- Charlie: Excuse me, Lieutenant. Is there something wrong?
- Maverick: Yes ma'am, the data on the MiG is inaccurate.
- Charlie: How's that, Lieutenant?
- Maverick: Well, I just happened to see a MiG-28...
- Goose: We!
- Maverick: ...do a... Sorry, Goose. *We* happened to see a MiG-28 do a 4G negative dive.
- Charlie: Where did you see this?
- Maverick: Uh, that's classified.
- Charlie: It's what?
- Maverick: It's classified. I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.
- Charlie: Lieutenant, I have Top Secret clearance. The Pentagon sees to it that I know more than you.
- Maverick: Well, ma'am, it doesn't seem so in this case, now, does it?
- Charlie: So, Lieutenant, where exactly were you?
- Maverick: Well, we...
- Goose: Thank you.
- Maverick: Started up on a 6, when he pulled from the clouds, and then I moved in above him.
- Charlie: Well, if you were directly above him, how could you see him?
- Maverick: Because I was inverted.
- Iceman: [coughs] Bullshit.
- Goose: No, he was, man. It was a really great move. He was inverted.
- Charlie: You were in a 4G inverted dive with a MiG-28?
- Maverick: Yes, ma'am.
- Charlie: At what range?
- Maverick: About two meters?
- Goose: Well, it's actually about one and a half, I think. It was one and a half. I've got a great Polaroid of it, and he's right there, must be one and a half.
- Maverick: Was a nice picture.
- Goose: Thanks.
- Charlie: Eh, Lieutenant, what were you doing there?
- Goose: Communicating.
- Maverick: Communicating. Keeping up foreign relations. I was, you know, giving him the bird.
- Goose: You know, the finger.
- [holds up his middle finger to demonstrate]
- Charlie: Yes, I know the finger, Goose.
- Goose: I'm sorry. I hate it when it does that. I'm sorry. Excuse me.
- Charlie: So you're the one?
- Maverick: Yes, ma'am.
- Maverick: Tower, this is Ghost Rider requesting a flyby.
- Air Boss Johnson: Negative, Ghost Rider, the pattern is full.
- Goose: The defense department regrets to inform you that your sons are dead because they were stupid.
- [first title card]
- Title Card: On March 3, 1969 the United States Navy established an elite school for the top one percent of its pilots. Its purpose was to teach the lost art of aerial combat and to insure that the handful of men who graduated were the best fighter pilots in the world. They succeeded. Today, the Navy calls it Fighter Weapons School. The flyers call it: TOP GUN.
- Charlie: [Maverick and Goose have just successfully serenaded Charlie with their rendition of "You've Lost That Loving Feeling."] I love that song! I've never seen that approach. How long have you two been doing this act?
- Maverick: Oh, I don't know, since uh...
- Charlie: Puberty?
- Maverick: Right, puberty.
- Stinger: For five weeks, you're gonna fly against the best fighter pilots in the world. You were number two, Cougar was number one. Cougar lost it, turned in his wings. You guys are number one. But you remember one thing. You screw up just this much, you'll be flying a cargo plane full of rubber dog shit out of Hong Kong.
- Maverick: Yes, sir!
- Charlie: Listen, can I ask you a personal question?
- Maverick: That depends.
- Charlie: Are you a good pilot?
- Maverick: I can hold my own.
- Charlie: Great, then I won't have to worry about you making your living as a singer.
- Maverick: I'm going to need a beer to put these flames out. Yo! Great Mav, real slick.
- Goose: Hey, hey, Slider. Thought you wanted to be a pilot, man what happened?
- Slider: Goose, you're such a dickhead. Whose butt did you kiss to get in here anyway?
- Goose: The list is long, but distinguished.
- Slider: Yeah, well so is my Johnson.
- Goose: So you're flying with Iceman, huh?
- Slider: It's Mr. Iceman to you.
- Iceman: Hey, Mother Goose, how's it going?
- Goose: Good, Tom. This is Pete Mitchell. Tom Kazansky.
- Iceman: Congratulations on Top Gun.
- Maverick: Thank you.
- Iceman: Sorry to hear about Cougar. He and I were like brothers in flight school. He was a good man.
- Maverick: Still is a good man.
- Iceman: Yeah, that's what I meant.
- Iceman: You need any help?
- Maverick: With what?
- Iceman: You figured it out yet?
- Maverick: What's that?
- Iceman: Who's the best pilot.
- Maverick: You know, I think I can figure that one out on my own.
- Iceman: I heard that about you. You like to work alone.
- Slider: Mav, you must've sold under a lucky star, huh? I mean, first the MiG, and then you guys slide into Cougar's spot.
- Goose: We didn't slide into Cougar's spot. It was ours, okay?
- Slider: Yeah, well, some pilots wait their whole career just to see a MiG up close. Guess you guys are lucky and famous, huh?
- Iceman: No, you mean notorious. See you later.
- Maverick: You can count on it.
- Stinger: Maverick, you just did an incredibly brave thing. What you should have done was land your plane! You don't own that plane, the tax payers do! Son, your ego is writing checks your body can't cash. You've been busted, you lost your qualifications as section leader three times, put in hack twice by me, with a history of high speed passes over five air control towers, and one admiral's daughter!
- Goose: Penny Benjamin?
- [Maverick shrugs]
- Stinger: And you asshole, you're lucky to be here!
- Goose: Thank you, sir.
