standing next to a Porsche. That last scene, which is pretty, pretty. ridiculous really hits with Goose like touching the pictures and stuff and Jennifer Connolly's like standing

there in Levi's and it's just like let's go math like let's do it let's take some some some like trick planes up in the air listen Chris Ryan we've known each other a long time two of like the seven things I've loved the most in life are Jennifer Connolly and Porsche in the 1973 Porsche and move with that there should have been Larry Burke just drinking like a bud light in the background. I mean, they could have checked like three more back, but oh my God. And we haven't even talked about Jennifer Connolly.

Did Dave Roberts sliding across the screen? That car is perfect. She's fucking perfect. And it's just great. I'm with you. Most rewatchable for me is Cruz and Kilmer leading to dogfight football, I think is one of the best

10-minute re-watchable sequences we're going to have in a movie. Yeah. I think... I also love the ending. I have the last three, minutes is to cheat. I think that the fact that they cut the music,

so when they take off for the mission, there's no music for like 12, 15 minutes from like when Ham is like send them and they launch the mission. And it's such an effective because you're just like, I just want to listen to the like the sounds of the planes maneuvering and stuff.

And you know, everything from like goose lagging behind. He's like, talk to me dad. And then he gets reengaged just like in the first movie. It's so awesome. Like every moment it they find another crescendo. I have some things to say about goose or rooster and Mav on the ground and whether or not that's as cool.

I have some questions. But it's still like about as satisfying as the ending of a movie can be. Also, you know, I was going to talk about this on what stage the best, but the fact that there's so little CGI and everything is so authentic and they really had the people in the planes, like experience in the different G-forces and all that stuff. Yeah, like when they afterburners kick in and they sland. him back in the chairs. Like, everything feels like you're in the cockpit.

Yeah, if like a 10 out of 10 is Arnold, Arnold in total recall, almost suffocated to death when he lands on Mars. Yeah. These guys are like a 9 out of 10. So this is, instead of calling it, what's aged the best? Since this movie just came out. We're calling this category, what's going to age the best? Or what's the best?

Yeah. What's going to age the best? First one. Jennifer Connolly. I have that number one too. God damn. I started getting emails and just text and even some tweets, whatever. Are you on like some Jennifer Conley list serves or something?

No, just like, hey, when are you guys doing Top Gunn? Jennifer Connolly is throwing 200 miles an hour. Yeah. And just over and over again, the theme was like Jennifer Conley lights out. Jennifer Conley, holy shit. It was even better and crazier than I expected. She's the most convincing love interest he's had since Emily Blunt in Edge of Tomorrow. And Emily Blunt, like...

That still felt a little father-daughter, right? But it's a little bit more like a survival thing. Yeah. So you could make the argument it's the most convincing love interest he's had since basically Renee Zellweger and Jerry McGuire. I don't know. I mean, and that's really saying something. That's 20-some years now. She's so good in this movie.

Leah Thompson. I was buying that one in all the right moves. Yeah, that's like forever ago. De Mornay, I felt like they had a thing. De Mornay, they had some chemistry. Yeah, right, since he's been like an older adult. Yeah, and so it's just like a really graceful, awesome relationship that it doesn't just pay lip service to him being with her.

I love the fact that she's the girl who he gives like a joyride to in the first movie that she just gets mentioned briefly in the first movie. One of the many smart things. they do in this. Yeah, and that it's just like that could have just as easily been like this kind of right off role and they do just such a great job with it.

She, she's just wonderful. And married to Paul Bettney, that's quite a power couple because he's been really successful and they've stayed married. Yeah. So they've managed to achieve the almost impossible of an actor and actress of they've had at least

somewhat parallel success, so neither of them resented the other. You never see that happen. Really proud of both them, but she's great. I mean, one of the best-looking actresses, and just really believable in whatever she does. I don't know why we've talked about Diane Lane

a lot on this podcast, but I feel the same way about Jennifer Connell as they do about Diane Lane. She had last exit, you know, she's been kind of, I mean, she works. Traffic was the big one. I mean... Traffic? Not traffic. Recreview for a dream. I got my super depressing, because I mixed up by

my... Yeah, I've mixed up by drug movies. Yeah. But so it's not like she hasn't been good, but I feel like, I don't know, I feel like there was more there career-wise. Yeah, but she had a family, she had kids, the whole thing. But this is like a really, really lovely, like, it's like she is appropriate for the movie. She's appropriate for the role. She does, like, the most with like a little bit of screen time. Like, it's just an amazing job. Like, to me, there's no way she couldn't have had a Charlie's career at the worst. Oh, yeah.

I feel like she should have gotten the best roles for that kind of, that kind of lane for 10 years. Right. But whatever. More what's going to age the best. The goose rooster, just how much they looked alike. Wouldn't have thought Miles Teller and Anthony Edwards looked that much alike, but they just figured it out. The mustache does a lot of work. And kind of how the hair, how it's kind of like popped like the big forehead and the vibe of it.

Like, you genuinely feel like they were father and son. I thought that was really cool. Yeah. And it's weird that they almost cast Glenn Powell. I'd not step on casting what ifs, but I don't feel like Glenn Powell would have worked at all as Rooster. I don't know. I mean, I really would like to see it. I mean, he's blonde and the Edwards is blonde.

I would have been in, I think Glenn Powell has, like, a lot of different, like, gears, but he's pretty good as the asshole. Yeah, I think it worked out the way it should have worked out, which that was my next what's going to age the best. So Mav has that scene where he picks Roeux. Rooster as his wingman over Hangman, which is exactly what happened with the casting, where it was him and Miles Teller and one other person, they flew them for chemistry stuff with Cruz, and he picked Teller over Powell. So then in the movie, does it again. I thought

that was cool. Yeah, that was, I wonder if the Clint Powell probably need to dig deep for the emotional response. Yeah, Pous was like, fucking A, again. I thought the score of the movie was really good. You're a score guy. Yeah. It's like enough, like, you know, they recycle a lot of the themes from the first top gun. There's like three songs. They're all like among the top 25 most popular songs ever. And it's just like, it's just perfect.

Yeah. The lack of CGII we mentioned. I really liked coyote when he was caught in Glock. Oh yeah. And he's got to get him. They got to get tone. Yeah. She's just good. It was very believable. The opening credits we didn't talk about as

what's what's going to age the best and what's age the best. It's just spot on karaoke for the original one, but done in a cool way that didn't feel... It just worked. They even used the exact tile on the top from the original movie. I liked that they did Brunkheimer and Simpson. I liked how they made it the same way. They cut in a danger zone like the real movie did, the first movie.

Just really smart. But at the same time I was watching it, it was like, oh, is this going to be a beat-by-beak remake of the... No, it wasn't. No, it was... Like, they also, like, I love the... him living in like an airplane hangar in the Mojave? Right.

Just like, have you air condition that? The little touches. So you mentioned Connolly being cast as Penny and how Meg Ryan's character mentioned Penny in the movie. You have the Top Gun trophy can be seen in the wall in his office. Yes. You have Rooster when he's in the plane near the end when they're fighting. It's like,

man. It said like exactly Anthony Edwards. Yeah. You have the hollered during the beach football. You have the ending with them coming off the plane and people cheering and coming over. Like just not too much, but I felt like the balance was good. Yeah. And I also really liked that Charles Parnell played Warlock, who is the character in the first movie.

Yeah. I was hoping for some Rasevich. Yeah, Roscovich. There's a couple of people that had to have been like. Could Roshavich not? have been a bartender at the hard deck? Yeah, like he flamed out? Yeah.

