The pictures below are of Ocean boulevard on Coronado, one of the scenes like what was shown in the movie.
There were a lot of scenes in the movie that reminded me of my days in San Diego and working aboard an aircraft carrier at sea.
One scene has Tom Cruise riding a motorcycle along the shoreline leading up to the old Broadway pier. I remember driving along the route and seeing the fishing boats there. It was a beautiful area. I used to catch the old nickel snatchers (small boats) from the foot of Broadway across the bay to north island to go to work. On days when Joyce needed the car she said she remembered sitting there listening to Wolf Man Jack on the radio as she waited for me to cross the bay after work.
Another scene Cruise was riding along Ocean Boulevard on Coronado California. We used to go there and and walk on the beach in the evenings. We fished there and sometimes just sat on the rocks and soaked up the sun and salt air. The homes on Ocean blvd. were old, but were a sight to see. I found some google street views this morning and it looks like those old homes are gone now, replaced with newer, more modern homes. No matter though, because I still think that Ocean blvd. is still the nicest oceanfront property possibly in the world.
Another scene was shot in the old San Diego airport that has many memories for me. One thing that always amazed me was when landing in San Diego in an airliner the descent to the airport is fast and very low. I could look out the window and see that we were flying below the hills and buildings there. It was like I could reach outside the window and scrape along a big hotel.
Now for the mistakes in the film. Joyce said that no one would realize them unless they had worked on a navy flight deck and she is correct, but they just annoyed me to no end. The first was when Cruise was in Top Gun school the F-14 pilots were told they would be flying against the A-4 aircraft and that the A-4 was more maneuverable and faster than the F-14. Maneuverable, yes, but the A-4 is a subsonic aircraft while the F-14 can fly at 3 times faster than the A-4. Another scene, Tom Cruise racing his motorcycle down the tarmac as a jet lands on the runway beside it, not going to happen. Lastly the biggest mistake of all comes at the climax of the movie when the enemy jets are heading toward the USS Enterprise and the two combat air jets from the Enterprise run into six enemy planes instead of the 2 that were thought to be there. Tom Cruise is sitting on the flight deck catapult as the ready backup for the combat air patrol. Cruise is sitting on the catapult burning fuel while waiting to hear the reports of the air combat. The backup combat air patrol jets would never just be sitting burning their precious jet fuel. A jet burns a tremendous amount of fuel at sea level. The way it would have happened is this: the backup plane would have the pilot in the plane which would be hooked up to the catapult and a huffer (a small tractor with a small jet engine) would fire up its power to start the jet and as soon as the jet started, the pilot would give the okay and the shooter would signal the cat operator to push the button and launch the plane.
To demonstrate my point, during Vietnam when the big air strikes were happening all the jets would be started as soon as possible and those at the back of the line would burn so much fuel waiting in line and launching that they would have to rendezvous with an air tanker to top off their fuel so they would have enough before going in country to their targets. Without air tankers, a lot of missions could not be done. On the Kitty Hawk a day out of Japan the Soviet bombers would fly over to check us out. We always had the ready combat patrol jets sitting on the catapults waiting. The huffers were beside them and the pilots and radar officers were sitting in the plane waiting. When the bombers showed up on radar, the huffers would start the combat jets and they would launch to greet the incoming bombers. The 3rd backup jet was also at the ready.
Joyce thinks I am nitpicking, perhaps so. A movie is entertainment, not a documentary. I know I will watch the movie again, no matter what its inconsistencies are.
Copyright Bill Weber 2006-2026 and beyond.
One scene has Tom Cruise riding a motorcycle along the shoreline leading up to the old Broadway pier. I remember driving along the route and seeing the fishing boats there. It was a beautiful area. I used to catch the old nickel snatchers (small boats) from the foot of Broadway across the bay to north island to go to work. On days when Joyce needed the car she said she remembered sitting there listening to Wolf Man Jack on the radio as she waited for me to cross the bay after work.
Another scene Cruise was riding along Ocean Boulevard on Coronado California. We used to go there and and walk on the beach in the evenings. We fished there and sometimes just sat on the rocks and soaked up the sun and salt air. The homes on Ocean blvd. were old, but were a sight to see. I found some google street views this morning and it looks like those old homes are gone now, replaced with newer, more modern homes. No matter though, because I still think that Ocean blvd. is still the nicest oceanfront property possibly in the world.
Another scene was shot in the old San Diego airport that has many memories for me. One thing that always amazed me was when landing in San Diego in an airliner the descent to the airport is fast and very low. I could look out the window and see that we were flying below the hills and buildings there. It was like I could reach outside the window and scrape along a big hotel.
Now for the mistakes in the film. Joyce said that no one would realize them unless they had worked on a navy flight deck and she is correct, but they just annoyed me to no end. The first was when Cruise was in Top Gun school the F-14 pilots were told they would be flying against the A-4 aircraft and that the A-4 was more maneuverable and faster than the F-14. Maneuverable, yes, but the A-4 is a subsonic aircraft while the F-14 can fly at 3 times faster than the A-4. Another scene, Tom Cruise racing his motorcycle down the tarmac as a jet lands on the runway beside it, not going to happen. Lastly the biggest mistake of all comes at the climax of the movie when the enemy jets are heading toward the USS Enterprise and the two combat air jets from the Enterprise run into six enemy planes instead of the 2 that were thought to be there. Tom Cruise is sitting on the flight deck catapult as the ready backup for the combat air patrol. Cruise is sitting on the catapult burning fuel while waiting to hear the reports of the air combat. The backup combat air patrol jets would never just be sitting burning their precious jet fuel. A jet burns a tremendous amount of fuel at sea level. The way it would have happened is this: the backup plane would have the pilot in the plane which would be hooked up to the catapult and a huffer (a small tractor with a small jet engine) would fire up its power to start the jet and as soon as the jet started, the pilot would give the okay and the shooter would signal the cat operator to push the button and launch the plane.
To demonstrate my point, during Vietnam when the big air strikes were happening all the jets would be started as soon as possible and those at the back of the line would burn so much fuel waiting in line and launching that they would have to rendezvous with an air tanker to top off their fuel so they would have enough before going in country to their targets. Without air tankers, a lot of missions could not be done. On the Kitty Hawk a day out of Japan the Soviet bombers would fly over to check us out. We always had the ready combat patrol jets sitting on the catapults waiting. The huffers were beside them and the pilots and radar officers were sitting in the plane waiting. When the bombers showed up on radar, the huffers would start the combat jets and they would launch to greet the incoming bombers. The 3rd backup jet was also at the ready.
Joyce thinks I am nitpicking, perhaps so. A movie is entertainment, not a documentary. I know I will watch the movie again, no matter what its inconsistencies are.
Copyright Bill Weber 2006-2026 and beyond.
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