20 Things You Somehow Missed In Top Gun
13. There Are Only Two Real Missile Launches
Even though the military were more than happy to give the production access to their aircraft, they were astoundingly strict with how often their weapons were used. Because firing any weaponry from a jet is dangerous (and really expensive), there are only two moments in the film where a real missile is launched from an aircraft.
Of course, if you're making a movie about fighter pilots, you need to have as many scenes as possible of jets firing at each other with missiles, right? Because the director was only limited to two genuine missile launches, he achieved the other sequences with good old fashioned models. These props were so convincing, the Navy investigated the production to see if these missile launches were authentic.