Yeah, that was a tough one. I mean, Kelly Miguelis, we'll talk about that later. The promotional rollout has aged really well. The buzz in the tower, how the roof went up. I'll watch that again for a while. Bob's call sign being Bob, I thought was really good. Have you ever thought about your call sign? We talked about this?

I'm not ready to answer that. Okay. What would yours be? Mine Hunter. I think mine would just be ringer. That's good. Ringer's coming to get you. I like it always ends the same way with us.

You should be same game parlay. Hashtag same game parlay. It always ends the same way with us is always good with a couple with the past. Somebody's got to say that somebody at some point. What other words age the best that you have? So I fucking love Maverick Pulling the Dead Poets Society, throwing the book in the trash on the first day of school.

he's like I know you know this book backwards and forwards throws it out well same thing same setup as the Kelly McGillow scene initially yeah same thing where they don't realize oh no that person from last night

yeah so I love that we didn't get anything as good as I just really like to hear about the migs sometime yeah no we did what are the worst lines movie history I love that Mav and Iceman text each other like old guys and use punctuation

yeah periods at the end of their... Really good texting, too. No, no typos. It kind of made me wonder whether, like, if Mav or Ice had a Twitter account, if they would put All Can Reply at the end. GD. Bus style? Yeah.

What else do you have? I like the fact that there is basically no geopolitics in this. That it's just the enemy. It's a rogue state. That way they could make it so there's an ocean and the snowy mountains, you know, like, and the desert. Like, they can just have any environment that they want. and I thought that the basically like

the fashion but like the style in general of the movie where it's like white t-shirts weather jackets blue jeans porches keds cowboy boots aviator shades slow ride and Hawaiian shirts it's like it's timeless

it's just never it's like that you can freeze frame that and that would be cool like 40 years ago or today or whatever and it's just like they they kind of dress everybody so that you're not going to watch this movie in 10 years and be like Miles Teller's going to be on TikTok or something, like in the movie.

It's like, it's, it kind of exists in sort of a dream, which I will get to eventually. Yeah, that's smart because really the only 22 piece is the texting. Yeah. Other than that. And those guys seem to have like mint mobile, like text only devices. They're using Sam Apple phones. Next category is the Slow Ride Pursuit of Happiness Award for Best Needle Drop. Slow Ride is a contender for this.

It literally uses slow ride. It's in the movie. You can't have another thing with slow ride. Shout out to Don't Get Fooled Again, though. That was great. Do, do, do, do, do, do, do. I don't know how many times Don't Get Fooled again has been in a movie,

but every time it's been a 10 out of 10. Yeah, it helps if you're flying F-18s between two other F-18s. That was great, but Slow Red has to win you right. New category, you didn't know about this one. The action is the Juice Award for Best Milking of the Moment by a supporting character clearly goes to Honda.

Honda fucking goes for it at the end. So good. When Mav's about to go on the mission and he's like, thanks for everything. And Hondo, he just could have gone right away with it's been an honor captain. But does the pause? Does the look down? Does the look up? Starts to get a tiny bit choked up.

Yeah. But Shere Saladin is pretty fucking incredible in this. His show, Southside, is like one of my favorite comedies right now. He's so good in this. It's been an honor, captain. Yeah. it's also cool that Mav, who's basically always

on the verge of being washed out of the Navy, has like a sidekick. It's like he's part of the deal. Like if you want me to come teach, Honda has to come. If you want me to fly Darkstar, Honda runs the control room. Honda's like you don't a sassaddle firm.

He just gets to be at the team. The Honda's so good in that scene that anytime Cruz has an interaction after that, it's pretty much terrible. Because I think Cruz is like, Honda kind of kicked my ass in that scene. That's not happening again. We're not doing that.

The Den of Thieves Benny Hano Award for the scene stealing location. It's the hard deck. Come on. Yeah. This is one of the great bars that has ever been created for a movie, which it was created. It was constructed on the beach side somewhere in Los Angeles. But I love the fucking ceilings with all the cups hanging and just that. I mean, what would be a better bar than that?

I would drive there right now if it existed. So this kind of cheats on. probably unanswerable questions. How strongly did you consider moving to San Diego while watching this movie? Dude, every time my daughter's ever had a soccer game in any part of San Diego, we're always like, why don't we live here?

San Clemente. The, what, Calab, not Calabasas. Like there's La Jolla is down there, right? And where's the one where the, where's the one where Cala is. Carl's Bad. Carl's Bad. Carl's Bad. Carl's Bad. Yeah, La Jolla is amazing. But you go in these.

little town. And I've said this before, but this is the people in San Diego don't want anybody to know about San Diego. It's fucking fight clip. You go there and you're like, this amazing. I don't tell anyone. But yeah, that's what it's really like. I'll let you pick this, but I have an nominee for it, but the Great Shot Gorder Award,

one of your favorite awards for most cinematic shot. I have my opinion, but I'll defer. I got three. Okay. So Dagger One, you know, when Tom Cruise basically takes off from the flight deck. at the end for the last mission. And the battleship just goes back in the camera and you're like, that's a battleship. Yeah.

That's Tom Cruise in this plane. That's crazy. So I love that shot. I love when he's breaking the, he's doing the valley run to show them that it can be done. And when he pops off the desert floor, the twin cyclones come up behind him. And then I also love the dark star plane blowing past Ed Harris and blowing the roof off that shot of like, and the guy next to Ed Harris ducks and Ed Harris is just like

standing there. That was my runner up. My winner was the sailing scene with the god Jennifer Connolly. That was in my most rewatchable scenes, runners up. Yeah. Actually sailing. The two of them, because Cruz is just a maniac.

Just like a friggin Ralph Lauren. Cruz flies his own plane at the end of this movie. It's his own plane that he owns and flies when he and Jennifer Connolly fly up at the end. But in that sailing scene. I don't know who had the idea of like, no, no, you guys are going to actually sail. And it's not like, it's pretty rough seas. He falls at one point and she's like, you okay? And I don't think it's in the script. But that was amazing. Watching her sail, what a, just what an icon.

The Tom Cruise Award for Most Valiant attempt to emulate a normal human. This goes to Tom Cruise playing beach volleyball. Yeah. With rolled up jeans. I think the only piece he understands about football is, if I get the ball, I'm just supposed to run until somebody touches me. Yeah. And that's really it. I would like, when we get the tape on this, I want to see what his trajectory was because there's a world in which, like, I feel like he's running totally out of balance. Well, the Butch's Girlfriend Awards coming up, but we're going to take a break. All right, the Butch's Girlfriend Award for the weak link of the film. I love this movie. I give it an A-plus. The supporting Top Gun people, I want her a little more.

Okay, talk it out. Complete waste of Jay Ellis. Yeah. I don't know. He'd like four lines. Yeah. I just like him. I thought he was excellent and insecure.

It's four more lines than Manny Jacinto got. Well, that's the thing. I don't even know why he's in there. Bob is just basically brain damage. I don't understand the point of Bob. Bob's like, like, can barely sit. Well, that gets into a much larger conversation is like, and I had this as one of my SAS, Stephen A. Smith-Hottest takes.

Are we sure you need a second guy in the plane? In 2002, probably not. And, dude, don't, doesn't it seem like their job basically is to, like, turn around the other direction and be like, oh, I don't see you! Right side! Missal coming back! Bob really also has one job. Like, he's like, you got to paint the target with the laser, and he's like, the camera's broken. Whoops!

Fuck off, Bob! Why don't you eject? The big one for me is I thought Phoenix was a huge miss. I love Phoenix. I thought she was great. The second time, I thought she was awesome.

