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Interesting fact - towards the start a plane makes an emergency landing on the arresting barrier of the carrier. This wasn't done for the movie. Its never practiced because its really dangerous. The film crew was able to film it and include it in the movie only because they happened to be aboard the carrier when it actually happened.

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2 minutes ago, Bounce said:

Interesting fact - towards the start a plane makes an emergency landing on the arresting barrier of the carrier. This wasn't done for the movie. Its never practiced because its really dangerous. The film crew was able to film it and include it in the movie only because they happened to be aboard the carrier when it actually happened.

That was the A7...yeah, that's not something they'd do for a movie scene.  Like I said, there was some great footage.  You'll never see a carrier deck like that again...every dog in the neighborhood

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1 hour ago, Napalmakita said:

What was it . a length of 550 or para cord?

Para Cord

1 hour ago, Napalmakita said:

Then the symphony music kicks in...instant goose bumps!  Good call👍

Fun Fact, that music was the Nimitz's "Break Away" song while I was onboard (84-87). Every time the ship "broke away" from the supply ship after doing a VertRep or UnRep the ship would play that song over the 1MC (ship wide speaker system).

 

Also, they played that move at least once every three day and on the 85 cruise, they played the Terminator movie at least once a day, to this day I still remember every line of that movie.😄

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It was a good movie.  Seeing the F-14's going after the Zero from the perspective of the yacht helped me imagine seeing the F-14 from 1941 perspective.

 

The wooden yacht was a beauty.

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On 4/27/2020 at 5:06 AM, Ben Brown said:

Am I the only one who had that terrible '80s hair metal song pop into their hear after seeing the thread title? Now its going to be stuck in my head for days!😄

 

Great movie, BTW.

 

Ben

 

Terrible song? How dare you! That's heresy. Nothing beats 80's hair band music. Go sit in the corner and contemplate the error of your ways! 😄

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3 hours ago, SBARC said:

It was a good movie.  Seeing the F-14's going after the Zero from the perspective of the yacht helped me imagine seeing the F-14 from 1941 perspective.

 

The wooden yacht was a beauty.

It was..and I recall having a mini crush on the secretary.. can't remeber her name, Merris maybe..

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Just a few clarifications to what's been posted. One of the pilots who flew for the movie gave a talk at the IPMS Nats in Omaha back in 2011. Here are some of the interesting things he said.

 

-- While the Tomcat dives down toward the ocean, it wasn't as close to the water as it appeared on screen. It was still a safe distance away.

-- When the Tomcats initially fly by the Zeros and then waggle their wings, that's not the Zero pilots doing that intentionally, it's them recovering from the jet wash of the Tomcats.

-- Much of the filming was done from the back of a B-25. One of the cameramen was filming an air-to-air scene and motioned for the Tomcat to pull in close. He wanted to stick his foot out and touch the Tomcat. He found out about what static build up can do. According to the speaker, he got knocked back into the B-25. I'm not sure I fully believe him on this one, but he told the story, so I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt.

-- The A-7 scene was actually not a real barricade landing. They towed the A-7 into the net, and then sped up the film so it looked like it taken the barricade. They did a convincing job of it.

-- The actress Katharine Ross was stand-offish. She wouldn't talk to anyone. Whether that was trying to keep her privacy, he didn't know. But all the other actors engaged with the crew and had fun. At one point in the air-to-air filming, one of the RIO's held up a sign on film that said, "Katharine Ross is a b$&^#". It didn't make the final editing. 

 

Edit: After watching the YouTube discussion, I realized I remembered wrong. As he says in the video, the sign was "F you. We didn't want to meet you anyway". I'll chalk it up to being old and forgetful. It was nine years ago, after all. 😄

Edited by Darren Roberts
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10 minutes ago, Darren Roberts said:

Just a few clarifications to what's been posted. One of the pilots who flew for the movie gave a talk at the IPMS Nats in Omaha back in 2011. Here are some of the interesting things he said.

 

-- While the Tomcat dives down toward the ocean, it wasn't as close to the water as it appeared on screen. It was still a safe distance away.

-- When the Tomcats initially fly by the Zeros and then waggle their wings, that's not the Zero pilots doing that intentionally, it's them recovering from the jet wash of the Tomcats.

-- Much of the filming was done from the back of a B-25. One of the cameramen was filming an air-to-air scene and motioned for the Tomcat to pull in close. He wanted to stick his foot out and touch the Tomcat. He found out about what static build up can do. According to the speaker, he got knocked back into the B-25. I'm not sure I fully believe him on this one, but he told the story, so I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt.

-- The A-7 scene was actually not a real barricade landing. They towed the A-7 into the net, and then sped up the film so it looked like it taken the barricade. They did a convincing job of it.

-- The actress Katharine Ross was stand-offish. She wouldn't talk to anyone. Whether that was trying to keep her privacy, he didn't know. But all the other actors engaged with the crew and had fun. At one point in the air-to-air filming, one of the RIO's held up a sign on film that said, "Katharine Ross is a b$&^#". It didn't make the final editing. 

That's all great stuff, thanks.  That's outstanding!!  I'd shake that Rio's hand if I could...Bahahaha😂

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4 minutes ago, Bounce said:

thanks for the clarification!  just read about the barrier landing last night and posted it here.  (squints eyes at Reddit)

Not your fault...there is so much info out there, that's why information doesn't equal knowledge.  who knows what's accurate anymore.  I heard someone say "Truthy" is an acceptable word now..wtf?  

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1 minute ago, Napalmakita said:

...who knows what's accurate anymore.  I heard someone say "Truthy" is an acceptable word now..wtf?  

 

Seriously?  Agreed that 'wtf' applies here!

