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1. What is Maverick's real name?
Pete Mitchell
Lieutenant Pete Mitchell flies with his father's shadow over him: Duke Mitchell died in a dogfight the Navy kept classified, and Viper, who flew with him that day, finally tells Maverick what happened. Metcalf is Viper's own name and Kazansky is Iceman's.
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2. Who plays Charlie?
Kelly McGillis
McGillis plays Charlotte Blackwood, a civilian astrophysicist brought in to lecture the pilots on enemy aircraft, who drives a Porsche Speedster and has no patience for Maverick's act. Jennifer Connelly belongs to the sequel, where she plays Penny Benjamin.
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3. What is Goose's real name?
Nick Bradshaw
Goose is the radar intercept officer in the back seat, and Anthony Edwards plays him with a mustache and a wedding ring as the squadron's family man. He dies when the Tomcat flat-spins through Iceman's jet wash and the ejection fires him into the canopy.
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4. Who plays Iceman?
Val Kilmer
Kilmer did not want the part and took it only because he was under contract to Paramount, then built Iceman out of a chomping jaw and a stare. Iceman, not Maverick, takes the Top Gun trophy, and the two end the film offering to be each other's wingman.
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5. Which military branch do the pilots serve in?
The U.S. Navy
Top Gun is the Navy Fighter Weapons School, then based at Miramar in San Diego, the Fightertown of the sign at the gate. The Navy lent its carriers and Tomcats, and recruiting tables turned up in theater lobbies to catch people on the way out.
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6. What aircraft does Maverick fly in the original film?
F-14 Tomcat
The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is a two-seater with wings that sweep back for speed, which is why Maverick needs a Goose. The enemy MiG-28 does not exist; the black jets playing it are Northrop F-5s, and the Navy retired the Tomcat itself in 2006.
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7. Who directed Top Gun?
Tony Scott
Scott, Ridley's younger brother, got the job on the strength of a Saab commercial that cut between a car and a fighter jet, and the producers fired and rehired him more than once during the shoot. His only previous feature was the vampire film The Hunger.
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8. Which song does Maverick sing to Charlie in the bar?
You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'
The Righteous Brothers hit, with Goose on backing vocals and half the officers' club joining in, after Goose bets him he cannot pick up a woman on the premises. Charlie lets him finish and walks away, then turns up the next morning as his instructor.
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9. Who sings Danger Zone on the soundtrack?
Kenny Loggins
Giorgio Moroder and Tom Whitlock wrote it, and several acts passed on recording it before Loggins took it, giving him a second movie hit after Footloose. He also sings Playing with the Boys, the song under the beach scene.
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10. Which band performs Take My Breath Away?
Berlin
Moroder and Whitlock wrote this one too, and it won the Oscar for best original song, beating Somewhere Out There from An American Tail. Berlin were a Los Angeles synth band fronted by Terri Nunn, and the single was their only number one before they split.
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11. What sport do the pilots play on the beach?
Volleyball
The game is shirtless two-on-two in jeans and dog tags, Maverick and Goose against Iceman and Slider, and Maverick leaves early for his dinner with Charlie and still arrives late. It is the most parodied few minutes of the film.
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12. Who plays Goose's wife, Carole?
Meg Ryan
It was an early part for Ryan, three years before When Harry Met Sally made her a star. She gets two of the film's best moments: the piano singalong to Great Balls of Fire and telling Goose to take her to bed or lose her forever.
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13. What is the callsign of the pilot who gives up his place early in the film?
Cougar
Cougar freezes with a MiG locked on him in the opening dogfight and turns in his wings afterward, saying he has a family to think about. Maverick, who talked him down to the deck, is sent to Top Gun in his slot by a commander who would rather not.
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14. What happens when Maverick requests a tower flyby?
The request is denied
'Negative, Ghost Rider, the pattern is full,' comes the reply, and Maverick does it anyway, sending the air boss's coffee down his shirt. He repeats the stunt at Miramar after beating Jester, which is what earns him and Goose their dressing-down from Viper.
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15. What job does Maverick say he might choose at the end?
Top Gun instructor
He says it on the carrier deck after the final dogfight, when the commander tells him he can have any assignment he wants; the answer gets a 'God help us.' The last scene has him back at the bar with Charlie, with their song on the jukebox.