Yeah. Oh, man, I felt the opposite. I kept thinking of it, like, if that had been 2004 Michelle Rodriguez, how much more I would have liked. Oh, yeah.

So you liked it. Interesting. Yeah. I thought it was also cool that, like, what she says to rooster on the deck

when she's just like, you went below the hard deck, like insubordination, like are you trying to get kicked out? like I need you up there because if I'm flying with hangman I'm going to get killed was she supposed to have a romantic past with hangman I don't know she says like this is how I find out you're in town so it's like a little bit I just didn't think that character worked well enough

I wanted more from the character okay if you give me like the performance it's fine yeah if you give me the badass female I either I need her to turn the tables on the guys and be fucking awesome or need some romantic history that's kind of lingering over something. This was just kind of came and went and then ultimately at the end, she wasn't even in the celebration. I don't feel like there was a payoff for it.

They try to stop Top Gun pilots from being in romantic relationships. They might be like that complicated things. I don't know. I just wanted more. I just feel like I felt like there was a lot of possibility with that character and I never got enough out of it. Craig, what did you think? You're the tiebreaker.

I had no problem with her. I didn't think. I thought she was good, I didn't think twice about it. Yeah, that's my point. You didn't think twice about it. She probably has, like, the fifth most lines in the movie. She's fine. Yeah, I guess, I guess I just like the fact that Rooster had somebody to talk to.

And then there's six other people who are just a corpse. Yeah, well, those guys are red shirts. Where was the wisecracking, like, funny person? I think that's supposed to be bought. Slider. Where was the slider? Yeah. Where was, like, the dumb ass, like, I don't know.

I just, I thought that was a weakling for me. Another new category that you didn't know about. The Mallory Rubin Award for, did this movie need a better sex scene? Let's talk about the quote-unquote sex scene between Jennifer Conley and Tom Cruise. First of all, not a sex scene. It's just a makeout session

where he takes his shirt off. He's lying her down like she's at a spa about to get like a facial. And then they're in bed together and he's just laughing hysterically. Like fucking badiac? And then it's like, I guess they had sex or she just told the greatest joke anyone's ever heard? Well, it's just like they go, she's still clothed, he's got his shirt on, off, and he's talking about Meg Ryan's character dying.

So it's like, the pillow talk is pretty dark. I don't know whether or not they were like making out. Was it dark because he couldn't perform? I don't know. Just maybe let's talk about some dead people to make the mood worse. Maybe your genitalia doesn't work if you fly Mach 10.2 and explode. I don't know. He's like, sorry, I got a little G-lock down there. Stickman doesn't work anymore.

Stick jockey. G-lock. Did he have more or less passion with Kelly McGillis? Much more. Well, he doesn't do anything. Connolly is carrying this. Yeah. But the sexual passion in Top Gun one is way more apparent than in this one.

Yeah. This is a beautiful relationship. but he and Kelly McGillis got after it. Okay. Another one you need to know about the Dr. Richard Kimball inappropriate body award named after the scene in the fugitive when Dr. Richard Kimball takes his shirt off and he's just completely yoked.

So how is Matt have this yoked? He's in the fucking Mojave Desert. Does he have a personal trainer? He's jogging. He's doing it. He's jogging. That's his 50 pounds of muscle. His torso is...

Is that what he's doing? It's Alex Guerrero coming down the Mojave Desert. it's ludicrous. All right, what's going to age the worst? So does Cruz's message for the audience at the top of this movie, is that going to go to the streaming too? No, I don't think so. I thought that was inexplicable.

How does nobody talk about it? His eye lines all weird. Like, he's looking to the left of, like, the camera because, like, somebody's standing there with cue cards. It's also, I feel like I have noticed that in the last five to eight years, Tom Cruise doesn't do a lot of dialogue in scenes. You would never see him do a few good men now. He's rattling off like one line at a time.

Yeah. And so I wonder whether we're like approaching like maybe the Brando. Like yeah, you stand there with the cute cards and I'll read them. But like, oh, interesting. I don't know. I don't know. You wouldn't think that like, hey, thanks for coming to this movie. We worked really hard on it would be I need a cue card for this.

Here's my theory. How many, out of all the theaters this movie showed in, How many of them are AMC theaters, you think? Like 50%. I guess so, yeah. So the AMC theater, at least the one that I went to, right before the movie, there's this two-minute Nicole Kimman thing. Heartbreak.

Where she's like, she does this whole thing. We love movies here at AMC. Yeah. They just show this collage and she sits there with this weird look at her face. She hasn't made a movie in 10 years. But she does this two-minute thing. And I wonder if Cruz was like, fuck that. Yeah.

We're not going right from my ex-wife right into this movie. I had not thought about that. I had not thought about that. saying, maybe. What's going to age the worst? I can't believe we haven't talked about this yet. Jennifer Conno's character, the smoking single hot lady with the one kid,

the one perfect kid. Yeah. The only teenage girl on the planet. She works at a bar, owns the bar. Only teenage girl on the planet who's not sassy with anybody. This person has never existed. Owns her own bar,

not an alcoholic, and has a Porsche. And it has this awesome Porsche and it's just super cool. What world does this person exist in? Is this Earth or is this a different planet? Don't they have a conversation where he's like, your kid seems like a lot better than I,

like you guys were fighting a lot three years ago and Conley's like, I just had to let her be yourself or whatever or let her make mistakes. Okay. Okay. And then- By the way, she's getting hit on by drunk guys every single night. Top Gun Maverick 3 should just be her trying to close the bar as two guys.

Hey, baby. Penny! Penny, welcome back to my car. I just... They're ringing the bell. They're like, yeah. This is the all-time trope character that doesn't actually exist.

Yeah. There's no like angry ex-husband or fucking asshole like in her life that she's dealing with. She's just, she's got a perfect house. A sailboat. She knows how to sail.

Who is this person? Yeah. This is the greatest catch that's ever existed ever in a movie. And she's just sitting there waiting for Tom Cruise to walk back. She's like, oh, hey, Pete. Let's just pick up right where we left off.

In real life, she is snapped up by some billionaire who has a house in La Jolla who goes to the bar one night. And then he's just locking that down in five seconds. Let me take you out of here, honey. Yeah, I guess what my card's not getting declined. Yeah. You don't have to close the hard deck at one in the morning with all these drunk fighter pilots. Come with me.

I have a place in Hawaii. I also like that she's got the like shell-shocked old guy is the only other person who works at the bar. Right. So he's just like, there's no bar back. He's like, where's pet? He's like, I don't know. Like, what's sailing with Amelia? I guess I just have to work here 14 hours a day. That bar, the hard deck thing, there's 150 people there and she's just by herself in the bar, just mixing drinks.

Yeah. Like, if you had 25 people by yourself, that would be a nightmare. It's great. She has time to just talk to customers for 10, 12 minutes. Great character. The unsanctioned uranium plant in the middle of nowhere, what's going on there? I said that this is also the best because we don't have to get into whether or not it's like Iran or Russia or whatever and it's like, are we sure this is a good idea

and like all this stuff? But it is one of those things where the second time you watch it you are kind of like, you guys couldn't have just dropped a bomb on this from space? Like don't we have stuff that can do this? My kids were so confused after. They were like, Dad, so

what was, so the uranium was going to turn into a bomb? Like, I So why did, and where were we? Yeah. I was just, I have no answers. Don't ask questions with Top Gun. Morewood's age the words. Cruz's dyed black hair is just ludicrous.

He's 60 years old. My daughter pointed this out at the end. So they're going on the mission. And Mab says to Rooster, it's going to be this big profound scene. Yeah. It's like, rooster, you got this. And Rooster's like, cool. And then that's it.