 

The English language is rapidly devolving into shorthand, ridiculous phraseology that may make some sense to the kids, but certainly not to anyone with an ounce of genuine communication skills.  Just my opinion, of course.

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12 minutes ago, Curt B said:

 

Seriously?  Agreed that 'wtf' applies here!

 

The English language is rapidly devolving into shorthand, ridiculous phraseology that may make some sense to the kids, but certainly not to anyone with an ounce of genuine communication skills.  Just my opinion, of course.

I agree 100%.  According to Dictionary.com:  ' 'Noun.  The quality of seeming to be true according to ones opinion or perception without logic or factual evidence.  The growing trend of truthiness as opposed to truth'.  😳  Well, there sure is a metric ton of that floating around these days...wow.  

Edited by Napalmakita
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On 4/26/2020 at 3:48 PM, okthree said:

One of my favorite movies. Came out a few years before Top Gun, but just didn’t get the billing TG did.  Some great flying scenes. My favorite part is when the Tomcats get the approval to “splash the zeros”.  Man can you imagine what those Zero pilots would have been thinking in 1941.  

 

Grumman later used footage from the movie for a promotional video. 

Read a story about that. From What I u nderstood, it had to compete with Empire Strikes back.... Like many others, it's a favorite of mine. The first time I watched it, i was told to go to bed at exactly the same time as , "splash the zeros" ! Oh the disapointment. It wasn't u until a few later when we got our first VCR that I was able to watch it in its entirety

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Final Countdown is one of my favorites and had to get a Bluray copy  --  you can actually see the weathering on the Tomcats which look really clean on DVD.    When five years later Top Gun came out there was a world of difference on the fight sequences.  The Final Countdown fight scenes looked so tame : )   but I still love the movie.  The pilots in this video say it was more realistic than Top Gun's nuclear explosions in the air : )      I do love good movie magic, though -- especially creative practical effects.  In the Top Gun bluray extras they tell about how they used models extensively in the film and how they filmed the actors in a cockpit with a lamp on a gimbal to provide "sunlight" and throw moving shadows about -  I find that really interesting because the sunlight  looked so real : )   And the way they used two projection screens, one for the background and one in front to provide reflections on the F-14 canopy -- that was amazing.

Edited by crackerjazz
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55 minutes ago, crackerjazz said:

 

 

Final Countdown is one of my favorites and had to get a Bluray copy  --  you can actually see the weathering on the Tomcats which look really clean on DVD.    When five years later Top Gun came out there was a world of difference on the fight sequences.  The Final Countdown fight scenes looked so tame : )   but I still love the movie.  The pilots in this video say it was more realistic than Top Gun's nuclear explosions in the air : )      I do love good movie magic, though -- especially creative practical effects.  In the Top Gun bluray extras they tell about how they used models extensively in the film and how they filmed the actors in a cockpit with a lamp on a gimbal to provide "sunlight" and throw moving shadows about -  I find that really interesting because the sunlight  looked so real : )   And the way they used two projection screens, one for the background and one in front to provide reflections on the F-14 canopy -- that was amazing.

That stuff fascinates me.  I'm a retired firefighter and honestly there aren't many other  careers I can see myself getting into but making models in a special effects studio would be one.  I grew up near Disney land n La La land.  Spent a lot of time at universal as a pup...maybe it's in my blood.  Moved away a long time ago but lived in San Diego and still visit LA a bit..something about those movie studios gets the juices flowing for me.  Thanks for that👍

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1 hour ago, crackerjazz said:

 

 

Final Countdown is one of my favorites and had to get a Bluray copy  --  you can actually see the weathering on the Tomcats which look really clean on DVD.    When five years later Top Gun came out there was a world of difference on the fight sequences.  The Final Countdown fight scenes looked so tame : )   but I still love the movie.  The pilots in this video say it was more realistic than Top Gun's nuclear explosions in the air : )      I do love good movie magic, though -- especially creative practical effects.  In the Top Gun bluray extras they tell about how they used models extensively in the film and how they filmed the actors in a cockpit with a lamp on a gimbal to provide "sunlight" and throw moving shadows about -  I find that really interesting because the sunlight  looked so real : )   And the way they used two projection screens, one for the background and one in front to provide reflections on the F-14 canopy -- that was amazing.

 

What a difference the new Topgun is going to be. The vast majority of shots will be actual flying shots. I can't wait to see it!

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So I was pondering, let’s say for some reason the Nimitz didn’t return to the future, but it didn’t bring a speedy end to the war, let’s say, the attack on the Japanese Fleet was recalled, they raced for the time warp, and it snapped shut heartbreakingly close.  Sooner or later, probably sooner, our aircraft take a pounding, the ships supply system would runout, so the modern air wing would quickly turn into static displays (I get it, they could engineer more, but this more fun).  Think about the Nimitz with an uber WWII air wing on board, maybe an up/back dated AA armament, maybe painted in measure 32. It could have been its own TF.  That could be a cool what if build.

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1 minute ago, rightwinger26 said:

So I was pondering, let’s say for some reason the Nimitz didn’t return to the future, but it didn’t bring a speedy end to the war, let’s say, the attack on the Japanese Fleet was recalled, they raced for the time warp, and it snapped shut heartbreakingly close.  Sooner or later, probably sooner, our aircraft take a pounding, the ships supply system would runout, so the modern air wing would quickly turn into static displays (I get it, they could engineer more, but this more fun).  Think about the Nimitz with an uber WWII air wing on board, maybe an up/back dated AA armament, maybe painted in measure 32. It could have been its own TF.  That could be a cool what if build.

It would have been a kind of Mad Max scenario.  Technology broken down by being trapped in time without the tech support.  Trippy.  My question was how much would it take to sink or make that Japanese fleet inoperable.  Would that first strike have been enough to do it?  

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