If the long-awaited sequel to the 1986 hit “Top Gun” took your breath away, you are not alone. “Top Gun: Maverick” had already exceeded a billion dollars in worldwide box office sales by late June, boasts a 99% audience and 97% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and can be credited for influencing the sale of certain fashion items. (New sunglasses, anyone?)
But what about the real TOPGUN fighter weapons school that inspired it all– more formally known as the Navy’s Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor Course? How did it start? How accurate is the movie’s depiction of TOPGUN? What does it really take to make it as a pilot…and as an instructor?
From the facts behind the actual TOPGUN, to behind-the-scenes stories related to the fighter jet scenes in the sequel, to an extended Armchair discussion about what makes “Top Gun: Maverick” such a strong sequel, Candy and Ashley cover it all in this in-depth episode that will leave you saying, “Great Balls of Fire!”
Show Notes for Episode 47!
Tom Cruise sporting American Optical Original Pilot sunglasses at the premiere Source: Men’s Health TOPGUN instructor Lt. Joe Anderson of the U.S. Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program ignites afterburners in a F/A – 18 at Naval Air Station Fallon in Fallon, Nev. May 13, 2021. (DoD photo by EJ Hersom)TwitterTom Cruise plays Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in Top Gun: Maverick from Paramount Pictures, Skydance and Jerry Bruckheimer Films.Val Kilmer and Tom Cruise scene Latimes.com Source: Department of Defense TOPGUN website
Ashley is an award-winning Independent Filmmaker from Northern Kentucky. Her first film, “No Lost Cause” is currently internationally distributed and was recently featured on TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network). Her memoir recalling her experience creating a film on a micro budget, “The Why Not Philosophy or How We Learned to Let Go, Trust God and Defeat the Raptors,” was released February 2015 and is available on Amazon.com. Her second feature film, “The Hepburn Girls” was released on Amazon.com and Vimeo.com in the summer of 2016.
Ashley is also a long-time lover of all things theatre and in the spring of 2014, she helped found and became the Vice-President of the theatre company, “The Theatre Downstream.” Their first large scale summer musical, “Beauty and the Beast” was awarded Best Musical (Local), Best Actor in a Musical (Local), Best Actress in a Musical (Local), and Best Set Design by the BroadwayWorld Louisville awards in 2016, and their 2017 production of "Annie" sold over 2,100 tickets, a company record-breaking number!
No matter what the project, Ashley is happiest when she is able to bring talented people and their art together for the consumption and appreciation of the public. While her taste remains vintage, she is grateful for the technology of the modern world and the opportunity to share her thoughts, aspirations, and misadventures.
Her lofty dreams are to create things that people remember and to one day own an alpaca. Above all, she loves God, her family, her friends, her cats, and brownies.
External websites:
“No Lost Cause”- NoLostCausedvd.com
The Theatre Downstream- TheTheatreDownstream.com
“The Why Not Philosophy”- http://www.amazon.com/Why-Not-Philosophy-Learned-Raptors/dp/1508557004/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1455555613&sr=8-1&keywords=ashley+raymer-brown
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