That's our big. Well, doesn't he say we'll talk about it when we get back? Because, like, Roosters, like, you pick me to be your wingman or whatever to be the other guy. We can do better than you got this. Give me something. Give me something. The Valcomer scene proved that we could go to seven other levels. But it makes the reunion at the end that much better.

All right. Yeah. The soundtrack we mentioned, two new singles on it. Hold my hand by Lady Gaga and I ain't worried by one republic. Those are not your dams? I just feel like the last Hopgun had like seven songs that came out of it that became like, you know, essential songs. Well, movies don't really do that anymore.

Yeah, I guess. Did Ham need a mustache? What are some other, maybe like an evil goatee? Yeah, did he need facial hair that was more evil? I was surprised, so are naval officers allowed to just have facial hair?

Maybe not. But Bradley has a mustache. Right. I thought Ham was, I thought Ham was appropriately dressed. Okay. Miles Teller said the cast got to choose their own call signs,

and he just, Rooster because he was in the same bird family as Goose. Okay. I didn't love Rooster. Rooster should have been the comic effect guy. So what would you want his call sign? What do you think would be a better one? I don't know. Not Rooster.

Great balls of fire. Balls. I don't know. More of what's going to age the worst. Everybody who got mad that Kelly McGillis and Meg Ryan weren't in this movie because for whatever reason, it's like, Kelly McGillis, it's just because she's 64. I think it was like, I don't want to be in the movie.

Yeah, and she's like, by the way, like, I'm not even sure her character was good in the first movie. Like, let's bring the good characters back. Well, it's also just like, it's entirely possible that Pete Mitchell in his 20s, like, hooked up with his flight instructor for a while, and then they didn't wind up being lifelong lovers. Yeah, I have more Pete Mitchell thoughts later. Okay. I thought McGillis was like, we talked about this in the Top Gun rewatch, and I was like, she's a weak link in that movie. I like her in that movie. Yeah.

Could you've done a Meg Ryan Rooster lunch scene instead of having, killing her off? No, because I think it makes the reason for why he didn't, why he pulled Rooster's papers. That's how I feel. Yeah. So I think she's got to be. With that said, I think I would have enjoyed the Meg Ryan Rooster lunch scene. It would have been amazing. It would have been amazing to have Meg Ryan in the movie, but the, like, there are always, like, I was, as the movie is going and he's like, he pulled my papers, I was like, why he pulls papers?

Like, what is this about? Yeah. And then it's like, oh, because she was dying. and she was like, don't you let him die the way like Goose did and pulls his papers. And he's like, that's fine. The one where he's like, he already resented me. I didn't want him to resent her to. Yeah, it paid off.

With that said, if she showed up with his stepdad, Russell Crow for lunch. And we had a proof of life crossover. I would have loved it. The ambiguous military conflict is just the top gun tradition. We don't know where we are. Somewhere in the Indian Ocean. Yeah. My last one, I really wanted more for Ice Man's funeral.

I didn't think they landed the plane on that one. No pun intended. If you watch the trailer, there's a little, like, there's like a couple of shots in the trailer that are from the funeral. And I wonder if it was longer and they tightened it up for whatever reason. There's a shot of like Jennifer Conley looking up as the planes fly over her. And I was like, oh, I wonder whether or not this was supposed to be a little bit longer. I wanted to see more people at the funeral.

I wanted Cruz to make the Tom Cruise crying face. I don't know Like sometimes movies Like Rocky 4 is another one Apollo dies We've been with Apollo for three and a half movies And then the funeral They kind of rushed through it

Because they want to get Rocky to Russia It's like let me enjoy being sad about the funeral Yeah I don't know I don't have any other What's Age of Worse do you? I have one But I want to move it to unanswerable questions

Because I don't think it's actually age of the worst It's just I want to talk it out The Ron Burgundy Flute Award for Best Time for a P-Bray Listen, as soon as he's driving Connolly back to her place and she leaves the door open, just high tail it to the men's room or the woman's room, because you are not missing much for the next four minutes. But it's got like, it explains what happened. If you've seen it already, feel free to pee.

But otherwise, like, I feel like it's like a pretty useful, like piece of dramatic information. Was there a better title for this movie than Top Gun Maverick? I kind of like that. one out. I couldn't figure it. Top Gun two. I don't think would have it worked. Best quote. I got to be honest. I'd like to have and talk to me goose back. Yeah. Talk to me Goose was back. Talk to me Goose. It's iconic. I liked when Warlocks like they're called orders Maverick. Yeah. A lot of really, really good line readings of pretty ordinary lines in this movie. Book about, yeah, there wasn't like a classic great, awesome quote. Yeah. So I'd go talk to me goose, something like that. A book about metal is a word for belatedly best

quote or exchange. I liked how they called it back that it twice the year. I don't like that look, Mav. It's the only one I got. Yeah. It's the only one I got is good. I might start working that into my life. That's like a real Paul Newman and Robert Redford kind of scene where they just keep referring to like his face or something like that. I thought that was good.

What was like the wind when I'd like Honda has a bunch of like but here we go. Like as soon as like Maverick starts doing shit like he has like a bunch of really good one-liners. But like, you know. The Vincent Chase Award for, are we sure this character was actually good at his job in the movie?

Yeah. John Hamm is Cyclone. Yeah. I just have a lot of questions about Cyclone's performance. So he's. Yeah. I have either Cyclone either jeopardizes national security because he doesn't like Maverick. No, he definitely does that.

The pencil that in because that happened. Or Iceman jeopardizes national security because he likes Maverick too much. See, both of those, but then you have, once he is finally able to get rid of Maverick, and he tells these people, yeah, you're going to slow it down. It's going to fly higher, go slower. You'll just have to get in a dog fight. It's like, what plan is this? Everyone dies?

I just thought he was terrible the entire time. I didn't understand why he was so stupid with all the decisions he made. He was basically like watching Brandon Staley, in the fourth quarter of a Chargers game. It's like, why are they going for it a fourth and eight? Analytics. We start calling Brandon Staley Cyclone. Craig, on the fantasy football show,

start calling them Cyclone, see if it catches on. Well, the Stephen A. Smith-Hitt has Take a word. I think we probably have the same one, which isn't ours, but we should talk about this now. Oh, is this the death dream? Yeah, I'm going to give this to... The first time I saw this, Allison Wilmore on Vulture, whose theory is that Maverick dies at the beginning

when he goes past Mach 10. And he's dead and everything else. That's why it's so dreamy. That's why every piece of his life eventually works out. He makes amends with Penny, his one true love. He makes amends with Rooster. He gets to save the world one last time. There's no enemy.

Like it's just the enemy. It's not a country. There's nothing specific about it. Condos just with him for reasons that remain unclear. Yeah. So the real reason I actually think this could be true is he's going mock like 10.2. And he ejects. So look this up. When you're going mock 10, if you're going mock 1.5 and you eject, your body

basically gets crushed. Do you know how fast mock 10 is? I can't eat. No, I don't. It's 7,600 miles an hour. I also like that he is flying this thing. He takes off from the Mojave and seems to land. somewhere in the Sierra Mountains.

We don't... That's the other thing. We don't know where he lands. We don't know how far he went. He could be in like Nicaragua for all we know. So the only way I think he survives that accident, because again, we know for a fact he's going mock 10.2. And that plane explodes.