- Stinger: And let's not bullshit Maverick. Your family name ain't the best in the Navy. You need to be doing it better, and cleaner than the other guy. Now what is it with you?
- Maverick: Just want to serve my country, be the best pilot in the Navy, sir.
- Stinger: Don't screw around with me Maverick. You're a hell of an instinctive pilot. Maybe too good. I'd like to bust your butt but I can't. I got another problem here. I gotta send somebody from this squadron to Miramar. I gotta do something here, I still can't believe it. I gotta give you your dream shot! I'm gonna send you up against the best. You two characters are going to Top Gun.
- Jester: That was some of the best flying I've seen yet. Right up to the part where you got killed. You never, never leave your wing man.
- Viper: [to Maverick] You'll pick up your RIO when you get to the ship, and if you don't, give me a call. I'll fly with you.
- Maverick: Jesus Christ, and you think I'm reckless? When I fly, I'll have you know that my crew and my plane come first.
- Charlie: Well, I am going to finish my sentence, Lieutenant. My review of your flight performance was right on.
- Maverick: Is that right?
- Charlie: That is right, but I held something back. I see some real genius in your flying, Maverick, but I can't say that in there. I was afraid that everyone in the TACTS trailer would see right through me, and I just don't want anyone to know that I've fallen for you.
- Air Boss Johnson: Two of your snot-nose jockeys did a fly-by on my tower at over 400 KNOTS! I want somebody's butt, I want it now, I've HAD IT!
- [storm out, then bumps into a Yeoman and spills coffee all over his pants]
- Air Boss Johnson: DAMN! That's TWICE! I WANT SOME BUTTS!
- Viper: I flew with your old man. VF-51, the Oriskany. You're a lot like he was. Only better... and worse. He was a natural heroic son of a bitch that one.
- Maverick: So he did do it right.
- Viper: Yeah, he did it right... Is that why you fly the way you do? Trying to prove something? Yeah, your old man did it right. What I'm about to tell you is classified. It could end my career. We were in the worst dogfight I ever dreamed of. There were bogeys like fireflies all over the sky. His F-4 was hit, and he was wounded, but he could've made it back. He stayed in it, saved three planes before he bought it.
- Maverick: How come I never heard that before?
- Viper: Well, that's not something the State Department tells dependents when the battle occurred over the wrong line on some map.
- Maverick: So you were there?
- Viper: I was there. What's on your mind?
- Maverick: My options, sir.
- Viper: Simple. First you've acquired enough points to show up tomorrow and graduate with your Top Gun class, or you can quit. There'd be no disgrace. That spin was hell, it would've shook me up.
- Maverick: So you think I should quit?
- Viper: I didn't say that. The simple fact is you feel responsible for Goose and you have a confidence problem. Now I'm not gonna sit here and blow sunshine up your ass, Lieutenant. A good pilot is compelled to evaluate what's happened, so he can apply what he's learned. Up there, we gotta push it. That's our job. It's your option, Lieutenant. All yours.
- Maverick: Sorry to bother you on a Sunday, sir, but thank you very much for your time.
- Viper: No problem. Good luck.
- Viper: How ya doin'?
- Maverick: I'm all right.
- Viper: Goose is dead.
- Maverick: I know.
- Viper: You fly jets long enough, something like this happens.
- Maverick: He was my R.I.O., my responsibility.
- Viper: My squadron, we lost 8 of 18 aircraft. 10 men. First one dies, you die too. But there will be others. You can count it. You gotta let him go. You gotta let him go.
- Goose: Yeeha, Jester's dead!
- Wolfman: Won this bullshit?
- Goose: Didn't everybody?
- Hollywood: Hell no, man. We got our butts kicked.
- Wolfman: Thirty seconds. We went like this, he went like that. I said to Hollywood, "Where'd he go?" Hollywood says, "Where'd who go?"
- Hollywood: Yeah, and he's laughing at us, right on the radio, he's laughing at us.
- Slider: That was me laughing, dickhead. We won.
- [after the final dogfight]
- Maverick: Mustang, this is Maverick, requesting fly-by.
- Air Boss Johnson: Negative, Ghost Rider. The Pattern is full.
- Merlin: Uh, excuse me, something I should know about?
- Air Boss Johnson: [gets his coffee] Thank you.
- [Maverick does a fly-by past the Enterprise, causing the Air Boss to spill his coffee]
- Air Boss Johnson: Goddamn that guy.
- Maverick: [to Cougar and Merlin while up in the air] Any of you boys seen an aircraft-carrier around here?
- Iceman: Maverick, it's not your flying, it's your attitude. The enemy's dangerous, but right now you're worse. Dangerous and foolish. You may not like who's flying with you, but whose side are you on?
- Carole: God, he loved flying with you Maverick. But he would've done it anyway... without you. He'd have hated it, but he would've done it.
- [Maverick is in a dogfight with a MiG and is down to one missile left]
- Merlin: This is it, Maverick!
- Maverick: I'm gonna hit the brakes, he'll fly right by.
- Merlin: Shit! He's gonna get a lock on us!
- Maverick: [the MiG eventually gets a lock onto Maverick] NOW!
- [Maverick slams the breaks and the MiG passes by, then Maverick locks onto the MiG]
- Maverick: Got a good lock, firing.
- [the MiG is then destroyed by the missile]
- Maverick: Whoo! Scratch four!
- Radio Operator: Maverick, you're at 3/4 of a mile. Call the ball.
- Maverick: Roger. Maverick has the ball.
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