Plain explodes. But you could argue like maybe the front explodes, it loses momentum. It goes down for a while. It slows down and then he ejects. But wouldn't he be a burn to death of? at that point? Look, I spent some time on Reddit and Quora

looking this up. There's not a lot of evidence to suggest he lives through that. And when you watch the movie through Allison's theory, it all makes sense. When you go down to the diner and he gets to the diner

to get his glass of water, why are those people from the 1950s? Like, why is it a bunch of people like eaten breakfast in a diner? It's like, have you been in a diner recently? Yeah, where's the 325-pound guy with a buck crack and a scratch ticket. Yeah, everybody's wearing plaidgettes.

shirts tucked in, like they're getting ready to go to their day of work on the farm. Like, what is happening? And then throughout the movie, the only technology we really see is the text messaging. And you barely, like, see him use a phone that much. And like what I said about, like, the kind of classic timelessness of like all the fashion. It's like, all these people are basically like dressed in like this, I'm in a, I'm in a polo ad way. And it's every scene is to make amends with some sort of sin or issue from his past. It's like before you can go to heaven, you have to save Bradley.

You have to save your relationship with Petty. You have to like make amends with Iceman and make amends with the Navy. You have to let Honda do his time size more moment and really own five seconds with you. Yeah, look, I saw it the first time not knowing about the theory because I deliberately read nothing.

And then read the theory, had that in my head the second time. I think it's what has. happened. So the best part about it is that it works both ways. It explains all the sort of vagueness of the movie if you think he's dead. I think it makes it a better movie. But honestly, it's fine if he's not dead. Well, we'll know if they make Top Gun 3. I don't think they're gonna, man. So if they don't, we're never going to know. To me, this is like the new Sopranos ending. And has anyone asked Cruz? Did you find... I haven't seen anybody asked. Did you find anyone at

Cruz or Kaczynski are the ones to ask. Yeah. It's amazing. I really, think, I just don't know how you survive 7,600 miles an hour. So that was Allison's, it's not even that hot of a take. I think it's just a great read on the movie. My only other hottest take is that there's no room for nepotism and top gun. And that rooster is basically the Jalen Brunson of the U.S. Navy. And I'm not sure we should be spending so many resources to make a guy feel better about his dad when a rogue state has lit nuclear program.

Like, I don't even, is Rooster a top 10 pilot? No. I don't really... That's a good one. I like that one. Yeah, I didn't have one because I wanted to refer to Allison. But my real hottest take is that the bar owner... This actually goes through the dream theory.

That person just doesn't exist. No movie has ever gone that far. When she's sailing the boat her side, I was like, all right, this probably is true. Casting what ifs, we mentioned the three people. Nicholas Holt, Glenn Powell, Miles Tower. Who's Nicholas Holt? What has he been? Mad Max, Fury Road. Oh, yeah, okay.

Yeah. All three were flown to Cruz's home for chemistry tests. Now, this has been a recurring thing with Cruz. We've even heard it with some of his romances. Or it's like you test against him. Might have had some chemistry test dates. I think I'm going to start doing this for the ringer. Yeah? Yeah, when we're talking about hiring people. They have to come hang out with you?

We just hired Lindsay Jones, who's great. Yeah. Right? To be a senior football editor. Next time we're in a situation, I'm just flyer to L.A. She's like, you need to have a chemistry test with Bill. I'm sure that won't backfire at all. You're going to go to Cafe Gratitude. You're going to get some juice with them.

Lewis Pullman plays call sign Bob. Yeah, Bill Pullman's son. Yeah. That that was weird. He was on Outer Range, which I liked. It's all I have for guys who win ifs. The Ruffalo Hannah Rubinick Partridge overacting word. They knew and they let it happen.

Don't you call me, lady. I come in here. I give these things to you. Give me how you got! This and me. I treated you like a son. You fucking stab me in the heart. Fuck you.

Who'd you have for this? I have, I have, feel strongly about my pick. It's tough because I think that some people think that when we give this a word out, we're saying they did a bad job somehow. We're just saying they dialed it up. I think Powell dials it up. Oh, I have Powell too. Yeah.

I think Powell maybe use some substances on the ball. You know, just get a couple extra inches on a slider. Powell and when he saves the day at the end, he's pouring some gravy and some hot sauce on that scene. It's good. Ed Harris should be Ed Harris. There's no world in which Ed Harris isn't walking in and screaming at everybody. But I think it winds up being pal.

As soon as I saw it Harris, I thought he was just going to be the goddamn Maverick guy. God damn it maverick! Best that guy at word. For me, it's either Warlock or Hondo, but you feel like Hondo's not of that guy? No, I mean, he's kind of probably a that guy for people who haven't seen like Southside and stuff like that And then Charles Pernel. He's a that guy for me, but I think Charles Pernal should be the winner.

He's awesome. He was great. He was in Andy's show. He was on Briar Patch. Yeah, he was great. Yeah, he's incredible in this. He's a winner. Deanne Waiters, this is really tough, really, really tough

because Hondo, look, there's no losers with Deanne Waders. I think it's Hondo. I think it's Bashir. You think he's in it too much? No. I just think it's Valcomer. One scene... That's good.

He just fucking kills it. How is it not Valcoma? No, you're right. Who's the bigger Dionne Waiter's than Val Kilmer? You're right. That's why I feel bad for Honda. I don't know, Honda, you couldn't have done anything else.

You're going against one of the craziest acting situations we've ever seen in a successful movie that actually worked. So I'm going Valcomer. But Honda, it's almost like we should give out a second one. It said the Honda Award for the guy... The Honda Award for the movie with Val Kilmer. Yeah. recasting couch

I was just thinking Jenna Ortega is Phoenix what that would have been like she's great she's awesome and scream I don't really have here's my other take for Phoenix Sidney

Sweeney we just we get some eye rolls there's a lot more sexual attention doesn't she could maybe bring her like love of refurbishing trucks yeah yeah she could

like Phoenix is a side thing. She can be outside the hard deck talking to Jennifer Connolly about her 73 Porsche. Yeah. Do you ever recast the couch or no? No. Okay. Have fast internet research.

Oh, let's take a break. Have fast internet research. In 1990, during the promotion of Born on the 4th of July, Tom Cruise dismissed the notion of a sequel to Top Gunny, called it irresponsible. Yeah. Well, it happened. Kaczynski was hired in, 2017 June, wrote a new draft of the script. He went to C. Cruz, who was filming Mission Impossible

Fall, pitched him two ideas. The first about the emotional core of the film focused on the separate relationship between Maverick and Goose's son set against a dangerous combat mission. The second focused on Maverick's current place in the Navy as part of the Dark Star program and the secrecy surrounding it. You could tell they maybe had some other Dark Star stuff in the bag. It just winds up being one scene. I don't know if they had a chemistry session. Him and the Dark Star? No, him and Joe Kaczynski.

I don't know if they've worked together, do you need a chemistry session and make sure you still have the chemistry? I know. Yeah. So do they need to reestablish a chemistry? I think he's pretty into him. Did you and I need to have more chemistry sessions?

Well, we have 10 years now. You mean when I met you once? I met you at a 30 for 30 party. Chemistry sessions. That's going to be my new thing. John Walsh was wearing a leather duster. I'm going to have Alexa, who, who helps me out with some ringer stuff,

just emailing people. Bill would like to schedule a chemistry session for one o'clock? Retroactively with me and Sean and now. Let's go on Bill. Why don't you go out of chemistry? Producer Craig. Craig, we'll do a chemistry session.

So University of Georgia professor, Professor Roger Stahl, he said, open record request that he looked up revealed United States military officers were allowed to make changes to Top Gun Maverick, including the insertion of key talks

points such as foreign policy and recruitment. Do you think people are going to come out of Top Gun Maverg being like I want to join the Navy? I do. Did Ben say like maybe my life is in the disguise? I'll tell you this. When I was in college, freshman year in 1988, we had a Rotsie guy. Yeah. One of people in our hall who eventually came one of our roommates, Jim Kelly, who wanted to go to the Navy because of the Top Gun.

Like, that was like his reason. He loved the movie and he wanted to fly planes. No, he wanted to fly planes. We nicknamed them the night train. That's cool. That's a great call sign. Yeah, that train. So they paid the Navy $11,374 per flight per hour to use those F-18s.

There's just incredible stuff about like. Yeah, you can go. It's like, what is that? Like a five-hour deep dive? You can find out how they did this movie. They basically had those actors in the planes. for three months. Doing their own makeup

and doing their own lighting in the cockpits and then like they would fly around for a few hours to come down. Kaczynski would look at the footage. They would go back up.

I mean like it's, it's incredible. It's a three hour boot camp just to learn how to fly and use the cameras. You could spend five hours reading about what they did to make this movie

and then you could spend five hours reading about all the stuff that is completely unrealistic. Right, right. It's one of the better internet deep times. I have like an hour of material that I'm not going to use

most of it. Yeah, it's like the F-4 at the end when they're taking off the runway, like that's not enough runway for an F-14, like they just would have crashed. Well, there's also, there's no more F-14s. Like, none of them fly anymore. So there's a lot of liberties taken at the end there.

There's some China, Taiwan flagged stuff that we don't need to really go into. Okay. With Cruz's flight jacket. People accusing that it got removed because Tencent Pictures was investing in the movie. but then, who knows? Did it got a little taste? In the trailer, they're not in there, but in the real movie, the flags are in there and stuff like that.

If you care, go look it up. mentioned the World War II P-51 Mustang plane in the movie, cruises plane, because of course he flies planes. Do you think that if you had gone through what Pete Mitchell goes through at the end of the movie, you would be like, what I really want to do is get back up in a plane. Right. Start flying around. With my love of my life, Penny.

the bar owner who doesn't really exist. This is my favorite. This is up there with greatest half-ass internet research ever. And this is a real thing because they talked about it, that they had to shoot the beach football montage twice. Yeah. Because Cruz didn't like the first one. Yeah.

And not accurate enough, big football. Stickler for football details. And the reshoot bummed out the actors because they had spent so much time getting their bodies perfect for the first one that now they had in two days. They had to get all the muscle back. So Glenn Powell said, we shot it that night. We went out for milkshakes and tater tots.

Everyone grabbed the beer in a week later, Tom's like, we got to shoot it again, it wasn't good enough. And then everybody's back in the gym again day and night. Cruz was just really obsessed of making sure that one work. So there you go. The tater tots and milkshakes is weird. Can't remember that combo happening a lot in my life, the milkshake tater tot duo.

So the yacht that they used, I mean, not the yacht, the speedboat, well, it's basically a speedboat yacht. It's called a J-125. It's 41 feet. It was in San Francisco Bay, and there were no stunt doubles, amazing stuff. So, Brookheimer a couple times has put the Simpson credit back on the movie. He did it with the bad boy, the bad boy sequels in this one because he just felt like, Don loved Top Gun so much. He needed to be involved in the movie.

We got a lot of Don on the rewatchables, too. I remember Don lifted his head up from a pile of cocaine. It was like, we cannot let Top Gun go. Mouse Teller learned how to play great balls of fire of the piano himself without a double. Wow. Yeah. Well, he's got the musical background with Whiplash.

He's probably pretty used to it by this point. I love when people work with Cruz, the authenticity becomes so important. It's like, I've got to learn how to do this, that. You think Jennifer Conley learned how to pour drafts of bud? Right, for 120 people at the same time. Apex Mountain. This is really tough.

Post-prime Tom Cruise. So I'm going to say his prime ends in that, his peak is that Jerry Maguire kind of eyes-wide shut range. Right? That's like his apex. post-prime probably from Oprah's couch on. This is it. I think this is it.

This is the biggest movie of the last couple of years. Okay, so we agree on that. Yeah. You went and go Apex Mountain just period for Cruise. No, I can't do that. Okay. What about the 1973 portion 9-11? So what are my other options with that one?

No, it's this. It's just, what an unbelievable car. That's also, like, really funny that she's like, You see all, everybody is just like, I have a Subaru Forrester or some SUV because I got all this shit in the car for my kid. She's like, we have a two-seer portion that fucking probably breaks down every hundred dead miles. In real life, her girl is just screaming at her every time they get in the car. Forget it, mom, get an Uber. Can you just get a Jeep like normal moms?

Don't you know this is killing the environment? Where am I supposed to put my stuff? This one's interesting. Is this Apex Mountain for Jennifer Connolly? So. Has she been nominated for an Oscar? Yeah, Requiem. I think she got a nominated.

That's a rough movie though, man. That's not a, I mean, that is, that will not be on the rewatchables. I mean, what are the big ones? Career opportunities, obviously. Wasn't she? She won an Oscar for a beautiful mind. Beautiful mind. That's probably it.

She won an Oscar for a beautiful mind. And she was in, that was a huge, that was a big hit. I think it's this. It certainly is in like, in our heads. Like, Jennifer Connolly, of nowhere has become like a private concern for me. When Nolan Ryan threw the no hitter when he was like 46, you're like, oh my God, Nolan Ryan.

We just need Jennifer Connolly to beat the shit out of Robin Ventura. Yeah, maybe it's like when Nolan Ryan beat the shit of Rob Ventura. Or like if Brady won the Super Bowl four years from now. Yeah. It's just, I'm just an amazing job here. Joe Kaczynski, definitely. I can't even imagine what his next 10 years. are going to be like now.

No, I mean, he's got the F-1 movie with Brad Pitt coming. Yeah. I mean, he'll be... Could this guy be... You know, there was that Fincher Nolan generation. I think he needs the scripts. I think he needs, like, when he makes movies

that are like... So it needs like a gone girl type of movie. No, but I think he just needs like really, like, the thing you can tell about Maverick is just like how every line and every moment has been so well interrogated and it just hits so hard. So it's just like, he just,

needs like, I think he's an incredible visual director who just is like, I'm as good as the script I get. Like, Spirehead's really cool to look at, but there's like a lot of ups and downs with like the tone and the script. Okay. Teller, I don't think it's happened yet. I'm going to say

no impacts yet. Yeah, I mean, I think Whiplash would be it otherwise, right? Yeah. I mean, being toe to toe to Tom Cruise in a movie that. He's at a whole other level of fame though. Yeah. Powell, same thing. I think for me,

Whiplash as a movie. But now this is like... From a fame standpoint, bigger, and it'll probably lead to some stuff. San Diego? What are some other great San Diego movies? For San Diego movies, I still think it's Anchorman.

Yeah, you're probably right. San Diego. It means whales's vagina. Dead Don Simpson, this might be his apex. I think so. Since he died. is really dining out on this one in heaven. He's fucking amazing job by him.

Just mock speed in general, Apex? Certainly double-digit mock speed. Mach 10? Yeah. The hard deck rule, Apex Mountain? Did you know there was a hard deck rule? I did. Ham, no.

No. It's interesting. Ham is in two of the most re-watchable movies of the last 15 years. Top Gun Maverick in the town. And he's pretty much the same guy in both. He's the exact same guy in each movie. If his character in the town was named

Bo Simpson, I would have been like, yeah, totally. Exact same guy in each movie. You don't think he's bad in the movie. He's pretty good, but you wouldn't list him as one of your ten favorite things about the movie. But I love, like, half of the lines in the movie that he delivers are like, I still think of, like,

when he's like, send him, it's so good. He's just really good at playing these roles. He really is. And yet I do feel like there's a version of his career where he could have awesome. been like Maverick. Yeah, but not now I'm saying. That's what I mean.

But like I watch this stuff and this is just kind of what he's graduated into. He's like the best version of this guy. Yeah. He's going to be at Harrison. He's going to, you know, he's going to. So he's going to have this whole second, second career as a like a major character guy. Yeah. Yeah.

I feel like there could have been more. Top Gun. Is Apex Mountain for Top Gun? This movie or the first one? I think it's the first one. Nobody knew what it was the first time. Yeah. Any other Apex for you?

No, that's it. All right. Best racehorse name. Nominees for you. Tower Buzz, great balls of fire, G-lock or dogfight? I like G-lock. G-lock's good, right?

Here comes G-lock! I have some nitpicks. Yeah, me too. We're going to pick some nits. We mentioned Ham's character, did he? Just wanted everyone to die. Was he a mole? Would you believe he was a mole from the ambiguous uranium country?

Yeah. He was really, he was from the country of uranium. Mouse Tower. So how old is he in this movie? So he's supposed to be a little bit older because his career starts four years later than everybody else is because Maverick pulls his papers. I think he's 35 in real life. So I think he's supposed to be a little bit older than the other pilots.

He's 35 in real life. I think so. He's probably 33 when he filmed it. Yeah. Right. Okay, so Miles Tao was 35 now. It was 32 when he filmed this. But in the movie, he's supposed to be at least 32 plus at least 35.

All right. So I guess that checks out. So he's got no girlfriend, no wife, no kids, nothing. Rooster? Yeah. I guess not. Yeah. None of these guys have a girlfriend or a boyfriend?

It doesn't seem like it. It's kind of weird. No personal. lives anywhere. Nobody's dating anywhere. But they're also taking place in a purgatory death dream, so maybe that's why. All right, let's do this. The Mav goes down, rooster goes down. So let me ask you this. The crashes are at least a couple minutes apart, but they land close enough that Mav's able to run through the forest after, I guess, a concussion. Sure. Sprints through the forest, finds them right away. Yes. And guess what? They're

right next to an airstripe. Where they also have the plane that Maverick and they also have the one plane Maverick knows how to flow which he flew with with Roosters. There's just a lot of stuff that has to work out here. I've been thinking about this a lot since I first saw the movie. I guess this

is also a probably possibly answer a question. If the movie has Maverick dying, saving Goose's life. It just ends? And it's like they escape. Maybe Hangman comes and saves them because the

fighter pilots chase them out to the ocean. And there's somehow a reckoning with like, man, this guy really did, he did it and I feel good. Do you think that that's like basically like you're talking about like Titanic if that happens? Like it's like people are sobbing in this

in the theater. It's like best picture winner. Like it's the heartbreaker but it's also it's right and this character did what he needed to do which is save Goose's song. I don't think Cruz would ever die in a movie. But the Has he ever died in the movie?

So here's the thing, though. It almost feels like that was in play. You know, and they cut to black. And when they cuts out, like he's on the ground running in the snow from this helicopter. Oh, you think they belatedly can't? No, I don't think that they. Okay. But doesn't that scene of them running around in the forest and then running across the airstrip feel like in a different movie?

So potentially there's two different spots in this movie where he dies. If he didn't die in the first part, he could have just died when he saves. And then the rest of it is just a fever. But it's such a cool move, how he like pops out and like in front of the enemy pilot or an enemy jet and saves Rooster. And then he gets shot down. And it's like it kind of like culminates that whole action sequence is so amazing. Like when they come out of the coffin corner and they're like, smoke in the air, smoke in the air. That would be a good fucking horse name, by the way.

Smoke in the air. Yeah. I just thought like it had like a certain momentum towards like this is the right ending. And then there's this tacked on like action. sequence of them running around this nameless country and escaping somehow. The country of uranium? Yeah, uranium. Well, I know what the original ending was.

Did you see what it was? Cruz, Connolly and her daughter, they cram into her two-seat Porsche and they go to Shakey's Pizza for dinner. And then they get a huge fight and the daughter says, you're not my dad. And then it ended. And they tested it. It didn't do well. That was my next day award.

That was my Zwan Today award. It was going to be when Penny finds out that Cruz's credit is in shambles. And he's got like a 400 FICO score. She wants to go to Whole Foods and he's trying to talk her into a cheaper grocery store. Yeah, he's like, I think, like, I'm just waiting for like a deposit to come. Can you pay? I'll get you back. Yeah.

This is a big one for me. The Picking Nits? Yeah, Picking Nits. Just kill Phoenix and Bob before the big mission. Let's have a couple deaths. I think they were, I think the Navy and whoever else

was just like, no deaths in this movie, because nobody dies. Yeah, and I think that they would have been, like, I guess this mission just won't work. I mean, I don't think I hit by birds. It's a better movie of Phoenix and Bob dies, and then Miles Teller has to go in this tailspin

of watching two of his cohorts die like his dad did and whether he can go through with it. I'm just not sold on like, oh, he's shook because these people in a tailspin and they almost died.

No way. You have to kill them. They just didn't want to. I think that probably this movie could have done with one death. Yeah, throw a death in. For God's sakes.

Pickin' Nits, the Navy's oldest fighter pilot ever retired at 54. So Maverick was born in 1962, so he was 56 when they filmed this movie. And then I mentioned the Mach 10 thing.

Yeah. I mean, I read a bunch of like threads and Quora threads about it and it sounds like at Mach 1.5 and maybe I'm wrong about this. Your body just rips apart. It feels like your body has been hit by a train. So times 10 on fire,

however high up he is. And also the fact that he would be possibly in like Saskatchewan by that point if he's flying 7,600 miles per hour. It seems like that would be just a bad situation. There's a NASA. And he's like, he just like walks into the.

office with Ed Harris. He's not like, yeah, I needed to get some medical attention after that. There's a NASA X-43 scramjet that's flown at Mach 96, but unmanned. Okay. So they're like, we're not putting anybody in this. Right. Any other nitpicks? Just, they don't really explain how Rooster gets back to Maverick because, like, they're in the valley. And if you go above the, like, the certain height, you're going to get shot down.

So how does he then get back all the way to where Maverick is exactly? I don't know if this is a nitpick, but what's going on at the end? So Roosters, he's now moved in with Maverick? I think they're just spending time together and some downtime. I think the idea is that Rooster is now like a decorated pilot. Maverick's probably like, I'm good. Is Mav somebody you'd want to hang out with for long stretches of time? What do you guys talk about, dogfight football?

Do you guys, do you watch like a Chargers game? and the whole time Mavericks just like they should play with two balls. What if it was offense and defense? Next category is, would this movie be better with Wayne Jenkins, Danny Trao, Catherine Hahn, Steve Bischemi, Sam Jackson, J.T. Walsh, or the late Philip Baker Hall? Well, Wayne Jenkins wins this every time.

But Wayne Jenkins as Cyclone, if you just take Wayne Jenkins, John Bernthal, as Wayne Jenkins, and you put him in as, cyclone. First of all, that would have been a John Bernthal part. It would have been amazing. Do you feel like are Bernthal and Ham now head to head with some of these parts? I think Bernthal is a little younger than Ham, right? Okay. Yeah. So I would vote for Wayne Jenkins as cyclone. And with Wayne Jenkins is like,

you would put me in a difficult position, Maverick! God damn! I don't know I was with super pilot! I had a motherfucker fucking tap gun! Do I risk the lives of my pilots and perhaps the success of this mission? and the motherfucking brick. Yes, the answer is Wayne Jenkins. God damn, Maverick! Ten G's! Mach 10.1!

Holy shit! Let's split this motherfucker up. Another award, the Cliff Booth Award. Is this movie better if the main character had a pet? I don't usually use this one. You don't think Cruz could have had like a white lap? He's riding the motorcycle with the dog and the knapsack behind him? desert, you got to make sure the dog's hydrated

the whole time. The whole time he's flying. Because anybody's taking care of this dog. That's fine. I would have liked the motorcycle scene. Just one Oscar, who gets it is the next category. I think it's Kaczynski. That's what I'll go for. So do you think Cruz is going to get a nominee for Best Actor for this?

Wow. How many... There's only five spots still, right? They didn't... I don't think so. Okay. Do you? I think it might be his last best chance. until he maybe starts making dramas again in eight years or something,

but I don't think he's going to get nominated for Mission Impossible. When he didn't win for cocktail, I just felt like it was never going to happen. So you don't agree on Kaczynski? No, I think he should get nominated. I don't know if he's going to win. But if it's just one Oscar, who are you giving it to?

Him or the director of photography. Him or Claudio Miranda. I love how you never just answer the question. It's like you just got to give me tips. Give it to Joe Kaczyki. Yeah. Probably an answerable questions. Who needs to give Marty Scorsese another Oscar, right?

Probably an answerable questions. We talked about before where the fuck were we during the final battle, Russia, Ukraine, Poland. We made up the country of uranium, but if you actually had to pick a country that you think they were fighting, what country would you pick? Iran or North Korea. Okay. Does Tom Cruise have a real-life death wish? Is my next unanswerable question? For sure.

He does, right? Is he trying to kill himself in these? movies. Yeah. That thing when he jumps in Mission Impossible and he broke his ankle. Yeah. And then some of the stuff he's doing here. When he hangs off the plane on the rope bladder, like, yeah.

Like that Mission Impossible trailer with the motorcycle when they goes over, is that him? It's him, right? Seems to be. Yeah. Tom Cruise wants to die. I wish Fantasy was here for this. Probably an answerable question. Are we sure Maverick isn't gay?

I'm going to give you the evidence. I think that in the, go ahead. Can I give you the evidence? Go ahead. never married no kids as mentioned in sleep with me with Tarantino

Charlie had to dress up like a man to seduce him in Top Gun didn't lock down Jennifer Connelly right away the coolest catch of all time let that one go still upset about Goose

his buddy who died 35 years ago and seems basically you know he's maybe in love with Iceman two movies two absolutely bizarre sex scenes Two of the most bizarre sex scenes in the history of action movies. One looks like a scene from Alien. The other one looks like a scene from a Hallmark movie.

Yeah. And then at the end, he's kind of with Rooster. And Connolly has to come back and kind of try to steal him back. That would be amazing if she showed up and she was outside and she's like standing there in the Porsche. And he's like, you know what? Me and Bradley, we're just going to work on planes today. We're about to lift. Can I call you in two hours?

We're going to the gym. There's two ways. When you watch this movie the second time, knowing he might be dead. And watch this movie the third time, wondering if he's gay all along. They don't want to tell us. Penny,

I'm actually, we got a pitch deck for dogfight football. We're going to try and get it on Paramount Plus. Penny's like, it was going so well. I don't know. Now Rooster's living with him. I don't understand what happened.

He won't move out of this airplane hanger. Rooster's single, too. It's 120 degrees. And Maverick's like telling friends, like, yeah, Rooster and I were out last night. It got crazy. There's girls everywhere.

there's never any evidence of any stories. Yeah. Any other Nansibles for you? You had one, right? No, I mean, a lot of them we covered in picking Nits, but, yeah, we did it already. Okay. Best double-feature choice of this movie is obviously the first Top Gun. Yeah. Would you pick anything else?

No. The Andy and Red Zwanah Award for what happened the next day. I did mine where they go to Shakey's Pizza and the 2C for. It's definitely the next day when his credit card gets declined again, and she's just like, What's going on? She's like, so you're still a captain, huh? Like, that's, is that like 65 years? Is that health?

Like, what is that? What's your next job? Are you like, did you get decorated for this? I've got this guy in La Jolla. And he refuses to sell his planes. Top Gun 3 is just a love triangle with this billionaire from La Jolla who's trying to lock her down, but she still likes Maverick. He has no money.

Oh, this is good. What piece of memorabilia would you want from this movie? I had the portion because what am I going to do with a plane or at Kawasaki for that matter I don't know how to use either of those things What if you went lower budget What would you go with?

Obviously the portion is the answer I don't accept any other answers But I really I mean is the hard deck Could I own the entire hard deck Would you resign from the ringer Just to run the hard deck? I really like Cruz's bomber jacket

Yeah it's awesome That thing is fucking amazing It's like only like one out of a 10,000 guys can wear it too. It's like him, Taylor Kitch. It's like you can't wear a leather bomber jacket. You know, one of the great things about my son is I feel like he could pull off a leather bomber jacket. He's got that kind of. He's got that kind of.

He's got that kind of. He's got to do it. But I never could. Yeah. Yeah. I think the bomber jacket would be pretty good. It's also like bomber jacket is the kind of thing that I don't feel like you could like walk around Brooklyn and be like, check out my leather bomber jack with all my cool flight patches. You've got to be like...

You actually have had to have done it. Yeah, I agree with you. The Coach Finstock Award for Best Life Lesson. It's not the plane, it's the pilot. Don't think Just Do? I think we could think it's pretty good. Would you tell Ben Simmons that? Not mine, the Philly Ben Simmons, or Brooklyn Ben Simmons?

It's not my problem anymore. Brooklyn Ben Simmons, don't think, just do. So you think it's not, though, what was yours? It's not the plane, it's the pilot. Who won the movie? movie. Tom Cruise. Yeah. But Conley,

Conley's lurking. For me, Conley won the movie. Tom Cruise, I've been with him 40 years. You know, two more scenes, I think Connolly wins the movie. This was fun. It's hard to do these when you're like, because the quotes are tougher to write down. Yeah.

You know, but otherwise, like, this is so good to, like, be able to come off the vapors of seeing it in the theater multiple times. Producer Craig, any last thoughts from you? as somebody who was born after the first Top Gun? Well, honestly, yeah, that brings me to one point is that this movie united every generation. This is the only thing that everyone in the country

can agree upon. This movie fucking rules. Yeah. I have not seen a really wholehearted to take down to this movie. I've seen some people being like, it's propaganda or like it's pretty much just shot for shot the first movie,

but no one's got their heart in it. No, like this is a piece of shit. They didn't want Kelly McGillis in this because she's too old. It's like, people are like, cool. Whatever. I was fucking love time. Leave you alone. You can go with your dad, your grandpa, your girlfriend.

It all works. Yeah, it's true. My life loved it. She was like, I was in tears. She thought dogfight football was the hottest thing she'd ever seen. Yeah, like, there's no losers. Yeah. Yeah, it's like, I guess Steph Curry was a little like this too when he won the fourth title

and people are just like, cool, I love Steph Curry. I'm so happy for her. You were just like, what am I supposed to do? This guy's fucking crying. It's like amazing. Yeah, that's good. Good take, producer Craig. This podcast was produced by Craig Horlebeck.

So glad we're able to do it. Thank you, Tom Cruise. Thank you, Jennifer Connolly. We'll be back next week. We have another good one coming next week.